Author Topic: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?  (Read 4550 times)

Offline 8thJinx

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Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« on: December 19, 2025, 10:30:28 AM »
The window opens, but then crashes and closes when I try to open a film file.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2025, 10:36:16 AM by 8thJinx »
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Offline The Fugitive

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2025, 11:47:09 AM »
Mine works fine...... well as fine as the film viewer ever works  :rolleyes:

Did you try different films? I find that mine runs better when I select the film from the file manager and let windows open the film player.

Offline Animl-AW

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2025, 11:58:44 AM »
As Fugi said, try another file
There are times when a file becomes corrupt

Also, if there is a ship gun, some ground guns are involved in muzzle flash closeup it could crash.

I had a film just to get siren sound, it will only crash, it will never open

SO, I’m starting to lean towards some crashes COULD be associated with certain sounds. I have no proven conclusion, but a pattern is forming on my end

This is why close up ship or field guns are not in my videos.
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Offline JimmyD3

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2025, 01:08:50 PM »
Remember you have to start AH Film Viewer first, then select the file to open from the File menu. :bolt:
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Offline The Fugitive

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2025, 01:11:54 PM »
Remember you have to start AH Film Viewer first, then select the file to open from the File menu. :bolt:

Not after you open the first one. Once Windows associates the film viewer to the films double clicking a film with open the film viewer.

Offline 8thJinx

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2025, 01:25:34 PM »
There hasn't been a single film I've been able to open since loading the game this past weekend.
Join Date: Nov 2012

B-24H Liberator SN 294837-T, "The Jinx", 848th BS, 490th BG, 8th AF, RAF Station Eye, delivered 1943.  Piloted by Lt. Thomas Keyes, named by by his crew, and adorned with bad luck symbols, the aircraft survived the entire war.

Offline Animl-AW

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2025, 03:31:01 PM »
Does the FV open without trying to open a file? Or dies it just crash when opening FV files?
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Offline 8thJinx

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2025, 04:12:26 PM »
It only crashes when I try to open a file. Whether it's open FV first then select file, or double click directly on the file, or right click on the file and select "open with."
Join Date: Nov 2012

B-24H Liberator SN 294837-T, "The Jinx", 848th BS, 490th BG, 8th AF, RAF Station Eye, delivered 1943.  Piloted by Lt. Thomas Keyes, named by by his crew, and adorned with bad luck symbols, the aircraft survived the entire war.

Offline 8thJinx

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2025, 04:14:35 PM »
Hey I just tried a new film file and it opened.  So files film0, film1, film2 still don't work, but film3 does.
Join Date: Nov 2012

B-24H Liberator SN 294837-T, "The Jinx", 848th BS, 490th BG, 8th AF, RAF Station Eye, delivered 1943.  Piloted by Lt. Thomas Keyes, named by by his crew, and adorned with bad luck symbols, the aircraft survived the entire war.

Offline The Fugitive

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2025, 04:24:21 PM »
Hey I just tried a new film file and it opened.  So files film0, film1, film2 still don't work, but film3 does.

welcome to the fun of using the film viewer!

I know a couple of the newer maps seem to cause my viewer to crash easier. If they do play they have the Z axis issue where trees are displayed 50 feet above the ground.

Offline potsNpans

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2026, 04:49:36 PM »
Last time I used AHfilm viewer was about a year ago. Tried to use it today, and all it does is pop up an icon in my taskbar but that's all. I've tried to run it through a shortcut on desktop and opening ahfilmV in AH3 folder. Any ideas?

Offline 1ijac

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2026, 11:35:43 PM »
This might be a silly question, but are you trying to open it when you have the game minimized?  The film viewer won't work unless the game is closed.  On some maps you have to alt+ctrl+del to leave the game and I have found that it minimized the game and never closed it sometimes.  Find the game icon in the task bar much later.

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Offline hazmatt

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2026, 10:05:08 AM »
I recall having a problem where some films would play in the film viewer and others would crash. It was almost as if some films had been corrupted and others had not. Not sure if that could be part of it.

Offline potsNpans

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2026, 05:56:02 PM »
This might be a silly question, but are you trying to open it when you have the game minimized?  The film viewer won't work unless the game is closed.  On some maps you have to alt+ctrl+del to leave the game and I have found that it minimized the game and never closed it sometimes.  Find the game icon in the task bar much later.

Cheers, One-eye

Game was closed. Cleaned out the que that came up when right clicking taskbar icon. Only can right click on task bar AH film icon to see menu of a film I tried to recently filmed, a choice to pin to taskbar, close window or ahFilm-shortcut. Still ignorant of how to get it to run.

Offline The Fugitive

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Re: Anyone else not able to start film viewer?
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2026, 09:22:44 PM »
I hate the film viewer. It makes putting together my videos so much harder than it has to be sometimes. OK heres what I have on the film viewer......

1) double clicking on a xxx.ahf either on the desktop, or through "file manager" (C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\films) in the taskbar should either open the film viewer with that film queued up, or open the windows dialog box asking what to use to open the file. Navigate to C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III and click on the ahfilm.exe to associate the .ahf to the viewer.

2) navigate to C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III and right click on the ahfilm.exe file and select "other" and select "create a desktop icon". This will put an icon on your desktop to use to open the film viewer on its own. Once the viewer is open, click on "file" and navigate to C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\films to select a film to play.

3) I restart the filmviewer for each film. I get less crashes this way.

4) I have also set the compatibility to "Vista".... I know right? Right click the film viewer icon, select "properties" and click the "compatibility" tab near the top. Click the box with the "run this in compatibility mode" and select "vista, service pack 2" and click "apply". This is the one that I use to get less crashes.

5) I believe there are a couple of maps that have a Z axis issue with not getting the terrain files piled right. More often than not these map seem to give me plenty of anomalies lke bases that float above the terrain as well as tree textures. I havnt found a way around this yet. I just chuck those films.

Those are my steps and work arounds for the issues I have run into. Doing this I can get most of the films to run long enough to grab what I need for my videos.