different rendering engine possible?

[SuperSuit12]

people have apparently entirely remade the backend stuff in a different language and it runs faster, would it be possible to replace the rendering engine with another rendering engine and use that instead by any reasonable means, so we could have reflective bricks and stuff, and render more bricks without lagging? (Since I'm guessing there have been advances in rendering and stuff.)
I'm not asking anyone to do this, I'm asking if it's possible.

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[QuadStorm]

Pretty sure Badspot mentioned rendering a bit on the new years server. Stuff like global illumination would be neat but I'm always hoping for this unrealistic dream.

While on the rendering topic, would a newer glsl shader have any real benefit over our current version 120 (opengl 2.1)?

[Pah1023]

While on the rendering topic, would a newer glsl shader have any real benefit over our current version 120 (opengl 2.1)?

I don't entirely believe so.
Newer versions just allow access to new functions.
The only real way to get better performance is rewriting the code, optimizing wherever possible.
I'd guess the major thing is to