I've encountered a rather strange bug. For some reason, no matter what my Object LOD setting is, I cannot see anything off in the distance when I'm inside D.C. (Though I can see stuff in the distance when I'm in the wasteland, just not inside D.C itself) It's like I'm surrounded by a skybox colored impenetrable fog. Ex. I can't see the Washington monument from the museum metro.

nearly forgot the load order:

[X] Fallout3.esm
[X] FakePatch_v1.5.0.22c.ESM
[X] BrokenSteel.esm
[X] Anchorage.esm
[X] ThePitt.esm
[X] PointLookout.esm
[X] FNNCQ.esm
[X] FNNCQ_DavidsLab.esm
[X] Zeta.esm
[X] Butcher Petes Meat.esp
[ ] PowerArmorImproved.esp
[X] Impervious Power Armour.esm
[X] Powered Power Armor.esp
[X] PlasmaRifleAwesomefied.esp
[ ] RemapWaterType.esp
[X] MarkB50K_Wasteland_Patrols.esp
[X] Armored Robes.esp
[X] Echo_UseBothGloves.esp
[X] FairfaxApartment.esp
[X] WeaponModKits.esp
[X] PlasmaRifleAwesomefiedWMK.esp

I had/have that, I haven't entirely fixed it but I can see a little bit further, just not all the way. I replaced my power supply and when I went to load the game it wanted to re-set up my video settings again, so it created a fresh new Fallout.ini file. Maybe I had something edited in there originally :shrug: Surely it wasn't that, though.

The last mod I installed before the view distance thing happened was MarkB50K Wasteland Patrols. But it can't be that, either. I don't know.
I haven't entirely fixed mine. I can see a little further but even with game settings (Object LOD, and those other similar ones) set to maximum it has hardly any effect, which is why I think it may be something in the Fallout.ini or FalloutPrefs file.

Someone smarter should come along soon

I hope so. and as for the ini file, I haven't played around with that or falloutprefs.

I had the same problem after adding the MarkB50K_Wasteland_Patrols.esp . I fixed it by creating a merged patch with FO3edit.

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=637

That didn't work. But I did learn that uninstalling Wasteland patrols fixes the problem. So I'll be doing that until I get a better solution.

Most people who use overhauls have a merged patch, because it's essential. I do mine in GaryBash so it's a bashed patch, but it still does the same thing. A merged or bashed patch isn't a cure-all, and as with the OP it didn't help. I haven't had the mod installed for a while now, but I still can't see far into the distance like I used to be able to. It has improved but not completely.
I'd expect that sort of weirdness from a weather mod, not Wasteland Patrols :shrug:

It reminds me of an Oblivion mod that kept affecting my game long after it was uninstalled and deleted. Hopefully the same isn't happening here. The way around that problem was to edit the mod to fix the problem (or, rather reset that particular item to vanilla values) then uninstall the mod. It was a weird one.

Oh yesh, Oblivion. I once had a bug that caused crashes whenever I casted spells.

Anyway, For me, I managed to fix the view problem by just turning off wasteland patrols. Maybe some crap got left on your save game? do you notice any difference if you start a completely new game?

I would also examine the contents of the download file from Nexus, and see if there are any dos scripts in it that would be required to modify any of your .ini's, or perhaps a direct over-write of your ini's with theirs (if they accidentally included the ini in the zip file). If there are no .ini files in the Nexus zip, and no scripts that get run to change the ini files, then it can't be related to an ini file change. That will at least tell you whether your dealing with something that changed your ini files to cause this problem, or if it is in fact something in the Data\ Tree or a game setting changed in the actual ESP that caused the problem.

Once that is known, you can examine the scripts they included in a word processor to see what changes it makes to the ini files. Or in the latter case, you can examine the files it adds/over-writes in the Data\ tree to see what the mod is changing at the file level and using Fo3Edit as you have to check the ESP for setting changes. It has to be there, somewhere!

Miax

I only recently started a new character, for other mod-testing purposes, but still can't see all the way into the distance.

The problem in Oblivion was that a mod changed the price of the welkynd stones to be worthless (as they were used in the mod for something). After uninstalling the mod my stones were still valued at zero. I had to reinstall the mod, open the CS and edit the value back to 50 again, save, exit, uninstall and play. It was back to normal then. At the time someone else told me to do that. I wouldn't have thought of it myself :laugh:

As well as keeping backups of my saves I occasionally backup the Fallout.ini file, so will find an old one and see if there's anything different than the one I use now. My game doesn't lag as much, that's a plus! If I can't figure it out I'll just reinstall Less View Distance, or pretend I have

Yes quite a valid point MystykStar, the settings will improve the performance on mid-range video cards for sure.

Your also probably correct in assuming that a previous mod changed a game-setting somewhere/somehow that is affecting the LOD detail, be it scripted-change of an INI or game-setting change in Fo3. Having started a new character though as you have, it is less-likely to be a game setting unless that setting got moved into your merged-patch? It is also possible that a config file or some file(s) that get over-written by the mod in question somehow change LOD detail (though I am not aware of how that could happen).

Luck with finding it!

Miax

<_< I'd heard at one time that having deactivated esps in the load order the game would still sorta load them or make note of them, or acknowledge them in some way. Perhaps that was what was happening in my case.
I had deactivated Wasteland Patrols a while ago, it wasn't part of my bashed patch anymore (GaryBash liked to merge that one in for whatever reason), yet I still couldn't see into the distance. Just before playing tonight I deactivated the fomod and things are now back to normal. Yay!

Just an observation, not a gripe. At one stage I had one of those weather mods - Dynamic Weather, I think - but don't use it anymore. I'm not sure if Fellout has new features or if the effects of Dynamic Weather are still hanging around but I get distant dirty grey fog http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6259/fog1.jpg and http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/8902/fog2.jpg mostly just in the DC ruins. It's not all the time. This play through tonight the ruins are clear and I can see for miles
Maybe I originally allowed a weather mod to override existing files and when the fomod was deactivated the overridden files stayed behind, as usually happens :shrug:

Oh well. The original problem has been fixed for both of us, so that's all that matters for now

Actually once you de-activate a mod from the load-order, it is utterly gone from the game except in two facets:

1. The files in the data\ sub-tree are still there, and if the mod in question over-wrote any of the vanilla files, then the effects of that file can still be felt. This is why de-activating the Fomod fixed it for you - it removed the changes made to the vanilla files in the data\ tree.

2. The data in the players save file will stay in place even without the ESP, though the game wont realize that a mod changed something about your characters stats or settings. If a mod changed settings in your player file (such as changing SPECIALs), then those stay even after the mod is gone.

The fog will be the same effect as #1, there are vanilla files in data\ that were over-written by Dynamic Weather. Problem in that case is there was no FOMOD - you had to over-write the vanilla fog files with theirs, and now there will be no way to undo it without re-installing the Fo3 files for the fog.

Cheers!

Miax