Aces High Film Viewer...... possible fix?

[The Fugitive]

OK, everyone knows my troubles with the film viewer. I'd say 30-40% of my films have issues.... and no its not my flying    After following "Dads" exploits with using AI to work through the problem of the stutters/freezes I thought Id try to work out why I have so many issues with the viewer and many others dont. After many questions, tests and "back and forths" with Chatgpt it came down to while the game runs well on my computer the film viewer doesnt and this is because the "game" has been updated to DX12, the newer video card frameworks and so on the film viewer hasnt. Even though the film viewer uses the game structure, something are handed different using the film viewer and that is where the issues lie.

So, a dead end from my side as I dont think Hitech is going to spend time going through the film viewer software. Next, I thought what if I had an old computer to run the films through? I had my Dads old Dell I got after he passed. I plugged it in and the stupid thing powered right up. Think has been unplugged for like 5 years sitting in my basement.  They dont build them like that anymore. I added the game to it and took 3 films I have problems with and dropped them in to test. They all played fine, no video anomalies, but when I added some capture software I started to get a slide show. It is a dell and only has on-board video with 4 MB of ram, but it did give me proof of concept.

So I spent the last week or so going through what I had for parts and boxes trying to put together something that runs, but isnt all "up to date". I ended up with ...

Windows 7
P5K-E motherboard
Intel core2 duo E6850 3.0 ghz
8 MB of DDR2 ram
DX11 which comes with Windows 7
Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 6GB video card

With this setup I can run the 3 films that my main computer cant run without anomalies, with no issues. Adding shadowplay gets me close to the limits of this system, but again no issues with the terrain. So it looks like the older your system the better the chance of not having issues with the film viewer. I hope to test more this week adding in camera angle changes and such to see how much I can push this, but it seems chatGPT my have been right with the viewer channels not being updated along with the game over time.

 

[Dadtallica]

That was about white it landed when I asked about it. Is there some way for you to post process the Raw AH film in a different matter or program?

[Animl-AW]

That was some good thinking, totally makes sense.

I don't have quite the errors you do but I do get em.

FV is it's own window exe. I am assuming the contents that need to change are within the window's hidden global scripts. I don't find any exterior files. And if I did and they aren't encrypted or dll form and I could edit them....I would be very disappointed in the programming.

I'd love to be proven wrong, but I don't think it can be fixed internally without HT doing it. The fact it's refused to be done is disturbing since it's the only real way to advertise.

One way MIGHT be to find out what part of windows it clashes with and attempt back pedaling something in Windows. That could be an empty hunt.

Anything else I might contribute may not be acceptable for public consumption.

I'm trying to motivate starting the last scenario video. But things here have been a bit stressful as I still hunt for a new home in a seriously crappy market..

[The Fugitive]

That was about white it landed when I asked about it. Is there some way for you to post process the Raw AH film in a different matter or program?

Im not sure what your asking for.

That was some good thinking, totally makes sense.

I don't have quite the errors you do but I do get em.

FV is it's own window exe. I am assuming the contents that need to change are within the window's hidden global scripts. I don't find any exterior files. And if I did and they aren't encrypted or dll form and I could edit them....I would be very disappointed in the programming.

I'd love to be proven wrong, but I don't think it can be fixed internally without HT doing it. The fact it's refused to be done is disturbing since it's the only real way to advertise.

One way MIGHT be to find out what part of windows it clashes with and attempt back pedaling something in Windows. That could be an empty hunt.

Anything else I might contribute may not be acceptable for public consumption.

I'm trying to motivate starting the last scenario video. But things here have been a bit stressful as I still hunt for a new home in a seriously crappy market..

Im sure that is the only way to fix it. I dont know the details of how/what was done to update the game to continue to bring it forward with the newer technology, but those same things I believe need to be applied to the film viewer software.

