"Oddworld - New 'n' Tasty" (PC): Workaround for stuttering/choppy cutscenes

[DotWin]

When "Oddworld - New 'n' Tasty" (NnT) was released for PC, I immediately purchased it, but was thoroughly disappointed, that the highly improved cutscenes were not playing smoothly on my system, even though my hardware specifications are well above the requirements of the game and NnT itself was working fine within gameplay.
JAW promised to look into the issue, but until now - more than three months after initial release - there is still no fix available.

I have put a significant amount of time into analyzing and finding a solution to the problem, and to be honest, in my opinion it might really be possible that the developers will not be able to provide a real fix - as long as the cutscenes are delivered in Bink format.
I have a decent Hardware specification (MSI Mainboard with Intel H81 Express Chipset, Intel Core i5-4590 CPU, 16 GB RAM, SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, Windows 8.1 64-Bit), but within the game the cutscenes are a stuttering mess.
When using the Bink Player included in the free "RAD Video Tools for Windows", I can play the cutscene files outside the game smoothly on my second display (resolution: 1680x1050 pixels), but on my primary display (resolution: 1920x1080 pixels) there is still some stuttering (but nowhere as much as when watched within the game). For comparison: I don't have any issues whatsoever playing Full-HD videos (1920 x 1080 pixels) in other formats (Blu-ray, MP4, QuickTime trailers etc.). Only these Bink files are stuttering.
This means that on my system the cutscenes can only be played without stuttering when a lower resolution is chosen, but not when the original 1920x1080 resolution is selected - even when JAW would be able to improve the performance of the Bink cutscenes within the game. If the developer would change the video format, for example to MP4, it would probably solve the problem for many users.

Nevertheless, I don't want to wait anymore and decided to look for a workaround so that I am able to start playing the game and be able to enjoy it.

My personal approach does now consist of three different elements:
1. Making the cutscenes play smoothly within the game with reduced resolution, but without stuttering, so that I am not taken out of the game experience whenever a cutscene is played rewarding me for progress in gameplay.
2. Providing an alternate Movie Player which plays the original Bink files outside the game almost smoothly.
3. Providing Full-HD (1920x1080) video files of the cutscenes playable without stuttering on the PC (Windows Media Player, Kodi, etc.) and other common video players (Apple TV, iPad, Amazon Fire TV, etc.).

Summary:

1. Smooth cutscenes within the game:
My personal experience showed that the cutscenes play smoothly on my own system when the resolution is reduced by half, resulting in BIK files with a resolution of 960x540 pixels.
In this resolution the cutscenes still look acceptable and play perfectly smooth within the game.
I wrote a small batch file which will automatically convert the original cutscene Bink files to new Bink files with the smaller resolution using the "RAD Video Tools", and preserving the original video files.

2. Alternate Movie Player for the original Bink cutscene video files:
I wrote a batch file which will show a menu where each cutscene can be selected and then played separately in Fullscreen outside the game.
For playback the Bink player of the "RAD Video Tools" is used.

3. Full-HD (1920x1080) video files, compatible for most players:
I converted each of the original cutscene Bink files first to AVI format using "RAD Video Tools" and then to MP4 (iPad compatible with a video bitrate of 8000 kbps) using "XMedia Recode".
I will ask JAW and/or Oddworld Inhabitants whether they allow me to upload these MP4 files to YouTube.
If they agree, I will post the links here and I will also create a YouTube playlist which will then allow to play the videos in sequence like a movie.

Please see the following posts regarding 1. and 2. including attachments with my batch files.
The files should run fine under Windows 7 and Windows 8.x, but of course I do not take any responsibility for any damage which might result from using them.

For suggestions or help you can post in this thread.

