I am a newbie as well. I have been trying to learn C++ and directx for about two months now (actually got my directx book @ Christmas). Beforehand, I knew HTML, a good bit of javascript, and some old BASIC. I''m using a book by Wrox press called "Ivor Horton''s Beginning C++". It doesn''t take anything for granted, he repeats himself a lot, and he answers all of those nagging "But what if you do THIS..." kinds of questions. My problem is that he doesn''t tell you much about graphics programming, or what I consider "game" programming. I recently bought Andre Lamothe''s "Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus," and I have quit reading the C++ book for now. It seems to me that you can create a Win32 program and put pictures on the screen without knowing much C++ (following Andre''s code, I am using STRUCTs without really knowing what they are...), but then you need the C++ for all of the logic. So, my strategy would be to stick with C++, get a good book about directx or opengl, and learn both as you need them. Right now, I want some gratification. I want to get a little guy up on the screen. So, I''m learning directx from the Lamothe book. But then I''m going to want to set rules for how the bad guys move, so I''ll go back to learn enough C++ to do that. It''s hard, but set goals and read everything you can get your hands on. The two books I have (probably $80 total on Amazon) are a good place to start. Sorry for rambling as usual.

Ooops - I am a newbie, eh? I created a new topic, when I was trying to respond to Emil''s post about not knowing whether to stick with C++. Read that thread to know what I''m talking about. :-)

-Chris