DESPEREAUX,
As I point out in the Readme file, this alteration of maximum distance values will not do the whole job by itself. The .mat files for the textures applied to objects and effects plays a crucial role. If the .mat file's far visible distance is, say, 5,000m, it will only be seen within 5km. And the object's farthest LOD plays a role as well, but in a more complicated way due to the way the game modifies the pop-up distance based on the field of view.
A worthwhile project would be to start with the largest objects which:
- don't already have the 'long visual distance' applied to them and
- which are not common enough to end up in drawing a bazillion of them,
and boost their visible distance via mesh farthest LOD and texture .mat file.
This could include things like tall smoke stacks, bridges, stadiums, hangars. (But likely not big city blocks, due to the potential for too many slowing things down over large cities.
Already there are annoying things like, for example, a smallish sandbag revetment for a gun being seen at a farther distance than a much larger control tower. The latter max distance should be boosted.
Indeed, an object-wide rationalizing of object visible distance is warranted. And that includes *reducing* distance in some cases.
If anyone should happen to have all objects in a non-SFS format, it would be nice to have listed for all their .mat files the far visible distance value.