I’m having working on a game that requires large open spaces (camera .far value over 70000 units). There are two things I want to do to optimize performance and quality.

1. I want to draw shadows only to a certain distance from the camera

2. Have some kind of level of detail system to load lower polygon count meshes as objects get further away from the camera.

Is Away3D capable of such things, or do I have to code them myself?

1. You can use nearShadowMapMethod
Its handy for things like a car/characters shadow as you follow it.
Its been requested for other shadows.

2 No have to do your own.