If you want a pre-fixed EXE, there’s one here: https://r.je/freelancer/Freelancer.exe it just increases draw distance for tradelanes and other objects which are not configurable in ini files.

I maintain the Linux installer for lutris and the installer has an option to apply increased draw distance.

Along with the following replacements for draw distances:

sed "s/LODranges.*/LODranges = 0, 99999/" "$GAMEDIR/drive_c/Program Files/Microsoft Games/Freelancer/DATA/SHIPS/shiparch.ini" -i sed "s/LODranges.*/LODranges = 0, 99999/" "$GAMEDIR/drive_c/Program Files/Microsoft Games/Freelancer/DATA/SHIPS/rtc_shiparch.ini" -i sed "s/LODranges.*/LODranges = 0, 99999/" "$GAMEDIR/drive_c/Program Files/Microsoft Games/Freelancer/DATA/SOLAR/solararch.ini" -i sed "s/LODranges.*/LODranges = 0, 99999/" "$GAMEDIR/drive_c/Program Files/Microsoft Games/Freelancer/DATA/EQUIPMENT/select_equip.ini" -i sed "s/LODranges.*/LODranges = 0, 99999/" "$GAMEDIR/drive_c/Program Files/Microsoft Games/Freelancer/DATA/EQUIPMENT/weapon_equip.ini" -i sed "s/LODranges.*/LODranges = 0, 99999/" "$GAMEDIR/drive_c/Program Files/Microsoft Games/Freelancer/DATA/EQUIPMENT/misc_equip.ini" -i sed "s/LODranges.*/LODranges = 0, 99999/" "$GAMEDIR/drive_c/Program Files/Microsoft Games/Freelancer/DATA/EQUIPMENT/st_equip.ini" -i

You can read the files and the fine/replaces there. You’ll need a regex find/replace as the original LODRanges value differs depending on what you’re editing.