I am fairly new to directx and have gotten several suggestions on how to teach myslef a bit better. However, I would still like some more suggestions. If anyone out there would like to aid me by telling my how they learned would be great. Thank you.

One word: books.

I''m sure you''ve heard suggestions for Windows Game Programming for Dummies and Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus, both by Andre LaMothe. You''ve probably heard of Inside DirectX by Bradley Bargen and Peter Donnelly. Probably other books as well.

I''ve learned everything I know about programming by buying as many books as possible on my current topic of interest. I read and practice and modify examples until I''m blue in the face. I use code I''m not sure about in as many dinky little programs as I can think of to practice, until I know it well.

I have, at present, 5 books covering DirectX and while one of them was far inferior to the others, I still picked up a few tips I wouldn''t have otherwise. Every pay day I buy 2 new books, and this week I''ll be buying a 6th DX book.

Maybe I''m excessive (or obsessive ), but I firmly believe 2 or 3 books on a topic is better than one. Different perspectives from different authors. Supplement that with the wealth of information online and you can pick up what you want and need to know in a relatively short time.

Of course, the books are useless if you don''t practice and expand upon what they teach.

I believe books are good to acquire general knowledge about something. But if really want to learn you must study samples, and go through every line and make sure you understand what''s happening. Cannot understand a line? Look it up in the manual. DirectX SDK Manual is very good in my mind.

The best way to remember what it is that you are learning is to write about it. Write your own program from scratch, by all means look at samples while doing it but don''t copy and paste straight of, make sure you understand what happens before putting it in your own code.

I''ve been programming DirectX for a long time and I consider myself pretty good at it. And I have not read any books on the subject.