Building - Lag at Altitude?

I'm trying to build some things at an altitude of about 300 meters, but find that when I get up there, my client lags terribly. The client is set not to render objects if they're beyond about 64 meters away, so I see an empty sky and a clear horizon. But the lag continues. If I create and then work within a 10 x 10 x 10 enclosed space, it seems to go away -- so I figure it has something to do with my client trying to preload lots of detail. But it comes back unpredictably -- perhaps when clouds pass through the space occupied by my little floating shelter?

Is there a general "rendering at altitude" problem? Or is it just me?

i get this @ 300m as well. Try 600 and see if it clears up.
If you cant get that high, look for something called flight feathers. Its open source and allows you to go high at insane speeds if you tweak it.

300 M is in the "cloud layer". Even on a clear day, that height is bad for building, as you're in the middle of a layer of invisible prims that SL uses to represent clouds. Sit on a prim and ride it up to 400, and you'll be fine. I usually do my building at 500 or 700 meters, and the lag is pretty low.

Both those suggestions were extremely helpful. I have a pair of green wings in inventory that does the trick for ascents. And I'm slapping my virtual head for forgetting about the clouds -- I have visualization on weather objects turned off, but you can still see the prims circulating through.

Glad to help!

I do almost all my bulding work way up in the sky, where the lag is lower and there is less probability of being interrupted or greifed.

A handy trick for starting a sky-build, especially if over a small parcel:

Rez a prim at each corner of the parcel, and one at the center of each edge. These will be your "boundry markers", so you won't overlap onto someone else's parcel while building in mid-air. Then rez a platform - a big flat prim, to stand on and to rez prims on as you build. Rez one more prim, near the center of the platform, and sit on it. Now, select all those prims, focus the camera on yourself, and edit the altitude of the prims to the altitude you want to work at. *Poof!* You and your working area are at that altitude, with something stable to stand on, and marked boundries for your working area. Happy sky-building!