Author Topic: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!  (Read 11530 times)

kraken

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Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« on: 2008-01-19 01:13:34 »
I figured out a fix for FF7's audio in Vista.  Unlike XP, you cannot change your default midi driver in Vista, nor can you simply mute midi since M$ decided to remove the mixer.  As a result if you play FF7 in vista, you get the aweful M$ midis playing over your own audio in ff7music.  These reasons are just several reasons to never use Vista, but if you have a Geforce 8800 and want to play FF7 in HD, you don't have much of a choice. 

A year ago or so, I discovered that in XP, the terrible midi sound bank that M$ provides is stored in c:\windows\system32\drivers\gm.dls .  By using Awave studio or other program, you could take soundfonts (including the ones from FF7 and FF8) and convert them to the dls format.  Then you could back up the old gm.dls and replace it and anything that plays midi would sound good.  More details here: http://digg.com/mods/Midi_Hacking_use_soundfonts_with_any_soundcard

Like xp, there is a file at c:\windows\system32\drivers\gm.dls that presumably does the same thing.  There is also a copy of it in C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-audio-mmecore-other_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_8ac7060813a4d0d2 though I'm not sure why and I deleted that file by accident and it wouldn't let me put it back.  Unlike XP however, you can't just put a good sounding dls file there or it will sound even worse.  I don't know why, but I am continuing to research. 

So on to the fix for Vista.  You can't just remove the gm.dls file or the midi engine will fail and ff7music won't start.  You also can't just make a text file, call it gm.dls and replace.  But, you can replace it with a blank file you create with awave studio.  One such file I created is here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/df8c83

So basically, backup your old gm.dls and replace with the downloaded file to mute (but not break) midi audio in vista.
« Last Edit: 2008-01-19 01:15:40 by kraken »

Myria kitty

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Re: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« Reply #1 on: 2008-01-20 16:43:17 »
FF7's built-in music volume control doesn't work?  (This would be very odd, because it would imply that the midiOutSetVolume API call no longer has meaning on Vista.)

I'm working on a reimplementation of certain hacks, FF7Music being one of them.  My version replaces the midi* API entirely inside the process; this is done without passing it to Windows so this MIDI playing won't be a problem.

obesebear

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Re: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« Reply #2 on: 2008-01-20 17:58:32 »
Myria Kitty, if you're going to be working on FF7Music do you think you could also implement a way for it to read the midi's "nointro" and "mogu"?  When replacing the midi's with mp3 or psf's nointro and mogu aren't even recognized meaning when it comes time for the game to play them, there is no sound if the midi volume is set to 0.

Myria kitty

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Re: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« Reply #3 on: 2008-01-20 18:36:21 »
I don't know the author of FF7Music - I just mean that I'm writing something similar.  It's not based on the same codebase.

What are those two MIDIs in the game?  If you have a save file that would make it convenient for me to play them in the game, I could take a look.  I'm working on song detection now as well.  My hack now redirects MIDI to PSF playback successfully, but doesn't know which song it should be playing.

My hack isn't nearly as generic as FF7Music.  It's designed only for in_psf.dll.  I feel that my stuff has different goals in mind.

kraken

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Re: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« Reply #4 on: 2008-02-02 18:52:43 »
FF7's built-in music volume control doesn't work?  (This would be very odd, because it would imply that the midiOutSetVolume API call no longer has meaning on Vista.)

I'm working on a reimplementation of certain hacks, FF7Music being one of them.  My version replaces the midi* API entirely inside the process; this is done without passing it to Windows so this MIDI playing won't be a problem.

Changing the midi volume in game changes the global volume.  Changing the sound effects volume in game does nothing.  So its most likely that microsoft mapped the midiOutSetVolume API call to the global volume.

nevos2005

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Re: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« Reply #5 on: 2008-02-04 16:16:11 »
I have the music porblem, i have tried to install FF7music and it is worst!!

Please help me my favorite game in the world and i can't even play it!!!

HELP ME!!

sRage

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Re: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« Reply #6 on: 2008-02-17 19:30:52 »
Hi there. I´m new here. So i has the same Vista Problem as everyone. So i tried to download the blank gms.dll file, but the link doesn´t work anymore.
I trid to find the programm called awave studio, and fiend some demo. But in the Demo i can´t save files.
So can someone please put the Blank File up again or send it to my Email Adress?

Thanks for your help.

Ps.: Sry for my bad english.

klein010

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Re: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« Reply #7 on: 2008-02-19 00:32:17 »
in vista when i used the ff7 music patch to play diff music files
i couldnt find a way to mute the midi music from the game in vista, so i made a way

i thought what if i changed the midi files so that they were blank and wouldnt play any music?

so i took one of my mp3s and opened it in Audacity (i downloaded a trial version)
i highlighted all of the song and hit *Generate* then *Silence*
then i exported it as a .WAV file (blank.wav)
i opened the .WAV file in *intelliScore Polyphonic WAV to MIDI Converter* (also a trial version)
i converted the .WAV file into a .MID file (blank.mid)

i copied it a bunch of times and renamed all of them after the original ff7 midi music files
i used the *LGP Tools 1.60* (i think it was) to extract the *midi.lgp* file in the ff7 folder of the game to find out what the names of all the midi music files were

and finally i i used *LGP Tools 1.60* to create an lgp archive of the blank renamed midis (midi.lgp)

i copied it to make 4 of the same files all under the names of *awe.lgp* *midi.lgp* *xg.lgp* and *ygm.lgp*

then i replaced the originals in C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\midi

kraken

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Re: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« Reply #8 on: 2008-02-26 00:15:30 »
So apparently, sendspace erases the file after 7 days if it isn't downloaded in that time.  As much as I hate rapidshare, they give 90 days, so here it is uploaded there:    http://rapidshare.com/files/94955210/gm_blank.dls.html

klein010's method works too, but the problem is that it throws off the midi timings so that instead of resuming where the song left off after a battle, it restarts from the beginning. 

sRage

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Re: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« Reply #9 on: 2008-03-02 15:06:02 »
Thx for the reupload, but there is still a problem.

FF7 don´t accept the gm.dls file. I think i could be the language difference. So because i´m from german, my gm.dls file is a little bit bigger then yours. But then i think, it is a standard file, that shouldn´t have something to do with the language, i don´t undertsand it.

Is there a hint you can give me, why this doesn´t works? Thx

finalheaven07

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Re: Fixing FF7 sound in Vista!
« Reply #10 on: 2008-03-08 19:26:35 »
Tried this way, and all I got were sound effects to work.  If you're using FF7music, or anything else, there is a much easier way (finally!!!), guaranteed to work.

go to http://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html and download the free version for individual users.  Install it and then go to the final fantasy VII configuration settings.  Under the music tab (i think), instead of using the MS midi player, select the loopbe.  Then, click apply and all that.  Then, in the lower right hand corner, there is now an icon for the driver you just installed.  Right click on it and then click "mute".  If you're using FF7music, you have to adjust the settings so that the midi device used with that is the loopde.  Then, all you hear is the FF7music program's music and the sound effects!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!  Spread the word, I finally beat stupid MF'in Vista!!!