Links Corner Forum

Pancho,

I recall the slow rendering issue from years back, but can't recall 'the fix' - I don't think it was too elaborate, though. I started browsing through some of the screen shots I took from that time and found one that may help. Check the properties of the Links shortcut on your desktop/start menu to ensure this box is checked:




I'm not certain this is the fix, so if it doesn't work, hopefully I can find something else to try (perhaps a registry edit...??).

Regards,
Armand



**Edit:
I ran across another screen shot for a similar thing, which I now believe that the screenshot above is for the properties of the shortcut for a previous version of Windows (either Win7/8 or perhaps an earlier version of Win10. The screenshot below is for the shortcut currently on my desktop and appears to be for LinksLauncher.exe file (which I think is the default). The only difference is that you have to click the 'Change high DPI settings' button first before you can override the DPI scaling behaviour.

After a bit more investigating, I don't think that the DPI scaling is the issue with slow rendering. I ran across a post a LSPN.net indicating that changing a registry entry for random skies to blank has resolved the issue for others in the past. You might be able to adjust this in the graphic settings for the game by selecting any of the other sky options and see if that resolves it.

If that doesn't work, the solution may require a tweak in the registry. If so, open the registry editor and navigate to the following branch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Links 2003\Options
Then, under the 'Sky' key, delete the entry so it is blank:

BEFORE:


AFTER:



If either of these resolve the slow rendering issue, it makes me believe that one or more of the skies are corrupt. The skies could be tested, one by one, to see which may be corrupt. I'm not sure if a corrupt sky will cause slow rendering regardless if it's selected from within the game or not, but regardless, it would be an onerous process to test them. Start by selecting each of the skies in the dropdown and then start a game and see if the rendering is slow. Hopefully, only one sky would have an issue and that could be deleted so it doesn't get used (either by selection or by a random sky selection). Sky files (*.SKY) are stored in the game's installation folder ("../Links 2003/skies").

Alternatively (or if the corrupt sky in the folder always results in slow rendering), a person could remove all but one of the *.SKY files from the "../Links 2003/skies" folder and start the game to test for slow rendering. If all is good, close the game, add one more sky file back into the /skies folder and start the game again. If/When the game starts rendering slowly, then the culprit sky can be permanently removed (or replaced with a non-corrupt version).

Thanks Armand. That gives me something to do over the weekend. :)

N.B. I've now had to reduce resolution to 1024 x 768, lower picture quality slider and disable dynamic camera to minimize rendering. It's playable, at least on courses that aren't slow rendering for everybody else. and then...

Voila! I fixed it for sure by going into the registry and deleting the entry for Sky. Rendering issue is now gone and the sky is cloudless and light blue when I play despite having a blank entry for Sky in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Links 2003\Options, go to the Sky key, double click it and then delete whatever it has for "value data".