Cannot initialize Direct3D with rastertek tutorial - directx-11

Question

I have a problem with this rastertek tutorial: http://www.rastertek.com/dx11s2tut03.html
The problem happens at the following line of code
result = m_device->CreateRenderTargetView(backBufferPtr, NULL, &m_renderTargetView);
where the result gets the value E_INVALIDARG One or more arguments are invalid.
I can't figure out what happens. Could someone help me? I use visual studio 2015 community edition, HP Pavilion, Windows 8.1
Thank you

Answer 1

Enable the Direct3D Debug layer by passing D3D11_CREATE_DEVICE_DEBUG as the Flags parameter to D3D11CreateDeviceAndSwapChain:
// Create the swap chain, Direct3D device, and Direct3D device context.
result = D3D11CreateDeviceAndSwapChain(NULL, D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE, NULL,
D3D11_CREATE_DEVICE_DEBUG, &featureLevel, 1,
D3D11_SDK_VERSION, &swapChainDesc, &m_swapChain,
&m_device, NULL, &m_deviceContext);
if(FAILED(result))
{
return false;
}
This will enable additional debug information which should provide a hint as to what went wrong before you got E_INVALIDARG.
The Rastertek tutorials are quite old and make extensive use of deprecated APIs. I suggest taking a look at the Direct3D Game VS Template and the DirectX Tool Kit tutorials as your first introduction to Direct3D 11. Once you have the modern basics down, you can revisit the Rastertek tutorials and glean any additional information out of them.
Troubleshooting: If you get a failure from D3D11CreateDeviceAndSwapChain when you add the debug flag, you may not have the correct debug device installed--although it should have already been handled by the VS 2015 install. See this post.