WC2 WCKS - cutscenes too fast

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ToxicFrog

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Although the game itself runs fine, and the sound and music is timed properly, the cutscene video is slightly faster than it should be. In a lot of cases (briefings, for example) this isn't such a big deal, because it never goes fast enough to cut off the conversation, but in some cases it's really obvious -- the biggie being in any scene that shows your cockpit from outside. As the ship slides forward, it'll go faster than the scene was timed for and you'll run out of ship, leaving just the front half of your fighter sliding across the screen...
It doesn't affect gameplay and the story is all still there, but it's really jarring. Anyone know of a fix for this?

System in question:
- WC2 WCKS
- Windows 2000 (happens with and without compatibility mode)
- P4 2.6GHz CPU, hyperthreading
- 1024MB RAM
- Radeon 9200 or Radeon 9800Pro video card (I recently upgraded and have thus been able to observe this with both cards)
 
It really shouldn't have happened at all on a 486. It is apparent in the DOS WC2 on some much faster computers, but the KS issue is different, since the game was designed for Pentiums and above. I believe some people had some success fixing this issue in the Task Manager. Once KS is running, hit Control, Alt and Delete and click on the Processes tab. Right click on the WCKS program and adjust the Set Priority option. Experiment with everything from Real Time to Low.
 
climber said:
now if only someone could fix it so you could play WC2 KS with the keyboard.......
Click to expand...
But...you can. I use the keyboard for everything but firing and PYR (for which I use the joystick), but you can do that with the spacebar and arrow keys if you really want to.
 
ChrisReid said:
Right click on the WCKS program and adjust the Set Priority option. Experiment with everything from Real Time to Low.
Click to expand...
I'm not about to give it Realtime priority, but I'll fiddle with that. I'll also try adjusting the processor affinity mask, now that you've reminded me I can do that -- it might, like the Dark engine, be reacting oddly to having two processors available.
 
ChrisReid said:
It's up to you, that's just what some people have done to fix problems with KS.
Click to expand...
It's just that it's been my experience that 2k takes the concept of 'real time' quite literally; a program given realtime priority will consume all available CPU cycles until it exits, to the point that the system effectively becomes single-tasking.
This rarely has pleasant results and, depending on the program in question, can require a hard reboot.
 
So, fiddled around with it. Changing the affinity didn't help. Changing the priority not only didn't help, it introduced a bunch of problems with the sound; furthermore, WC2 would reset its own priority to LOW shortly after I changed it each time.
 
tis indeed a strange thing. Never had it running too fast. Just turning like a slug if I used the keyboard to fly the thing. Pah
 
Yeah, it's some sort of unique set of components that causes the game's frame rate limiter to break. It's not a consistent problem, so that's why it's really hard to diagnose and resolve.
 
ChrisReid said:
Yeah, it's some sort of unique set of components that causes the game's frame rate limiter to break. It's not a consistent problem, so that's why it's really hard to diagnose and resolve.
Click to expand...
The strong implication here being that it uses different framerate limiting code in cutscenes and in game. Aaaaagh...
Damn, I wish we had the source code right now.
 
Could be. Problems with the video actually very often relate back to some sort of issue with the user's sound card.
 
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