DirectX 11 framebuffer capture (C++, no Win32 or D3DX)

Question

I would like to capture the contents of my front or back buffer using DirectX 11 into an array of bytes which I can then use as a texture or as a source for creating a file.

Answer 1

Swap chain buffers can be easily saved with D3D11 as shown below.

1. Create a Texture2D as same as the swap chain's back buffer you are trying to save
2. Call CopyResource on the device context to copy from back buffer to the newly created texture
3. Call D3DX11SaveTextureToFile(...) with file name

contrived code fragment:

ID3D11Texture2D* pBuffer;

swapChain->GetBuffer(0, __uuidof(ID3D11Texture2D), (LPVOID*)&pBuffer);

if(texture_to_save == NULL)
{
    D3D11_TEXTURE2D_DESC td;
    pBuffer->GetDesc(&td);
    device->CreateTexture2D(&td, NULL, &texture_to_save);
}

deviceContext->CopyResource(texture_to_save, pBuffer);

D3DX11SaveTextureToFile(deviceContext,texture_to_save,D3DX11_IFF_PNG,filename);