remember that well! joey just described in one sentence what many people struggle to comprehend -- the engine can do any direct-x 9 next-gen stuff you can imagine (just about, anyway), most of the time without a single plugin. it's only the tools that leave much to be desired.

download blender (.org) and you'll have the best modeling tool there is anyway (arguably) and ventilator's plugin lets you export straight from blender.

learn to write your own shaders. you don't have to be a pro at it, but if you have a basic understanding then you can easily implement shaders that other users contribute all over the forum without having to ask the question "can you show me how to put this in my game?"
there's a good shader workshop on the download page. you'll have enough of an understanding within a couple of hrs (at most, i reckon).

julz