Blinking graphics and invisible buildings, edges in Diablo 2 LOD on Nvidia RTX 4070 laptop GPU with latest drivers. Game crashes frequently with unhandled exception error.
What is the solution for this problem?
Hi there,
This issue happens because modern graphics cards no longer support GLIDE, the old 3dfx graphics API that Diablo II: Lord of Destruction used for better performance and effects back in the day. After NVIDIA acquired 3dfx, support for GLIDE was never continued, so no modern GPU natively supports it anymore.
To run the game properly, you usually need a GLIDE wrapper, which acts as a translator: it takes the GLIDE commands Diablo II sends and converts them into something your GPU understands, like DirectX 11 or modern OpenGL.
From what I know, using a GLIDE wrapper shouldn’t be an issue: you’re not modifying the game’s code or adding cheats, just translating old rendering calls so the game can run correctly on new GPUs. It doesn’t enhance gameplay or hook into game DLLs. But please note this is just based on my experience, and I’d be glad to hear any official clarification from Blizzard if needed.
Hope this helps you get the game stable again!
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Thanks Doku!
that seems to explain it all.
I hope Blizzard will replace the old game with newer release Resurrected (which is actually cheaper than what I paid for non-working games…). Do you know if there is a way to contact Blizzard directly? I can’t find such option, aparently they want to discourage everyone from doing that…
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction remains a superior game compared to Diablo II: Resurrected. In D2R, they changed several core mechanics—like faster hit recovery behavior, gear-switching while running, strength bugging, and more—which fundamentally altered how the game feels, especially in PvP, which has always been the real endgame of D2.
D2 LoD still offers the best Diablo experience for PvP, with mechanics and balance that make every class competitive when played well. Even though the netcode changed in 1.14d, the game still feels right and retains all the tools needed for high-level dueling.
It’s sad, but D2R is basically a watered-down version of D2 LoD with prettier graphics. I honestly hope they never force a migration of D2 LoD characters to D2R unless they commit to making the gameplay and mechanics feel exactly as they should.