(SOLVED) Game-breaking bug, any help?

[Shikadi]

So right after the first transition during the first cutscene in the game, the screen goes black and the game locks. I was able to skip this by holding Q and watching the cutscene on Youtube, however I'm now at the hospital (roughly 10 minutes into the game) and the game locks again in the same way after he closes the door.

Skipping doesn't do anything this time and I can't progress no matter what I try.



Specs:

Nvidia RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB

32 GB RAM

i7-6700k 4.0GHZ

Windows 10



What I've tried:

Disabling Steam Overlay

Disabling Fullscreen Optimizations

Changing the language from English to Japanese

Verifying Game Files

Updating the game

Reinstalling the game

Restarting my PC

Updating Graphics Drivers

Updating Windows

Running the game at 1920x1080 with Movie Display set to Performance mode

Running the game Fullscreen, Windowed, and Windowed (Fullscreen)

Running Steam and the game as an Administrator

Running the game in DX11

Adding Exception to Anti-Virus

Disabling Anti-Virus



I've tried everything I can think of and find, but I just can't get past this brick wall and I really want to play this game. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[El_Papuh]

Hey man, i had the same problem with you, i just needed to download the video codec 9 and now my game works perfectly

[TS2]

Originally posted by El_Papuh:

Hey man, i had the same problem with you, i just needed to download the video codec 9 and now my game works perfectly

That reminds me.

If you are located in the EU or Korea, you likely have a special copy of Windows (Windows N or KN) that is missing several key DirectX and proprietary codec components by default due to antitrust rulings in those entities.

To re-enable them, go to Windows Settings, Apps and Features, and Optional Features. Add the Media Feature Pack Optional Feature, and complete its installation. Restart the PC afterwards.
———
If this does not apply to you, very well. Know that EU users may need to know of this to get the game to function, alongside downloading the WebM VP9 Codecs from the Microsoft Store.

[Shikadi]

Thanks for your replies.

I live in Canada, but I checked anyways. I don't see that under Optional Features, so I tried something called Graphical Tools to no avail.

I also checked the Microsoft store for the WebM VP9 Codecs, the closest I could find is something called VP9 Video Extensions, which I already have installed.

Unfortunately it still isn't working.

[Shikadi]

I made an interesting discovery that basically confirms I'm missing something somehow.

I attempted to load the game onto an old computer that could barely run it at 1fps, however it played a Bethesda logo animation as well as another animation I have never seen before.

When running the game on my computer, it jumps straight to the multilingual seizure warnings.

My attempt failed, as it cannot run the game past the cutscene. It plays audio from the cutscene, so it IS playing it where my computer does not, however it crashes before I can skip it and save.

This wouldn't be a real solution anyhow, as I'm assuming there are more cutscenes in the game and I can't do this every time.

[アミダ]

Do you have any sort of custom video codec pack installed?

[Shikadi]

Possibly?

I can't remember specifically which codecs I've had to grab in the past.

After some googling, I discovered I can view my installed codecs via Windows Media Player, I've listed them as follows:


ICM Intel IYUV codec IYUV iyuv_32.dll 10.0.19041.1

ICM Microsoft RLE MRLE msrle32.dll 10.0.19041.1

ICM Microsoft Video 1 MSVC msvidc32.dll 10.0.19041.1

ICM Microsoft YUV UYVY msyuv.dll 10.0.19041.1

ICM Toshiba YUV Codec Y411 tsbyuv.dll 10.0.19041.1

ICM Microsoft YUV UYVY msyuv.dll 10.0.19041.1

DMO Mpeg4s Decoder DMO mp4s, MP4S, m4s2, M4S2, MP4V, mp4v, XVID, xvid, DIVX, DX50 mp4sdecd.dll 10.0.19041.1706

DMO WMV Screen decoder DMO MSS1, MSS2 wmvsdecd.dll 10.0.19041.1

DMO WMVideo Decoder DMO WMV1, WMV2, WMV3, WMVA, WVC1, WMVP, WVP2, VC1S wmvdecod.dll 10.0.19041.1110

DMO Mpeg43 Decoder DMO mp43, MP43 mp43decd.dll 10.0.19041.1165

DMO MS ATC Screen Decoder 1 MSA1 scdec.dll 15.0.4703.1000

DMO Mpeg4 Decoder DMO MPG4, mpg4, mp42, MP42 mpg4decd.dll 10.0.19041.1165


Oddly enough, I'm not seeing VP9 in there, unless I'm mistaken.

