I don't mean to make you feel like you wasted your money or anything, but anything DirectX8 is going to be pretty severly outdated for graphics programming. As you surely already know we already have DX10, and D3D10 is largely based on a programming model that'd quite different from that of D3D8 (programmable shaders vs. fixed function pipeline). While D3D8 does support shaders, it's support is very weak compared to that of D3D9 or D3D10 and the book isn't likely to discusss many of the shader techniques that are now common in graphics programming. I would strongly suggest that you at least start with D3D9 targeting Shader Model 3.0-level hardare (Nvidia 6 and 7 series, ATI X1000 series ), because that would at least you use most modern techniques. I'm sure you'd still learn plenty of general 3D graphics theory while using your book, but IMO it would be a waste to spend a large amount of time learning fixed-function techniques since they're now gone in D3D10.

I also strongly suggest that you don't work with DevC++. It's older and isn't actively developed anymore, and is generally buggy and substandard compared to other free IDE's. Visual Studio is the de facto standard for windows programming, and the free version ( Visual C++ Express ) is quite full-featured.

As for the libraries, the DirectX SDK stopped including headers and import libs for D3D8 a long time ago. You would have to install an older version of the SDK if yours doesn't include them anymore.

I'm not actually familiar with books...I did all of my learning off the Internet. [smile]

I'm also not very familar with XNA, being a C++ and Direct3D kind of guy myself, but from what I hear it's a great platform and sounds good for beginners. I'm actually planning on learning C# and porting my current game to XNA, as soon as I finish it using C++. C# is also gnerally a much more beginner-friendly language, and if you're not deeply entrenched into C++ yet it would probably be a smart move to pick it up. It's definitely similar enough to C++ that you shouldn't be tripped up too much, but should prevent a good deal of hair-pulling in the long run.

Anyway, sorry I can't refer you to any other books. Hopefully someone else here can help you out!