Technical tips, tricks, and news about game development for Microsoft platforms including desktop, Xbox, and UWP
Visual Studio 2015 RTM is now available fordownload, including the updated Community edition. TheVS 2015 RTM Redistribution packages are also available (x86,x64), as well as the Remote Debugging Tools (x86,x64,ARM). For more information, see theVisual C++ Team blog, Brian Harry’s blog,Somasegar’s blog, and theVisual Studio Team blog.
Per the Visual Studiosupport lifecycle, “mainstream” support for VS 2015 ended inJune 2016. “Extended” support endsOctober 2025. Platform toolset v140 support is still available in Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2022 as an optional component.
The C++11 language and standard library tables in theDual-use Coding Techniques for Games article has been updated for VS 2015 RTM, and you can find much more information about these changes for VS 2015 on theVisual C++ Team blog. Be sure to read the MSDN pageBreaking Changes in Visual C++ as well. There are also a number of new warnings in place includingformat specifier checking that previously required the use of/analyze.
REDIST:VS 2015 can target Windows 10,Windows 8.1, Windows 8.0,Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, andoptionally Windows XP Service Pack 3. Note that the Visual C++ 2015 REDIST doesnot support Windows 7 RTM, Windows Vista RTM, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Windows XP RTM, Windows XP Service Pack 1, or Windows XP Service Pack 2 as these platforms are all outside theirsupport lifecycle. SeeKB2661358.
Visual C++: Note that with VS 2015 RTM, the C++ toolset is not included in theTypical installation. You must select it through theCustom selection. See theVisual C++ Team blog.
Windows 10 DirectX Development: Be sure to readthis post on how to enable the DirectX debug device for Windows 10. Installing VS 2015 RTM (or VS 2013 Update 5) on Windows 10 will automatically enable theGraphics Tools Windows optional feature.
Windows XP:When building using the “v140_xp” Platform Toolset for Windows XP Service Pack 3 target support, remember this uses the Windows 7.1A SDK. The older SDK will generate some warnings in system headers with the new toolset that have to be externally suppressed. SeeVS 2012 Update 1 for some additional implications for DirectX development.
DirectX SDK: If you need to continue to make use oflegacy DirectX SDK components such as D3DX9, D3DX10, D3DX11, or XAudio 2.7 with Visual Studio 2015, seeMicrosoft Docs for details on mixing the paths correctly. See alsoDirectX SDKs of a certain age,The Zombie DirectX SDK,Living without D3DX,DirectX SDK Tools Catalog,DirectX SDK Samples Catalog, and Where’s DXERR.LIB?
Windows 8.1 SDK:VS 2015 RTM includes theWindows 8.1 SDK Spring Update 2015 withDirectXMath 3.07. You can also download the standaloneWindows 8.1 SDK Spring 2015 update.
Windows 10 SDK:Universal Windows apps (UWA) developers should stick with using VS 2015 RC until the final Visual Studio Tools and Windows 10 SDK packages are released next week. Seethis blog post about adding the Windows 10 SDK 10240 tools to VS 2015 RTM.
VS Content Pipeline: The built-inmesh content exporter in VS 2015 makes use of Autodesk FBX 2015.1–VS 2012 and 2013 used 2013.1.