Video Skipping during intro

[Natrunner]

I got a small problem. During the intro to Civ 3, The sound skips. I'm running Windows XP Home SP1, Sound Blaster Audigy, GeForce 3 Ti 500, 512Mb of RAM, Pioneer DVD player, Gigabyte GA7DXR+MB with ADM XP1900. All drivers and bios are current and I'm using the latest patch for Civ 3. During the game, the sound is fine. It only skips during the intro. I've even tried reinstalling the game. Somebody help!

[Natrunner]

The subject heading says Video but I meant Sound sorry about that.

[Ethelred]

If everything else is working I wouldn't bother messing with anything. I assume you are talking about the opening video. That is using a special video codec called Bink Video. Its the same company that used to to do the Miles sound system for DOS.

You might want to double check the Audigy to be sure you really do have the latest drivers and for your mother board as well as AMDs often have compatibility problems if everything isn't completely up to date. Heat problems too sometimes but with just the one video that shouldn't be a problem.

What I would do if I was you is to open up Explorer navigate to the right folder and change the name of the video. Once or twice is enough for me and if the name is changed the game will start without trying to play it.

path to folder
C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\Art\Movies

Name of file
intro.bik

Name of file in my folder after changing it some time ago.
introHIDE.bik

People often sugest changing the extension. This is better. I don't have to remember what the extension was.

[Natrunner]

Thx for the info. I'll try that.

[Raion]

Just press the Esc key when the game starts a little into the video introduction also.

Try the other bink file in the Windows 2000 folder. I found that with Windows98SE because of upgrades and patches from Microsoft, I had to use that bink file. Try either one bink file, since getting Windows 2000 Professional, both actually work with that, but I tend to use the Windows 2000 bink file made.

[Raion]

I found out last night that running other programs first, the memory was not cleared by Windows fast enough. The sound skipped, which it never had before.
I think its better to start off with a fresh computer when starting the game.

Start the computer, then only play Civ III, turn off (if you can) all those little start-up program leaving only Explorer and Systray, and programs needed for Windows, the rest are not needed, and now programs all think that everyone wants those little programs to make the main program start up faster, since Microsoft added those to make it appear that their OS system actually works faster, than what it does work.

[Jaybe]

Check out the Security Briefing also. It is short, doesn't take up the full screen and is fun to watch (more times than the default Intro.bik).

Change name of intro.bik to preserve it; change name of Security Briefing (not sure of its name, it is in the same folder), to intro.bik; start the game.

To disable ALL intro movies, just don't have any file with the name "Intro".