I want to write a game as my final year diploma project.(I'm a 4th-year-student now so I've got a year and several months).

But I don't know what to choose: either write my own game engine using DirectX9(10)(I don't like OpenGL) or use OGRE + PhysX(Don't like Unity)

I'm more interested in writing my own game engine(but I wonder if I'll create engine on the same level as even Unreal 1.0 hah) but on the other side with PhysX I'll have advanced physics in my game and with OGRE I'll have good grahics. For 3d models I want to use Maya.

What do you advise me to choose?

As for me I've got a little DirectX experience,not bad C++ programming skills(but not expert's) and a little knowledge of Maya. My English isn't perfect either hah...