@Steempipe: When you get this implemented all the way you might also try converting it from parallax to relief mapping since parallax mapping only offsets coordinates by an approximation(the reason why deformations happen at strange view angles) while relief mapping offsets coordinates properly. This would yield much more accurate results. I'll do a search for the whitepaper for relief mapping and post it incase you or anyone else is interested.

[EDiT] There is an implementation for OGL at cgshaders.org, but it comes with a PDF that explaines the formulas used which could be useful for porting to DirectX 9c. Unfortunatley you'll have to download the source and all to get the PDF. Anyways its here: http://cgshaders.org/contest/#reliefmapping


M3PHiSTO