Hey there.
1) As someone already said, the language will be the same across both; but trying to write games from scratch will not help you. Games are high-performance apps, and are not simple beasts. Game developers make use of every trick in the book to squeeze every last slowdown out of their games; as such, working with game code straightaway isn''t a brilliant idea (IMO).
However, going for simple games - ''guess the number'' is one I get people to write in whatever language - could help you. You need to learn the language first, before you learn game techniques; otherwise, you risk learning those techniques in a bad way - imagine trying to lay out a webpage when you''ve learnt the IMG tag but not the TABLE tag...
2) For a beginner who wants to get something up on screen quickly, I''d recommend OGL. However, it''s not the most forgiving of APIs - expect to see nothing the first few times you try running your app. On the other hand, D3D will encourage good object-orientated programming style, and will take care of many things (such as models, or loading textures) for you. (That''s not always good; it''s never a bad idea to learn how to do those things yourself). Oh, and if you want cross-platform compatability - say, you want to run your app on a Mac or a Linux box - you need to use OpenGL.
In the end, it always comes down to personal preference.
3) Go with
NeHe for OpenGL - it''s excellent. NeXe is a little behind the times (or was when I last checked) but this site''s Direct3D section is still good and fresh.
Enjoy your stay.
Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he''s not doing that, runs
The Binary Refinery.
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