I hope to spend some time on it this week, well after I do more shoveling    I hope to test a bunch more films on my main computer, copy and move them to the "old box" and see , 1 if they work, 2 if I can edit them, and 3 capture good footage with shadowplay to use in the videos I make.

I agree that these videos are about the only real "advertising" we have right now. Its too bad we cant get it fixed, but if this work around holds up I will keep me going for now.

[Animl-AW]

Im not sure what your asking for.


Im sure that is the only way to fix it. I dont know the details of how/what was done to update the game to continue to bring it forward with the newer technology, but those same things I believe need to be applied to the film viewer software.

I hope to spend some time on it this week, well after I do more shoveling    I hope to test a bunch more films on my main computer, copy and move them to the "old box" and see , 1 if they work, 2 if I can edit them, and 3 capture good footage with shadowplay to use in the videos I make.

I agree that these videos are about the only real "advertising" we have right now. Its too bad we cant get it fixed, but if this work around holds up I will keep me going for now.

I wonder if this might help. Screen captures can chew up resources because 2 things are happening at once. Reading and writing

Write Caching On = use PC's RAM for caching
Write Caching Off = use your drive's cache for caching.

Using memory MAY be faster, but if it's used up ....<shrug>

I think you'll be fine.

[The Fugitive]

OK, the continuing saga.....umm continues 

Old box build.... works and is a bit stuttery when using capture, just not enough memory and it is maxed out. Trying to adjust camera positions freezes the screen for ever, again Im thinking not enough memory. On top of that its slow memory so Im sure that doesnt help.

Have a newer laptop than the old box. Win10 DX12, intel onboard graphics better ram and cpu. Runs film viewer and capture software better than the old box. It does have a bit of stutter when capturing but I could live with it. Will test camera positioning next.

On my main computer..... I seem to have more issues than most with the film viewer. I KNOW the viewer has issues, but I think something in my computer may be out of adjustment. I noticed that frame rate was over 200 in game, but film viewer was just over 100. Went through the Nvidia settings and locked the frame rates to 59 which is what I have my screen refresh set to. Game runs fine, first films had issues.

I have the Nvidia setting set like Animls tech page suggest. (https://animl-aw.com/nvidia-performance-settings/). I also switched from the sound blaster card I was using for sound to the on-board sound of my mother board. I also removed Challenges sound pack, looking to remove sound conflicts. Still no go.

As you can see, film looks like crap!



Any thoughts on what else I can try?

[Animl-AW]

OK, the continuing saga.....umm continues 

Old box build.... works and is a bit stuttery when using capture, just not enough memory and it is maxed out. Trying to adjust camera positions freezes the screen for ever, again Im thinking not enough memory. On top of that its slow memory so Im sure that doesnt help.

Have a newer laptop than the old box. Win10 DX12, intel onboard graphics better ram and cpu. Runs film viewer and capture software better than the old box. It does have a bit of stutter when capturing but I could live with it. Will test camera positioning next.

On my main computer..... I seem to have more issues than most with the film viewer. I KNOW the viewer has issues, but I think something in my computer may be out of adjustment. I noticed that frame rate was over 200 in game, but film viewer was just over 100. Went through the Nvidia settings and locked the frame rates to 59 which is what I have my screen refresh set to. Game runs fine, first films had issues.

I have the Nvidia setting set like Animls tech page suggest. (https://animl-aw.com/nvidia-performance-settings/). I also switched from the sound blaster card I was using for sound to the on-board sound of my mother board. I also removed Challenges sound pack, looking to remove sound conflicts. Still no go.

As you can see, film looks like crap!

(Image removed from quote.)

Any thoughts on what else I can try?

I think sound issues MAY apply in certain objects like ship and field guns when in close range, enough to see muzzle flash. So not sure if it's an FX animation or sound issue. That usually results in a dead crash.

I'm lost on the terrain tile misplacement. I've seen it only a cpl times. SO I don't think it's your machine specific, but you seem to see it more than me.
One question I have is is it a older map or newer? I saw it in BoB films but I think that was an older map.

