Ogres are beasts; big beasts that are tough to control.  I mean, Ogre3D is a beast; a big beast that is tough to control.

I’m currently replacing the rendering backend of GigaSun Jet with Ogre3D.  Ogre is a great 3D graphics engine, but this is not what it was made for.  Even with my background, Ogre is not very easy to learn.  The tutorials are choppy and some important early ones (terrain, specifically) don’t work on many computers.  Ogre works with an integrated resource management system, which is where much of the complexity comes from.  If you’re not willing to use Ogre’s way of organizing a project (once you figure out how that is), then you’re in for some trouble.

In other words:
Do build up new projects with Ogre.
Do not port games to Ogre unless you really have to.

Ogre really is a good graphics engine.  On the other hand, isn’t it best to learn a new API with something familiar?  It’s too bad Ogre is such a beast.

Oh, by the way…  I’m still trying.