Topics

1

General Discussion / FF7 Spoof

« on: 2006-05-27 16:14:53 »

A week or two ago, [Adult Swim] made this little FF7 spoof on one of their show Robot Chicken.

No doubt, this was sparked as a result of Advent Children’s English release. It’s somewhat cheesy, but the detail in the first battle scene is nice.
I figured it would show up on YouTube sooner or later. LINK

2

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Import ASE into Max7

« on: 2005-05-15 00:36:01 »

Problem:
An Import ASCII plugin that works with 3DsMax v7. If anyone can open an ASE file in max7... I could really use your asciiimp file!!! (".../3dsmax7/plugins/asciiimp.dli").

Situation:
I'm using Biturn (0.86a3) to extract FF8 field models to max, but the texture UVs are a little messed up in the resulting 3DS files. I want to see if I can get better results with the "ASE format". I thought I use-too have 'this'  max6 plugin working in my previous max7 installation, but it isn't working now ("Error 126: Not for this version...").

Example:
An obvious example can be seen on the bottom of Edna's dress. The UVs stretch past the texture's border, showing the UV's of the opposing side. Well, is looks very ugly. Oddly, perhaps a little-over half of the model seems textured correctly. Regardless, all models converted to 3ds have this kind-of problem.

3

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re-Creating a FF8 PAK file?

« on: 2005-05-02 18:43:21 »

I'm posting this because I have never tried anything like this before.

QUESTION:
Using my backup'ed FF8(PC) BIK files, how can I re-create FF8(PC) Disk2's PAK file?

BACKED-UP:
From disk2, I have all the High-Rez movies (iow: all odd-numbers; 1, 3, 5, etc...).

I might be able to re-create the low-rez versions using Rad-Tools; by converting the bik files to another format, shrinking them, and converting it back into BIK format. (Could be a lot of work.)

SITUATION:
The foil on my FF8(PC) 2nd CD is scratched! I can see light through it :weep:. It's been that way for years and I haven't played it since then.

It's only a scratch, about 2mm by 0.5mm in size. The damage is minimum, since the scratch is almost parallel to the 'grain' or 'lines' on the cd. To locate the infected files, I tried copying them to my HD. To much joy, it seems only the PAK file is affected; I get a "data sync" error 1/3 way through, when copying it.

When I first got the game, my younger self had extracted all the movies to a couple of CDs (still in BIK format), so I could watch them whenever I wanted. Although, I didn't backup the low-rez versions! Sadly, Qhimm's FMV extractor can't handle my CD's bad archive (the window turns white then the app freezes), so I might be stuck with whatever I've backed up.

OTHER INFO:

• FF8, Disk2 (the PC Version).
• This is the actual game CD! I was too stupid to create any backups back when I got it.
• Originally, I wanted to download an image of the CD but I cant afford broadband internet and I'm sick of waiting.  ...Its been over 3 years and I miss FF8!
• The game plays fine, until the end of the Missile Complex mission. The last move I got to see was when Selphie's Group watched the missiles being fired, with Balamb Garden as the target. Out of the 2 times I seen it in game: once it played all the way through (I wasn’t caught in the base until it was required) but the Tank killed me, the second time it crashed as I watched the missiles over the ocean water (I fought my way through the base). Oh, and before crashing, the movie stuttered quite a lot for about a minute.
  
  Apps
  
• FF8 FMV - Wanted to extract the "surviving" movies (which do work in the game) but can't (probably because it doesn’t skip over corrupt files). I realize this was likely to happen. I just had to try anyway.
  
• Eight - It doesn’t see the PAK file. I guess it isn't supported anyway.
  
• Ficedula FFLZS - Yikes, a cmd-line tool! I'm not yet convinced this can create PAK files... ...I'm looking into it though.
  
  
• Just a thought... I'm not sure, probably not, but the old "Thief" games might use the same format for it's archives. I'll have to check into this...[/list:u]
  
  EDIT
  I just spent the last five~sum hours creating -new- low-rez files (yawn). Thankfully, Rad-Tools can make new BIK files from existing BIK files, saving a ton of time. Regarding the PAK part, I think Dragon UnPACKer might work. I use-too use it with Thief2 a --long-- time ago, extracting textures from the game. Not sure about ff8 but it does support Quake2 PAK files so, we'll see...
  
  I'm more confident it will work now... Can't wait until I get back to Balamb and see it fly once again! [/b] :D

4

General Discussion / Searching for MIDGAR Images!

« on: 2004-09-11 18:31:24 »

Warning: FF7 SPOILERS

I'm making my first attempt at modeling Midgar (3DsMax 5). Yep, looks pretty neat too!

Not too difficult, except for Shrina HQ . Shots of the back area (behind  and below that large keg'er) of Shrina are very slim! Only one dark and fuzzy shot exists in the game (also 1 close shot that’s too close to be of any help).

-----

Anyone know of any Non-InGame artwork/promos/demos that might help? :erm:

I've already...

1. Combined all Midgar related moves off of the game itself,
 2. Collected 4 different Midgar Wallpapers (1 close front, 1 far front, 1 cloud in front of Shrina HQ, and a different 3d cloud in front of Shrina HQ)
 3. Found one promo movie (thanks to these forums), showing Midgar, half way completed (fuzzy image and wrong angle).[/list:u]
Again, I'm looking for back shots of Shrina HQ.
  There seems to be a large "V" support, on each side, that extends up to the "Unknown" area I seek. You can catch a quick glimpse of it's tip (in the first movie that shows the Cannon @ Midgar) and what might be it's 'base' (when Rufus dies). I can't confirm "WHERE" these supports begin or end!

Any help will be greatly appreciated! :love:

5

Archive / AA Problems with Fx5200 and the 45.33 driver

« on: 2004-09-01 17:38:32 »

This forum has greatly helped me get rid of most of the graphical glitches in FF7. Thank you VERY much!

EDIT: This has turned into an AA problem, as stated below (in the next post).

Yesterday, I still had some (rare) black squares (and green dots) while using a 52.x nvidia driver. So I decided to downgrade the driver to 45.33, as stated in the FAQ (couldnt find "45.32").

1. Uninstalled 52.x driver,
2. Rebooted,
3. Installed the "45.33 WDM 2.13" driver (download from Nvidia's site),
4. Rebooted...[/list:u]---------------------

But now... I can't run

anything DirectX[/b]! It's as if all support for it vanished. I still have DirectX 9c installed!

To make matters worse, my video card isn't even reconized! I checked the "Device Manager" and my card is listed under "Other Devices", with that yellow question mark by it!

---------------------

I checked "RivaTuner" and it said "No supported drivers for this display adapter! WTF

So what should I do?
I'm no slouch with computers, but this has me (nearly) stumped! I think I'll just go download a Detonator driver from a 3rd party site (like osnn.net or something) and see it that works. But I'm using Dialup, so I detest all this downloading! -_-

Nvidia 5200FX (the sucky "non-ultra" version)
Nvidia driver version 45.33 WDM 2.13 -> FYI: 52.x worked fine with RivaTuner!
WinXP Pro