Win 7 x64 SP1 fully patched.

You run the patch from vogons.org and point it to Tie95.exe. Then you drop the ati dll file(s) into the game directory.

For NVIDIA users:

With the 344.48 drivers I was able to get 3D acceleration working fine using the hex edit (the method use in gerwin's patch in OP). Sadly though, with the latest 347.25 drivers, it no longer works; there are now black menus and no cockpit graphics.

So something changed in between those two driver releases that broke it. I'm not sure which files are responsible though. Has anybody made any headway figuring out the specific DLLs that need to be replaced for NVIDIA drivers?

As we all know, Nvidia cards have a severe problem trying to run Tie Fighter and X-wing with 3D acceleration. Game keeps crashing.

While trying to run MechWarrior 3, I seem to have found a solution for them. Game now runs without locking up my computer or CTD.

Go to your Nvidia Control Panel

-Select 'Manage 3D settings'
-Select Tie95.exe or X-wing95.exe as a program to customize
-Change following values from the list:
- Anisotropic filtering to off
- Vertical sync to on
- Triple buffering to on

That's it! You're done. If you've enabled 3D acceleration as per instructions on this thread, the game should now work without crashing on your Nvidia card. I haven't tried this on X-wing yet, but there is no reason for it not to work since it's the same engine.

I also changed Power management option to Prefer maximum performance because the game was giving me BSOD and kernel-power event 41 with 3D acceleration enabled. But this is not really necessary now that the game works.

Let me know how it goes if you try this.
My drivers are 344.75

Rivian, try my fix with Nvidia Control Panel. I've just been playing a few missions and everything works flawlessly.

No luck, although as I mentioned I'm using the new 347.25 drivers. Previously, I was using 344.48 drivers and 3D worked without a hitch. Something changed between the 344 and 347 releases that broke 3D mode. I might have to roll back I guess. It would be so nice to know what changed though.

If I may ask, what is the difference between the 3D accelerated version and the non-3D accelerated one? Couldn't find comparisons on the net.

Primarily ship models looking better. Textures improved, more details, especially on smaller ships, but bigger ones also benefit. No jagged edges. Some form of AA I suspect. Just don't expect miracles. This is the game from 1998 after all. Ships seem more responsive as well.

Hello,

3D works now fine for me with the patch. But now I have severe problems in the menus like wrong colors and flickering. I´m using a GTX 680 with the newest drivers.

Could you try reverting to older drivers? Perhaps 344.xx series. People have complained about 347.xx series of drivers messing up the game.

Try mudlord's directdraw patch.

I tried to download this patch but it seems to have a virus in it (from several sources).

I even tried the other solution: Creating a batch file to kill the win-explorer. This didn´t work.

I think that's just a false positive. I uploaded the file to metascan and only 6 out of 43 antivirus tools found it a threat saying it's a hack tool but not a virus.

Anyway you can do what the patch does manually:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/927140-win7-fixing-old-256-color-games-with-distorted-palettes/#entry593322376

It's not a virus, it's supposed to be modifying your file.

The DirectX wrapper dgVoodoo now supports Tie Fighter 98 so if you still have issues in hardware or software mode give it a try.
http://dege.freeweb.hu/

The only problem is that XWA Hackers Fixedclear patch (included with the GoG version) is incompatible with dgVoodoo so you have to remove it first (credit goes to Darklord42 for finding this out). To do so download XWA Hacker http://sourceforge.net/projects/xwahacker/files/xwahacker-2.5.zip/download , copy xwahacker.exe and tie95nofixedclear.bat to the game directory and run tie95nofixedclear.bat.