The support article for Windows 7 machines who are unable to proceed past the disclaimer screen will also remove cinematics that are relevant to Episode 4.

[PlayerPawn]

I'm one of the unlucky people who is unable to play the new episode because of the Unity engine issue that is stopping MP4 files from playing on Windows 7 machines.  The support article states that you need to remove all MP4 files found within the directory specified, if you want to play any of the episode.  However, that means you're also effectively removing what appear to be important cinematics from the episode, including the epilogue.  But it gets worse, because if someone new is just starting, the entire introduction of Astrid and Will, as well as the events that landed them in Great Bear in the first place are removed from the first episode.  It also removes the episode 3 ending cinematic as well as an important story beat about Astrid's background.

I get that this is a Unity bug, but I feel that workaround needs to be clear and honest about how this will impact the user experience and be upfront about how they will be missing important plot points until the issue can be properly resolved.  At present, the support article makes no mention of this, which means you're not letting users make an informed choice on how to approach this issue.  I don't believe this was left out intentionally, but I think it's only fair that you update the support article to let users know what is being removed from the game in order for it to function until a proper fix can be deployed.

[Puddy]

To be fair, they never state to delete everything in that directory.  They specifically say delete all files not folders.  However, as you've said, unless you delete everything then you are just delaying the black screen a little.  Yeh, it's really not a fix, and i hope they are aware of that fact Win7 users are having to delete the cutscenes.  I've submitted a ticket anyway.

While it may be a unity bug, it's on Hinterland to fix for us surely?  I get that Win7 isn't supported these days, but it's still there listed in TLD's minimum requirements.

[PlayerPawn]

Quote

48 minutes ago, Puddy said:

To be fair, they never state to delete everything in that directory.  They specifically say delete all files not folders.  However, as you've said, unless you delete everything then you are just delaying the black screen a little.  Yeh, it's really not a fix, and i hope they are aware of that fact Win7 users are having to delete the cutscenes.  I've submitted a ticket anyway.

While it may be a unity bug, it's on Hinterland to fix for us surely?  I get that Win7 isn't supported these days, but it's still there listed in TLD's minimum requirements.

 

The problem is that any MP4 that plays will result in this issue.  When I followed the instructions to delete all the videos in the folder, I was able to get to the main menu and resume my old story mode game, which saved right before the ending of episode 3.  When you activate the door at the end of the tunnel, it triggers the ending scene of episode 3, which is an MP4.  Not surprisingly, this resulted in the game going to a black screen just like it did previously with the opening title cards.  This means that in order to make the game functional, they're asking you to remove content that is important to the story, which I feel we can objectively say isn't a solution or even a workaround.  This is why I have a problem with the support article, because it acts as some kind of solution for story mode when it's not.  It also doesn't explain that you'll need to delete the cinematics folder to prevent this problem from happening in other areas of the story mode too, as it suggests that you'll only be removing inconsequential title cards and such when that's not the case.

I do agree, this is on Hinterland to fix since it is their product at the end of the day.  This problem has been known to them in some form or another since at least the first week of January, as you can use the wayback machine on the main "Issues and Troubleshooting" page to see the "Black screen after disclaimer" article appears at that time.  It's also clear to me that they knew this would be an issue for Windows 7 users as the support article I've been going on about specifically references the Episode 4 build, which released today.  At the very least, they need to make it clear that this "workaround" requires you to remove important story content from the game, so at least people can make a more informed choice on if that's something they're okay with.  Personally, I think the article shouldn't suggest this as a "workaround" for the story mode at all and instead, make it specific to people having issues getting past the title cards when attempting to play survival mode only.

I personally don't understand how one of the most common media formats in use today is causing such problems for this length of time in one of the most popular game engines out there.  I don't want to give anyone grief though, as I am merely an outsider looking in.  I know the production during the pandemic must have been a unique and extremely challenging time for everyone on the team at one point or another.  All I can hope for now is an actual fix and not the ill-advised "workaround" they currently have posted.

