Also I think I put this in the wrong forum and I apologize for that. Please feel free to move it.

I'd check if the game CD comes with additional programs (such as QuickTime Player) and install them.

typh0id wrote on 2022-03-29, 21:51:

I'm having an issue on my Win98 laptop where games that use AVI format videos only play sound against a blank screen. The games run fine otherwise and the videos play perfectly in Media Player outside of the games. Does anyone know of a common reason why this would be?

Game might use DirectX Media, Intel Indeo, or some other early media playback package that it prompts you to install once and then forgets about.

leonardo wrote on 2022-03-29, 22:08:

typh0id wrote on 2022-03-29, 21:51:

I'm having an issue on my Win98 laptop where games that use AVI format videos only play sound against a blank screen. The games run fine otherwise and the videos play perfectly in Media Player outside of the games. Does anyone know of a common reason why this would be?

Game might use DirectX Media, Intel Indeo, or some other early media playback package that it prompts you to install once and then forgets about.

I know Final Fantasy VII uses DitectMedia/Show. I had already installed that and tried reinstalling it but there was no change.

if the game is FF VII, then you should check out this page : https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII

It has all the infos and solutions for older Windows games. if the video plays with a black screen, then it's a codec issue.

Some games use GDI component that requires the Indeo video codec (Nocturne), others use DirectDraw or DirectShow component.

Dancsi40 wrote on 2022-03-30, 00:00:

if the game is FF VII, then you should check out this page : https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII

It has all the infos and solutions for older Windows games. if the video plays with a black screen, then it's a codec issue.

Some games use GDI component that requires the Indeo video codec (Nocturne), others use DirectDraw or DirectShow component.

I appreciate the link . Unfortunately I've already tried the official patch and the codec it recommended but neither helped. It could very well be a DirectShow issue, I'm just not sure what to do about it since I've already reinstalled to no effect. Although that may not even be it since Blair Witch Vol II has the same problem with its intro video and it's built with the Nocturne engine which you say uses Indeo.

Seems if it were just a codec issue the videos wouldn't play outside of the game? Maybe I'm wrong about that though.

I just tried Nocturne (which was working fine when I first installed it) and the videos are playing with a blank screen in that one too.

I also fully reinstalled Indeo5 (went through and manually deleted all of the existing files from SYSTEM first). No change. Most games in-game videos work fine. So far it seems to only be the ones that use AVI files. I know AVI is just a container but I haven't noticed this issue on any game that uses other formats.

for Nocturne, did you installed Ligos Indeo Codec 5.11 : https://www.free-codecs.com/download/indeo_codec.htm ?

Also, the video card (GPU) must be DirectX 5-7 compatible (i guess it's the case, i just wanted to point it out too).

typh0id wrote on 2022-03-30, 11:08:

I also fully reinstalled Indeo5 (went through and manually deleted all of the existing files from SYSTEM first). No change. Most games in-game videos work fine. So far it seems to only be the ones that use AVI files. I know AVI is just a container but I haven't noticed this issue on any game that uses other formats.

Dancsi40 wrote on 2022-03-30, 12:49:

for Nocturne, did you installed Ligos Indeo Codec 5.11 : https://www.free-codecs.com/download/indeo_codec.htm ?

Also, the video card (GPU) must be DirectX 5-7 compatible (i guess it's the case, i just wanted to point it out too).

typh0id wrote on 2022-03-30, 11:08:

I also fully reinstalled Indeo5 (went through and manually deleted all of the existing files from SYSTEM first). No change. Most games in-game videos work fine. So far it seems to only be the ones that use AVI files. I know AVI is just a container but I haven't noticed this issue on any game that uses other formats.

Yeah that's the one I just reinstalled

For me Nocturne works fine on my Win10 system using dgVoodoo 2 latest version, videos play fine. There is also a patch for the game.

Dancsi40 wrote on 2022-03-30, 17:10:

For me Nocturne works fine on my Win10 system using dgVoodoo 2 latest version, videos play fine. There is also a patch for the game.