Also wondering if it's reading elevation right. Some are gone and some are elevated. Are they below the water? we don't know

Stutter tends to be either the settings in the screen capture or GPU. Try middle of the road first. On GPU you may have to cut a quality setting. I had to.

[icepac]

How long are these films?

[The Fugitive]

I think sound issues MAY apply in certain objects like ship and field guns when in close range, enough to see muzzle flash. So not sure if it's an FX animation or sound issue. That usually results in a dead crash.

I'm lost on the terrain tile misplacement. I've seen it only a cpl times. SO I don't think it's your machine specific, but you seem to see it more than me.
One question I have is is it a older map or newer? I saw it in BoB films but I think that was an older map.

Also wondering if it's reading elevation right. Some are gone and some are elevated. Are they below the water? we don't know

Stutter tends to be either the settings in the screen capture or GPU. Try middle of the road first. On GPU you may have to cut a quality setting. I had to.

I dont think its a sound issue. I did those changes to see if it had any effect and it didnt. Like I said I no issues while playing the game, no crashes ever. I did get a very rare disco last night, mayybe 3rd in 5 years.

I have started tracking maps in the names of the films to see if that might be an issue. Last night on baltic game played fine (except the disco) but film from last night is messed up. I was thinking it was something in the newer maps, but baltic is old and its there too.

A film I did during testing while adjusting Nvidia settings yesterday clearly showed the trees following a hill that I drove up, but there was no ground showing, it looked like the trees were floating above the terrain, but I could drive up the invisible hill. So why does my computer draw the ground while IN the game, but it doesnt while Im playing back a film? Whats the difference?

Ill look into changing the screen capture settings when I have a minute.

How long are these films?

Film length doesnt seem to matter. I took one film that plays bad on new computer, that plays fine on old box. Used the film viewer to cut an 18 second section of the film out of that film. On the old box that short played fine, on my new computer it had texture issues.

[The Fugitive]

UPDATE!

After tweaking the old box to death and getting it running a smooth as possible it was still crashing while trying to adjust camera angles. Im sure that is a memory issue on my end. The thing that was bothering me was that I could run films on my old box that would crash on my new box..... back to chatgtp.

GOing back and forth with Chatgpt giving specs of both boxes and such it came back with a bunch of things to try. Most are windows tweaks or graphic card adjustments, all of which I did or had done before. A big one I found was that DX11 doesnt come with all of the DX9 components. Downloaded and installed those, still no real changes. Next it suggested that the newest driver for my Nvidia card (595.79)may be buggy or have an issue with the game. I asked for the most stable driver and it suggested a 2 year old driver (566.36) I also asked for the driver my card was released with, 531.79.

So instead of jumping all the way back I opted for the most stable drivers set. I used UDD to clean out all video card drivers and installed the older drivers. Before the driver change I was getting film viewer crashes about 90% of the time. Almost all films crashed the film viewer at one time or another. AFTER the driver change I am under 10% crashes. I havent had time to try messing with camera positioning but that is next. I had very little issue cutting up the film I used for my "Field Suppression" film. So far starting the film viewer and then picking a film to view sometimes causes isses, but if you just double click the film in the file manager they run fine. Also closing out and restarting the film viewer for each film seems to help as well. I have cut bits of film out and saved them to make editing easier, I have used the 8x FF with out issues as well as the sldier bar to jump ahead in the film, with no issue.

So at this time Im thinking there is something that needs to be updated in the film viewer that HAS been updated in the game that allows the newer drivers NOT to clash with the game software. I hope Hitech takes a look at it.

[Animl-AW]

What a journey.

Ya, FV needs an update. But he seems to be around even less than normal. I just don’t see it coming.

I think you proved the amount of crashes are machine specific. I didn’t have quite the amount you had. I think its some kind of driver issue we can’t fully fix on our own.