In the Total Annihilation: Kingdoms install folder there is a file called "ChooseRenderer.exe" which allows you to choose hardware or software rendering for the game.

The GOG version of the game seems to default to software rendering, but the hardware rendering mode give you much better quality fog and special effects in the game - at the cost of the cutscenes showing up completely black (the voice over still plays though) and the animations on the main menu not working.

Does anyone know of a fix for this issue? (apart from going back to software rendering mode?)

I think you need to check this post.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/total_anihilation/kingdoms_problem

Ah, thanks. I'd looked through the forum before but must have missed that thread.

New issues:

Using Glide as the renderer seems to have restricted the available resolutions to 640x480, 1024x768, 1280x1024, and 1600x1200.

If I change the registry values for the resolution to 1680x1050 (my native resolution), the game resets it all the way down to 640x480. Using the nGlide configuration tool to set 1680x1050 as the resolution just stretches the game to fullscreen without using any scaling filters - so it just looks extremely pixelated / blocky (even if I set the game to run at 1600x1200).

The mouse cursor also seems to be somewhat laggy, and I can't fix that with the 'Hardware Cursor' option as it is also disabled.

Any ideas?

EDIT: I think it might be possible to fix the problems with the cutscenes in Direct3D mode by updating the binkw32.dll file in the install directory - I've tried copying one from a more recent game and it displays a corrupted frame from the logo video then crashes.
All the cutscene files work perfectly outside the game viewed with the Bink Video Player.

EDIT 2: Using the binkw32.dll from Imperium Galactica 2 allowed the 'logo' video to play, though it was quite badly corrupted and the game crashed once it reached the main menu.

Thanks for sharing that link.
The link succeeds if changed to:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110401113403/www.gog.com/en/forum/total_anihilation/kingdoms_problem

This post gave me a tip on posting links to archive.org from the gog forum.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_community_giveaway_gog_edition_redux/post7644

EDIT: That link fails at going to the proper page and post.
So...
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_community_giveaway_gog_edition_redux/page152
user: B1tF1ghter
Posted April 06, 2021

Were you ever able to make TAKingdoms movies work with Direct3D?
I am still struggling in almost year 2022 :(

Yes, I re-installed the game recently and ended up using DXWnd.

There is a guide for setting it up with TA:K here.

Performance can be a bit rough when many moving units are on-screen, but otherwise, the game works well.

Fix all your tak issue with DxWnd:
https://kingdoms.catsboard.com/t1522-how-to-use-dxwnd?highlight=dxwnd