The A2A Simulations Community

I have just completely redone all the tests again on your MPEG 2 files. I am able to run your AVI files in the startup screen's with no problems but I cannot run the program. The best I've been able to do, after selecting an instant action function and the initial screen from that, which goes blank. After about 3 minutes the windows cursor appears and if I press enter and then right click the mouse. I then get a transparent spitfire. Needless to say I don't pursue it any further. This happens in which ever selection I set in compatibility mode apart from: "Disable desktop composition" along with "Run this program in compatibility mode for:". I can then fly for a limited time before it crashes with the English text error. With error in <unknown>. It will play the videos though. If I uncheck "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" I can then run a program with no crashes but no video.

I was able to do all of the above with the old AVI files as well. The only thing was the old AVI's would not play in win7's media player. I am a little confused on how you arrive at it being an ATI driver-related issue. If it was, then logic says! They would not work in other programs.

Having run Win7 since January last year and not being able to get the AVI's to work correctly I've always left "Disable desktop composition", checked. It is only the recent thread that has made me re-check things.
At the moment for me. It's leave well alone. At least I can fly.

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Prem.

Asus P6T Deluxe V2, Intel I7 960 3.2Gig, 6Gig Mem 1866 DDR3, Sapphire ATI 5870 Vapor-X OC 1Gig, 1000W PSU, Win 7 64bit, TrackIR3 Vector Exp & Track clip pro, Hotas Cougar with Uber NXT2 Mod & Simped F16 rudder pedals.

My conclusion about the ATI drivers, based on what you ATI users have said, is that it DOES play the video in BoB2, BUT it renders the visual output on a non-visible layer or surface (hence the black box). Outside of BoB2 you can see the visual portion just fine, no doubt.

I'm not a programmer but I don't think my theory is beyond ridiculous. I must also again point out that ATI has had nothing but driver issues for the last 9 years, starting at DirectX 7.

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Intel P45, Q6600@333MHzx9, GTX 460 1GB, 4GB PC2-8500, Win7 x64, TIR3+6DoF, MS SW FFB2, Acer 22" LCD 1680x1050@60Hz

I just got a new PC that runs windows 7 64 bit (spec's in sig). The video's would "not" play for me either in game or individually.

Here is all I did to get the video's to play both in game and individually:

I tested the files that McMick up loaded and they all played fine for me both in-game and as individual files with Windows Media Player (no issues for me).

Here is the download that I re-hosted for easier access:

http://www.shockwaveproductions.com/bob ... 2MPEG2.zip


Here is the Procedure that I used:

1. back up the AVI folder which is in your BOBII folder
2. Unpack the file into your AVI folder using rar (all the existing files will be replaced with the new MPEG2 files).

Once you have installed bob II, you right click on the BOBII shortcut, left click on properties, select the compatibility tab and if you haven't switched "user access mode" off. You will then need to check the "run this program as administrator". Also, "uncheck" (do not check), the "run this program in compatability mode".

I do not check anything else except "run this program as administrator".

Like Stickman, if I check the "Disable desktop composition" On, then the videos do not work.

You must install the latest DirectX9c for BOBII and other games.

The video's then played for me both in game and as individual files.

I have no idea why this procedure does not work for everyone with Windows 7.

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Buddye

Intel I7 920 processor (2.66GHz, 8MB cache), 6GB DDR3 Triple Channel @1333MHz, 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295, Sound Blaster X-Fi PCI Sound Card, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit , CH Fighter Stick & Pedals ,TrackIR4 Pro thanks to BobII crew.

I really feel that people having problems with seeing the MPEG2 are ATI card owners and it has something with how the ATI drivers handle video output and some sort of issue with which "surface" the video is drawing on (hence why you can see videos in the media players but not in BoB), so I think it has to be a compatibility issue between how BoB wants it done and how ATI drivers want to do it. The other thing is that not only is it dependent on which "surface" the video is drawn on, but the method of rendering in the first place (hardware overlay, VMR-7,VMR-9, DX7, DX9, etc.)

