not really, it uses shaders.
of course they are executed clientside, but they come from server, not from external application.
shader is a programming language, that is executed in GPU, not CPU.
it consists of two parts:
vertex shader:
loops trough all polygons, and processes the data you need there.
pixel shader:
loops trough whole pixels ( usually 1-2mil per frame ), and processes them.
so basically any transformation of visual image is possible in exception of:
- out of limits of directx 9( mta doesn't have dx10/dx11)
- same models cant have different shaders attached to them, so for example there cant be shader applied for only one of two sabres on screen.
probably there's workaround, but its hard to find, and would be inefficient.
