Black screen, instant crash, tried every compatibility setting under the sun, ran it with and without dgvoodoo, removed all dll's. Checked the log file and there was some crash notice about "voxware codex" or something, and upon searching I've found other people having this problem but none of their proposed solutions have actually helped me.

If anyone knows what I can do to fix this please tell me, I really want to play this game :(

Ok I fixed it but i'm not really sure what exactly did it, so i'll just say what the settings are if that helps anyone.

Device Manager.exe Compatibility Settings: 'Windows 98 / ME', run with Admin Privileges. Let R6 choose graphics and sound settings, disable voice recording and change the other things to whatever you need them to be

Rainbow Six.exe Compatibility Settings: 'Windows XP (Service Pack 3)'

There needs to be a Sherman.kmp file generated by Device Manager I think.

I also installed vlc codec as per the pinned post but I don't think that helped at all