Crippling lag during movies, main menu

**Mechstra** · November 10, 2006, 01:19 PM

My system runs the campaign map and battles perfectly on highest settings, but whenever one of those .bik movies shows up (whether it's the event movies, the intro, or the main menu's moving background), the game judders and stutters and skips and stops for up to 5 seconds. This is, of course, pretty annoying.

I didn't have such problems with the .bik movies of R:TW and neither did I have it with the demo's moving background. Any ideas what could be causing this, and how to get rid of it?

**Tom Servo** · November 10, 2006, 03:30 PM

If it has to do with the bik movies you can try replacing the "binkw32.dll" file in your directory with another version.

**Mechstra** · November 10, 2006, 05:56 PM

And how would I go about doing that? On someone else's recommendation, I downloaded the RAD Game Tools, which... had no effect. It still does it.

**AlfonsoVIII** · November 10, 2006, 07:01 PM

Did you install DX9 from the DVD and what version of Windows Media Player do you have. Also, is the video resolution in the game match the desktop?

**Mechstra** · November 11, 2006, 01:24 AM

Originally Posted by AlfonsoVIII

Did you install DX9 from the DVD and what version of Windows Media Player do you have. Also, is the video resolution in the game match the desktop?

I didn't install DirectX 9 because I already have the most up-to-date version. As for WMP, I have WMP10, but seeing as the videos are .bik format, not .wma, that shouldn't have any sort of bearing.

I'm playing the game on 1024x768, whereas my desktop is at a higher resolution, but that shouldn't have an effect, because the same slowdown occurs whether these videos play fullscreen or as event movies for assassinations and the like.

**night_owl** · November 11, 2006, 12:06 PM

yeah i got the same problem as you, still trying to sort it out, let us know if you fix it! :hmmm: , i tried different video drivers (geforce 6800GT AGP card) and even tried different audio drivers, and ive got tons of video and audio codecs installed on my pc...im wondering if thats the problem, a codec conflict...

**AlfonsoVIII** · November 11, 2006, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by Mechstra

I didn't install DirectX 9 because I already have the most up-to-date version. As for WMP, I have WMP10, but seeing as the videos are .bik format, not .wma, that shouldn't have any sort of bearing.

I'm playing the game on 1024x768, whereas my desktop is at a higher resolution, but that shouldn't have an effect, because the same slowdown occurs whether these videos play fullscreen or as event movies for assassinations and the like.

1. Install DX9 from the DVD.
2. Install the latest MP updates.
3. Match game and screen resolution.
4. Update your video drivers.
5. Post your computer specs.

**night_owl** · November 11, 2006, 01:35 PM

yeah weird, i cant understand this one, alfonso's advice is sound tho, but i restarted my pc with fewer processes loading in, and played the game again and everythings fine for me now...maybe you have too many processes in the background and need newer motherboard,gfx and audio drivers.... :hmmm:
oh and i didnt install dx from dvd cos i have updated version of it anyway,oh and i understand about you saying hae same desktop and vid res alfonso but i have different ones and its running fine for me now...

**Mechstra** · November 12, 2006, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by AlfonsoVIII

1. Install DX9 from the DVD.
2. Install the latest MP updates.
3. Match game and screen resolution.
4. Update your video drivers.
5. Post your computer specs.

1. If you say so, although it really shouldn't make a difference at all.
2. There are updates?
3. I'll try.
4. Already updated.
5. Athlon 64 3500, 1024mb RAM, ATI Radeon X1900 GT.

I can post a dxdiag later, but I don't think this is a DirectX issue at all seeing as everything that DirectX controls works fine (campaign map, battle map, etc).

**Mechstra** · November 12, 2006, 02:25 PM

I've managed to fix this problem - and it was by night_owl's method of closing background processes. In this case, it was Steam and Skype that I shut down and this let me run the videos fine.

**night_owl** · November 12, 2006, 03:02 PM

yeah glad you sorted it mechstra, its usually too many processes running that messes up some games, or another suggestion would have been a defrag and scandisc...but alas its sorted anyway!