With a few exceptions, it is a good idea not to worry about how an API does the stuff it does, because every hardware is different, and sometimes they do stuff differently. So let the API do it's stuff, and you do your stuff (the game logic, etc.)
And yes, it is normal to use books, especially if you are new to a library. With time, you will get used to it and use those books less often.

Depends on the kind of person, I'd say.

some people just HAVE to know everything about everything. (I used to be like this...I'm a recovering OCD..*grin*)

Nowadays, I don't care. I want to write games and get them finished and sell them. If a library promises to speed up whatever I want to accomplish, and the documentation is good, then let's do it.

But that's just me. You might be wanting to head down a different road than I'm already on, even though I appreciate both the journey AND the destination..
*shrug*

hth,

Hello,

Quote:Original post by Gink
Do real game programmers know how to implement the graphics methods that interact with the hardware? Like for OpenGL etc, would a game programmer normally know how to implement the methods that openGL uses in order to draw to the screen? Or do most game programmers just use the methods without knowing exactly how they are working?

This is a difficult question. On one hand, once an interface is defined you don't have to worry about how the whole thing is implemented. On the other hand, how can you use an API if you don't understand the theory that governs it? From my point of view, knowing at least one possible implementation of each function as well as the theory behind them help you to make the right choice at the right moment but you don't have to know all the possible implementations of the features you use - there are too many of them.
If you want to understand how most of these features work, I suggest you to read Michael Abrash's Zen of Graphic Programming (old, very old book - his asm implementations are of no use now, since the P4 core is very different from these old 486), Foley's Computer Graphics: principle and practice and Moller's Realtime Rendering (the web companion is here and is a very useful collection of links).

Quote:Original post by Gink
Also when programming games, is it normal to refer constantly to reference books? When I program in like C/C++ and ASM I rarely have to refer to books to do what I want, but when I want to do something in SDL or the WinAPi I have to refer to the books alot, is that normal or do you just memorize all parts of the API after using it for a while?

You HAVE to use books (or any other kind of reference, for that matters), because it is impossible to know everything. You cited the Win32 API, and it is a good example: how many function are there in this API? I used it for a while know, and I am still unable to remember the return type of InvalidateRect() or the meaning of the second parameter of CreateEvent(). Fortunately, noone asks me to remember these stuff.