Use the following command when converting Blender-exported meshes to SDKMESH format:

meshconvert <MODEL>.obj -o <MODEL>.SDKMESH -sdkmesh2 -flipv -tb

• -sdkmesh : Convert to SDKMESH version 2 which supports PBR pipeline
• -flipv : Flips the V coordinate which is backwards in DirectX by default
• -tb : Generates tangents and bitangents

Use the following DDS export settings when creating radiance/irradiance lightmaps:

• Format: BC7
• Texture Type: Cubemap
• Generate Mips: Yes
• Compression: Production

The irradiance map can be generated one of two ways:

1. By applying convolution to the radiance map.
2. By taking the first mip level of the radiance map and upscaling it to 128x128.

The 10:10:10:2 format Microsoft uses in its examples for HDR scenes is unsupported by Direct2D. This project instead uses an 8:8:8:8 format which results in slightly less accurate color information but allows me to draw the UI/HUD elements much easier.