Of course these bugs don't exist on modern windows. And dgVoodoo2 doesn't is far from Windows 98, so the problem should be some driver I suppose.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-03-30, 18:50:

Dancsi40 wrote on 2022-03-30, 17:10:

For me Nocturne works fine on my Win10 system using dgVoodoo 2 latest version, videos play fine. There is also a patch for the game.

Of course these bugs don't exist on modern windows. And dgVoodoo2 doesn't is far from Windows 98, so the problem should be some driver I suppose.

I feel like it has to be a codec or something with DirectX that got messed up because Nocturne was working at one point. But I installed a bunch of games and have no idea at what point it stopped working correctly. I tried the CCCP codec pack and updated DirectX to 9.0c but still no change.

typh0id wrote on 2022-03-31, 12:56:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-03-30, 18:50:

Dancsi40 wrote on 2022-03-30, 17:10:

For me Nocturne works fine on my Win10 system using dgVoodoo 2 latest version, videos play fine. There is also a patch for the game.

Of course these bugs don't exist on modern windows. And dgVoodoo2 doesn't is far from Windows 98, so the problem should be some driver I suppose.

I feel like it has to be a codec or something with DirectX that got messed up because Nocturne was working at one point. But I installed a bunch of games and have no idea at what point it stopped working correctly. I tried the CCCP codec pack and updated DirectX to 9.0c but still no change.

AVIs have always been problematic on new systems. You have issues on older ones. If your issue happened over some time (all the games used to run correctly at some point like Nocturne), it might be that some incompatible codec version has been registered some way or other. I remember Prince of Persia 3D installed a version of QuickTime which stopped working at some point and I had install the latest 2016 QuickTime and it worked fine.

At this point, I have no idea what to do. Try a few drivers, and if they don't help, reinstall the OS and try games one by one to make sure they work fine.

well, without dgVoodoo 2, I have the same problem, no videos during intro (even with the Indeo 5 codec installed/registered to the system), so even on modern system, the game is not 100% perfect, you have to tweak it.

It should work on Windows 95/98 (XP too probably) without all of these because the game was designed to those systems back in the day.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-03-30, 18:50:

Dancsi40 wrote on 2022-03-30, 17:10:

For me Nocturne works fine on my Win10 system using dgVoodoo 2 latest version, videos play fine. There is also a patch for the game.

Of course these bugs don't exist on modern windows. And dgVoodoo2 doesn't is far from Windows 98, so the problem should be some driver I suppose.

K-Lite Codec Pack 590 Mega works on Win Me with KernelEx, I believe.
At least for me, it ran fine in a VM and could play all sorts of video files.
Also useful is that utility in context menu, I think it was "Media Info " or something like that.

Edit: Win98SE might also do, but I haven't really tested that.

Jo22 wrote on 2022-03-31, 20:59:

K-Lite Codec Pack 590 Mega works on Win Me with KernelEx, I believe. At least for me, it ran fine in a VM and could play all sor […]
Show full quote

K-Lite Codec Pack 590 Mega works on Win Me with KernelEx, I believe.
At least for me, it ran fine in a VM and could play all sorts of video files.
Also useful is that utility in context menu, I think it was "Media Info " or something like that.

Edit: Win98SE might also do, but I haven't really tested that.

I'm using the latest version of K-Lite codec pack that works on Win98. I also tried uninstalling to see if that would help but it didn't. I've tried the Aali Graphic OpenGL driver for FF7 and that made no difference. I've tried tinkering with every setting in DirectX and my Graphics driver (which is pretty minimal as far as options go). I'm only seeing three games on my machine that won't their play video files: FF7, Nocturne, and Blair Witch II. These are also the only three games installed that use AVI videos (that I'm aware of). If it's a codec issue, I just can't figure out which one because uninstalling all of the custom codecs I've installed hasn't made a difference.

Well I installed an unrelated game (Runaway) and it completely wrecked my Windows 98 installation. I went ahead and wiped and reinstalled. I installed FF7 and Nocturne first this time (both currently working correctly) and I'm checking them every so often after installing other games to see if the movies are still playing. So far so good.

I genuinely appreciate you guys trying to talk this out with me.

I hate it when something like this goes unsolved. "Reinstall Windows" isn't the type of advice people like to hear... At least you fixed the problem.