As a side note, -no3d and -doublebuffer are useful for a lot of people having performance issues with the game regardless of your version of windows.
Another way to fix the issue is to follow the instructions in this handy Steam guide. It seems to have solved the problem for everyone who tried it, myself included. It's basically the same thing, but takes consideration of how the Steam client launches the game, and as such doesn't require creating a special shortcut.
I have both the GOG version and the Steam version, and I bought the CD version of the game twice back in the day because my first copy got ruined. I'm pretty certain that I spent more on Arcanum than anyone else here!
I'm not the only person who spent an embarrassingly large amount of money on this obscure game from 2001! Awesome! When I tell people that I still play it after more than fifteen years, they think I'm absolutely insane. They're probably right...
I'd like to think of it as I'm permanently borrowing them myself. And if playing Arcanum in 2017 makes you insane, it's the good kind of insane.
It's just a shame that the only low-level direct damage spells worth bothering with are Harm and, when surrounded, Jolt. Harm is a character concept on its own. I mean, when was the last time you built a character around Stone Throw?
I remember doing that once during one of my many early game runthroughs but it wasn't fun for me as an RP experience and it was basically just a shitty version of Harm in every way. And that means spell visual effects, sound effect, mana cost efficiency, damage output, etc.
I built a dwarf mage around stone throw, I gave up by the time I got to the Black Mountain Mines and just learnt harm.