[ShadesOfGrey]

I did some searching and only found one post that came close to addressing my problem.  Unfortunately the solution given (swithching from 32 to 16 bit color depth), does not work in my case.  So here goes.

I didn't want to spend time downloading all the cutscene AVI files if I already had them in MVE.  Not when I learned I could convert themself anyway from KARAJORMA'S FREESPACE FAQ.  Except MVE2AVI is not doing the job.  When I try and convert an MVE to AVI (i.e. fsp INTRO.MVE), the resulting AVI is very distorted.  But when using MVE2AVI to play an MVE (i.e. fsp INTRO.MVE -nosave), playback is flawless.

Now I suppose, given all the time I've wasted trying to find a solution on my own I should just download the AVI files.  I probably will, too.  But I still want to find out why I'm having this problem.  If for no other reason then personal satisfaction.  My speculation is that the culprit is the ddrw16.dll file.  But since it would appear this is a legacy 9x DLL, I don't have a clue what I can do about it.  Any suggestions?



FYI, I'm using Windows XP SP2 with DX 9.0c.  On my older Win2k (SP4+DX9.0c) box I get the following error dailog no matter what I do.

Caption: Win95 Interplay MVE File Player
Message: DirectDraw Init FAILED

[Mars]

First off, to make things go faster, use the BASTION.MVE, as it is the shortest.

Are you sure it's the resulting AVI that is distorted, and not the playback produced during the conversion. The playback is always distorted (low color depth, green) on mine but the AVI is undamaged.

[karajorma]

Yep. That's what I get too. The playback is unwatchable but the resulting avi is fine. Also be warned that you will need to have a NTFS formatted disk to save the intro to as it is over 4GB in size when it is converted.

[Nix]

So, is it still considered illegal to do this? Or does Interplay not care anymore?  I'd like to know because I might be doing some work on the cutscenes myself.

[karajorma]

Interplay aren't really in any state to complain. If they ever tell me to take down mve2avi I will but till then I see no reason not to use it.

[ShadesOfGrey]

Are you sure it's the resulting AVI that is distorted, and not the playback produced during the conversion. The playback is always distorted (low color depth, green) on mine but the AVI is undamaged.

Yep. That's what I get too. The playback is unwatchable but the resulting avi is fine. Also be warned that you will need to have a NTFS formatted disk to save the intro to as it is over 4GB in size when it is converted.

Yes, the AVI files are just as distorted.  Any attempt to conver the MVE's results in distorted AVIs, but playback (-nosave) with MVE2AVI is fine.  I've tried the MVE's from both FS & FS2 with no luck.  Space is not a probelm at the moment.  Pulled an 'old' 40Gb drive and stuck it in a USB enclosure and formatted it as one large NTFS volume.  BTW, I copied the smallest of MVEs from FS & FS2 to fixed drive just in case MVE2AVI was some how bandwidth sensetive.  It made no difference.

Though I suppose it's good to know that the distortion is normal during conversion.  If I hadn't thrown together a batch file and walked away; I might have assumed the distorted playback of the MVEs automatically meant the AVIs were borked.

[karajorma]

To be honest I have no idea why it isn't working for you then. MVE2AVI has always worked well for me.

[ShadesOfGrey]

Now this is interesting...  If I use the -bmp option, the resulting BMPs are just fine.  So, I could conceivably stitch the BMPs and WAV together into an AVI.  I'll see if I can do this with VirtualDub.  If it doesn't, any other tools out there that will take BMP frames and convert them to AVI?

I should also mention that I did use the -log command line option.  Nothing in the logs indicated what might be the cause of the distortion.

[Nix]

Do a search for that file on your system, and see if you have it in a Windows directory of sorts.  If the ddrw16.dll file is in the folder where MVE2AVI is located, and you have a newer copy in your windows directory, try replacing it inside of the MVE2AVI folder.  If it doesnt' work or you don't have the file, what happens when you remove the ddrw16.dll file?

You can always try using FRAPS to make the videos as well, but you're probably better off just downloading the AVI files.  I've got some old Divx 5.0.2 AVI files I encoded way back in the day, and they don't look the greatest either.   I'm sure the people who made the AVI files for say, ShivanSPS's pack, made them of pretty good quality.

[karajorma]

TurboNed is responsible for the second set of cutscenes and he did a much better job than I did.

[ShadesOfGrey]

Do a search for that file on your system, and see if you have it in a Windows directory of sorts.  If the ddrw16.dll file is in the folder where MVE2AVI is located, and you have a newer copy in your windows directory, try replacing it inside of the MVE2AVI folder.  If it doesnt' work or you don't have the file, what happens when you remove the ddrw16.dll file?

I'm pretty sure that ddrw16.dll is a legacy Win9x DX DLL.  I get the same error I mentioned above for Win2k in WinXP if the dll is not in the same directory as fsp.exe.  I tried copying and renaming DLLs (i.e. ddraw.dll), but they don't appear to be compatible with MVE2AVI.

You can always try using FRAPS to make the videos as well, but you're probably better off just downloading the AVI files.  I've got some old Divx 5.0.2 AVI files I encoded way back in the day, and they don't look the greatest either.   I'm sure the people who made the AVI files for say, ShivanSPS's pack, made them of pretty good quality.

As it turns out, you can use VirtualDub to stitch the BMPs & WAV from MVE2AVI into an AVI.  I think I'll try creating a couple just to compare with the ones karajorma mentions.  The worse that can happen is I learn how to use VirtualDub. 

[ShadesOfGrey]

TurboNed is responsible for the second set of cutscenes and he did a much better job than I did.

I take it they're the ones you reference in your FAQ?

[karajorma]

Yep. The site where the old ones were available for download (Kosh's site) is down anyway AFAIK.