I just record two short videos for you. In the first video you can clearly see the smoke cloud, but not so in the second one. With compressed textures installed, you have absolutely no clue even if a DD or a British cruiser is sitting inside smoke directly in front of you until the 2-3km mark.
I can't see smoke clouds whenever a DD is using it to hide behind. It makes me impossible to torp them in case if they are still sitting inside the smoke