   Not rendering everything
  If I build my app with the debug runtime library all my graphics are displayed but if I go with the other set then not everything will be rendered.  Even in the release config I have to give it the debug runtime for it to work properly.  I error check all the DX calls and nothing shows up.  I don't really want to hand out the game having to use the debug runtimes.   
  Not sure exactly what the problem is, in your case, but a very common mistake that causes this problem is calling a method which renders something in an ASSERT. When you compile a release build all of the ASSERT statements are stripped out of your code and if you were rendering something in one of them, then it won't be rendered anymore. For example,// Do not do this_ASSERTE(pCharacter->Render(), "Rendering Character Failed");// Do this insteadbool result = pCharacter->Render();_ASSERTE(result, "Rendering Character Failed");   