Author Topic: New version of FF7Music (Read 66557 times)

ficedula · « **on:** 2005-10-14 21:13:49 »

Topic says it all, I think. Well, maybe not all. Download it from my webpage.

New features in this version;

Looping works properly with MP3s
No longer requires patching the EXE. May make it easier to apply other patches.
...and therefore runs in a separate process, which may resolve some crashing problems.
Doesn't require FICEDULA.DLL which again should help with instability problems (wrong version issues...)
Supports multiple input plugins (play MP3s, PSF's, etc, all in same profile)

remember to remove the old version of FF7Music first. If you've patched the exe that means going back to a 'clean' v1.02 install (and then applying any other patches you need - although obviously try without any other patches if you have crashing issues).

Mobius · « **Reply #1 on:** 2005-10-14 23:43:30 »

Wow! Just as I was looking at making a whole new FF7 MP3 collectiony thingy, and was starting to tackle the looping problem, this comes along! Excellent, ficedula! Thanks! Yay for FF7Music updates!

However.. first problem has already struck. I've configured everything (what I believe to be) correctly, FF7Music finds the /ficedula .INI, and all the settings and such are setup properly, so then I pop my FF7 CD into the tray, and click to 'Run FF7'. Everything wirrs into action (WM_ACTIVATEAPP and so on), but then FF7 just hangs at a black screen before the Eidos demo video, and the only way to exit is to either CTRL-ALT-DEL and close or get lucky and rightclick the icon in the taskbar (it still shows when the screen blacks out), I can alt-tab and stuff perfectly fine. This has been tried with a clean 1.02 .EXE, and different patched versions such as the high-res patch and so on.

If I try to run FF7 through the regular shortcut or FF7.EXE, with FF7Music open, the same thing still happens. Closing FF7Music and then running FF7 as normal works as it should, however (well, with no sound, because I turned MIDI off internally and stuff). Very strange!

Coheed · « **Reply #2 on:** 2005-10-15 00:26:27 »

Mobius: I had that same problem, try changing your ficelib version to the newest (1.51a?) if you have an older version, that's what fixed it for me.

Mobius · « **Reply #3 on:** 2005-10-15 00:37:24 »

Hmm. Still no-go. I think I had the most up-to-date version of ficelib, but I've updated anyway, and still having the same problem. Although it did cause a small change, in that once it's hanging on the black screen, if I force FF7Music to close, FF7 does the whole Eidos thing and continues to run normally (sans music). Weird!

Coheed · « **Reply #4 on:** 2005-10-15 00:43:10 »

Is the ficeco~1.dll file still lingering? I believe I had to delete that too, now that I think about it, if not, sorry I'm not exactly sure what fixed it in that case.

convoy · « **Reply #5 on:** 2005-10-15 05:38:31 »

Thanks for the great software. Sincerely appreciated.

However I do face some problem. When i configure everything in order. i press the FF7 button. It play the introductory screen and after that I didnt hear any music. only the sound fx.

Please help?

Thanks.

NotE: I do a clean install with 1.02 patch & chocobo patch only.
:love:

EmperorSteele · « **Reply #6 on:** 2005-10-15 06:52:53 »

The new ff7music doesn't seem to be able to detect where the midis are, and it does not display a list of which songs there are, so you can't tell it which midi you want to play an MP3 in lieu of.

I'm working on aclean isntall of winxp, even, so theres no traces of my old ff7 install ro any otehr patches, let alone ff7music, so.. this is weird o_o

ficedula · « **Reply #7 on:** 2005-10-15 08:36:22 »

Because the new version doesn't come with a sample FF7Music.ini you're probably best using an INI from an earlier version (or from the FFSF PSF package) to get started; the INI files haven't changed at all so that's the easiest way to get the program set up. I know I said to remove all earlier versions, but keep the INI file around, it's the old EXEs/DLLs you should remove

If the game runs but no music plays, that should probably sort it out. Once things are a bit better tested I'll update the ZIP on my website so it has a sample INI file included, etc.

