Just got Myst:ME and Riven. I actually have the DVD-ROM versions of both, but it would be nice to have DRM-free versions that don't require Quicktime (especially Myst ME and its reliance on obsolete versions of Quicktime).
Anyway, I played Riven a bit, and when I pressed the button in front of that rotating room with five doors, the button made a sound but did not move. The room's rotation animation was just fine, but I distinctly remember the button is supposed to move into the wall, and that didn't happen.
I also looked at the files in the "data" folder of the GoG version and the DVD-ROM version, and GoG's files are a bit smaller (2.67 GB vs 2.73 GB).
So, is GoG's version missing animations? If not, why don't certain ones work for me?
Also, I'm going to try a bit of a Frankenstein experiment. I'll post the results if I get any.

Ok, I did my experiment. I found the animation *is* actually there, but GOG's binaries won't play them.
I was able to get these animations working by copying two files from my DVD installation to the GOG installation - "Riven.exe" and "Menus.dll." However, these binaries need Quicktime to be installed, or else the game won't work.

Maybe thats why they were removed? To get rid of the reliance on a older version of quick time. Are there any major animations or are the ones missing all fairly minor button presses and the like?
You may want to contact gog support either way though incase they didn't know and it is bugged binarys.

I have Riven from the 10th Ann. DVD installed on one machine and now gog's version installed on another one and i just checked this.
You're right, the buttons animations are not playing in gog's version.
Don't know if it's worth to mess around wiht files and risk breaking other stuff in the game for the sake of just the 'buttons' animations though, but i'm kind of wondering if more were left out...

let support know as the animations were lost with the tex murphy pandora directive
& they fixed it once they were aware of the problem.

Okay, I was wondering this myself. There are a lot of "button pushing" animations missing, I think. The blue button to summon the cable car on the first island doesn't push in, there's a number of small buttons you push on the other islands that don't animate (sound plays though), but I didn't think of writing just which ones they were, because I didn't have a copy of non-GOG Riven to check...

Interesting... I wonder if it was some strange compatibility problem, or if they just were left out somehow on accident.
Also, I didn't notice this until you guys mentioned it. Now I'm going to notice it EVERY TIME. :P

I just sent an email desrcibing the issue with a savegame and my dxdiag.
I sent the mail directly to support instead of using the site's form cause i didn't find a way to attach the 7zipped savegame file when using the form, i trust that's ok...

I have found so far the missing animations are only with the temple room that the button doesn't go in when pressed. Other rooms are okay

How about the buttons to call the mag-lev ? Are those animations working ?
I wish i had more time to test Riven properly right now, but unfortunately i don't :(

Hi. I'll be adding some more information here, in case it turns out useful.
I've been tampering with Riveal, extracting Riven files. With it, I have located some video files which don't seem to be well formed, since the sound is played but the image remains static. These, as you might have guessed, are the temple files related to the first room rotation button and the temple mag-lev.
File names:
- t_Data\88_tgrbtn1.mov
- t_Data\46_tmagbtn.mov
- t_Data\46_tnomgbtn.mov
- t_Data\221_twfflsw.mov
- t_Data\221_twfflswd.mov
- j_Data1\393_jmgbtn1.mov
- j_Data1\393_jmgbtn2.mov
There are, however, mag-lev buttons which were not working properly in game, the video of which I couldn't find (jungle island button for the mag-lev in which you arrive from the temple island).
I've used VLC to view the files, but I have tested several other animation videos and all seem to play nice with it. With this information, I think some files encodings were incorrectly generated in the original Riven, but the problem was not perceptible in old versions of QuickTime.
Unfortunately, I don't have my CD and DVD versions of Riven at hand to check if the files are also incorrect in those, nor access to the QT versions those used. Still, if GoG staff have not made changes to files (why would they?), the version of QT seems the most logical culprit.
Could someone check those files in the Broderbund versions of the game? If those play nice, but GoG's fail in your computer too, then the problem is on GoG's side.
I hope this helps tracking and solving the issue.
Bye!

Bump. No animations are playing for me. I’ve tried the usual suggested fixes, and nothing seemed to work. After a lot of messing about I did actually get them to play, and then uninstalled / installed the game again so that I could work out a more direct and specific solution, which I have yet to reach again :P
If I manage to work out what it is I did to get it working, I will post details here. Please GOG, make this easier!
--edit--
I discovered another post on these forums that solved my problem.
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/myst_series/riven_release_date/perm=5/#p_b_5
Just install QT Alt 2.6.2 (specifically that version). Animations are playing now. You can download QT ALt 2.6.2 here http://www.mediafire.com/?biqf3in5xd3

Has anyone figured out how to get the button animations working? I have tried Quicktime 6.3 as well as the Alternate version suggested here and have had no success.