Are there any good, intuitive, free guides to getting started in 3D? Also I would like one that does not center on C/C++, but more on genereal programming and technique. Any help would be appreciated.

Your request may be difficult to fulfill, because all of 3D graphics are an illusion produced by programming mathematics algorithms in some language. Because OpenGL and DirectX have C/C++ APIs, the language used for those is going to be predominantly C/C++.

Maybe what you want is the mathematics without the programming? If so, you would want to start out with geometry and linear algebra, in order to learn the means of representing and working with 3D data types in equation and matrix/vector form.

If you want more overview material on 3D concepts, there's a good article atExtreme Tech : Game Engine Anatomy 101 . There's a related article: the 3D Pipeline . I think these should be very helpful for someone looking for a good overview.

As ever, Google should be one of your best friends.