Synapse Gaming recently announced that the Sunburn Framework, a subset of the full Sunburn Engine XNA middleware is now free for Students, Hobbyists, pretty much everyone.

For those who did not attend the XNA Game Camp last year, Sunburn is a lighting engine that allows you to worry about your game play, instead of how your graphics look. It offers a powerful array of lighting features, and whilst the Framework itself is restricted to the Windows platform, when you are ready to start testing your game on the XBOX 360, you can use the license that comes with your Premium Creators Club account to try the XBOX version.

This is a great chance to evaluate the framework and see if it is what you are looking for.