Omikron: Nomad Soul - graphics glitching

I found a forum topic regarding my same issue--the person took the time to capture pictures and video:

Hi!

I have major graphical glitches while playing Omikron the Nomad Soul on my new rig: Radeon HD3850, Pentium Dual Core 2160, 2GB DDR2, XP SP3.

The problem is shown here:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b69/Zebius/Omikron.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b69/Zebius/Omikronscreen2.jpg
video:http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b69/Zebius/?action=view¤t=Omikron-1.flv

It looks that the problem is driver related - plenty blue or black squares on the screen all the time (sometimes covering the whole screen) making the game unplayable. I tried different resolutions both desktop and in game options, tried changing CCC options - AA, AF and so on with
no improvement (turning anti-aliasing on make the things even worse 'cause almost everything is black or blue). Running in 98/ME compatibility mode didn't change anything.
A hint: in order to play this game on XP you need a no-cd crack, without it the game will not even start due to copy protection not compatible with this system.

In software mode this game is unplayable due to huge slowdowns especially with scenes containing light effects (though there are no graphical errors), the only resolution supported in this mode is 640x480x16 and the graphics looks just awful. So this is no go.
With hardware acceleration framerate is very good, but those checkboard squares cover almost everything. In the very first moment after loading the game the 3D scene is rendered correctly but if I start to move or turn around, the artifacts appear and do not dissapear (something like problem with clearing memory cache?).
What is interested even the intro movies which are not 3D scenes look like checkboard and they are total mess. Maybe the fact that the game was designed to work in 16-bit only (and supports DirectX 6.1) has some influence here.

I tested Catalyst 8.4, 8.5, 8.6 with this game and situation is the same. Other games I played so far on my HD3850 work very well both new and old ones (maybe some small glitches which are neglible).

Anyone still playing Omikron? Or maybe some hints on what might be the reason of these artifacts?

EDIT: from time to time it also crashes with messages:
DDERR_SCENE_NOT_IN_SCENE
or
DDERR_SCENE_END_FAILED
(nothing found on google). :(Zebius

My post is at the bottom:

I have the same issue--my vid card is the Radeon HD2600 pro. I've messed around with ATI Tray Tools and such to no avail. Offtopic: Managed to screw up my display somehow while trying different compatibility options in the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit--My picture had stopped refreshing or something, distorting the monitor. I had to reinstall my display drivers.

Anyways, I'd also appreciate any help in getting this game to work correctly.

This Vogons forum seems to get little traffic. Anyone have any idea how to remedy this issue?

It's not a dying video card. I've tried changing the resolution; there are no particle/fog/lighting effect options.

The issue sort of reminds me of graphics distortion I had during spell effects in Planescape: Torment, and also some issues I had during certain parts of Grim Fandango (on this machine). Disabling (or emulating) DirectDraw fixed the spell effect glitching in Planescape... I had since stopped playing Grim Fandango so I don't know how that would have fared. It's likely a different problem in this game (who knows?) Anyways, emulating DirectDraw did nothing.

And: Oh Goodie! It looks like it was the game itself that took such pleasure in screwing up my display (areas I move my mouse over start "wriggling") Hopefully this time I won't have to remove/reinstall my drivers... Perhaps this game just isn't worth it. (I don't know how many times I've expended great effort in getting a game to run perfectly only to discover it wasn't any fun)

It was reported XP had issues with it because of the copy protection, but for whatever reason Vista doesn't have that problem (have the cd in the drive) and the game starts and plays just like it should. I have a desktop with XP and a GeForce 6800gt, so I might install it on that and give that a try, but I never use my desktop and would need to do some extensive updates before I'd start gaming on it again.

Just wish I could get it up and runnign on my darn laptop!

I have this same problem. Found it in my collection after having it lost, installed it today

Same blue squares and black squares all around.

I remember this worked like presto on my XP computer. Im on a Vista computer atm, no problems booting or anything.

Tryed changing resolution, running in different modes.., etc. Im not sure if a re-install would help. Might just have to see if it would do the same thing at my computer back at home instead of here at my dorm.

I have this same problem. Found it in my collection after having it lost, installed it today

Same blue squares and black squares all around.

I remember this worked like presto on my XP computer. Im on a Vista computer atm, no problems booting or anything.

Tryed changing resolution, running in different modes.., etc. Im not sure if a re-install would help. Might just have to see if it would do the same thing at my computer back at home instead of here at my dorm.

A_FITZ

I'm actually trying to get this game to work on Vista as well. The blue squares are killing me.

Any luck with this?

I'm actually trying to get this game to work on Vista as well. The blue squares are killing me.

StrawberryHill