Hey Orison,
Glad to hear an update! Myself, I've been cracking away at learning that ever elusive 'C++' language
. It's pretty difficult for me personally, but how can one
not be motivated to study it when they have all the old source for EQEmu at their fingertips. Slowly but surely I'm being able to pick apart some of what lies in their murky depths! Secondly I've gotten a pre-calc book to start buffing up for calculus for the long haul to openGL math so I can one day .. (scowls) be able to make the proper changes or my own tool for extracting all the visual assets of EQ... That day will come as will your project, but it's all about the time it takes.
Happy hunting friend and here's to dinging 60 IRL!!
Kindest Regards~~~