http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee663275(v=vs.85).aspx 6.c. Any project that uses run-time shader compilation must have D3DCOMPILER_xx.DLL copied to the local executable path for the project. This DLL is available in this sub-directory of the Windows SDK installation under %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Windows Kits\8.0\Redist\D3D\ or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Windows Kits\8.1\Redist\D3D\ where is x86 and x64.