Adding the Third Dimension - Learning Windows 8 Game Development - page 257

The first two parameters are standard: the unsigned char array that contains the
bytes for the shader data and the length of the data. The third parameter provides
the class linkage data. However, unless you're working with the advanced features
in Shader Model 5 you won't need this; passing the nullptr is fine. Finally you get
the shader from the final parameter using a pointer to an ID3D11VertexShader-
pointer . Pixel shaders are similar; just change the name.