Links Corner Forum

Been playing Links from before XP, and from 2012 on a Win 7 pc using the onboard Intel HD graphics 4000 without video problems. That pc just died and I am now using a Win 10 pc with a GTX 1050ti video card. At first, I could not see anything above the horizon, so I installed the Voodoo nVidia patch and it worked, but now I am getting unacceptably slow rendering. On courses with many landscape objects (like any Mike Jones course), everyone has to wait for me to catch up as I just sit here while it renders. When I start the game it shows me using dgVoodoo DirectX Wrapper at 1280 x 720 x 32 bit. I have even tried lowering the picture quality to get faster redraws, but that hasn't solved the problem. I don't draw shadows. I have updated the video card nVidia drivers, but that didn't increase the rendering in Links. The technical gobbledigook in the ReadMe files doesn't contain any help with instructions for installing or fixing the "Wrapper." I play with others who are using the nVidia fix, and they're not having rendering issues. What can I try to resolve this slow rendering issue?

You shouldn't need the Voodoo wrapper any more with a stand-alone NVIDIA card in your new system.

Thanks John. The reason I needed the Wrapper was because, when I first ran Links on the Win 10 pc, it would not render anything above the horizon (e.g. no sky), and then the nVidia fix solved that issue. Because of what you posted, I tried removing the Wrapper's .dll files from the main Links folder, and now when I run the game I am still able to see the sky and clouds, but I'm still getting alot of rendering even though I have enabled hardware acceleration AND made my nVidia settings for performance. I am afraid of reinstalling the game. I'm just hoping someone else has encountered this problem and found a simple solution.

Do you experience this will all courses, or just the graphic-intensive ones?

Tried it on a couple LS courses (Bountiful and Banff Springs) and it does the same delayed rendering on occasion. Ran System File Checker and it found a few corrupt files and fixed them, but after rebooting it didn't change the rendering delay.

Pancho wrote: ↑February 22nd, 2024, 8:55 pm Tried it on a couple LS courses (Bountiful and Banff Springs) and it does the same delayed rendering on occasion. Ran System File Checker and it found a few corrupt files and fixed them, but after rebooting it didn't change the rendering delay.

Hi Pancho...

You probably already know this, but try it and see if it makes a difference...

Launch Links...
Click on "OPTIONS"
Click on "GRAPHICS SETTINGS"
Near the bottom, take a look at your graphics slider. If that slider is all the way to the right, try backing it off a couple of clicks left, save it, and try playing a game. See if that speeds up the rendering any at all.

Good luck,

Dan

Thanks Danny, but I had already tried that and to my surprise it didn't make a noticeable difference. I did get a bit of relief when I reinstalled Links, but it still does render more slowly than it did on my old Win 7 machine that used onboard Intel graphics. I also am using XP SP3 compatibility mode.

Does anyone have a Windows 10 driver version for an nVidia gtx 1050 ti that works well for them (ie. without having to install the nVidia patch)? I have tried everything else except installing an older driver version that was still Links 2K3 compatible.

hello,
a friend of mine plays Links2K3 with Win10 and an nVidia GTX 1050 GPU - without the Voodoo wrapper patch.
Since he plays on a TV 16:9, he needs the nvidia patch. (1280 x720 is also 16:9)

I don't know which nvidia driver he uses, but I'm sure it's an older one.
I would try this nvidia driver 536.40 - WHQL.
. .
Another idea - don't undervolt the GPU or CPU and see if XMP is running on the RAM.

This is what my desktop uses:

I have an AMD CPU along with the nVidia GTX 1050 Ti video card, and have never needed the V..D.. wrapper. I built the PC for running Links and it works well. Can I help?

I also put this entry in the VideoCard.txt file (located in the /Links 2003/ folder):

0x1C82 = "GeForce 1050 Ti"
in the section started by this:

Vendor = 0x10b4 "nVidia"
Vendor = 0x12d2 "nVidia"
Vendor = 0x10de "nVidia"
Vendor = 0x1022 "nVidia"
0x1b1d = "Riva 128"
RenderEqualZ
etc.

Pete