When I started playing, when I was presented with the login screen there was a rotating station in the background. Likewise, when in the station I got an external camera view blended with the station interface. As of a month or two that changed and I just get a black background. Was that change intentional? (Linux client)

Go into the settings and re-enable "Show station in menu" or whatever the setting is called.

The setting, in wgaf.cfg is:
set rRenderStationInMenu "1"

heh, silly me. Thanks.