Quote - Does ODE do cloth and softbodies as well as Bullet?  Those seem like essential features for something like this.

Also, unless I missed it, why Ogre over Irrlicht?

(I don't even know enough to be biased, I'm  just wondering how that combination was picked out of the 3 or 4 that would appear equally viable...) 

Well, as far as libraries are concerned, my initial picks may not be the ones that make the final revision, after all there are a ton of open source libraries to choose from and I am still in many ways in the  "reasearch and proposal phase" of the project.  Nothing is set in stone as of yet.

After reading through OGRE's specs,  it would appear that it is well documented, well supported and will do a great deal of what I need with minimal coding effort.  I haven't yet perused Irrlicht quite as completely as I have OGRE, however it too appears to be a good library in it's own right.  I have no deep seated preference either way really, just looking for whatever tool is going to help get the job done.  So if I mention that I'm using a hand drill and you happen to know of a power drill, by all means, give me a shout out  :)

-Never fear, RenderDog is near!  Oh wait, is that a chew toy?  Yup. ok, nevermind.. go back to fearing...