   Confused
  right i have a few things i would like clearing up if you can. I would like to program in directx using bloodshed dev c++ and i have a few questions about this.Can you use a 3d moddling program and save the characters and use this in directx? if so are there any isues and which is the best, and free 3d moddling program about and also within these you can have animations, so do you save these animations and use them???. Also there are terrain moddling programs so do you use these as well and just use direct x around these.   
  A good Open Source and free 3D-Modelling program is blender3d.You will be busy with that for some time if you want to learn modelling.   ;  Thank you, and you use this just for characters? and you program the rest in directx?   ;  If i was confused before i dont know what i am now lol, you are right i will be busy with this.   ;  Ok...  DirectX is a group of APIs for various components associated with games.  When you're referring to DirectX, I'm assuming you mean Direct3D since you're talking about 3D models.  Direct3D is just a graphics API, you can't necessarily load models "into" DirectX, however, I do believe there is a utility to the API that allows for built in support for ".x" model formats.  If you can find a 3D modeler that will export models to this format (or has a plugin that exports to that format), then you could use the utility for D3D to load the .x models and use them without too much extra coding on your part.As for using the 3D modeler for just characters, you will, generally, use a 3D modeler for every visual object that you have in your game.  It may not be the same 3D modeler for everything, it may just depend on the tools that the modeler program provides versus what you need for a particular object.  There are exceptions to this, don't get me wrong, there are some objects you can generate quickly with code (like simple 2D quads for GUIs, spheres, cubes, etc...) that would be pointless to waste time reading out of a file.As far as animation goes, I think the .x format supports animation out of the box, though I don't know what flavor (skeletal, frame, etc...).  However, this is something that will probably do you some good to read up on.  There are several articles in the GameDev article section on animation.As for the terrain modding programs, it all depends on what you are going for.  Some games use a terrain map to render the terrain and then place objects onto the terrain.  Some games use the terrain map as a kind of base, which is then loaded into another modeler/mesh editor program and then the objects are added into the terrain and then the new "world" is saved in a new format that contains the terrain and the objects together.  This is done to allow multi-level areas of terrain, since heightmaps don't allow for this by nature.  I'm fairly sure there are no utility functions within Direct3D for loading terrain height maps.  This is something you'll have to write on your own, but there are literally piles of articles on this sort of thing.I would recommend that you just start browsing through the article section on GameDev and just read anything and everything that catches your eye.  Learn how model animation works, what types of animation there are, terrain maps, and whatever else you want to know.Hope that clears things up a little bit for you.   