Oh; another thing I noticed on my PC was that for some reason, OUT_WAVE worked far more reliably than OUT_DS. I don't know why, I know OUT_DS has worked absolutely fine for me in the past; but that's one thing to try if you're having issues.

The Skillster · « **Reply #8 on:** 2005-10-15 09:44:40 »

wow! nice to see progress on everyones most loved patch for FF7 (well not a patch anymore, more like wrapper?)
So how do you get it to replace the midi calls? Do you monitor the calls in real time and match the midi signitures?
If that is the case, why was the exe patched in previous versions - what did the patching achieve?

Prehaps this may inspire people to thing about making other patches into wrappers instead?
Wave Out on Winamp has always been the most solid, not the quickest, but the most stable and always recommended as a fallback for people having problems in winamp

convoy · « **Reply #9 on:** 2005-10-15 10:50:29 »

Quote from: ficedula

Because the new version doesn't come with a sample FF7Music.ini you're probably best using an INI from an earlier version (or from the FFSF PSF package) to get started; the INI files haven't changed at all so that's the easiest way to get the program set up. I know I said to remove all earlier versions, but keep the INI file around, it's the old EXEs/DLLs you should remove

If the game runs but no music plays, that should probably sort it out. Once things are a bit better tested I'll update the ZIP on my website so it has a sample INI file included, etc.

Oh; another thing I noticed on my PC was that for some reason, OUT_WAVE worked far more reliably than OUT_DS. I don't know why, I know OUT_DS has worked absolutely fine for me in the past; but that's one thing to try if you're having issues.

Apparently somehow i got it working by '
Hi, Thanks for your solution but here my condition for your info. Thanks

1) I removed the whole old 'FF7MUSIC' folder and re-create a new one
2) I only extract FF7music.ini and both the in out dll only from the new ff7psf package
3) I run the config and everywell l00ks fine in configuration etc.. when the game start (because i start from scratch), it run the introductory scene movie and after cloud get down from train, the music is not working.

Thank you very much

EDIT:

FINALLY!!! I got it working. I 're-install' the FF7Music by deleting the whole folder and install everything again. However i notice one part for my stuff. I need to use the latest in_psf.dll in order to work. Latest version is v2.07 whereby the FF7PSF package is 2.03.

Thanks for the great tweak!

ficedula · « **Reply #10 on:** 2005-10-15 11:03:40 »

Make sure you've removed any extra DLL's from the FF7 folder (like ff7music.dll, which was in the main folder, not the \ficedula subfolder), and you're using an unpatched v1.02 EXE.

Beyond that, there's not a lot else I'm aware of that shouldn't work. However, I should point out that on my PC at least I don't use any compatibility mode fixes, so I have no idea how they would affect FF7Music, if at all.

The Skillster · « **Reply #11 on:** 2005-10-15 11:50:22 »

OK bugs and requests time!
I just got it working, I noticed these things:
when it parses the search paths - the old ff7music accepted everything from a semi colon to the next semi colon as one path ie: g:\ff7\ficedula\ost\disc 1\; etc
The new one converts ALL spaces into semi colons ie:
g:\Final;fantasy;vii\ficedula\ost\disc;1; etc
However, if you change this in the config screen the ini shows "g:\final fantasy vii\ficedula\ost\disc 1";"etc
So thats something to look out for.
Also if you ADD a new file in the config screen, ie I add a psf to the battle music, it adds the absolute path ie:
instead of chu=2 13 - JENOVA.mp3
chu=G:\final fantasy vii\ficedula\ost\disc 2\2 13 - JENOVA.mp3 etc
THE SAME GOES FOR THE PLUGINS.
And yes I had to use the absolute path in my mp3 before it worked.
SO there is no use for having the search paths in there!.

