AVI Problems with Windows 95

Product: Lightwave Revs: 4.0 5.0

Platforms: Intel

Problem: Can't Render AVIs:

1) The 4.0 Install overwrites Windows 95 drivers with older versions. Some users report that simply replacing AVIFIL32.DLL by reloading it from the Windows 95 install CD or disks will resolve the problem.

To reload from the Win 95 CD:

Step 1. Place W95 CD-ROM in drive.

Step 2. Open a Dos shell.

Step 3. Enter the command

cd c:\windows\system

and hit return.

Step 4. Enter the command

extract {cd}:\win95\win95_08.cab avifil32.dll

where {CD} should be the designation of the CD-ROM drive (d, e, or whatever), hit return, and the proper file will overwrite the existing file.

If that does not resolve the issue, then you should:

Step 1. Go to the Settings option on the Windows "Start" menu,

Step 2. Select the Control Panel,

Step 3. Select Add/Remove Programs,

Step 4. Select Windows Setup,

Step 5. Select and remove the Multimedia group.

Step 6. Exit and restart Windows.

Step 7. Repeat 1-4 and re-add the multimedia group.

Step 8. Exit and restart Windows again.

Step 9. Delete the file NewTek\Programs\LW.CFG.

Step 10. Run LightWave, add all Plugins from the NewTek\Plugins\Layout directory, including HIIPAVI16.P, HIIPAVI32.P, and NT_AVI.P.

Step 11. Exit and restart LightWave.After this, the plugins, including the HIIP AVI and NT_AVI savers,should be available and working.

2) There is a bug in the MicroSoft AVI codecs such that you can appear to have rendered a blank AVI. If you load the file in MediaPlayer and scrub the AVI you will find that, while blank sections may have been appended to the beginning and the end of the AVI, the AVI has actually rendered successfully.

3) When saving an AVI, you must type in a complete filename in the filename requester, including the extension ".avi", or no file will be saved.

4) One further issue that can arise in both 4.0 and 5.0 is crashing when using the NT_AVI plugin to render scenes which have lens flares. The source of this problem seems to be the 16-bit versions of the AVI codec drivers. These are not needed and the user can edit the "system.ini" file to REM out these driver lines, which begin with "VIDC", by simply placing a semi-colon at the beginning of each of the three lines. These codec driver lines are found in the [drivers] section. The entries in the [drivers32] section must be left alone.

Here is the relevant section of the [drivers] section, as it should look after you edit it:

VIDC.IV32=ir32.dll
;VIDC.IV31=ir32.dll
;VIDC.RT21=ir21.dll
;VIDC.YVU9=iyvu9.dll
VIDC.MSVC=msvidc.drv
VIDC.MRLE=MSRLE.drv
VIDC.AASC=AASC.drv
VIDC.AFLC=flccodec.drv
VIDC.AFLI=flccodec.drv

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