just an fyi - i follow the ogre forums as well - there is some interesting stuff happening over there with shadows - (worth a read niko!)
http://ogre.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/view ... e939be4637
also some stuff posted in their general discussion area about terrain map generation - that stuff is a little specialized but still, the terrains they are starting to generate on the fly are top notch
Shadows (talk over on Ogre)
softshadows
and here is another great site to look at for inspiration - i am wondering if this guy would not allow an implementation in irrlicht - can you imagine having softshadows in your games!!!
http://www.borgenstam.com/noname/index.php?view=news
http://www.borgenstam.com/noname/index.php?view=news