REQUESTS:
PLEASE FIX the need for absolute paths (since I use ff7 from a removable drive I would like to use the relative name from inside the search paths instead of having the change the drive letter every time i move to another machine)

FIX the semi colon in the search path bug (I used my old ini with the new FF7 music and this caused it)

One last thing - I dont have to configure the input plugins do i? they should all load automatically depending on the type of file being played?

Thanks

The Skillster · « **Reply #12 on:** 2005-10-15 12:38:27 »

ignore the absolute path thing. that was because i removed a space in the one of the search paths.
Note: in the ini I am set up thus:

Code: [Select]

Paths=;"G:\Final Fantasy VII\ficedula\FF7 OST\DISC 1\";"G:\Final Fantasy VII\ficedula\FF7 OST\DISC 2\";"G:\Final Fantasy VII\ficedula\FF7 OST\DISC 3\";"G:\Final Fantasy VII\ficedula\FF7 OST\DISC 4\";"G:\Final Fantasy VII\ficedula\FF7 OST\Reunion\";"G:\Final Fantasy VII\ficedula\FF7 OST\FF7A"

I realised there is a semi colon needed at the start of the parameters which the new ff7music didnt put in till I deleted the first entry above

hay · « **Reply #13 on:** 2005-10-15 12:57:15 »

I've done clean install and have unmodified 1.02 patch like you said and when custom mp3 would play game hangs and plugin displays "could not set cooperative level". Any ideas?

DarK AngeL DreaD · « **Reply #14 on:** 2005-10-15 13:27:22 »

I too am getting the 'cooperative level' error.

I'm running off a fresh install (since I couldn't get it on my old install). I installed to a directory without spaces, in case that was causing problems, but seemingly not.

The game loads fine, but when I get to a place where a custom psf or mp3 should load, it hangs for a while, the original MIDI starts playing, and eventually the picture shows up (while in the background, hundreds of 'Cooperative Level' errors are popping up).

I'm so very excited to get this thing to work, any help is immensely appreciated.

EDIT: After tweaking around a bit, I've managed to stop the errors. The substitutions no longer take place, however, as can be seen in APP_LOG.txt, where it finds the MIDI and immediately starts playing it, whereas before it would note the file that it was supposed to be playing instead.

Mobius · « **Reply #15 on:** 2005-10-15 15:11:19 »

Alright! I've managed to fix all my problems!

I simply eradicated all ficedula.DLLs and such within the FF7/Ficedula directory, changed my FF7MUSIC.ini to an edited version of the one included with the FFSF PSF package (simply downloaded it, and changed directory paths and any music filenames that needed to change), use input device as in_psf (d'uh) and output as out_wave, and made sure all my MP3/PSF files were in directories with no spaces (so, C:/FF7/MP3, or whatever). And now I have FF7 looping-audio bliss! And it's working with the hi-res patch and all that lovely stuff! I can mix and match MP3s and PSFs - my custom soundtrack is wonderful! Ficedula, have my babies!

Coheed · « **Reply #16 on:** 2005-10-15 15:39:10 »

http://forums.qhimm.com/viewtopic.php?t=4777 Has anyone else had a problem getting the boss music to work? I'm having the problem on old and new ff7music and ficelib releases..

Aaron · « **Reply #17 on:** 2005-10-15 15:55:18 »

This is cool.
If anyone wants to take it upon themselves to modify the FF7 PSF package thing that is available here to use this new version of FF7Music, whatever the latest version of HE is, and update the directions, then go right ahead... Let me know and I'll post it up there. (You will be credited, of course.)

I don't really have time to look at it for a while.

your evil twin · « **Reply #18 on:** 2005-10-15 17:13:22 »

I only just re-installed Final Fantasy VII for my PC yesterday after having not played it for many many years... had a look online for patches to make it work in XP and I found all of this wonderful stuff!

But all this stuff to do with plugins is rather confusing to me, and the FF7Music programme doesn't come with them. It's useful for people familiar with the old versions, but to a total newbie its frustrating as it seems that the programme doesn't have all the required elements that it needs to run.

