I made a little investigation.
I understood that viewing range by default is low and equal to 100. Pressing [R] button (enabling full viewing range) shows far objects only when they are loaded into RAM. Until something is loaded into RAM, pressing [R] button does not help.
You can increase viewing range by pressing [+] button. And indeed more objects will appear. But only until viewing range reaches 150. Increasing more than 150 will not add more objects.
It seems that not so much data loaded to RAM initially (about range 150) but rendered — even less (range is 100 by default).
Since that moment you have to move towards objects in order to render and load them into RAM.
Now I show you some screenshots to make things clear.
All screenshots can be opened in full size.
1) I start the game, load the world, approach the water and look into the distance.
Full viewing range is enabled as you can see
In this screenshot I see ocean ahead, and my crosshair points to one of islands. Viewing range is 150 and nothing will appear if I keep pressing [+] button.
2) Now I teleport myself from the place I stand to that island. What will I see?
I see steep mountain in front of me. No ocean at all.
3) Now I teleport myself back to the place I started "admiring the scenery". What will I see?
TADA! I see that island is not an island at all but the shore of steep mountain. And there is no ocean. And everything is located in a lake.
Now I see all this because not only starting place is loaded into RAM but some distant place as well.
4) Now I exit this world…
… and start it again
5) What now?
The same view like in
point 1. Everything is unloaded from RAM.
And it does not matter whether you explored the world or not, whether you were in the area of your home or not, whether database size of your world is about 500MB or you just started newly generated world. All this does not matter. I will always see this damn ocean around while there is no ocean at all. And vice versa, I will not see near objects while they really exist. And I have to guess "Oh, there must be a sand pit I plan to dig... or maybe it is over there". I suppose that if I find myself in a desert I will see ocean around as a mirage because when something is not loaded it looks blue as sky or water.
I want to conclude that there were no such things in previous
v0.4.14. If I explored some place
IT WILL BE RENDERED if I am in the area of it. From the start of the game, I will immediately see the picture like in
point 3. And I will not have to go/swim/teleport to that mountain in order to see it in the further.
It's a pity MT was made like this.