I've gotten into another situation where my scene doesn't draw right, and I'm fiddling all the SetRenderState() options without knowing what the problem is, and I realize I've been doing this for years.

Obviously I don't grokk the system, and I need help. Is there a book or a tool that will help me understand the totality of D3DTA_TEXTURE, D3DRS_ALPHAFUNC, D3DTSS_MINFILTER, and all those other settings (for dx8, preferably)?

I was thinking of writing one; an app that displays a series of quads and a WHOLE bunch of buttons, to let me fiddle the options and see what I get. But I don't know if that'll be useful.