[DotWin]

First, please download and install the "RAD Video Tools for Windows" from the following web page:
http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm

Then please download the attached ZIP file and extract it to a subfolder "!CustomCutscenes" within your "Steamapps"-"New 'n' Tasty" subfolder.
If you installed Steam with default settings the files of the ZIP file should be located in the folder:
C:\Program Files (x96)\Steam\steamapps\common\Oddworld New n Tasty\!CustomCutscenes\

Before you execute the batch file you need to adjust some variables to the configuration of your system, which is quite easy.
Right-click on the file "ONnT-Conversion.bat" and select "Edit".
The batch file should open in your editor.
Now please adjust the two variables "SteamDir" and "RADToolsDir" as described in the batch file. Regarding the two paths the values should already be correct, if you had installed "Steam" and the "RAD Video Tools" with default settings.
After you have adjusted the variables you can save and close the file.

Now you can double-click the batch file to execute it.
Conversion of the original Bink video files is performed automatically using the "RAD Video Tools".
Conversion itself should be quite fast, but depending on the specifications of your system it could still take several hours.
The resulting files will be in Bink format with a resolution of 960x540 pixels and 30 Hz.
The original files will be moved to a new subfolder "!Original", and the converted files will then be used for the game.

After conversion has successfully finished you can start the game and check whether playback of the cutscenes within the game is now smooth and if the image quality is sufficient for you.

In case you wish to revert to the original files again, simply delete (or move) the converted files and move the original files back to their original location.

[DotWin]

(UPDATE (2015-06-01):
New improved version of the batch file supporting different display resolutions correctly.)

First, please download and install the "RAD Video Tools for Windows" from the following web page:
http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm

Then please download the attached ZIP file and extract it to a subfolder "!CustomCutscenes" within your "Steamapps"-"New 'n' Tasty" subfolder.
If you installed Steam with default settings the files of the ZIP file should be located in the folder:
C:\Program Files (x96)\Steam\steamapps\common\Oddworld New n Tasty\!CustomCutscenes\

Before you execute the batch file you need to adjust some variables to the configuration of your system, which is quite easy.
Right-click on the file "ONnT-MoviePlayer-BK2s.bat" and select "Edit".
The batch file should open in your editor.
Now please adjust the six variables "SteamDir", "RADToolsDir", "BinkPlayer", "MovieSubDir", "DisplayWidth" and if necessary "BinkHeight" as described in the batch file.
Regarding the two main paths the values should already be correct, if you had installed "Steam" and the "RAD Video Tools" with default settings.
After you have adjusted the variables you can save and close the file.

Now you can double-click the batch file to execute it.

A menu in CMD-DOS window will open and you can select each cutscene separately.
Have fun!

Note:
The batch file searches for the original Bink cutscene video files in the new path, if you have already used the first batch file of the previous post to convert the video files.
If you did not use the first batch file, please adjust the path accordingly as described in the batch file.

[Varrok]

I approve of this

JAW promised to look into the issue, but until now - more than three months after initial release - there is still no fix available.

Figures.

Welp. You can try going to Settings->Controls->Controller Layout and clicking the Continue button.

[Paul]

Uhm they did fix this problem, it was caused by applying post processing fx to the videos. Unless you have pirate version or you turned off steam updates it should be fixed.

[DotWin]

No, they didn't.
Yes, they removed the post processing, but this did not fix the stuttering on many systems.
Oddworld Admin already confirmed this in several threads on the Steam forums, and he also confirmed, that the developers are still looking into the issue.

And I HAVE purchased NnT on Steam and my automatic updates are enabled.
The game is running fine, but the cutscenes are still choppy.

[Varrok]

Cutscenes lag a bit on my PC Steam Version too.

[Paul]

What if you play them in the standalone player? If that works then its JAW/OWI bug, else its upstream bug.

[DotWin]

Paul, I know it is much to read, but did you read my text at the beginning of this thread at all?

Yes, outside the game the cutscenes play much, much better using the Bink Player from RAD Video Tools.
So it is most probably something within the game.

[Varrok]

What if you play them in the standalone player? If that works then its JAW/OWI bug, else its upstream bug.

I just tried that with RAD Video Tools and movies work flawlessly, unlike ingame