How do I increase the general world draw distance?

[Funnyman]

I'm not talking about the object fade distance, I realized its detailmesh and (I THINK) I managed to get it pretty far. What I'm asking for is the world rendering distance, the distance at which the world gets cut off by the fog. Maybe I got used to KSP and DCS but I really would like to see really really far.

[+EricJ]

I don't recall anybody else asking this kind of question about that. Overall you can see "far enough" which is basically the range your virtual eye ball can see. So there may be a way, but I don't recall anybody messing with that at all, since like the game has been out. Of course I could be wrong, but everybody accepts the view as it is more or less. Then again there may be something in the Knowledge Base but I kinda doubt it.

Edited February 14 by EricJ

[Funnyman]

1 hour ago, EricJ said:

I don't recall anybody else asking this kind of question about that. Overall you can see "far enough" which is basically the range your virtual eye ball can see. So there may be a way, but I don't recall anybody messing with that at all, since like the game has been out. Of course I could be wrong, but everybody accepts the view as it is more or less. Then again there may be something in the Knowledge Base but I kinda doubt it.

Well, the game already has an option for horizon draw distance, is it impossible to modify that? Yeah It's "far enough" for its time and for many games around the time, but I really have been spoiled a bit and I cant seemuch ahead when I'm at angel 40. I thought that after extracting flightengine.ini it would be "Horizon distance" but changing that does nothing. I wonder if the game has a hard engine limitation on 64km that "Unlimited" is by default due to the memory allocation?

[+EricJ]

You're asking the wrong guy, but if somebody had access to the files and could modify them... I think it's possible. Frankly as I said, nobody has modded the horizon distance, and never mentioned an intent to do so. So the answer is just you need to modify the code as a "safe" answer for your question. Unfortunately it's hard to get (impossible I would say as an opinion) to get a hold of TK and maybe fix that issue. Other than that what I've said is basically what I know, which isn't that much. But as you mentioned it could be a hard limit that the game has, given it's age. Only the Spaghetti Monster (Or God, if you believe in him) knows if TK will ever work on this game again to possibly address the issue.

[+Wrench]

Draw distance had a huge discussion some years ago (I'd suggest doing a search in both the SF1 and SF2 forums). But none of that is usable anymore, and SF2 has things 'locked down' (iirc) to a certain distance.

So, no I don't believe it can be changed anymore. Also, don't forget, we're acutally using a 1990 based engine, so don't expect DCS level graphics

[Funnyman]

2 hours ago, Wrench said:

Draw distance had a huge discussion some years ago (I'd suggest doing a search in both the SF1 and SF2 forums). But none of that is usable anymore, and SF2 has things 'locked down' (iirc) to a certain distance.

So, no I don't believe it can be changed anymore. Also, don't forget, we're acutally using a 1990 based engine, so don't expect DCS level graphics

No, I wasn't expecting DCS level graphics, I was just kinda hoping since people have already been able to customize the LoD distance quality you could do the same with the draw distance.

[UllyB]

On 2/14/2025 at 5:51 AM, Funnyman said:

I'm not talking about the object fade distance, I realized its detailmesh and (I THINK) I managed to get it pretty far. What I'm asking for is the world rendering distance, the distance at which the world gets cut off by the fog. Maybe I got used to KSP and DCS but I really would like to see really really far.

There is always (it always has been) a balance between the world far distance and the 3D objects game engine renders. You show too much 3D object, BOOM, you pc is instantly (sometimes) in its knees. This was always a problem to solve because majority of players don't have NASA PCs. If the graphic card load wouldn't have been a problem then just the imagination were the limit. I think that this balance is well implemented in this game.

Anyway, just for future references, be carefull what you wish for ;)

Edited February 16 by UllyB

[Funnyman]

On 2/16/2025 at 9:40 AM, UllyB said:

There is always (it always has been) a balance between the world far distance and the 3D objects game engine renders. You show too much 3D object, BOOM, you pc is instantly (sometimes) in its knees. This was always a problem to solve because majority of players don't have NASA PCs. If the graphic card load wouldn't have been a problem then just the imagination were the limit. I think that this balance is well implemented in this game.

Anyway, just for future references, be carefull what you wish for ;)

That's cool but I don't know what info that gives me. My computer sucks and I've been able to set the LOD mesh loading pretty far and the game still runs at 60 (no mods installed). Yet there's no balance with the world draw distance, I was interested in just extending that one, since it becomes obvious at higher alttitudes.

[Mr_Tayto]

I don't know that it's even a PC problem now; I've read discussion in here and elsewhere that suggest the software doesn't even acknowledge hardware. For example, while my PC is not "NASA", it runs DCS smoothly and without frame drops happily, and also current gen games in general just fine. Take a flight over NVN as part of a strike package and it's like watching a flickbook in places. That's the game, not the PC.