My guess would be if the devs would ask ATI about it, maybe they could provide a more detailed answer which would either A) Allow ATI to recognize and fix the compatibility issue in a new driver, or B) allow BDG to identify the issue and update BoB2 to accommodate ATI driver peculiarities.

BTW, it probably has something to do with how ATI drivers handle this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Foundation

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Intel P45, Q6600@333MHzx9, GTX 460 1GB, 4GB PC2-8500, Win7 x64, TIR3+6DoF, MS SW FFB2, Acer 22" LCD 1680x1050@60Hz

Buddye, I am using Windows 7 64 bit,

I extracted your BoB2MPEG2 avi's, and I get all the IA and Campaign videos OK, now.
I am also using an ATI Radeon GFX card.

System:

OS: Windows 7
CPU: Intel Core i7 860 (Quad Core) CPU @ 2.80GHz
MOTHERBOARD: DELL Model 0T568R
MEMORY: 8 GB (4 each Elpida, 2GB @ 1GHz)
GFX: ATI Radeon HD 5700 - 1GB memory
SOUND: On board Realtek

Joy Stick: SAITEK X52
TrackIR: no

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With the Bob EXE Compatability, I only have the "Run this program as an administer" box checked.

!! If I check the "Disable desktop composition" On, then the videos do not work. !!

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"Toto! I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Dorothy, OZ
"sniff.. sniff.. Snort! ARF! GGRRRR! ARF! (Tod der stinkenden republikanischen Partei, diesem ignoranten religiösen Monstrum.)" Toto

!! However, If I do NOT check the "Disable desktop composition" On,
then in Campaign Map I get some nasty Tearing! Like this:



So I keep "Disable desktop composition" checked On.
Don't care much about the videos, which I have viewed more times than I care to repeat them.
The Campaign Map is much more important.

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"Toto! I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Dorothy, OZ
"sniff.. sniff.. Snort! ARF! GGRRRR! ARF! (Tod der stinkenden republikanischen Partei, diesem ignoranten religiösen Monstrum.)" Toto

Ah, this comment reminds me of something: a while back, I fired up a video viewer, something I don't do a lot of, and found that it wouldn't show the item I wanted to watch. After a bit of investigation I realized it wasn't displaying any video including ones I had watched many times before, so I started digging. The main change in my machine was that I had been adjusting settings to run the 3D stereo VR headset I have, (I have an nVidia card) and I had the system set in "clone" mode, with the second video out duplicating the main output. The thing is, for reasons I can't remember right now, I had determined that in order to get stereo vision, I had to have the headset connected to the "primary" video out (this is designated in software, the connectors are pretty much equivalent). What I discovered is that though I had disabled the headset, and the stereo setting, I had left the main monitor designated as the secondary device. For some reason, the video driver was ignoring the "clone" setting regarding the video display, and thus the video was being sent to the inactive primary output, but not duplicated as per clone setting to the main monitor on the secondary connector.

The problem is thus similar to what you describe, the video was running just fine, it was just not displaying on my main monitor. I powered up the VR headset, and there was the video. It should have been shown on both outputs, as that is what "clone" is supposed to do, but I presume it was something flakey with the drivers. Swapping the monitor designations via the dual monitor software reset the main monitor as primary, and voila, the videos reappeared. (Of course, it took a while to arrive at this solution, and I went through a lot of flailing with different videos and viewers before I determined the problem was independent of either).

As posted in beta thread... I have Win7 64 and an ATI HD4890 card. I've only chosen to run bob.exe as admin and the videos play fine with no effort on my part. So, it does not appear to be an ATI issue unless it is driver related. I've not updated catalyst to new, so perhaps in there is an issue.

Stickman, do you always get a messed up campaign map?

How can I try and re-produce on my PC?

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Buddye

Intel I7 920 processor (2.66GHz, 8MB cache), 6GB DDR3 Triple Channel @1333MHz, 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295, Sound Blaster X-Fi PCI Sound Card, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit , CH Fighter Stick & Pedals ,TrackIR4 Pro thanks to BobII crew.

Have the "Run this program as an administer" box checked.
Check the "Disable desktop composition".
Start a Campaign. Mine was the RAF one, pictured above. Zoom map in and out. Should be OK. Videos will not work, tho.

