Whilst looking at the OGRE-site, I stumbled across a link that explains how to compile the OGRE progs (C++) using MicroSoft's free VC++ compiler (comandline) together with the Code::Blocks IDE.

I downloaded the required files for the MS Platform SDK and the DirectX9 SDK (HUGE ! I think more than 650 MB were downloaded - thanks MS for bloatware) as well as Code::Blocks (small in comparison ) and used it with the 3DGS SDK ... it worked quite nicely (just using the sample files provided - haven't done any coding with it myself).

You need to download and install
the VC++ Toolkit (http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/)
the Platform SDK (http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate)
the DirectX SDK (http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx)
the Code::Blocks IDE (http://www.codeblocks.org/)

It does take a while (no, really ... it does !)

Just to let any of you shoestring-budget programmers know !

Cheers,
Andreas