Distant water reflections get clipped

[Foina]

I'm playing with all Fallout 3's graphics settings to the max, but the reflections on the waters of the river appear only when the camera is pitched down (looking below the horizon). As I raise the view and look parallel to the ground, the reflections clip away progressively, to the point they vanish completely.

 

Looks like the doing of a far clipping plane that rotates in place as a billboard would, copying the current camera's orientation.

 

It looks real bad.

Is there a game setting to push said clipping plane much farther so it won't cull the reflections?

 

(I'd upload screenshots of this, but the limit of 250 KB is too restrictive)

 

 

[edit]

Here is a slideshow of 9 screenshots:

http://s1048.photobucket.com/user/ph0cs/slideshow/Fallout3

 

Or click here to examine the screenshots individually (orig size 1024x768):

http://s1048.photobucket.com/user/ph0cs/library/Fallout3?sort=9&page=1

 

Images were taken at maximum graphics settings - fallout.ini was NOT modified.

 

The first image shows what's in front and above me, that is: what should reflect into the water.

But the second image shows that the water has NO reflection at all.

 

Then I slowly pitch the camera down... and the missing reflections showly appear. In these still images it's hard to notice but the scene rendered in the reflection is being subject to slicing, typical of a "clipping plane".

At some point I can look into the distant white building (within the reflection) such that I can even spot what's inside its external walls.

 

How do I fix this?

 

 

[edit 2]

UPDATE:

if I disable the "Depth Fog" advanced water option, from the Fallout3 launcher, the waters look bad but all reflections are there.
But, well, without Depth Fog the waters look real bad.

I also noticed that if I activate 3rd person view (with Depth Fog ON) the reflections appear regardless of camera pitch. However, they'll still show some clipping at the sides of the screen. Guess the 3rd person view only reduces the problem, but it's still there.
Too bad that 3rd person view isn't really viable for play.

Instead... I just noticed that when (in first person view) I bring up the PipBoy, all water reflections _instantly_ appear and look perfect (yes, with Depth Fog ON) the very moment I hit the Tab key. Then the PipBoy comes into view a few moments later, as usual.
Alas, when I close the PipBoy all reflections are gone again.
I can repeat this at will and it's always the same behavior.

Any good guy around that knows how to fix this problem?

Edited July 31, 2013 by Foina