interestingly enough you kind of posted in the correct place. If i''m not mistaken there was recently and article featured at gameDev.net about using DirectX for isometric tile engines. Sorry, but i dont'' know much about tile maps, just wanted to say that littel bit about DirectX and iso engines. Hope you find someone to help, and if you haven''t read that article on GameDev read it, could help ya. Cheers!