Ok, I hope this is real easy for someone because it has'nt been for me. I want to rotate my whole vertexbuffer about the center of the screen. (I can do that) I want to then move the whole vertex buffer about the x, and y axis in corrdinate space, whitout rotating the x and y axis of coordinate space. (I can do that) I can't do them both at once. What combination shall I use? Should I set up a temporary matrix equal to one of the above transformations and then put it on the left or the right of the another rotation or another translation matrix? I've tried that and it produces some weird results. I've looked in my math book, and unless I sludge through the whole matrix chapters a couple times, I doubt I'll figure it out.

This should be fairly simple.

Assuming you dont know about matrices at all then here ya go.

1. Create a rotation matrix about the y axis like so

D3DXMATRIXA16 matRot;

// fill the matrix like so

D3DXMatrixRotationY( &matRot, /* rot amount in radians */ 1);

// apply toi the world matrix

l_pD3DDevice->SetTransform(D3DTS_WORLD, &matRot);

Ok, maybe this is not clear.
I want to rotate about the z axis firstly. I want to rotate about 0,0,0. I want to move the whole vertex buffer up and down, left and right, about the x and y axis, while I am rotating. I do not want to transform the x and y axis, I want them to stay fixed.

If I do what you say, then it simply rotates it about the Y axis.
right right.. how it looks in VB Transposing Y for Z.

rotatematrix = Matrix.RotationZ(angle)
OuterSpace.device.SetTransform(TransformType.World, rotatematrix)

Thanks for trying!

If you want to rotate by Z and then translate only by XY the 2nd line in your code should be:
device.Transform.World = Matrix.Multiply(Matrix.RotationZ(angle), Matrix.Translation(x, y, 0))
This should roll the vertices by Z and translate them by XY.

The Short Explanation:
Basically, the vehicle is located at the center of the screen while the world rotates around it.

The Long Explanation:
Imagine you have a map, pasted right in the middle
of the screen laying flat. When I hit the up arrow, the map goes straight down, at 180 deg, towards the bottom of the monitor.
When I hit the right arrow, the map goes left at 270 deg, towards the left of the monitor. etc..Now when I rotate it, put a pin in the center of the screen. Not the middle
of the map, but the middle of the screen. And rotate.
After I rotate it, I still want to be able to do the top part again. Still having it go straight down, left right ect.

I can do this with my 2d Move function, so that X, Y are calcuated outside of the matrix transformations, manually, i.e. x and y updating based on the angle of the vehicle relative to the world. Which, is really what I should do so nevermind... =)

BUT, there has to be a transformation that will do it instead. Based on an angle and then the amount
of displacement in whatever dirrection altered first.

I'm not lazy, this is just frustrating me as I thought I understood transformations, and I can't get it to work.

enigma1, that's what this does basically, see comment though.
device.Transform.World = Matrix.Multiply(Matrix.RotationZ(angle), Matrix.Translation(x, y, z))
' X,Y stays static, but rotates about the center of the map, (vb)

Thanks for any help folks,

Forgot to login
Sorry, for anyone curious here is the project.
Here