You can try Irrlicht: It's quite lightweight yet still powerful, plus it's C++ which is what you seem to be asking for.
I used it for a couple of days before I decided to go C# and XNA.

That sucks. I really want something that will allow me to program in c++ so I can get better with that language as don't want to just use scripting. Wanting to get better as going to college for game programming so this isn't just going to be a hobby and need c++ projects to work on to help me get better.

You don't need C++ projects in order to get better at programming. And it's harmful to dismiss "scripting" languages as not powerful. Where are 90% of beginners getting these ideas?

I get the impression you're new to programming -- in that case (especially when thinking of a career in the field), I highly recommend learning programming fundamentals and concepts. Things will go smoother with a language like Python, but try something 2D first instead of Panda3D. FPSes and RPGs are both too difficult to start with -- try something like Pacman. Even old 80s style arcade games will provide quite the challenge and learning experience.

@Gamer

Thanks for the tips. Though what do you think will be a good way to learning programming fundamentals as have some books but really wanting more examples to work on such as small simple applications. Some of the books I have on C++ is Beginning Visual C++ 2010 and Beginning C++ through Game Programming Third edition. I also have a few books for DirectX as well. Is there certain things that I should focus more on? If you have any more suggestions I will greatly appreciate it.

Would [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt be a good book for me since it teaches C++ design patterns or should I read my Visual C++ 2010 book completely.[/font]

Tell me how this sounds. I was thinking of going back through Beginning C++ through Game Programming along with Beginning Visual C++ 2010 by reading the chapters that relate to the chapters I'm reading in Beginning C++ through Game Programming. Was thinking of creating a small text based rpg game and then start Beginning Game Programming Third Edition followed followed by Advanced 2D Game Development and then Multi-threaded Game Engine Design. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Also thinking of reading Effective C++ and More Effective C++ as well.

Another thought came to me is that since I'm thinking of wanting to be a gameplay programmer that I should focus on learning scripting since most gameplay logic is in a scripting language correct? So should I try learning Unity as it uses C# scripting or maybe try Unreal Engine or CryEngine 3 and build games with one of those instead of trying to make a game from scratch? I know I'm probably getting way ahead of myself but any feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks for the reply. I started thinking about it more and might actually wanna be an AI programmer or Graphics programmer. So will be trying my hand at one of those two areas once I got a good grasp on programming though need to find out what I should have in my portfolio. I have heard that you should have completed games in your portfolio but also read that you should concentrate on having material that is related to the position you're going for such as Graphics programming you should focus on demos that shows off your graphic programming skills rather than a playable game. Anyways if anyone has suggestions about that I'd appreciate it.