Progress and I have a test build that runs, but it does very little as yet (it can draw geometry to the screen, as needed for shaders). I've also hooked into the texture system, but I think I need to install a system hook to catch filenames properly.
I'm also trying to get the depth buffer issues sorted out early on this time, but without tying them so closely to distant land. DirectX 9 makes working with depth buffers in shaders far, far more difficult than any other system (OpenGL, DirectX 10, 11, they all make it a breeze, just another texture), so that will take some time to get working.
I'll occasionally update this thread and will post a thread when I have screenshots of the functions. I'm planning on also merging my existing MGE and NWN shader forums into a single forum for this project, as it will use the single framework for both games (and more, when I'm done with these two).