I was looking for some samples of during a main menu or options menu well a game is running in the background. I know most of the time programmers usually dim the game and display the menu on top. How do you put boxes that appear to be attached to the screen. Usually games are done in 3d, but when the game shows what gun you have or how much life you have left it will be 2d on top of the 3d. Thanks for your help.

I just flip to ortho mode and render the gui/menu/whatever in 2d with blending after everything else has been rendered. The game is still visible in the background (normally paused with a state variable). Just dont forget to swap back after your done.

Sample wise i guess the closest thing would be JavaCoolDude's gui system (i wish i'd found this before mine was completed and integrated). Pretty screenshots etc here: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=325963