   i'm thinking about getting this book
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0672326612/qid=1134278015/sr=8-4/ref=pd_bbs_4/104-3327894-1500717?n=507846&s=books&v=glancebut i have a couple of questions for anybody who might have this book.1. is it up to date with the october 2005 DX update?2. might there be any better books for beginners to use?3. does it break everything down piece by peice and give a clear explenation of what everything does?also, is there a page on this site that can tell me the tags i can use while posting messages for code and links and such?   
  You can use straight up html for linking images and pictures, and some meta tags for other things.A bag full of tagGo nuts. Can't help you with the book though.   ;  According to Amazon's info the book that version of the book was published in 2004.Quote:Product Details    * Paperback: 432 pages    * Publisher: Sams; Bk&CD-Rom edition (December 3, 2004)The reviews are positive, you read those correct?  They're at the bottom of the page.  I've never read it myself but it looks pretty good to me.  Remember you don't need the latest everything as a beginner, you're just learning the basics.  Getting advanced stuff is normally not in books anyways, it's more online (least I find).Hope that helps.Mike   ;  If you’re looking for a book on basic DX, I'd suggest Beginning DirectX 9 by Wendy Jones. She does a good job going over the basics without getting too complicated. After going through that I'd recommend Programming Role Playing Games in DirectX by Jim Adams.   ;  I have never read that book, but i have a book by the same publisher, maybe the same guy, its called begging game programming, its a blue book.. i really enjoyed it and it helped me get started...chris said, i would also recomment Beginning DirectX 9 by Wendy Jones, i have that book and i love it, very easy to understand....the only bad thing about it is the source code in the book is a little different then the source code on the cd..but only becuz she made a dxmanager class to simplify things.   