I think render distance is pointless. Rather, why not just render anything that is in your current viewing direction plus a little outside that so that when you turn it's already there? Also, will performance really drop that badly if a few more objects were rendered? Because if it does, render distance is a lame solution to making a game perform better.

It's extremely annoying when I'm in my railgun tank and I'm sniping an installation or another tank and they suddenly disappear. It's the dumbest reason for letting an enemy tank get away. Also, you can't track their movement so now suddenly whoever you were sniping from an unknown to them location starts hitting you with their railgun and you've no idea where it's coming from because they magically appeared on the other side of the map.

Edit: I want to add that you can have enemy installations sniping you from their base and you have no idea where it's coming from. I was in my railgun Falchion near my ground spawn and every time I got out of cover, a railgun from their ground spawn would hit me. And it never rendered for me. Funny thing was, the CRU and supply depot rendered for me, but not what was shooting me