I have this from somebody else who mentioned it in a thread, unfortunately did not keep his name (nor the thread):
I have a strange problem with the patched version:
I have to turn Grass OFF because I run WinXP. Since, the sea looks very strange:
The solution is there if you only change one setting:
Strangely enough, the game was much better before patch for my system:
Before patch, with Grass=ON
I hope this helps some WinXP users like me....