[sandy]

to render it seems close to opengl except I have to create a vertex buffer for each texture group of polygons instead of creating a model

here's the code :

	// build the vertex buffers corresponding to each mesh

	ppVBs = new LPDIRECT3DVERTEXBUFFER9 * [meshes.GetSize()];

	for ( i=0; i<meshes.GetSize(); i++ )
	{
		Data36* mesh = meshes.GetAt(i);

		// precalculate the scale of the mesh
		float scale = (float)(1<<mesh->Scale);

		// builds the vertex buffers

		ppVBs[i] = new LPDIRECT3DVERTEXBUFFER9 [ mesh->PolygonTexCount ];

		int polygoncount = 0;

		for ( j=0; j<mesh->PolygonTexCount; j++ )
		{
			int nbvertex = mesh->PolygonTexEntries[j][0] * 3;

			if( FAILED ( pd3dDevice->CreateVertexBuffer( 
							nbvertex * sizeof ( MODELVERTEX ), 
							D3DUSAGE_WRITEONLY, D3DFVF_MODELVERTEX,
							D3DPOOL_DEFAULT, &ppVBs[i][j] , NULL ) ) )
				return E_FAIL;

			MODELVERTEX * pVertex;
			ppVBs[i][j]->Lock( 0, 0, ( void * * ) & pVertex , 0 );

			for ( k=0; k<mesh->PolygonTexEntries[j][0]; k++ )
			{
				for ( int numvertex=1; numvertex<=3; numvertex++ )
				{
				
					int vertexindex = mesh->PolygonEntries[polygoncount][numvertex];

					// get the unajusted vertices
					float x = mesh->CenterX + mesh->VertexEntries[vertexindex][0]/scale;
					float y = mesh->CenterY + mesh->VertexEntries[vertexindex][1]/scale;
					float z = mesh->CenterZ + mesh->VertexEntries[vertexindex][2]/scale;

					// get the index of the piece that contains this vertex
					int pieceindex = GetPieceIndex( mesh, vertexindex );

					// rotate the unajusted vertices
					RotateX( pieces[pieceindex].XAng, x, y, z );
					RotateY( pieces[pieceindex].YAng, x, y, z );
					RotateZ( pieces[pieceindex].ZAng, x, y, z );


					// add the position of the piece
					pVertex->x = x + pieces[pieceindex].XOfs;
					pVertex->y = y + pieces[pieceindex].YOfs;
					pVertex->z = z + pieces[pieceindex].ZOfs;

					pVertex->nx = mesh->VertexNormalEntries[vertexindex][0]/127.0f;
					pVertex->ny = mesh->VertexNormalEntries[vertexindex][0]/127.0f;
					pVertex->nz = mesh->VertexNormalEntries[vertexindex][0]/127.0f;
					pVertex->color = 0xffffffff;
					pVertex->u1 = mesh->TextureCoordEntries_w[vertexindex][0]/256.0f;
					pVertex->v1 = mesh->TextureCoordEntries_w[vertexindex][1]/256.0f;

					pVertex ++;

				}

				polygoncount++;

			}

			ppVBs[i][j]->Unlock();

		}

	}

I followed exactly what you have done in dzoneconverter =)