   DirectX or not?
  Hi,I'd like to know if you think it's a good idea to learn how to create games (for Windows) with DirectX first and then try and do it "by yourself", or should I go for that right now? (taken into account that I don't know much, well, almost anything, about Windows programming)Thanks for your opinions!   
  Define "by yourself"... are you talking about rolling your own media library to replace DX? That's a scary endeavor, but more power to you if you go for it :-).   ;  How would you do such huge library yourself?I prefer using what can be reached, only when it is not enough or you have too much free time, you should find turnarounds.   ;  By "by myself" I meant creating my own graphics, sound and device control functions (which I actually know nothing about :)).   ;  Oh! I made that once too, made it over OpenGL, so it were nothing more but an wrappings over a library. It is a poor strategy when you are alone and you should actually write a game, but for learning the API and some tricks, it's working.Depends what do you like to reach.   ;  I'm trying to create a RPG, just to learn more about programming (games in particular). I don't want to sell it or make it popular, just practise and have fun doing it! :)   ;  Contrary to what you seem to be saying, DirectX is very low level. In fact on Windows nowadays, it's not really possible to get any closer to the hardware.Many people successfully write their first games with DirectX, so it's a good option. Personally, however, I would reccommend starting with somthing simpler such as SDL or Allegro.Good Luck   ;  Hi,It depends on what you're trying to do?  I think rolling your own library to do production games is a bit much.  DirectX and OpenGL have been in development for many years.However, if you want to really know how it works, I would recommend picking up Andrew Lamoths Trick of Windows Game programming Gururs and Tircks of the 3D game Programming Gurus... they are behemoths... but I wrote my own little 3d software engine with texturing and lighting... but I know "how" Direct3D works.. I had trouble grasping what a vertex buffer was before I went through those two books...Hope this helps.   ;  If you want to make a game, by little initial learning, I'd prefer you to use SDL, then mix some openGL to it when you learn more. C++ + win32 is a death valley for newbies.I know lots of resources in net which provides you vital information from graphics with opengl. SDL is a piece of cake to initialize and put up.You need to know four functions to get started. :) SDL_Init SDL_Quit SDL_SetVideoMode SDL_PollEvent.For OpenGL you need additional one function SDL_GL_SwapBuffers and flag SDL_OPENGL.   ;  Well then I'll stick to already-written development kits.I hope some day I'll be able to write my own one... I just have to read, read and read!(By the way, thanks for your advice guys!)   