About Direct X

What exactly is Direct X? Is it like some stuff used in VB? or do I have to spend more money buying this thing to fatten Bill Gate's wallet?

You fear what you do not understand

Direct X is a microsoft library. You can use it to make low-level graphical calls. It provides also a 3d engine. You can download it from Microsoft site.
Check this site to have a lot of information-tutorial-example code.
http://64.23.12.52//index.asp
I had a lot of problems with DirectX8 and so I use 7... just to tell you

DirectX is much more than a graphics library. It provides a common interface to all types of multimedia hardware. It is split into different sections:

DirectDraw - 2d graphics
Direct3D - 3D Graphics
DirectSound - Wave sounds
DirectMusic - synthesised sound
DirectPlay - multiplayer network stuff
DirectInput - keyboards, joysticks, etc.

It allows the programmer to use one set of code regardless of the hardware platform because hardware manufacturers write their drivers to allow DirectX to interface with them.

You might want to have a look in the Code Library. Squirm has been posting some DX tutorials recently.

Look in the Tutor's Corner as well.

It's good to be said that the directx was not build by microsoft at first, it was build by another company, but M$ bought it because dx was very good, until that time everyone develop games using dos tecnologies.