gdk: Update to GDK April 2026 Update 3

[TheSpydog]

• I confirm that I am the author of this code and release it to the SDL project under the Zlib license. This contribution does not contain code from other sources, including code generated by a Large Language Model ("AI").

Description

SDL currently targets the October 2023 GDK, which is no longer allowed for Xbox submissions.

It's still possible to use the existing Visual Studio project with newer GDK versions, but not for much longer; the build system relies heavily on the "old layout" of the GDK install directory, which is being fully removed and replaced as of the upcoming October 2026 GDK update. When using SDL with the "new layout", the platform include paths, library paths, and even shader compiler paths are no longer functional.

This PR updates the VisualC-GDK project to target the latest GDK version as of the time of this writing (April 2026) with support for the new layout. This should hopefully future-proof the build system for a few years at least.

I also fixed a C++ compile error in SDL_gpu_d3d12.c and aligned all shader compiler invocations to use quoted paths.

WinGDK is happy with these changes, but I'm marking this as a draft until I can do some Xbox testing.

[TheSpydog]

The test applications are now running correctly on all configurations of Gaming.Desktop, XboxOne, and Scarlett.

In addition to some misc cleanup, my latest push also makes SDL automatically copy all of its GDK dll dependencies into the build folder with it, which saves applications from having to hunt for them and hook them up into their projects manually. The docs have been updated accordingly.

[madebr]

Has the gdk job run on ci?

[TheSpydog]

Has the gdk job run on ci?

It has not. Is there something special I need to do to kick that off?

We will probably need to update the setup script and workflow file to accommodate the new GDK version, though I'm not sure what that process involves.

[madebr]

has not. Is there something special I need to do to kick that off?

We will probably need to update the setup script and workflow file to accommodate the new GDK version, though I'm not sure what that process involves.

The GitHub action downloads, extracts and creates a Directory.Build.props file with the minimum amount of variables needed for GDK MSBuild. This was done because installation was (is?) very slow on ci.

I see there still is a ExtractXboxOneDKs.ps1 script.
What remains is checking what variables MSBuild needs:

SDL/build-scripts/setup-gdk-desktop.py

Lines 174 to 202 in 0fb1177

	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
	<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
	<PropertyGroup>
	<VCTargetsPath>{ vc_targets_path }\\</VCTargetsPath>
	<VCTargetsPath16>{ vc_targets_path16 }\\</VCTargetsPath16>
	<VCTargetsPath17>{ vc_targets_path17 }\\</VCTargetsPath17>
	<BWOI_GDK_Path>{ self.gaming_grdk_build_path }\\</BWOI_GDK_Path>
	<Platform Condition="'$(Platform)' == ''">Gaming.Desktop.x64</Platform>
	<Configuration Condition="'$(Configuration)' == ''">Debug</Configuration>
	<XdkEditionTarget>{ self.gdk_edition }</XdkEditionTarget>
	<DurangoXdkInstallPath>{ durango_xdk_install_path }</DurangoXdkInstallPath>
	<DefaultXdkEditionRootVS2019>$(DurangoXdkInstallPath)\\{self.gdk_edition}\\GRDK\\VS2019\\flatDeployment\\MSBuild\\Microsoft\\VC\\{self.vs_toolset}\\Platforms\\$(Platform)\\</DefaultXdkEditionRootVS2019>
	<XdkEditionRootVS2019>$(DurangoXdkInstallPath)\\{self.gdk_edition}\\GRDK\\VS2019\\flatDeployment\\MSBuild\\Microsoft\\VC\\{self.vs_toolset}\\Platforms\\$(Platform)\\</XdkEditionRootVS2019>
	<DefaultXdkEditionRootVS2022>$(DurangoXdkInstallPath)\\{self.gdk_edition}\\GRDK\\VS2022\\flatDeployment\\MSBuild\\Microsoft\\VC\\{self.vs_toolset}\\Platforms\\$(Platform)\\</DefaultXdkEditionRootVS2022>
	<XdkEditionRootVS2022>$(DurangoXdkInstallPath)\\{self.gdk_edition}\\GRDK\\VS2022\\flatDeployment\\MSBuild\\Microsoft\\VC\\{self.vs_toolset}\\Platforms\\$(Platform)\\</XdkEditionRootVS2022>
	<Deterministic>true</Deterministic>
	<DisableInstalledVCTargetsUse>true</DisableInstalledVCTargetsUse>
	<ClearDevCommandPromptEnvVars>true</ClearDevCommandPromptEnvVars>
	</PropertyGroup>
	<ItemDefinitionGroup Condition="'$(Platform)' == 'Gaming.Desktop.x64'">
	<ClCompile>
	<AdditionalIncludeDirectories>{ additional_include_directories };%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
	</ClCompile>
	<Link>
	<AdditionalLibraryDirectories>{ additional_library_directories };%(AdditionalLibraryDirectories)</AdditionalLibraryDirectories>
	</Link>
	</ItemDefinitionGroup>

(and also find out how to manually add MSBuild files for Visual Studio)

[flibitijibibo]

I guess the big question is "how do we start the job," as I was expecting it to just run... is there a syntax we should be adding to get CI to run specific targets?

[madebr]

I guess the big question is "how do we start the job," as I was expecting it to just run... is there a syntax we should be adding to get CI to run specific targets?

It's not possible to run the GDK job in this pr, but you can run it on your fork by adding [sdl-ci-filter *gdk*] to your last commit message. The filter is a glob matching the key of the job specs, and the various ci commands are documented here.

[TheSpydog]

Okay, it took 17 iterations on a separate branch, but I finally got the CI scripts updated for the new GDK version. The diff is pretty substantial since there was a lot that got changed between the June 2024 GDK and now.

[madebr]

The changes look good and the action appears to have run successfully.

Okay, it took 17 iterations on a separate branch, but I finally got the CI scripts updated for the new GDK version. The diff is pretty substantial since there was a lot that got changed between the June 2024 GDK and now.

I feel your pain. I purposefully created it as a python script (it's not embedded in a workflow yaml) and developed it on a machine with no gdk installed so I could run everything offline without ci in the loop.

Remember this pain when reading about people's CMake hate (or replace CMake with another build system). :)