What are "realtime shadows?" I'm not just trying to be argumentative; I'm sincerely curious. Do you mean that they react to lighting and grow/decrease in intensity throughout the day?
Also, have you taken a look at some of the rest of the game here:
www.joinvanguard.com ? The forested areas remaining on the game look just amazing to me for an MMO. Heck, for any type of game.
I think the shadows look good, myself. Everything has soft edges and reacts to things in the environment like swaying trees, etc.
