I can't see game cutscenes

I can't see game cutscenes in some games like
The Book of Unwritten Tales
The Night of the Rabbit
Dracula 4: The Shadow of the Dragon
and some others

http://i43.tinypic.com/30j5zbc.jpg

PC Specs

CPU Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz

RAM 4 GB

OS Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3

Video Card ATI Radeon X2300

 

Greetings, PanosUchiha, and welcome to MajorGeeks.

First thing I'd try would be to make sure the ATI driver package is up to date - plug in your specifics at ATI and see if there's an update.

Quick questions:

Did this problem just start occurring during the games? Have you been able to see the cutscenes and then they stopped working, or did they never work? Have you checked the games' settings for options for full screen/window mode, etc.? Can you view cutscenes in other games? Do you have problems with non-game videos?

 

Driver package is up to date

Did this problem just start occurring during the games?
Yes

Have you been able to see the cutscenes and then they stopped working, or did they never work?
They never work

Have you checked the games' settings for options for full screen/window mode, etc.?
Yes

Can you view cutscenes in other games?
Yes like the walking dead game, deponia, dragon age and more

Do you have problems with non-game videos?
No

 

The first thing I would try before messing with drivers is another monitor. This will show if the problem is with your monitor failing to sync, or the computer sending a faulty signal.

 

Its a laptop

 

Not a problem. Notebooks (they don't belong on laps so I say notebooks) are designed for the road warrior and I don't know of any that don't allow you to connect an external monitor (or projector) for presentations or as desktops when at home. So the same applies. Connect another monitor, then use the function key combination for your notebook to switch output to the external monitor. On my Toshiba, I need to hit Fn + F5.

Even being a notebook, you need to determine if the problem is with the notebook monitor, or the computer itself.

 

Same problem

 

Not good. If you can see Windows without problems, then I recommend you follow Caliban's advice and check your drivers.

You also need to check the minimum system requirements of these games. With XP being 13 years old and just months away from "end of life/support", and your hardware likely to be legacy (old) too, your system may not be current enough to support modern games.

 

but the game is playing fine
the video cutscenes doesn't work

 

I don't have a solution but note your problem is not unique.

You might look through here to see if a solution used fits your situation.

Side note: I am afraid I might have sent you on the wrong path with the other monitor thing. I am not a gamer and was not familiar with the term "cutscenes" so trying another monitor wasted your time. My apologies to both you and Caliban.

 

No problem i have posted this in like six forums
and u are the only one tried to help so thank you

 

Well, be aware that that (shotgun posting) is often considered "poor forum etiquette" - like going to a busy grocery store and sending all your kids to stand in separate checkout lines, then rushing to the counter that becomes available first.

So be sure you follow up at every single one of those forums with an updated status post so you don't leave any just hanging abandoned.

 

Looks like the games you listed as problematic are all XP-compatible. One thing you might try is reverting to an older ATI driver version for testing purposes. If nothing else, you may be able to eliminate the ATI software as a culprit.

OldApps.com has a good selection of, well...old apps. Pick an ATI driver that is close to the published roll out date of one of those games and try it - you can always reload the newer ATI driver when you're through testing.

 

Nop didn't work

Maybe my laotop is just t old :cry

 

PanosUchia...

Hi. Got lots of questions. This can be a difficult thing to troubleshoot and very difficult to fix. For example, I have an old game called System Shock 2. I think it was released around 1999 during a time when there wasn't support for multiple cores. The result is that, for that one game, I have to start the program in XP SP3 and then hit the Windows key and through Task Manager adjust the affinity of the program, so it will only run on one core. As if that weren't enough, I also had to turn off ffdshow in my codecs package for the program for the cut scenes to run. There must be literally 50 pages in a thread I found about this one game all filled with posts of problems and workarounds and so on.

Overall, the worst part is it can also be the graphics card driver or maybe just the card itself is underpowered.

Not to be funny, but maybe you could find the cut scenes on YouTube and just watch them until you don't want to see them any more :-D

BTW, I have a core 2 duo system like yours with a video card that benchmarks about twice as effective as your video card (your passmark 47, mine 103). With a notebook, I assume you need a low power card, but there are some great options, such as this (passmark 185):

http://www.amazon.com/EN210-SILENT-DI-1GD3-V2/dp/B004I5UDO6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

If your notebook has a low profile pci-e slot, maybe you could look into an upgrade there. The Nvidia Quadro NVS 290 I have uses only 15W of power and is very quiet, since it has no fan. Maybe that could be an option for you. I play quakelive online all the time, and it works great for me for about 30 fps...

 

Well i installed the omega ati drivers and tried some games
all working fine exept from The Book of Unwritten Tales, cutscenes still doesn't work -_-"

Then i tried the shiftshader 3 thing and voila cutscenes are working.

So why with the shiftshader thing cutscenes are working?

 

Good question. Lots of good reading here and here.