Disappearing Buildings

I went to Mont St Michel (castle) and when I flew above it, walls etc appeared, and when I flew away, they disappeared...

Why, and can this parameter be set?

Yep.

Pep (He's a stoolie.)

It will be down to your draw distance. This can be set in preferences. I think the default is 64m.

That is determined by your draw distance: the lower the distance, the quicker the world around you will rez but you will not be able to see anything beyond a certain limit. Think of it as the SL equivalent of short sight. The default distance is determined by your graphics card, so the better your card the further you will be able to see. My default setting is 128m; the lowest is 64 and the highest 512.

You can alter it by opening Preferences (Edit> Preferences in the viewer) and selecting Graphics. Check the Custom box and on the right side you will see Draw Distance. You can alter the distance with the slider.

The higher you go, the more you will see, but the world will rez more slowly and you may crash. The higher setting is useful for taking pictures, but other than that I would stick to your default setting.

Welcome to the wonderful wacky world of SL.

BTW, I LOVE your name.

PS Sometimes a lower distance is an advantage. I used to enjoy a view of the peaceful ocean until I got a better computer, increased my draw distance, and discovered the water was covered with ugly builds.

In Emerald Viewer, there's a little control panel in the bottom right corner that has several often-used settings. It has a slider for Draw Distance, and is much more convenient than the regular way.

Thanks to all