Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12)

I haven't played since the summer and I've noticed since returning the /who list is sporting numbers as high as 9k players which is higher than the 5k players I used to see. I understand they implement the reduced view distance in regards to mobs, npcs, friendlys, etc..in order to put a handle on the servers lag.

However, I've never seen it so hardcore. I can't see a mob until he's very very close, nodes for gathering don't pop up in mini map until I'm close to them, and worst of all it completely kills immersion seeing other players fade in and fade out all within 15seconds. To be honest, the feeling I get is I'm in my own mini instance bubble everywhere I go.

My complaints come from playing in Durotaur and the Barrens on a new Orc I made. Is this simply the case in a crowded starting zone/lvl 10 zone? Or is this basically everywhere now with the 9k players?

I love this server and what it brings to all of us, I'm not going anywhere but I wanted to express that this one particular aspect really hurts my immersion in the game and I'd like to hear if there's any type of solution being worked on or if it's the new norm? Thanks guys.

There isn't much to do really. Increasing view distance is pretty calculation intensive, and the calculations increase by the square of the radius.

Buying new (expensive) hardware will only make them able to raise the distance by a few yards. The only thing really having an effect would be to cap the servers at - say - 3k. Which if of cause not realistic.

I think it's less of an issue for less crowded zones. My view distance isn't completely awful in zones like burning steppes or winterspring.

according to AMA they pay 500-1000€ for the hole infrastructure.
i know at least 20 ppl who donate 10 bugs or more every month.

projected to 13k player (pvp+pve) there should be enough money to get enough hardware to get this handled.
sadly they didn't answer me what happens to money they don't use for servers

idk if they use virtualization or not, but that would be a great option to get rid of the lag/lack of perfomance