Error playing videos

[Chaosprower]

When the I start the game or any video in the game starts playing this error message appears:

"Video playing error: File not found or format not supported.
C/Program Files/Al Emmo/Al_Emmo.023"

[GameDevChris]

What operating system are you using? The game uses the MPEG-1 codec to play back cut-scene movies, so I would suggest trying to install the latest Quicktime drivers on your system.

Also, you can try the suggestions in this thread:

http://www.himalayaforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518

[Chaosprower]

I'm using Windows Vista Home Premium. I bought the game in Direct2Drive.

I tried updating my quicktime codecs, but it didn't work.

[GameDevChris]

Try installing the DirectShow MPEG decoder filter on the following page, installing it, rebooting, and then trying the game again.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/GPL ... Filter.htm

Your system needs to be configured to play MPEG-1 video files for the movies to work. Most PC's support MPEG-1 "out-of-the-box", but occasionally, some systems might need additional filters or decoders installed before it will work.

Just to confirm, can you see the file "Al_Emmo.023" (and any other files that result in a similar error message) located in your game directory?  And if so, can you open and play them in Windows Media Player, or Media Player Classic?

[Chaosprower]

I installed the decoder and it didn't work.

The files are in the game directory. I've tried playing "Al_Emmo.023" with Media Player Classic and I can see the cutscenes but they don't have sound.

[GameDevChris]

Hmmm... other than playing around with the settings with your FFDShow filters, I'm not sure what else to suggest.

I guess the best solution in your case would be to rename the cutscene movies to the .mpg extension and then use a DivX encoder (such as Dr. DivX) to covert the movies to DivX format. Then, after they have been converted, rename the converted files back to their former .0XX extensions, where XX are the numbers.

The movie files in the game directory are as follows:

Al_Emmo.023
Al_Emmo.024
Al_Emmo.025
Al_Emmo.026
Al_Emmo.030

Note: some of those files may not exist, depending on which version of the game you have.


You could try doing this with the smallest movie -- the Himalaya Studios logo -- first (Al_Emmo.023) and seeing if it plays in-game. If so, then you should be safe to follow the same process with the other movie files.

Sorry I don't have a better solution for you. The game engine uses Windows Media Player  (the normal version, not classic) to play back the cutscene movies. Sound tracks are stored in the game itself. So if you can get them playing in Windows Media Player, they should be working in the game too.