It's how they designed their graphics and problems with poor coding overall that's giving the issues. I've played off and on for a few days just to try it out, and things are not working how they should. I'll see the far part of a fence several seconds before the near part, trees are random in how and when they decide to appear, mobs seem to skip "frames" in their animations past a certain distance. I've got a pretty robust machine, too, so I shouldn't be seeing these problems. I've even had to turn my settings down from medium to low, which is sad. I know that FFXI had similar amounts of detail, and an older machine of mine ran that flawlessly on the highest settings.
I think that in a few months when they finally finish the game these things will smooth out, but until then it's kinda sad that we have to manually tweak a paid beta, heh.
In the meantime, Control+Alt+Delete features the Vanguard crafting system in their comic today. I actually found the crafting system unique and enjoyable, but the comic definitely presents a fair representation of when things go bad, heh:
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20070214
