Author Topic: FF7-problems w/ ff7music and no volume control because of directx 5  (Read 8483 times)

Deathblow

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Heres the thing, Im currently using Vista Ultimate 32bit and i was having bad gameplay ie: bad fps every 10 secs and so i reformated to XP and had the same problems, So i reformatted back to Vista since it wasnt an OS problem (after that i took the fan cover of my laptop and found a little collection of lint, and I think that was the problem), anyways I finally found a graphics driver that gave me no problems but during the installation of FF7 I chose to have DirectX 5 installed(or whatever version the installer comes with) thinking that maybe that would help me with my previous fps woes, problem is I think it disabled some things in the volume control panel (It only shows 3 things: Speakers, Windows Sounds, and SoundMAX Control Center) where as before I had more options  and when I googled my problem someone in a post stated it was because of directx5. And this is a problem because even though it has an option for it ff7music does not mute midi so what i used to do was mute it in the Volume Mixer. And I really cant go back to midi after hearing the psx tracks. So what I am asking for is someone to find it in their heart and provide me with a workaround like a registry tweak, application, or a way to uninstall directx 5 or make ff7music mute the midi. And before someone suggests it I went to device manager and clicked show hidden devices and uninstalled my Midi driver "wavetable something" and i still hear the mp3 of Ob during the first boss fight along with what im thinking was the minipsf of the same song but after i deleted them "102 bombing mission" i realized it was that the midi was still playing.

Kudistos Megistos

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Have you tried deleting the midis?

FF7 music didn't mute the midis for me either, so I did this:

I used Ficedula's LGP tools to extract all of the midis from the LGP files in the "midi" folder in my ff7 data folder, deleted them (except the one called cintro, since there doesn't seem to be an mp3 for that) and recreated LGP archives in the same folder with the same names. It seems that if there are no midi files to play, the game will play as normal but without any background music (except the mp3s from ff7 music) After that everything seemed to work. I don't have the same system specs as you, but I think it should work.

Deathblow

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SWEET!, i didnt think anyone would respond and i really didnt want to reformat my computer a 3rd time after i had gotten everything else just the way i wanted it, im at work right now and i really dont like to mess with LGP tools (i still dont have the npc reconstruction mod installed) but when I have time I will get both that and deleting the midis out of the way and Im sure it will work, if it doesnt Ill post again, if I dont post its cus im happily playing FF7.

Deathblow

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It worked, at first i thought I did something wrong when the game wouldnt start so I reverted to my backups, but it still wouldnt work and then I realized it was prolly a codec issue since i just installed a different codec pack. Anyways, the first thing i noticed right away is that im missing at least one track, i only tested it for 2 minutes and im sure theres more. Is there a link to where i can get more ff7 mp3s and maybe longer ones so theres no pause when a song ends and starts again?

Kudistos Megistos

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Are you using the mp3s from the official soundtrack, from the mp3 folder in Ficedula's music mod, or a combination of both? And where in the game are the missing tracks (i.e. is it the music from the before the first reactor is blown up, from the escape, from the scene with the flower girl)? The official soundtrack is missing some tracks (which are in the music mod), so you need both if you want to have all of the mp3s.

You can download the OST (if you don't have it) on iTunes and convert the tracks to mp3s (I don't know of any sites where you can download it for free legally). Or, you could use the psf files, which should all be in the mod.

Deathblow

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im using the original soundtrack downloaded from http://www.sound-test.org/soundtracks/final-fantasy/final-fantasy-7/ and the ones from ficedula's mod, and im currently downloaded remixes from ocremix, but the pausing is really bugging me and i might actually go back to midi because of it, I was at the first save point before the scorpion mech and the missing track was "mako reactor" which is now playing but i noticed that during the escape sequence the track "bombing mission" ("ob" from ff7music mod since its usually part of the intro track) sometimes there would be two instances playing. is this normal? and if i have all the mp3 files am i supposed to delete the minipsf files and folder? I saw some posts about improving midi sounds but it looked like too much trouble but now I might do some searching and research on it. as well as download loopde for my midi problems which i found on the posts by accident when searching for "loop" to solve the pausing issue with the mp3s. on an unrelated topic i also have the play as sephiroth patch but before i download i want to know what he cant do, ie: deathblow, mug, etc. since if you cheat him in your team you have no control and even if you change his materia he still uses things like ice3-all to end the battle on the first try from what i remember.