[Puddy]

I agree with you 100%!  It's a temporary workaround, but they seem to be suggesting it is a permanent solution.

I submitted a ticket hoping that they would say they were working on it or something, and got a response back saying basically....'well did it fix it for you then or not?'.

Yes, but at the expense of all cutscenes lol.  I'm honestly baffled as to how they could think it is a 'fix'.

[Kranium]

You've got to be f**** kidding me. They need to actually fix this.

 

BTW Win 7 is still supported by Microsoft: some of us get Extended Security Updates, which are available until January 10, 2023. In certain situations, it's still needed and/or ubiquitous - mostly for work-related things. (where it's directly tied to expensive equipment, for example, like in a hospital)

Edited October 7, 2021 by Kranium

[PlayerPawn]

13 hours ago, Puddy said:

I agree with you 100%!  It's a temporary workaround, but they seem to be suggesting it is a permanent solution.

The article does mention that it's a problem that they want to address in a subsequent patch, so I don't feel they view it as a permanent solution, but a workaround to the issue.  However, what I'm  not sure on is if they understand that all MP4's are causing this problem, since their article does not address that at all.  It makes me think that they don't actually know the true scope of the problem for which this "workaround" was designed for.

Edit: I submitted a ticket describing the scope of the issue.  I didn't originally think it necessary since they were aware of the problem, but after writing out my response, I realized it's possible they didn't understand the scope of it.

Edited October 7, 2021 by PlayerPawn
Context

[Puddy]

3 hours ago, PlayerPawn said:

The article does mention that it's a problem that they want to address in a subsequent patch, so I don't feel they view it as a permanent solution, but a workaround to the issue. 

 

You are right, it does say that.  I'd completely missed that in my haste sorry.  Clearly hadn't had enough coffee yesterday. ☕

[FatherFrost]

Have Win 7 and the same problem - any .mp4 won't play and I see a black screen. Had to remove them to play. What is interesting - in Windows they play without any problem. I don't know how it was possible to screw it up, but they could. Till the episode 4 everything worked great.

[diosmio123]

Yesterday i was able to research some stuff probably related to the issue. Sadly i am not able to open up a ticket and send this stuff to support because i have a important date in a few minutes. Therefore i just leave that stuff here.

 

Issue WindowsVideoMedia error 0xc00d36b4

Probably a solution - temporarily till finaly fixed by Unity

Other project from another developer with same issue and solution - read post with COMPLETE marker

 

[Puddy]

3 hours ago, diosmio123 said:

Yesterday i was able to research some stuff probably related to the issue. Sadly i am not able to open up a ticket and send this stuff to support because i have a important date in a few minutes. Therefore i just leave that stuff here.

 

Issue WindowsVideoMedia error 0xc00d36b4

Probably a solution - temporarily till finaly fixed by Unity

Other project from another developer with same issue and solution - read post with COMPLETE marker

 

 

You absolute legend!  It works 

I converted it to Webm (I think that is VP8 right?).  It worked anyway so all's good with the world again ha

[diosmio123]

4 hours ago, Puddy said:

 

You absolute legend!  It works 

I converted it to Webm (I think that is VP8 right?).  It worked anyway so all's good with the world again ha

 

It was more meant to be kind of a hint for the developers as a possible solution. But you are right. It works as a workaround for us too till Hinterland has updated TLD. So, yeah. As long as a user is able to convert the video with software to .webm the game is able to play them like they should. Have just sent a ticket with that stuff to hinterland support.

I recommend to wait till hinterland has fixed the issue instead of tampering around with hinterlands intellectual property. Especially NOT uploading the intellectual property of hinterland to third party servers on the internet!

