Hi Everyone.
I'm new to this forum and have used it to get my Final Fantasy 7 game running better than I ever thought possible on my current machine. I've downloaded various mods that I am using and so since this forum has been so helpful to me, I've decided to give something back in return.
I've gone through many different topics on how to get the final fantasy 7 movies running better and it would seem no one has had any luck. Well, look no further, I have found a solution.
Here is a very simple step by step procedure that will increase the quality of the FMV sequences in game. (Please note that I cannot be 100% certain this will work for everyone.)
Step 1: Copy all movies to your hard drive (location is not important, however keep note of the path as it will be needed next.)
Step 2: Open up regedit (Start>Run>regedit) and search for "Final Fantasy VII" (without Quotes) keep pressing F3 if needed to find MoviePath which should have an entry of *drive letter*:\FF7\movies\Â Â Right click on MoviePath and click "
modify." Change this to the path that you placed your movies in. In my case it was C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\movies\Â (notice that I added an extra slash at the end. This is very important or else the movies will not play.)
These first steps might not be neccesary to get the desired result, and although I now this part is mentioned in another topic, I felt it is neccesary to add here as well just in case. Regardless, it does make the movies run better even on my machine which is pretty fast.
Step 3: Download ffdshow -link:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=53761 or alternatively, you can download the K-Lite Codec Pack which includes ffdshow as well. -Link:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htmStep 4: Once you have FFDShow installed, you need to open the ffdshow Video Decoder. Under the very first option in the list, "Codecs" you need to right click on the right side where the various types of codecs are listed, and a popup will be displayed that has two options, 1: set all stable formats to libavcodec and 2: Set all supported formats to Xvid. Choose the first option.
Step 5: Then scroll down to the bottom, and disable Truemotion 1,2, ultimotion, Winnov V1, Snow, and AviSynth, if any of these are set to libavcodec the must be disabled.
Step 6: The last option in this list is Raw Video. This one has many choices, for me most don't seem to work at all for FF7, however, the all RGB option is the one we are looking for here, so select that, click apply and close ffdshow.
If you follow these instructions your movies will play without all the grainyness. There will still not be any FSAA unfortunately, so some areas will have pixel showing instead of being smooth, but that can't be avoided I don't think. What will improve is the apparent color depth of the movies and so when you look closely at any character's face with these options, they won't be all freckled or dotted.
Again, I cannot guarantee that this process will work for everyone. It worked for me I just hope you all have the same luck. The movies haven't looked better.
Good luck to you all.
If anyone has any problems feel free to post here and I'll try to assist in any way possible.