the viewport object that is located in the current device has a maxz value that I can't seem to directly set. Is there a way to set this? Thanks, Devin

These are set with pDevice->SetViewport().

Either query the current viewport, with GetViewport(), modify it, and set it back, or just create a temporary viewport like so:

D3DVIEWPORT9 vp;

vp.X = 0;
vp.Y = 0;
vp.Width = backbufferwidth; // same values you put in parameters sent to create device
vp.Height = backbufferheight;
vp.MinZ = 0;
vp.MaxZ = 1;

pDevice->SetViewport(&vp);

Z is still clipped and clamped as usual, but the final value is scaled to be between MinZ and MaxZ before testing and writing to the Z buffer. 0 and 1 are the standard settings. Setting both to 0 will cause any draws to appear in front of anything else. Unless you need the 0 stored in the Z buffer, it's probably quicker to just disable Z in this case. Setting both to 1 will cause all draws to appear behind anything else.

Thanks. Only one problem. My device doesn't seem to have SetViewport in it. Could it be somewhere else?

When I do that it crashes. Any idea why?

D3D likes to crash when setting a viewport when (x+width > backbufferwidth) or (y+height > backbufferheight). Are you sure you're passing valid sizes? Obviously when using a rendertarget the limits are the size of the render target, not the back buffer.

I'm not sure how D3D reacts to odd MinZ, MaxZ values, like values >1, <0, or Min>Max.

D3D might to extra validation if you turn on the debug runtimes (via control panel). With any luck, your output window should give details of the crash.