Edited October 8, 2021 by diosmio123

[PlayerPawn]

So I got response back to my ticket.  Apparently they understand the scope of the issue and my concerns that the support article didn't indicate this were unfounded.  In their response they clearly communicate that their "workaround" is the removal of story cinematics which, if you watch them, shows fairly important story beats.  I'm not sure why it seemed so effortless to communicate that to me directly but their support article, which appears to have been updated, still refuses to acknowledge this directly.  They still claim it's inconsequential title cards and a few black screens when they know that's only a half-truth, and half-truths are still intentionally misleading.  This really would have never been an issue for me if they were just up front about it, instead of pretending that this "workaround" is at all acceptable.

[moroco]

Thank you very much guys. I converted the files to .wbem and now my game works fine.

[Kranium]

Home again. Tried this out. It works. Convert the .mp4 files to .webm, and you'll be good to go. You don't need to do every single file, to be clear: check every file to see if it has audio embedded. If there's no audio, you need to convert it to .webm. Otherwise it's an older file which will play just fine.

 

Poke around online for a converter. Keep the original video files around just in case. (move them to another folder somewhere) All good.

Edited October 10, 2021 by Kranium

[bushcraft on sofa]

Hello folks, win7 user is here.

Thanks for .webm idea. Doing this right now..

Why Devs cannot do this, as a temperory solution? (convert all .mp4 files to .webm)

[ProennekeWannaBe]

So, I'm a noob... and definitely not a programmer by any means...but I have been having issues with the new episode and all the speak skipping during the cut scenes...kind of like all the characters have a stutter...would this help to fix that issue as well? I have not found any threads addressing this... I am running Windows 10 version 21H1...

[Leeanda]

11 hours ago, ProennekeWannaBe said:

So, I'm a noob... and definitely not a programmer by any means...but I have been having issues with the new episode and all the speak skipping during the cut scenes...kind of like all the characters have a stutter...would this help to fix that issue as well? I have not found any threads addressing this... I am running Windows 10 version 21H1...

Sorry can't answer that but just wanted to say Welcome".

[Admin]

Hi all -- we've created a forum post to address some of the most common issues following the update: 

 

Thanks for your patience as we work on longterm solutions. 

 

[Admin]

On 10/18/2021 at 4:15 PM, ProennekeWannaBe said:

So, I'm a noob... and definitely not a programmer by any means...but I have been having issues with the new episode and all the speak skipping during the cut scenes...kind of like all the characters have a stutter...would this help to fix that issue as well? I have not found any threads addressing this... I am running Windows 10 version 21H1...

This sounds like a separate issue, though we'd be happy to investigate: https://hinterlandgames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us 

[darkfiber08]

On 10/17/2021 at 7:59 PM, bushcraft on sofa said:

Hello folks, win7 user is here.

Thanks for .webm idea. Doing this right now..

Why Devs cannot do this, as a temperory solution? (convert all .mp4 files to .webm)

Just wanted to say, that converting the files to .webm doesn't fix the issue, it just skips the cinematics the same way it does if you delete or rename them.

I guess people mistook the scripted content in the beginning of episode 4 for cinematics, just play the video files with a video player and you'll see they don't run in game.

Otherwise I don't see how this solution could work for some people and not for others

Edited October 24, 2021 by darkfiber08

[bushcraft on sofa]

1 hour ago, darkfiber08 said:

Just wanted to say, that converting the files to .webm doesn't fix the issue, it just skips the cinematics the same way it does if you delete or rename them.

No, I can see cinematics in game after converting the files to .webm

[darkfiber08]

4 hours ago, bushcraft on sofa said:

No, I can see cinematics in game after converting the files to .webm

And here I am, trying this in both win7 and win10, and it just skips them.

What did you use to convert the files if I may ask? and again, are you sure those are the video files you are seeing in game? because at the start of epsiode 4 there is story play that isnt one of the videos.

[Admin]

Hi all -- we're still working on this one. The upcoming Hotfix should address this issue, but we'll release more information as it becomes available.