This is the engine function (simplified) that renders to a texture:
Code:
LPDIRECT3DTEXTURE9 pTarget;
D3DXCreateTexture(d3dDev,
width,height,
1,D3DUSAGE_RENDERTARGET,format,
D3DPOOL_DEFAULT,&pTarget));
LPDIRECT3DSURFACE pRenderTarget;
pTarget->GetSurfaceLevel(0,&pRenderTarget);
d3dDev->SetRenderTarget(0,pRenderTarget));
SAFE_RELEASE(pRenderTarget);