Glad I'm not the only one with framerate hits in the external views. Kind of the same deal here, I get smooth frames through UZO or binos. But from the sail bridge or through either periscope the sim becomes the "slideshow". Free view does fine as long as I keep the sky out of view.
It has a lot to do with the video electronics in my laptop. It has the video RAM to run the sim, but I think the GPU is probably not up to spec for the atmospheric environment in SH3.
Anyway, I find this thread of great interest because I've also wondered if there were a way to lower the human-visible rendering distance - particularly without affecting what crews are able to see.
I'm trying to find that environment mod I looked at yesterday... it had some information in the README with regards to adjusting visible distance and how far the crew can see. I think it was the MEP, but not sure.
EDIT: Would it hurt any to try a PM to the authors of the environment mods, like OLC and the M.E.P?