[obsolete] SS2 Videos / Cutscenes Guide

[674345db3d907Kolya]

The information in this topic has been largely obsoleted by the NewDark v2.4 patch which is best installed through the SS2Tool. This topic remains here for historical reasons.
Make sure you've read the SS2 Technical FAQ before you go on. Post problems in Helpdesk.
Note: The following guide refers to the original videos encoded with Indeo. Here's a quick size-check to see which videos you have.
If cutscenes/CREDITS.AVI = 17MB = original videos
If cutscenes/CREDITS.AVI = 4MB = HOTU videos (re-encoded)

• Registering LGVID.AX with Windows
• Getting a Codec to run Indeo
• History of the Indeo Codec
• Play order of the videos
• Further Help
• Downloads

Registering LGVID.AX with Windows
For videos of whatever format to play in SS2, the file LGVID.AX must be registered with Windows. LGVID.AX is not the codec but it handles the videos for SS2 and it can be found in your SS2 folder.
If it is not registered correctly the game usually just skips the cutscenes, but in some cases it may not even get to the main menu, because the Irrational-logo video can't play at the start. (Note: The Irrational-logo video plays only once, on the first start of the game.)
To make sure if it is a video problem, rename the file LGVID.AX to LGVID.AX.BAK. If the game runs now, rename the file back and read on.

On Windows XP:

• Click Start and Run and type: cmd
• Type into the DOS prompt window: regsvr32 "c:\your\path\to\SS2\LGVID.AX" Return

On Vista/Windows 7:

• Click Start and type into the search: cmd
• Right click cmd.exe and select: Run As Administrator
• Type into the DOS prompt window: regsvr32 "c:\your\path\to\SS2\LGVID.AX" Return

In many cases this is all that's necessary for the videos to play. So start a new game and see if the intro video plays.
If not we may still have to register a codec that can play them.


Getting a Codec to run Indeo
You have two options here to get a codec (actually a decoder) that will play Indeo encoded videos:

1. Recommended: Download and install ffdshow. This is an excellent and free multicodec that can decode dozens of codecs including Indeo. This is the recommended option because it works most reliably. Make sure to select the correct version for your OS type (32bit/64bit).
Note that if you have any codec pack installed (K-Lite, CCCP, etc) you already have ffdshow and should not install it again.

2. If you don't want to use ffdshow for some reason you will want to register the original (ancient) Indeo codec instead:
This codec is usually not available on Windows XP so download the Indeo codec attached to this post.
On Vista and Windows 7 Indeo is installed by default, however it is not registered by default. See the story of Indeo below if you want to know why.
Next you will want to register Indeo.

On Windows XP:

• Click Start and Run and type: cmd
• In the DOS prompt window type: regsvr32 ir50_32.dll Return

On Vista/Windows 7:

• Click Start and type into the search: cmd
• Right click cmd.exe and select: Run As Administrator
• On 32bit systems type into the DOS prompt window: regsvr32 ir50_32.dll Return
• On 64bit systems  type into the DOS prompt window: regsvr32 "%windir%\sysWOW64\ir50_32.dll" Return

Now your videos should run. If not, note the system messages that you received when trying to register LGVID.AX (and possibly Indeo, if you didn't use ffdshow) and post that information in the Helpdesk forum.


History of the Indeo Codec
The original SS2 videos are encoded with Intel's Indeo Codec which includes video and audio codecs. It used to be part of any Windows 98 and Windows XP installation. But starting with Service Pack 1 Microsoft dropped the Indeo codec from Windows XP.

But Indeo just wouldn't die. Even today it is still needed for a few older games and applications. So Microsoft revived it for Vista and Windows 7. These systems have the codec pre-installed again, albeit limited to local content for security reasons and not registered by default. Microsoft apparently also released an automatic Windows update for XP with the same effect, though I never saw that personally.

Somewhere in between the original manufacturer Intel sold the codec to Ligos Corp who tried to sell a few updated versions. These updates were quite pointless because Indeo is by all accounts a legacy codec now. The content it is required for usually runs fine with the last freely available Indeo version 5.11. And much better codecs exist for new content. On top of that Ligos' updates were incompatible with Vista and Win7.
That's because Microsoft simply locked Ligos out. Using an old deal they had with Intel which allowed them to distribute the codec, they put it back into Vista/Win7 and made the codec system files which cannot be overwritten.

Long story short:  The Indeo codec is part of any Windows system, except Windows XP SP1-SP3 for which a compatible free version exists. See the attachment to this post.
 

Play order of the videos
If you can't get the videos to run inside the game, you might still be able to watch them with a video player outside of the game. This is the order in which the videos are played:

• cs1.avi plays when you start the game
• starport.avi plays after you have chosen your career
• shuttle1.avi plays after you have chosen your 1st training year
• shuttle2.avi plays after you have chosen your 2nd training year
• shuttle3.avi plays after you have chosen your 3rd training year
• cs2.avi plays right after it
• cs3.avi plays after finishing the game

Note: I'm not sure about landing.avi, it should play sometime during your training years as well. Anyone else knows this?


Further Help

• If after following this guide you still can't get the videos to run, please post your problem with a detailed description in Shock Helpdesk.
• Related thread: SS2 Game does not start (video problem)
• The original cutscenes are attached. Unpack the archive into the folder Data in your mod-ready installation of SS2.

Downloads