ted uses a limiting aproach to alpha blending. When i started writing it i did tonnes of research and experiments. I eventually found out that as long as the camera doesnt overtake the terrains axis and the alpha values balance each other it seem to be a bit more Z stable.

here is a tree with alpha on the leaves, with multitexturing and is stable (& thats on my old geforce 4 and my laptop w/intel 82815)

here is a tree with alpha on the leaves, with multitexturing and is stable (& thats on my old geforce 4 and my laptop w/intel 82815)