Hey, I can get to the site again!
Here's what I'm currently experimenting with...GLSL shaders in OpenZone:
This is showing up to 6 dynamic lights using a vertex shader. You can't tell in the screenshot, but they are also flickering. I've added a Flicker parameter to light objects and updated the mesh library objects so torches, etc. will flicker. There is still a ton to do, there is no way to export any of this to XWA yet, but that's the plan: to have SimpleClient support shaders. At the moment I'm trying to get bump-mapping working in OpenZone with normal maps. When I'm satisfied with the results I'll start working on the export chain so this can work in SimpleClient. None of this will work in the live client as the .WLD format doesn't support it.
For shader purposes, I'm defining the light radius as the point where it reaches 50% intensity, not zero. This more closely approximates what the static lighting model was producing. Think of it as relating to a FWHM measurement.