Raydell: Great guide, thank you very much for it!
The only very minor issue I have is that the campaign progress bar (at the bottom of the planet selection screen), which is supposed to fill up with icons of planets, remains empty (i.e. planet icons never appear in the slots) regardless of progress. It works properly in software mode, but apart from that, the D3D mode looks a lot better of course, so cheers!
(Win7 64-bit, HD 6870, for the record)
I have this same exact issue, the progress bar with the planets is bugged in Direct3D, works fine in software rendering mode. Is there any way to fix that?
Edit:
I recall when I had this game more than 2 decades ago the Direct3D solar system did display the planets but not the circle highlighting the currently selected planet. In software it is the same as I remembered it.
Any clues welcome! these glitches piss me off!