[Shikadi]

Looking at System Information, I can see I have something called Lagarith Lossless Codec. This sounds suspicious so I'm going to investigate further.

EDIT: It seems to just be a .dll file in my System32. I tried removing it temporarily but it made no difference.

[Shikadi]

I've discovered a folder in my Program Files (x86) folder called "FreeCodecPack" and it contains a folder called "Haali" and a folder called "LAV", as well as a file called "VSFilter.dll"

Do you think any of these could be causing the problem somehow?

[TS2]

Originally posted by Shikadi:

Possibly?

I can't remember specifically which codecs I've had to grab in the past.

After some googling, I discovered I can view my installed codecs via Windows Media Player, I've listed them as follows:


ICM Intel IYUV codec IYUV iyuv_32.dll 10.0.19041.1

ICM Microsoft RLE MRLE msrle32.dll 10.0.19041.1

ICM Microsoft Video 1 MSVC msvidc32.dll 10.0.19041.1

ICM Microsoft YUV UYVY msyuv.dll 10.0.19041.1

ICM Toshiba YUV Codec Y411 tsbyuv.dll 10.0.19041.1

ICM Microsoft YUV UYVY msyuv.dll 10.0.19041.1

DMO Mpeg4s Decoder DMO mp4s, MP4S, m4s2, M4S2, MP4V, mp4v, XVID, xvid, DIVX, DX50 mp4sdecd.dll 10.0.19041.1706

DMO WMV Screen decoder DMO MSS1, MSS2 wmvsdecd.dll 10.0.19041.1

DMO WMVideo Decoder DMO WMV1, WMV2, WMV3, WMVA, WVC1, WMVP, WVP2, VC1S wmvdecod.dll 10.0.19041.1110

DMO Mpeg43 Decoder DMO mp43, MP43 mp43decd.dll 10.0.19041.1165

DMO MS ATC Screen Decoder 1 MSA1 scdec.dll 15.0.4703.1000

DMO Mpeg4 Decoder DMO MPG4, mpg4, mp42, MP42 mpg4decd.dll 10.0.19041.1165


Oddly enough, I'm not seeing VP9 in there, unless I'm mistaken.

The legacy WMP does not register WebM codecs, maybe. That codec extension would be seen through the Microsoft Store.

[Shikadi]

I've been busy with work, but I've dived back in and discovered I at some point installed something called LAV video decoder.

Going to look into this, wish me luck.

[Shikadi]

SOLVED.

It was LAVFIlters.

I found the program, booted it up, and found a checkbox labeled "Disable WebM Media Foundation". Unchecked it, Saved, booted up the game, and the cutscene loads properly now.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions, I doubt I'd have been able to figure it out without it.

Oddly enough, I still don't see the Bethesda logo at the start of the game.

Oh well for now.

[TS2]

Originally posted by Shikadi:

SOLVED.

It was LAVFIlters.

I found the program, booted it up, and found a checkbox labeled "Disable WebM Media Foundation". Unchecked it, Saved, booted up the game, and the cutscene loads properly now.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions, I doubt I'd have been able to figure it out without it.

Oddly enough, I still don't see the Bethesda logo at the start of the game.

Oh well for now.

Congratulations, you managed to troubleshoot this yourself.

LAV Filters appears to be a program where you can directly set DirectShow and Windows Media Foundation filters to control Windows's level of codec support.

By default, Windows prefers WMF support for codecs and such, and apparently setting some filters in LAV Filters will break Windows codec extension support that would usually be there and available by default.

Congratulations on discovering your own edge case. This program appears to conflict with the game too much, so maybe finding an alternative would be of use.

Also, remember to mark posts as an Answer if you can.

[XGonna]

Funny that I see this post after encountering the same issue. After seeing your update about LAV Filters. I remembered that I installed HereSphere VR Video Player this morning. Lo and behold, uninstalling that program resolved the issue. Seems like certain programs that mess with codecs and whatnot will break the startup process of this game.