The problem I had with normal masked textures was that the mipmapping very quickly removed fine lines and so the entire texture became transparent, meaning items with thin lines (such as girders and fences) disappear very close in front of the camera. Turning mipmapping off just makes a flickery mess.
With an alpha masked DDS the effect is excellent - smoothly alphaed and it fades nicely as the camera moves away.
With an alpha masked DDS the effect is excellent - smoothly alphaed and it fades nicely as the camera moves away.