Have the "Run this program as an administer" box checked.
Un-Check the "Disable desktop composition".
Start a Campaign. Mine was the RAF one, pictured above. Zoom map in and out. I got the tearing. Videos OK.

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"Toto! I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Dorothy, OZ
"sniff.. sniff.. Snort! ARF! GGRRRR! ARF! (Tod der stinkenden republikanischen Partei, diesem ignoranten religiösen Monstrum.)" Toto

After seeing all the latest comments on the videos. I decided to give mine another try again.

With just the "Disable desktop composition" checked. Still no videos working.
With the "Disable desktop composition" unchecked. The videos now work. When I last posted on this topic and unchecking the "Disable desktop composition", the programme was crashing. Since then I have updated the ATI drivers to 10.1 and also a few days ago. Quite a number of windows updates. So one out of the two has corrected the problem. Not that I was worried about having the videos running. Incidentally, I now have nothing in the compatibility mode checked. I never have "user access control" set at all. As my wife and I are the only two that use the machines and I Trust her implicitly. I have too, otherwise the rope hanging from the hook in the middle of the room might get used.

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Prem.

Asus P6T Deluxe V2, Intel I7 960 3.2Gig, 6Gig Mem 1866 DDR3, Sapphire ATI 5870 Vapor-X OC 1Gig, 1000W PSU, Win 7 64bit, TrackIR3 Vector Exp & Track clip pro, Hotas Cougar with Uber NXT2 Mod & Simped F16 rudder pedals.

Recap:

1. Vista and Windows 7 don't come with Indeo codecs

2. Vista and Windows 7 can play MPEG2 media natively

3. BoB2 runs on both x86 and x86-64 without any need for compatibility options, EXCEPT "Run as Administrator", and this ONLY reqiuired if you still have User Account Control (UAC) enabled (default for Vista and 7). I should note that "Run as Administrator" being checked when UAC is already disabled is redundant, but won't harm anything.

4. For Nvidia cards, everything is fine, MPEG2 videos play back nicely. Same goes for Indeo videos if you have Indeo 5 installed.

5. For ATI cards, video playback works as long as you don't use compatibility mode features (except Run as Administrator). However, some combinations of cards / drivers exhibit graphical anomolies elsewhere?

6. Graphical anomolies on ATI cards can be fixed by using "Disable Desktop Composition", but then the videos won't display

As I see it, this sounds like something that ATI could fix in their driver if they were asked nicely. The other option is for BDG to rework how videos are played in the menu, perhaps? But that's just speculation on my part, I don't know anything about programming.

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Intel P45, Q6600@333MHzx9, GTX 460 1GB, 4GB PC2-8500, Win7 x64, TIR3+6DoF, MS SW FFB2, Acer 22" LCD 1680x1050@60Hz

Thanks, nice summary and a good understanding of the issue.

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Buddye

Intel I7 920 processor (2.66GHz, 8MB cache), 6GB DDR3 Triple Channel @1333MHz, 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295, Sound Blaster X-Fi PCI Sound Card, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit , CH Fighter Stick & Pedals ,TrackIR4 Pro thanks to BobII crew.

Just to add to this post (not important for me, but thought it may be useful to know)..

I run Vista-64, with an ATI3850, catalyst version 9.12. Videos only play if 'Run in XP Mode' is selected.

So I'm not the only one not getting the GUI videos I ignored it because I've seen them many times already. I've just checked the converted videos. They are baaad There is stuttering and an evaluation codec version information overlay.

I've converted them (originals) myself using the following application and settings.



Here's the download link

EDIT 01-09-2011
New dl link http://www.mediafire.com/file/44qrypv4u ... mspeg2.zip
all permissions to re-distribute or use for whatever purpose by the BDG granted.

freeware archive tool http://7-zip.org/ or http://portableapps.com/de/apps/utiliti ... p_portable
/EDIT

It's limited to 10 downloads only so please host it somewhere else if you find it acceptable as a replacement pack we will be recommending. IMO it's the easiest way to go. No "compatibility modes", no vintage codecs that won't install anyway - no problems.

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