Definitely rendered.... you can tell by the depth of vision in the background.
-Off topic here... but....
I think BF2 is a great game, but I have come to notice one thing... the graphics in BF2 are excellent, you just don't notice the small detail because the game engine makes the player feel like the size of an ant. I have come to the reasoning that the maps in bf2 are setup in the wrong way, and instead of making the world feel big, they make the player feel small. If you want to get an idea of what I am talking about... play Americas Army on a BF2-like level (Probably Urban Assault map). In Americas Army, the player him/her self "feels" like they are actually around 5.5-6ft tall, this feeling occurs because the buildings,houses,etc... are all done to scale to make the world/map "feel" visually like real world. If you look at how BF2 is setup however... you soon realize the maps are not natural in the since that their should be towns/citys in the place of fortifications... its as if the maps are setup for one purpose and one purpose only, military outposts. I mean I enjoy playing BF2 maps... but after looking into detail at every building placement, you soon realize BF2 maps/geography are not only unlogical, but unnatural as well. --stop reading here if you didn't like the off topic part because im going into more detail
-- Now take Gulf of Oman for example... Its a nice map yes, but lets look at it in detail.... travel around the world to ANY costal town/city and you will notice a vast majority of the population lives on the waters edge, in Gulf of Oman however.... all you see is fortification after fortification where instead houses should be. As you get further toward the MEC airfield on Gulf of Oman you see a construction site, a hotel, and a village. Now logic should tell you here something is wrong... FIRST there are only around 12 homes total in the map of Gulf of Oman, Thats a very small population... yet they build a hotel and a complex building on this remote hole in the dirt Gulf of Oman? Upon examination of the Village point you begin to wonder.... "What do these people do? sleep up on the hill in sleepingbags?" as there are no homes/houses anywhere near the village except for the 1 by the flag. So lets add this up... we have 3 fortifications (excluding airfield), we have 2 villages (River fort/Village), and we have a unfinished complex building with some other complex buildings around it, and we have a hotel. Added all up you see it just doesn't make since why the US would want to capture this small hole in the ground.
Boy that was long lol. Any way... the point is... I don't really thing you will notice details (Small details that is) period if the game is not to real world scale. But then again.... think to your self... when was the last time you looked at some ones shirt in detail to examine the detail of the fabric... (thought so) so that opens up a new topic... why would you look at the details in game when you avoid them in the real world.