You have to be using Windows 8 or later to get D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_11_1 with a WDDM 1.2 driver and appropriate hardware.This software is provided by Future Technology Devices International Limited “as is” and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed.

Windows 7 SP1 + KB2670838 provides the DirectX 11.1 API, but does not support D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_11_1 or any of the new optional hardware features because it doesn't include support for the new WDDM 1.2 driver model.

Note that if you do include 11.1 in the array, the call will fail with E_INVALIDARG on Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 RTM, or Windows 7 SP1 without KB2670838.

You have to manually list the 11.1 value in the array to get it-assuming the system+driver combo actually supports it.

This is for backcompat reasons and ensures the behavior doesn't change where NULL gets you 9.1 - 11.0.

If you pass NULL for pFeatureLevels to D3DCreateDevice even on Windows 8.x, you will still not get D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_11_1.

You could try using the latest version of dxcapsviewer in the Windows 8.1 SDK which is a bit more sophisticated in how it check things, but still needs manually updating over time so it currently says nothing about Windows 10 features like DX 11.3 or DX 12. In short, DXDIAG is not your best option for technical details like this. On Windows 8.1 it still says 'DirectX 11' and not 'DirectX 11.2'.

Similarly, with both Windows 8 and Windows 7 SP 1 + KB2670838 installed it still says 'DirectX 11' and not 'DirectX 11.1'. For Windows Vista SP1 it doesn't say 'DirectX 10.1' and says 'DirectX 10'.

DXDIAG is part of the OS along with the DirectX Runtime but is also manually updated for that string, so it is often less than detailed/accurate about reporting 'DirectX' version.

There are a number of confounding factors at work here, so let's take them one at a time:

Direct x version 8.1