Video lock ups in AGS? (SOLVED)

Sotaria · Sun 29/10/2006 18:37:47

Three AGS games lock up in my new XP system. All three begin with video sequences (The Breakdown, Stargate Adventure, and Project Xenophobe). When I play the clips independently on Windows Media they seem to work fine (although I haven't played them all). What is wrong? Does anyone know?

Pumaman · Sun 29/10/2006 22:50:12

Do you get any error messages or does the game just hang?

Sotaria · Sun 29/10/2006 23:20:36

Just a black screen.

Gilbert · Mon 30/10/2006 04:40:44

Did you try playing the games in windowed mode (if you hadn't already) and see if the problem still exists?

Sotaria · Mon 30/10/2006 14:31:08

Just tried that but it still doesn't work. May I ask how the game plays the in game movies? Should it work the same as double clicking the movie? If so, should I not get an error message? The games work on my laptop, but not on my desktop although they are both XP.

Pumaman · Mon 30/10/2006 20:27:12

If you press ESC on the black screen, does it skip the movie and continue playing, or does it seem to have hung?

AGS uses DirectShow to play the movies, which is the same APIs that Media Player uses, so in theory if Media Player can play them then AGS should be able to as well.

Candle · Mon 30/10/2006 22:48:36

Update your codec's .

Sotaria · Mon 30/10/2006 23:08:51

It hangs. ESC does not help. It is a new XP with all Windows updates and the latest Windows Media, so I assume it has the latest codecs. How can I confirm this?

Candle · Mon 30/10/2006 23:16:06

Try gspot
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

Janik · Tue 31/10/2006 01:07:32

I get a similar problem with Stargate Adventure - in windowed mode, the AGS window loses focus, and the screen is black. When I click on the window, the movie starts displaying - maybe you can try that. The sound plays no matter what.

In fullscreen, I always am forced to exit fullscreen for some reason. It's really annoying. The movies play fine in WMP.

Edit: After some more investigation, I find that the little superfluous programs installed with the Divx program were causing the black screen and leaving fullscreen bug. Now those are fixed, the new problem is that videos in AGS play upside-down. Weird!

Candle · Tue 31/10/2006 04:07:38

Mine look green . lol so the problems are mix.

Janik · Tue 31/10/2006 04:38:45

XviD seems to be a better codec anyway

I think I managed to fix everything by installing the latest DivX codec (but none of the other players/converters/etc. that come in the package), and then removing a file called divxsm.exe from \windows\system32\ .

Sotaria · Tue 31/10/2006 16:03:28

Well, I downloaded the latest DivX and now two of the four games in question work, but with the strange side effect that the game minimizes after the movie begins. I have to maximize it to watch! Why does it minimize?

The two games still not working (they crash rather than lock up) are The Breakdown and Ozzie's Playwrite.

Janik · Tue 31/10/2006 20:27:58

It minimizes because a little program (in the taskbar) is loaded. Just delete divxsm.exe from \windows\system32\ and that will fix it.

I presume the 2 other games don't use the DivX codec. Try gSpot to find out what it is.

Pumaman · Wed 01/11/2006 19:10:48

There are some rather dodgy DivX codec distributions that do things like play the video upside down and then apply a filter to flip it back round. Additionally, some DivX distributions come with unnecessary background apps like the one you described.

Basically, AGS plays the movie as WMP, but it doesn't apply any filters. Thus, if your codec relies on one to display properly it may not work. XviD is certainly a better choice.

strazer · Tue 07/11/2006 17:16:11

Quote from: Sotaria on Tue 07/11/2006 16:35:04
On the previous thread ... I got all the AGS games working after updating Windows Media Player and the Divx.

Ultra Magnus · Wed 07/05/2008 02:15:35

I hope it's okay to bump this, because I'm having the same problem.

I d/led Stargate Adventure a few weeks back, but couldn't get it to work.
I just d/led the Futurama Fryscape demo, and that don't work neither.
Both have a brief splash screen, which displays fine, before jumping into an intro vid, which doesn't.

As before, the vids play fine in MPC, but within the games they just play the audio over a black screen
The game doesn't pick up when their finished, either, it just hangs on the void.

According to AVIcodec, the Stargate vids are XviD Mpeg4 and the Fryscape ones are MS Mpeg4 v2.
The Fryscape readme recommends 3ivX. to play 'em.

I already had both XviD and 3ivX installed.
I've tried reinstalling both, but nothing doing.

Any suggestions?
Thanks.
J.

Also, Stargate doesn't work in windowed mode, either, and Fryscape is missing its winsetup.exe, so I can't open it in anything other than fullscreen.

Gilbert · Wed 07/05/2008 02:18:36

You can always setup the game using this method.

Ultra Magnus · Wed 07/05/2008 02:31:49

Quote from: Gilbot V7000a on Wed 07/05/2008 02:18:36
You can always setup the game using this method.

Ah, cool. Thanks for that.

I figured there'd be a way around it.

Ultra Magnus · Fri 09/05/2008 06:56:32

Quote from: Ultra Magnus on Wed 07/05/2008 02:15:35
Any suggestions?

Anybody?
No?
Any at all?

And I mean suggestions about how to make it work, rather than those about where to shove certain things...