Kudistos Megistos

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I only ever had problems with two versions of the same track playing before I deleted my unused midi files. If you haven't deleted them, that could be the problem; if you have, then I don't know what to suggest.

The pauses can be a pain; perhaps you could try using FF7 music to play the psf files instead of mp3s (the difference in quality is hardly noticeable)? I haven't used them, but I think that they should be able to loop properly.

As for the Sephiroth patch, I haven't used it, but I understand that most of the bugs have been eliminated, and that Sephiroth can do just about everything that Cloud can do (although I am not sure about limit breaks). I think that the Sephiroth patches that can be downloaded at qhimm.com usually allow you to control him; I am playing gjoerulv's hardcore mod at the moment, which allows you to control him in the Nibelheim flashback (nothing has gone wrong for me there). Perhaps someone who has used the patch could fill you in?


Deathblow

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hey where can i get "gjoerulv's hardcore mod" i found the latest version's link at gamerzplanet and registered but it still wont show me the download link, it sez "only registered users can see links while at the top of the page it sez "welcome, nando420" so thats the business.


Deathblow

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thanx, i noticed that he modified equipment, any idea how he did that? i wanna make the buster sword have 255 or at least 100 accuracy, i also see many posts about the enemies not being difficult so i might just use the 2x difficulty mod until later on in the game or edit the enemy stats myself, i remember there was a bug with one of the scene programs that made turned all the droppable and stealable items into potions, was this fixed and if not which one is it exactly, also i remember reading that there might be batch options ie: all enemies +30% percent stats (it has been years since i played ff7 or been on qhimm and i dont want to revive dead or old posts) was this ever implemented since i might manually combine different elements of this mod and the  2x or 3x difficulty mod and add the 1% chance of enemy dropping a source item. i know i ask a lot but if i ever find out how to do all the stuff i ask i'll make sure to give back to the community by uploading the modded scene.bin. sorry if it seems like im asking for a lot of stuff.

Kudistos Megistos

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You can ask as much as you want. But in the future, could you ask questions in the appropriate threads or starting new ones for new questions: i.e. questions about gjoerulv's mod in his thread? Apart from anything else, you are more likely to get a reply from an expert that way.

Anyway, for now I can help you. Editing basic weapon stats is fairly straightforward (but takes some practice and trail-and-error), even for a humanities student like me ;-) You need a gzip extractor, a hex editor and the information from

http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Kernel/Kernel.bin

You should be able to find most of the information you'll need for these by searching google and the qhimm forum and wiki for things like kernel.bin, gzip and "hex editor". If, for example, you change kernel.bin5 from 60 to 64 or ff at 0x08 the Buster Sword will have 100 or 255 accuracy.

I also tweak the enemies to my own liking (and I must tell you that gjoerulv's hardcore mod isn't impossible, but it is hardly easy). I usually use a program called Hojo, which has its own thread on this forum. It is very user friendly and has some very good functions (like a search) and does not have the potion bug.
« Last Edit: 2008-09-20 19:17:51 by Leighos Kudistos Megistos »

Deathblow

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Edit: i was asking how to extract kernel.bin but after 3 hours i found out. hard stuff for someone with ADD, not the actual process which was easier than i thought but finding out how which took me through countless google searches and a bunch of programs, 7zip, powerarchiver,gzip,gnuwin32,wingz, until finally coming across posts and instructions for ff7 gzip. but its very late, 2:10am so ill have to get started later today, thanks for all the help though and the patience.
« Last Edit: 2008-09-21 06:12:20 by Deathblow »

Kudistos Megistos

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This is what I was told to do with ff7_gzip (I have XP):

Extract all files from ff7_gzip.zip into

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator

along with a copy of kernel.bin (it almost goes without saying that you should make a backup of kernel.bin), then go to

Start Menu -> Run

and type in

"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\ff7dec.exe" d kernel.bin

to decompress kernel.bin into kernel.bin0-26. You can then hex edit the separate files and recompress them by running

"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\ff7dec.exe" e kernel.bin

After that copy the new kernel.bin into

C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\kernel

And play the game to test whether your changes worked.

EDIT:

Nevermind.

EDIT 2:

This is a bit off-topic, and since there does not seem to be much about ff7_gzip on qhimm (at least there wasn't when I searched) perhaps this would be better in a different thread.
« Last Edit: 2008-09-21 06:31:30 by Leighos Kudistos Megistos »