Thanks
Long - 2 years. But I'm making it in very spare time (still developing v1.1) it's just testcase for my new CEL features.

a couple of good c++ tutorials comes with CS package
check CS/docs/html/manual/index.html

You can read Documentation and Tutorials section on the www site.

1. yes
2. you have example in the b2cs exporter - actor.xml template allows move camera

Of course you can do anything in pure CS and c++.
CEL is just very good helpler for making games.
Also there is no problem use CS+CEL with c++, nobody said that you need to use celstart scripting evironment. It's just one of the options.

bunch of my custom renderloops:
(note that i'm not using 'diffuse' or 'standard' but 'ppl' 'pvl' 'pplshd' which stands per pixel lighted/pervertex/shadows etc)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<params>
  <name>renderloop</name>
  <steps>
    <!-- ambient lighting -->
    <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.generic">
      <shadertype>ambient</shadertype>
      <zoffset>yes</zoffset>
      <portaltraversal/>
      <zuse/>
    </step>
    <!-- per pixel lighting -->
    <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.lightiter">
      <steps>
        <!-- diffuse lighting -->
        <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.generic">
          <shadertype>ppl</shadertype>
          <zoffset>no</zoffset>
          <ztest/>
        </step>
      </steps>
    </step>
    <!-- per vertex lighting -->
    <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.generic">
      <shadertype>pvl</shadertype>
      <zoffset>no</zoffset>
      <zuse/>
    </step>
  </steps>
</params>



<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<params>
  <name>renderloop</name>
  <steps>
    <!-- ambient lighting -->
    <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.generic">
      <shadertype>ambient</shadertype>
      <zoffset>yes</zoffset>
      <portaltraversal/>
      <zmesh/>
    </step>
    <!-- terrain base -->
    <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.generic">
      <shadertype>terrain base</shadertype>
      <zoffset>no</zoffset>
      <portaltraversal/>
      <zuse/>
    </step>
    <!-- terrain splatting with shadows -->
    <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.lightiter">
      <steps>
        <!-- stencil shadows -->
        <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.shadow.stencil">
          <steps>
            <!-- diffuse lighting -->
            <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.generic">
              <shadertype>terrain splat</shadertype>
              <zoffset>no</zoffset>
              <zuse/>
            </step>
          </steps>
        </step>
      </steps>
    </step>
    <!-- per pixel lighting -->
    <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.lightiter">
      <steps>
        <!-- diffuse lighting -->
        <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.generic">
          <shadertype>ppl</shadertype>
          <zoffset>no</zoffset>
          <ztest/>
        </step>
      </steps>
    </step>
    <!-- per pixel lighting with shadows -->
    <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.lightiter">
      <steps>
        <!-- stencil shadows -->
        <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.shadow.stencil">
          <steps>
            <!-- diffuse lighting -->
            <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.generic">
              <shadertype>pplshd</shadertype>
              <zoffset>no</zoffset>
              <ztest/>
            </step>
          </steps>
        </step>
      </steps>
    </step>
    <!-- per vertex lighting -->
    <step plugin="crystalspace.renderloop.step.generic">
      <shadertype>pvl</shadertype>
      <zoffset>no</zoffset>
      <zmesh/>
    </step>
  </steps>
</params>

make sure that you using PER VERTEX lighting for your transparent objects.
e.g.
    <material name="abc">
      <shader type="standard">std_lighting_fixed</shader>
      <shadervar name="tex diffuse" type="texture">abc</shadervar>
    </material>

Yes, probably driver issue. Some people noticed this too on Mesa and Intel drivers. The best is to use just original closed driver provided by nvidia / ati.

CS supports bezier surfaces

check how phystut application works for you, using space you can shoot objects
if works fine, then you miss something in your application, if works bad then something is wrong with your ODE, try to use 0.6 without any combinations, just default compilation

Try to use lastest CS, not 1.0.

post config.log here

post config.log here

probably your cal3d installation is bad. (wrong version or directory not available for compiler).
whats your os, and where is your cal3d ?

Cartoon game for kids.
homesite: http://jammers.sourceforge.net/
projectsite: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jammers/
Used tools: Celstart (CrystalSpace 1.3 + CEL 1.3), Blender, Gimp, Gcc.