I don't know the exact reason but i can't load the model in your attachment into my viewer. 

It has a lot of materials and textures but they are messy too. For example it has references to textures like bob_body_d.tga, bob_head_d.tga that should be diffuse textures but as you see there are no such textures. I've tried to fix it but they are in total mess. I found similar model that works well in my viewer from this article - bob with lamp

The model inside GPUAnimation.zip.

oh the old rastertek turorials, I loved them as they provided a lot of basic suggestions and ideas for terrain rendering...

Anyway, here's you rendering issue:

	srvDesc.Texture2D.MipLevels = -1;

which means 4294967294 mips setted in the SRV. If you want create a SRV for a texture without mips, just put 0.

Quote

Index of the most detailed mipmap level to use; this number is between 0 and MipLevels(from the original Texture2D for which ID3D11Device::CreateShaderResourceView creates a view) -1.

And now more serious things you need to fix: _m128 (aka SIMD registry vectors) need to be 16-byte aligned. Since SIMD performance is not you first goal (at least I guess this), I strongly suggest you to not use _m128 derived types (like XMMATRIX and XMVECTOR are by default), but more simple and beginner-reliable float[] structures (you can turn off SIMD implementation in DirectXMath using _XM_NO_INTRINSICS_ macro, otherwise switch to XMFLOAT4, XMFLOAT4x4 etc..).

4294967295, typo.

Quote

which means 4294967294 mips setted in the SRV. If you want create a SRV for a texture without mips, just put 0.

It doesn't work (it crashes) if i put MipLevels = 0, while it works if i set MipLevels = 1;

srvDesc.Texture2D.MipLevels = 1;

I read the documentation, trying to understand why it happens, but i don't understand the problem, the documentation about MipLevels says:

Quote

The maximum number of mipmap levels for the view of the texture. See the remarks in D3D11_TEX1D_SRV.Set to -1 to indicate all the mipmap levels from MostDetailedMip on down to least detailed.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

PS: about this:

Quote

And now more serious things you need to fix: _m128 (aka SIMD registry vectors) need to be 16-byte aligned. Since SIMD performance is not you first goal (at least I guess this), I strongly suggest you to not use _m128 derived types (like XMMATRIX and XMVECTOR are by default), but more simple and beginner-reliable float[] structures (you can turn off SIMD implementation in DirectXMath using _XM_NO_INTRINSICS_ macro, otherwise switch to XMFLOAT4, XMFLOAT4x4 etc..).

I need time to understand what it is all about

If using DirectXMath then _m128 type is mapped on SIMD registers if _XM_NO_INTRINSICS_ macro is not defined. On x86, SIMD registers must be 16-byte aligned, ie address%16 must be 0. I suggest you to avoid using SIMD register types declaring _XM_NO_INTRINSICS_  macro, so everything will be mapped on simple structs wrapping float[4] or so...

Note also, this is a major issue on 32-bit build, on 64-bit build, using MSVC default compiler settings, everything should be automatically aligned on 16-byte.

Quote

I don't know the exact reason but i can't load the model in your attachment into my viewer. 

It has a lot of materials and textures but they are messy too. For example it has references to textures like bob_body_d.tga, bob_head_d.tga that should be diffuse textures but as you see there are no such textures. I've tried to fix it but they are in total mess. I found similar model that works well in my viewer from this article - bob with lamp

The model inside GPUAnimation.zip.

Some background:

The LoadTarga() function inside my application needs the .tga textures to be 32bits, i had to convert all the textures inside the model to 32bits to be able to run the demo.

I tried the md5mesh file inside GPUAnimation.zip (after converting its textures to 32bits) , and i still see the black face. However, thanks to @Alessio1989 i now know that i need to set the srvDesc.Texture2D.MipLevels to 1 in order to render the model successfully, this fix works on both the md5mesh files so i can say that my problem was solved. I need to study better the meaning of this 1, as i don't really get how it works. Besides, the texture loading is based on this rastertek demo, where the MipLevels is set to 1 without much explanations.

Thanks everybody for your help, i really appreciate it.

Special thanks to @Alessio1989 for the extra details about 16-byte aligned SIMD registers.

Quote

Still something that bugs me though, the guy's face is totally black, but it gets brighter when i move closer to it...

I believe i can now answer to my own question. I completely forgot to call GenerateMips after creating the SRV. I modified the code inside graphicsclass.cpp and added:

d3d11DevCon->GenerateMips(tempMeshSRV);

Just after creating the ShaderResourceView:

hr = d3d11Device->CreateShaderResourceView(m_texture, &srvDesc, &tempMeshSRV);

And the model now renders correctly! There is no need to touch the mipLevels, -1 is a perfectly legal value, it just didnt' make sense without creating the mipmaps first!

Thanks again :)