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Re: Links2003 won’t start following screen resolution problems

Posted: May 16th, 2020, 5:40 pm
by Andy
gator wrote: May 16th, 2020, 3:58 pm

@Andy,

Since this comes up so often, maybe the pertinent portions of this post can be made into a sticky with appropriate credit given to the original poster(s).
I've created a new sticky with this info in the 'Playing Links' section.

https://linkscorner.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=478

Re: Links2003 won’t start following screen resolution problems

Posted: May 18th, 2020, 1:43 pm
by nigelpenn
Thank you to everyone who responded to my thread. Adelaide, pmgolf-pete, Still Linksing, Gator and Andy. I am so grateful that you tried to help an old man get back to playing his favourite golf game, which wasn’t to be. Many years ago, I beta tested the old EA Sports Tiger Woods game for the PC. Right up until the last two pc games of 8 and then 12. Microsoft even distroyed the console version on the Xbox One as it is one of the few games that is still not compatible.

Thanks to Adelade, I tried Andy’s method using dgVoodoo2, but something went wrong and I had to uninstall Links as it was conflicting with something else. I have now managed to get everything back ok again, so reinstalled Links. Went through the dgVoodoo2 again but when I click on dgvoodooCpl.exe to configure the wrapper. The screen goes blank and dgvoodooCpl.exe application disappears. I keep unzipping the file and repeating the process and the same thing keeps happening. Is my firewall blocking the installation? I wonder if it has a virus? I even tried the updated version but that application disappeared as well!!!

As for amending the registry. Your instructions seem clear enough, but I have just bought a new computer and I really am scared if I do something wrong and then find I cannot use my new computer anymore. I am floundering in the dark with it all.

I have another Microsoft game, MSTS, which doesn’t work on Windows 10 too and cannot understand why Microsoft’s own Windows 10, blocks their own games from working. I have complained to Microsoft but it fell on deaf ears as I didn’t receive a reply to any of my emails

I am very grateful to you all, for helping with this problem, but I would rather forgo playing Links 2003 in favour of being able to continue to use my computer for other things until a simple solution is found.

Re: Links2003 won’t start following screen resolution problems

Posted: May 19th, 2020, 12:44 am
by Still Linksing
nigelpenn wrote: May 18th, 2020, 1:43 pmI am very grateful to you all, for helping with this problem, but I would rather forgo playing Links 2003 in favour of being able to continue to use my computer for other things until a simple solution is found.
The registry edit is the only solution. It is not difficult. Read my instructions below. I made them very clear. Just slowly follow each step. You will find it is quite easy and you won't harm your PC:

You should have a magnifying glass icon bottom left of screen on your desktop. This is the search icon.
Click it and then type regedit in the search area.
You will now see Registry Editor appear on the left. Click it.
This opens the registry editor.
In the left window pane of the editor, click the little arrow next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER
As you did in the last step, now scroll down and find Software and click the arrow next to it.
Then scroll and click the Microsoft arrow
Then Microsoft Games
Then Links 2003
Then Display Settings
Now click on the Display Settings text itself

At this point you have done nothing that will change anything on your system.

In the right Window pane you will see you have Mode
Double click on this.
A window will open and you will see a number under Value data:
Note what it is and then change this value to 14 and click OK to exit the window.

At this point you have now changed your Links 2003 resolution and it should work.
If for any reason it does not, you can follow the same steps and change the value back to what it originally was.
Your PC will then be completely unchanged from when you began. Everything will be back as it was before you started.

Re: Links2003 won’t start following screen resolution problems

Posted: May 19th, 2020, 5:51 am
by nigelpenn
Still Linksing, thank you so much for taking the trouble to go to the length of making those instructions so easy to follow.

I am pleased to report that with you help I can now open the game. This is brilliant to see the lovely Links interface again. I am truly grateful to you and to everyone on here who tried to help me. Still Linksing you have made an old man very happy. Thank you so much.

Some final questions please. Do I need to change the Graphics settings under Options. At the moment they are set 1024x768x16bit Full Screen? Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 is the only option, it doesn’t show my NVidia graphics card.
Also do I enable Sky and what choice do you recommend and also Dynamic Camera enabled is unticked showing smart view. Should this be changed. I do not want to play around with the settings until you advise for fear of losing what I now have, to play Links 2003 again.

