A group is working on a Direct X graphics wrapper originally called TexMod.
TexMod was written back in 2006 and the developer is dust in the wind after the beta was dropped on the internet. The beta is out there floating around some with virus and malware attached. Got to love those Christmas gifts!!

Never fear, this new open source group (German based I think) are working on a new version from the ground up. Since this is an open source project -I trust those more than I do commercial- you can grab the code and work on your own tweaks. Here is
their homepage and there is a short demo video. The program supports Direct X 9 they plan to take it to Direct X 10 next.
No more digging half a mile through txd and converting and recompiling the database! You can actually convert on the fly, I am messing with beta 1.21 right now and making car textures. Give it a try.