Windows 10 Pro 22H2, 13600k, gtx 1070

Opens two cataclysm.exe processes, a few seconds later they both end. Nothing happens.

Manually setting the resolution in nglide_config.exe has no effect.

Same here

It's a bit weird the default GOG setup seems to rely on ancient 3DFX Glide for graphics, for which the hardware has been gone so long that it has needed an emulator for nigh on a decade and a half. The game seems to run just fine with D3D or OpenGL graphics. With D3D there is a lot of lag in the build menu for me, but with OpenGL everything seems just peachy at 1600x1200.

Now, what really was a merry goose chase is how to get into OpenGL graphics mode, since all I had was a little black square at the top left of my screen after the 3DFX logo. The key is starting the game in software rendering mode (so without any hardware graphics support), which can be done by creating a shortcut to cataclysm.exe, opening its properties and adding the /sw switch to the end of the target field. This will allow the game to launch so you can get into the menu. In the menu you can set up the 3D graphics mode to OpenGL and set it to your preferred resolution. Then exit the game and start it with the default exe (not through the shortcut you created, nor GOG I think). Haven't had any problems like this with it so far up to mission 4.

I've been toying around with some settings in the process, so you also might need to set compatibility mode to Windows XP (Service Pack 2) like I did at some point. That'll cause the game to run as administrator somehow, I couldn't care less myself, but you'll know you can expect the elevation popup then. I've also tried messing with the registry settings to get a widescreen resolution going (1920x1080) and while that seems to work rendering-wise, it screwed up the mouse cursor & interaction for me, ymmv.

Good luck!

Go into "/homeworld emergence/3dfx/WinNT/"
Delete "opengl32.dll"
Run "nglide_config.exe" in main folder
Run game.

This solution worked for me

This is what worked for me:

I added the following commands to the game shortcut "/noswddraw /window /noborder"
This makes the game launch in windowed mode, with no border.
The above worked to start the game up.


Then, in the in-game options in the tiny window, I went to "video" options, changed renderer to (D3D),
and switched to the highest resolution possible (1600x1200 32bit). Then I alt tabbed the game, and changed my
Windows resolution to match the resolution, so now I can play the game a 1600x1200 full screen.
I used different settings and it changed to full screen. I used GL 3dfx opengl 1024 x 768

Don't forget to change the file from GoG Homeworld exe in the Galaxy cliënt and add /noswddraw /window /noborder

After a brief small box it opens up to full screen with the 3dfx splash and then the menu is in fullscreen for me.

There's quite a few switches you can tack onto the end of the command line that may help:
(- and / are interchangable)

SYSTEM STUFF
/heap [n] - sets size of global memory heap to [n], where [n] is the amount of memory in MB
/prepath [path] - sets path to search for game's files
/CDpath [drive] - sets path to CD-ROM in case of ambiguity ("Technically" doesn't need to be a CD drive...)

PROCESSOR STUFF
/enableSSE - allow use of SSE if support is detected
/forceSSE - force usage of SSE, even if determined to be unavailable
/enable3DNow - allow use of 3DNow! if support is detected

SOUND STUFF
/dsound - forces mixer to write to DirectSound driver, even if driver reports "Not Certified"
/dsoundCoop - switches to co-operative mode of DirectSound (if supported), to allow sharing with other applications
/waveout - forces game to use the WaveOut mixer, even if a DirectSound supported device is available
/reverseStereo - swaps the left and right audio channels

DETAIL STUFF
/rasterSkip - enable interlaced display with software renderer; may be too visually distracting to use
/noBG - disable display of galaxy backgrounds
/noFilter - disable bi-linear filtering of textures
/noSmooth - do not use polygon smoothing
/stipple - enable Stipple Alpha with software renderer
/noShowDamage - disables showing ship damage effects

VIDEO STUFF
/safeGL - don't use (possibly buggy) optimized features of OpenGL for rendering
/triple - use when frontend menus are flickering madly
/nodrawpixels - use when background images don't appear while loading
/noswddraw - don't use DirectDraw for the software renderer
/noglddraw - don't use DirectDraw to setup OpenGL renderers
/sw - reset rendering system to defaults at startup
/noFastFE - disable fast front-end rendering
/fullscreen - display fullscreen with software renderer (default)
/window - display in a window
/noBorder - no border on window
/640 - run at 640x480 resolution (default)
/800 - run at 800x600 resolution
/1024 - run at 1024x768 resolution
/1280 - run at 1280x1024 resolution
/1600 - run at 1600x1200 resolution
/device [dev] - select an rGL device by name, e.g. sw, fx, d3d
/nohint - disable usage of OpenGL perspective correction hints

TEXTURE STUFF
/nopal - disable paletted texture support

ADDITIONAL STUFF
/disableavi - skips opening intro movies
/pilotview - allows you to hit the Q key to view Homeworld from a Pilot's Eye View (only in the version 1.04 and higher patches). Cataclysm has this option built-in, so you don't need to use this switch


The exact command line I'm using is:
cataclysm.exe -triple -enable3DNow -heap 1073741824 -enableSSE -disableAVI
And this seems to work well for me.

Yep worked for me too. Thanks

Also did the widescreen support change from here [url=https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Homeworld:_Cataclysm#Widescreen_resolution]https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Homeworld:_Cataclysm#Widescreen_resolution[/url] and renamed the game to what it should be here [url=https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Homeworld:_Cataclysm#Restore_original_title_.28GOG.com_release.29]https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Homeworld:_Cataclysm#Restore_original_title_.28GOG.com_release.29[/url]

Thanks this and then switching the renderer to OpenGL fixed the GOG release for me.