Thank you so much again for your brilliant help

Re: Links2003 won’t start following screen resolution problems

Posted: May 19th, 2020, 9:04 am
by Stephen Sullivan
Glad you managed to get playing again.

As a tournament runner at LSPN, I've found this registry edit really useful. It means I can go in and set Links to run in a window at a lesser resolution so I can see my open Word document to input my pin choices :thumbup:

Re: Links2003 won’t start following screen resolution problems

Posted: May 19th, 2020, 10:37 am
by Still Linksing
nigelpenn wrote: May 19th, 2020, 5:51 amSome final questions please. Do I need to change the Graphics settings under Options. At the moment they are set 1024x768x16bit Full Screen? Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 is the only option, it doesn’t show my NVidia graphics card.
No. Never change the graphics settings in the game itself. This is the part of Links that doesn't work properly with modern monitors because the game was never designed for them. This is why we change things in the registry. If you try and change resolution in the game itself, it will mess things up again and you will need to go back to the registry to fix it.

The resolution the game shows you in the graphics settings is not correct, totally ignore it.
You can see the resolution the game is really running at. From the Links main menu select Options then System Info. There under Video Resolution you will see the real resolution the game is running at. This should now show you 1920x1080 32 bit. When you play Links, the game should look nice and sharp.
nigelpenn wrote: May 19th, 2020, 5:51 am Also do I enable Sky and what choice do you recommend and also Dynamic Camera enabled is unticked showing smart view. Should this be changed. I do not want to play around with the settings until you advise for fear of losing what I now have, to play Links 2003 again.
Sky and Dynamic Camera settings are totally personal preference. Try anything you like, you can't mess anything up.
Myself, I always use overcast skies as this best matches the look of lighting on Links courses imo.
Dynamic camera, I use forward view and have it disabled on the green.

Just try everything out till you have things as you prefer.
nigelpenn wrote: May 19th, 2020, 5:51 am Thank you so much again for your brilliant help
Everyone should get to enjoy this great game, happy to help. :thumbup:

Re: Links2003 won’t start following screen resolution problems

Posted: May 19th, 2020, 9:47 pm
by nigelpenn
Thanks again Still Linksing I will follow your advice. You have been extremely helpful. I really appreciate it.

Re: Links2003 won’t start following screen resolution problems

Posted: May 23rd, 2020, 9:36 pm
by Sandy_Trapp
Did you make sure your video card was listed in the videotxt folder in Links? If not, try adding it to that file.
I'm running at 1680 x 1050 x 32 bit both in graphic settings and in system info. Has been working fine for me in Windows 10.

Re: Links2003 won’t start following screen resolution problems

Posted: July 28th, 2020, 7:35 am
by dlynch67
Hello out there - I took the steps outlined in the directions re: Registry Editor and changed the value data to 14. I also have the UHD graphics 620 on a fairly new (2 years old tops) Dell Inspiron 15 5000 series laptop. For years I played Links on my old laptop which was a HP Elitebook, 2008 version and it always played fine on that platform. On my new laptop, the video resolution shown in the system info. when I open Links is 1024 x 768 16 color.

After playing a hole, the box comes up that indicates something about display mode and "only power of two textures". It also references 1024 x 1024 which I gather is related to the video resolution. Also, the sky has the Links 2003 labelling instead of clouds or blue sky. Sometimes, the sky has turned pitch black and remains.

Any help would be greatly appreciated in order to once again play Links on this new laptop. The old laptop crashed altogether so using it is not an option. I imagine the game will look better than ever once I get it running properly since this laptop has more updated features, including definition/color/ clarity/ video resolution, etc.

Thanks in advance for any assistance/guidance provided with this -

BH

Re: Links2003 won’t start following screen resolution problems

Posted: July 28th, 2020, 11:15 am
by Lez Marwick
dlynch67 wrote: July 28th, 2020, 7:35 am After playing a hole, the box comes up that indicates something about display mode and "only power of two textures". It also references 1024 x 1024 which I gather is related to the video resolution. Also, the sky has the Links 2003 labelling instead of clouds or blue sky. Sometimes, the sky has turned pitch black and remains.
I seem to remember years ago reading posts from people having this texture issue. Normally it would be a case of a designer using incorrectly sized textures which is why I paid attention to it, but in this case it only seemed to affect people using certain Intel integrated graphics chips. I don't think a solution was found at that time. Hopefully it has since been solved and someone will post here with the answer soon. Setting a 32 bit resolution might help by editing the registry? :dunno: