Using 3D Analyzer
You can emulate the Hardware Limitation Caps to increase the number of passes that are done on the 3d models. Before using 3D Analyzer I had basically white ships with a blue line. Very boring. This is due to my video card limitations. However after using 3D Analyzer, I was able to enjoy the 3D ships in all its glory. I was worrying about a performance hit, but for my work computer with a low end card, I saw no difference!

I hope this helps out some laptop and low end video card users. The options I enabled were under:
Hardware Limits (cap bits)
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emulate HW TnL caps
emulate pixel shader caps
emulate bump map caps
emulate max. sim. textures.

You can mess around and optimize it even more if you want.

The only side effect I noticed was the initial Stardock Splash animation does not display even though you can hear it. Just click on the blackness and it will take you to menu.

Remember to select the galciv2.exe over the launcher within 3d analyzer.

After you have all you settings complete, create a batch file at the bottom and launch the game using that.