About This File
NOTE: as this is a tutorial, there are no useable files for download.
It's a fact that using fog can give huge FPS savings. This is because objects do not need to be rendered nearly as far away.
The main purpose of this "mod" is to be able to fly with all buildings and trees, with maximum FPS gain in fog with no pop-ups.
This is tested for 1.02 but should work in 1.11
I was trying to get my rig to fly in fog without popups a while back. The problem was that trees and powerlines would still popup in the "soup."
Here's a trick I used for my rig. I'm sporting an ATI 9800SE, so your mileage may vary depending on your card. And it's important to note that I have advanced haze ON and VISIB RNG (in options) must be set to high!
NOTE: Remember to backup all files before you move them!
In the mission you want fog in, set haze distance to max (80 kilometers). This is necessary because popup IS effected by haze distance. Next, set Fog Thickness to 1000m and Density to 1000m. Again, for some reason, the amount of fog effects pop up.
OK, for the trees popping up, that's an easy fix. Use LoMan (or equivalent) to change the advanced graphics setting (graphics.cfg file). Set trees density to 10000 and trees clipping to 1500.
As for the powerline cables popping up, we remove them entirely. Here's how.
Open LockOn > Bazar > Terrain > Scenes and move the ETL.FSC file to a backup folder.
Voila! Lots of fog and no pop ups.
As always, remember to "alt-tab" out of lockon after the first mission loads. Otherwise, some objects will continue to pop-up.