I've tried using the plugin dlls that come in the FFSF PSF package, and the FF7Music.ini, I've tried altering the paths, all sorts of things... but when I run the programme, I still hear the original PC midi files instead of the PSF files that I got. I'm using an FFVII install that has the 1.02 patch (and the flip videos patch, thuogh I'm not sure I actually needed it as I discovered it was my matrsoksa stuff that was stopping the videos from working).

So, should I keep messing around with the files, or shall I just wait a few days and hope that someone releases a super-easy thing that will just install everything that I need? I really can't stand the PC's midi files and am looking forward to playing with a mix of the playstation music and the orchestral tracks. (At the moment I'm just trying to get the playstation ones to work though.)

eraclea · « **Reply #19 on:** 2005-10-15 22:06:24 »

I get a weird error which causes FF7MUSIC.exe to run veeeery slow... (and mostly crash at all after that...)

It says that it couldn't enumerate any tvtuners (i haven't got one), then it tries to connect to NVGPIO (NVtunep) or something like that... and then it says it's using Display 1... and that's it... These three messages are repeatet until it crashes... and i don't know what to do -._-.

Rich · « **Reply #20 on:** 2005-10-16 01:06:49 »

This is really cool.

Trying to use my old ini caused FF7 to hang as described but switching to the one from the package worked. I also had the thing with the direct sound plug in not working but the wave being fine.

The interface improvements are neat. When browsing music files and plugins the rembered folder is shared, would be nice if they were seperate.

I'm probably being dumb and/or blind but how do I set multiple input plug-ins for the diferent formats?

Edit:For other brainiacs like me I think multi plug-ins works by looking for other plugins in the same directory as the specified input plug in.

Anyway thanks for making a program that made me want to play FF7 again!

EmperorSteele · « **Reply #21 on:** 2005-10-16 08:35:09 »

Hey, found a few bugs.

For some reason, trying to override "cinco" (the song played when riding a chocobo on the world map) causes a recursive loop error of some kind, and error messages will continue to pop up. Unfortunatly, ff7music seems unable/aunwilling to produce a error log, so i need to like, re-install photoshop and make a print screen of the errors =/

[edit] nevermind, i just didnt have a song set to play it... though this doesn't seemt o be a problem for other ones... o_O

Also, the game will stop responding if the "emulate ramps" box is checked and such an event occures (Usually before fighting a Jenova, i've found, haha), so, that either needs to be fixed, or kept un-checked.

It also didn't do squat to turn off midis. It made them very, very quite, but still audible.

Short of that, using a plethora of AC tracks and ff7 remixes is very, very awesome =)

your evil twin · « **Reply #22 on:** 2005-10-16 12:12:18 »

Aha! I managed to get it to work. Had to disable my windows midi volume though cause the programme wouldn't do it.

Erm, perhaps this is a dumb question, but where do I get the plugin for playing MP3s? I only have the in_psf.dll for playing the playstation music. Do I need to download and install winamp and use a plugin from that?

Coheed · « **Reply #23 on:** 2005-10-16 13:45:59 »

Without changing anything the modified boss music starts when fighting Reno, but it also black screens and I'm back at the desktop.. :/

Marc · « **Reply #24 on:** 2005-10-16 16:52:47 »

Quote from: your evil twin

Aha! I managed to get it to work. Had to disable my windows midi volume though cause the programme wouldn't do it.

Erm, perhaps this is a dumb question, but where do I get the plugin for playing MP3s? I only have the in_psf.dll for playing the playstation music. Do I need to download and install winamp and use a plugin from that?

I didn't have it either. I downloaded winamp 2.95 and took it from there. It also helped me choose which files to put where anyway.

Also the ramps option did give me some trouble as well.

Without it it works great. Thanks for the great update. Fixed all the issues I was having with it!

Author Topic: New version of FF7Music (Read 66557 times)

convoy

convoy

DarK AngeL DreaD

Rich