First of all thanks for the info...

My gut feeling had been if a user-allowed programm had decided that the Graphic's ram card had been clogged and "zipped" the graphics data to "insure" framerates. Seems my gut feeling was correct. Omega should NOT be used for EB especially in tandem with older hardware like 9700 (especially 64MB version) is. If what I have read is correct Omega ALWAYS keeps some graphics ram on the card as a buffer for any unforseen events. WHile that works like a charm on FPS, it clearly doensn't here, where the map has to be as good as possible or the game is unplayable.

It has to be said that also the map is a bit blurred, not just the faction flags.

Obvious question. Can both of you either uninstall OMega or play EB without them? If so, please report.

Thanks!