Change Prepar3D scenery draw distance in v4, v5 and v6 using the correct terrain and autogen controls, with fixes for pop-in, blur and stutters.
In supported Prepar3D releases, increase Level of Detail Radius to keep detailed terrain and ground textures visible farther away, and increase Autogen Draw Distance to extend autogen buildings and vegetation. These controls do not universally override the LOD or culling distances built into developer-created scenery objects, so some add-ons may still pop in.
Where are the scenery draw distance settings in Prepar3D v4, v5 and v6?
In Prepar3D v4, v5 and v6, both draw-distance controls are on the World page under the graphics options.
| Prepar3D version | Menu path | Exact controls |
|---|---|---|
| Prepar3D v4 | Options > Graphics > World | Level of Detail Radius and Autogen Draw Distance |
| Prepar3D v5 | Options > Graphics > World | Level of Detail Radius and Autogen Draw Distance |
| Prepar3D v6 | Options > Graphics > World | Level of Detail Radius and Autogen Draw Distance |
Prepar3D v1-v3 should be treated separately because their options layout and exposed controls differ by release. The phrase Scenery Draw Distance is useful shorthand, but it is not the name of a separate scenery-distance slider in v4-v6; nor do those releases use a combined control called Autogen and Scenery Draw Distance.
Which Prepar3D setting changes what?
Level of Detail Radius controls terrain detail distance, while Autogen Draw Distance controls the range of generated buildings and vegetation.
| Setting | Use it when | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Level of Detail Radius | Detailed terrain mesh or ground textures become coarse too close to the aircraft. | It does not increase the source imagery's resolution, create missing coverage or extend custom-object culling. |
| Autogen Draw Distance | Autogen trees and buildings appear or disappear too close to the aircraft. | It does not universally control terminals, landmarks or other developer-placed models. |
| Scenery Complexity | Airport structures or placed scenery objects are missing because their complexity threshold is higher than the selected setting. | It does not set terrain radius or guarantee that an object remains visible at long range. |
| Autogen Vegetation Density and Autogen Building Density | You need to change how many autogen trees or buildings are generated inside the visible area. | They do not extend the edge of that area. |
Texture Resolution is another separate control. It determines the maximum terrain-texture detail available, not how far the detailed terrain area extends.
The word “LOD” can cause confusion here. Prepar3D's Level of Detail Radius is a terrain setting, while an individual add-on model can contain its own geometry LOD stages and disappearance rules.
How should I increase scenery draw distance without causing stutters?
Increase only the control responsible for the visible problem, then test the same flight before changing density or complexity.
- Load a repeatable test flight. Use the same aircraft, location, altitude and weather so haze or changing workload does not distort the comparison.
- Open the World settings. In v4-v6, select Options > Graphics > World.
- Adjust Level of Detail Radius for terrain. Raise it one step if detailed ground textures or terrain mesh become coarse too nearby. Lower it if tiles load late, remain blurry or produce pauses as the aircraft moves.
- Adjust Autogen Draw Distance for trees and buildings. Raise it if autogen has an obvious nearby boundary. Lower it when dense cities cause poor frame pacing or repeated stutters.
- Apply the setting and let scenery reload. These two v4-v6 controls can normally be changed while the simulator is running and do not require a full restart. Follow any restart prompt shown by a different release.
- Tune object quantity separately. Reduce autogen density when there are simply too many trees or buildings. Reduce Scenery Complexity when detailed airports or placed objects are the main burden.
A mistake we see constantly is maximising terrain radius, autogen distance, both density controls and scenery complexity together. That hides the source of the slowdown. A larger radius also covers a rapidly increasing area, so its performance cost can rise much faster than the visible improvement.
- Orthophoto and low-level terrain flying: favour Level of Detail Radius, but back it down if imagery sharpens only after you pass over it.
- Low-level city flying: prioritise Autogen Draw Distance, then use density and object shadows to control the load.
- Airliner operations: use a moderate autogen range and reserve performance for airports, weather, traffic and aircraft systems.
- Prepar3D v4 stutters over built-up areas: reduce autogen distance or density first, then work through our v4 stutter diagnosis and tuning steps.
Why does scenery still pop in or remain missing?
If a higher draw-distance setting does not change the symptom, the cause is probably outside that slider's control.
- Add-on model LOD or culling: A terminal, landmark or group of custom objects disappears at the same point while surrounding terrain and autogen remain visible. The model's developer-defined LOD or culling distance is the likely limit; Prepar3D's terrain and autogen sliders cannot reliably override it.
- Inactive or incorrectly installed scenery: An entire airport or scenery package is absent at every distance, often leaving default scenery in its place. Verify that the package is installed and enabled using the Prepar3D scenery installation and activation procedure.
- Missing autogen rather than short range: Large areas have no buildings or trees even nearby. Raising Autogen Draw Distance cannot restore excluded, disabled or absent autogen; use our checks for missing Prepar3D buildings and vegetation.
- Weather visibility: Terrain and objects fade together into haze or a uniform visibility boundary. Temporarily test with clear weather or greater visibility; this is an atmospheric limit, not scenery culling.
- Texture-loader limits: Terrain geometry is present, but ground textures stay soft, sharpen in rings or load only after the aircraft approaches. Reduce Level of Detail Radius and avoid excessive texture settings; Prepar3D v5 users can also follow our scenery chunk-loading and pop-in troubleshooting.
Can I change the draw distance in Prepar3D.cfg?
Use the graphics interface unless you are diagnosing a setting that will not save, because values outside the supported UI range can be clamped, ignored or cause severe loading problems.
In Prepar3D v4-v6, the terrain control is stored as LOD_RADIUS in the [TERRAIN] section of the version-specific Prepar3D.cfg. The supported interface range is 2.0 to 6.5; setting a larger value manually is unsupported and may be replaced the next time the graphics settings are saved.
Close Prepar3D before editing its configuration file because the simulator writes settings when it exits and can overwrite a live edit. Make a backup first. If an ordinary UI change keeps reverting, check that the correct version's configuration file is not read-only and that a profile or tuning utility is not rewriting it.