Okay I see for the SFX. Since I released my SfxEditor's source code it's not really hard to add these features, I'll think about that...
Reimniess where did you see that ? When you have a compatible graphic card all the render is done on hardware (GPU).
Of source we can optimize the source code, and it's what I done in my tools, but the main algorithms are quite fine for Direct3D9.
Look in famous 3D engine source code, like Ogre and Irrlicht, and you'll see that it works the same way as Flyff, with more features of course. The 3D engine isn't as bad as you think, to prove it Flyff can run on old computers.
I think what's really missing is the support of D3D11 and modern OpenGL + remove Win32 API and use a framework like Qt to keep compatibility (and Linux/Mac support).
a famous 3d engine is not automatically a good 3d engine, in the same way you could call java famous but you could not call it efficiant.
the difference between having instancing is and not having instancing, is having crappy fps in a area with a little bit of grass to being able to turn off all forms of culling and render distance checks and having decent fps.
that isn't just talking what it could be, I'm talking something already done.
on the subject of DirectX 11, no, while it is true DirectX 11 has new features and some neat things, if you think 'higher version just = better' you have a lot of learning to do, DirectX 9 is a lot better than you probably think it is, problem is Flyff is doing countless things
wrong in directX
before you go thinking flyff, did anything right, I suggest people scan for memory leaks, there are tools out there to do so, but going to have to find them on your own, here is a hint, the number of unique leaks are in the tens of thousands.
long story short, if flyff, then no matter how much sense something seems to make, they found a way to screw it up.
and I know this from experience because I went out of my way to fix them all and found where they broke ( it wasn't worth it honestly )
it's a miracle that flyff has ever managed to run at all.