Render Distance

[B7Biscuit 7]

I just ran a few searches through the forums and was surprised to find that nobody seems to have written a suggestion on increasing the render distance. So, *I* am writing a suggestion on increasing the render distance.

It is as follows:

Premise

A while back, I read a suggestion made by kazim57 titled "Huge Mountains (http://terrafirmacra...h__1#entry19553)." If you hadn't already guessed, the point of that suggestion was to increase world height and allow for actual *mountains* to form in TFC. While I'm all for this idea, there is one major problem: it isn't really possible to appreciate any of the taller structures in Minecraft, let alone full scale mountains, with the current render distance.

Take for instance this castle I built in Tekkit:

Yes, I am taking advantage of this suggestion to show off my pretty castle, what of it?

As cool as I think this thing is, I can't help but feel that the world drop-off in the distance greatly detracts from its aesthetic value.

This:

...is something that I'd like to see in TFC.

Suggestion

First, I have to say that I don't know much about coding or about how Minecraft works, so if I make a dumb mistake in my reasoning, it's because I'm dumb

Now as I understand it, render distance can't just be greatly increased because doing so would require that many more chunks be loaded simultaneously, and most computers simply can't keep up past a certain point (like several thousand blocks in each direction). So I was wondering if it might be possible to maintain user-defined world loading distance (i.e. Tiny, Small, Normal, and Far render distances), and then render chunks artificially from there on to a certain distance.

For example:

Say that I start a new world and set the render distance to normal. This would mean that (according to the MC wiki) my computer is processing the world within a radius of 128 blocks around my character. Beyond that, any existing world would be *visually* loaded up to a certain distance, and all non-generated world would remain non-generated until I moved within 128 blocks of it. So, if I'm standing still and I can see a sapling 129 blocks away from me, that sapling will never grow into a tree because it isn't actually loaded, it's only being visually drawn.

...if that makes any sense.

Pros:

• Immensely improved in-game atmosphere
• Taller mountains become somewhat more feasible

Cons:

• It may not be possible
• Even if it is possible it may not be right for TFC
• Even if it is right for TFC it may be very difficult to code

Well, I suppose that's it. I look forward to reading any and all responses; thank you for reading!

TL;DR: Does anyone have an idea of how rendering distance could be increased without significantly impacting performance?

[killster550 401]

you should look up the cubic chunks poll thread, it basically suggests a way lighter way of coding chunk loading, but its incredibly hard to code for compatability with TFC

[transcengopher 349]

most computers simply can't keep up past a certain point (like several thousand blocks in each direction)

You're too generous. It's Java after all, we are happy to have several hundreds. Also, it's Minecraft, which is not really well-coded.

[Blade Avuari 25]

There might be a way to render fake terrain by taking the load-appearence and taking out anything below a specific layer, along with tile-entities, although it might be best to have a different group work on the project.

[ECC 508]

Bioxx was recently trying to do just this(read: within last two weeks, no further word). The chunks would stay rendered at an extended distance but not receive updates. they would be 'false chunks'

there was no continued word however so chances are the project may have been abandoned or simply been talk on 'could it be done?'

[dunkleosteus 2,425]

There probably weren't any threads about increasing render distance because TFC uses a boatload more resources than vanilla (I can get 4 times for fps in vanilla than TFC) and many computers aren't top of the line.

The second reason is that optifine already does this, increasing it up to 3x far distance, and improves rendering and such to work with it. As far as I know, optifine is compatible with TFC, so it would be silly to attempt this.