Hello all. I recently decided to pick up my old hobby of C / C++ programming that I have been away from for nearly 5 years. Life has been hectic and my job has been moreso so I've not had the time this last half decade to do any. However things are settling down and I'm wanting to get back into it. Even though I did a fair amount of programming back in 'the day' I never took any classes and don't have the ability to do so due to work / wife / kids. I have some background in Win32 API programming (not MFC) and some DirectDraw and even made a few small games in the past. My question is, which book / reference / guide(s) should I look into for both getting into Direct3D programming, 3D modeling (for a complete newb with very little creativity), and for converting the 3d files into something like .x files or something D3D can use? One thing I always had a great deal of trouble doing in the past was UV mapping textures onto models that I would create so any help in that area as far as 'for newb' material that I can reference would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

<cricket, cricket>

Hey ramdacc!

I've read a couple tutorials from http://www.gametutorials.com/gtstore/c-5-directx.aspx
The tutorials is not free but money well spent.

Another good site:
http://www.directxtutorial.com/
Where you can learn about for example "Loading Meshes From X Files".

Good luck with DirectX!