So thanks to EJ's post on how much he's learned developing a "real" 3d engine, I decided to try and emulate one of the most potent suggestions he made--that he could render 250,000 polys+ without lag. Well, suffice it to say that I figured out how he did it and PV will be able to do the same. Hooray!
On a side note, progress is still being made on the editor and the client. With the SVN up and running I hope to be putting out incremental updates much more frequently so we can get this project live during the month I have for Christmas break.