Matteo Bruni (@Mystral) commented about dlls/d3dx9_36/effect.c:
effect->technique_count = read_u32(&ptr); TRACE("Technique count: %u.\n", effect->technique_count);
- skip_u32_unknown(&ptr, 1);
- /* This value appears to be equal to a number of shader variables plus number of passes. */
I'm going to be super nitpicky and say that this might sounds a bit better by restructuring it like "This value appears to be the sum of shader variables and passes count."