[psycho turkey]

Thx again lowfighter. Below are the differences between your file (left) and mine (right). I plan on experimenting some tonight and tomorrow to see which one (s) actually caused the problem. There were a few other differences in the sounds section but I'm thinking they have no impact on this issue.

[game]
viewSet=55 viewSet=33
Intro=0 Intro=1
NoSubTitles=1 NoSubTitles=0
TypeClouds=1 NO LISTING

[HookView Config]
MaxLen=30000.0 MaxLen=3000.0
Speed=1.5 Speed=6

[Render_OpenGL]
TexCompress=2 TexCompress=0
TexFlags.UseDither=0 TexFlags.UseDither=1
TexFlags.PolygonStipple=0 TexFlags.PolygonStipple=1
TexFlags.TexEnvCombine4NV=0 TexFlags.TexEnvCombine4NV=1
TexFlags.DepthClampNV=0 TexFlags.DepthClampNV=1
TexFlags.TextureShaderNV=0 TexFlags.TextureShaderNV=1

HardwareShaders=1 HardwareShaders=0

Forest=3 Forest=2
VideoSetupId=17 VideoSetupId=3
Effects=0 Effects=1
ForceShaders1x=1 ForceShaders1x=0