FF8 DLS

[Erdrick The Hero]

Soooo... I recently got FFVIII PC (old version) and installed the 1.02 patch and Aali's driver. I don't have any other mods yet. Technically I've had the PSX version pretty much since it came out, but there's something wrong with at least disk one that causes it to crash before you can leave the classroom in balamb garden - so this is the first time I've really played it, and I'm not very far into it yet (just got to Galbadia Garden).

I was surprised that FFVIII's music sounded so good - even in MIDI format. (I haven't heard much of the PSX soundtrack though, so I can't compare - Balamb Garden's music sounds pretty similar, though not quite as pretty as the PS version.) Digging around, I realized that FF8 had a DLS soundfont, which made me wonder if that is why it sounds so good. Then I heard the square wave in-game and now I think it still must be using Windows' native GM soundfont.

Now, whether or not I get Roses and Wine working, I'd like to try to replace my Windows gm.dls with FF8's ff8.dls because I work with MIDI a -lot-. I know this must be possible, I've seen tutorials to do it on XP, but the machine I have the game on is Vista, and doesn't have a drivercache folder. I tried just replacing windows' version with ff8's version (renaming it gm.dls and putting it in my /system32/drivers folder - but everything sounds the same as before. I don't think System File Checker did anything to it, because the windows' is ~3MB, and ff8's is ~8MB, and the file in the drivers folder is still ~8MB after a few restarts. Anybody have any suggestions?

(Also, a side question - Is that Fey Wong (sorry if I butchered her name) song in the PC version?)

[Covarr]

This should help. You probably need method 2.

[Erdrick The Hero]

Thanks Covarr, but that's actually the tutorial I was referring to. Unfortunately, method 2 won't work for me, as I would like Windows Media Player to use the new soundfont as well. Also, seeing as it doesn't work for cakewalk, I have a feeling it might not work with FL Studio either, as the two programs are both tools for the same or similar purposes.

[Covarr]

I'd think professional music production software like Cakewalk SONAR or FL Studio would be able to load DLS files directly the same way they would a VSTi, though I can't say I've ever tried.

Did you disable system file checker before doing this? It's distinctly possible it's replacing gm.dls in memory, rather than in the folder itself.

Also, I think the folder you're looking for is system32\dllcache, not drivercache.

[Erdrick The Hero]

I've only got the free version of FL Studio so I can't use VSTi plugins that aren't included with it.(I also can't load projects, so I have to keep the program running for days at a time while I work on a track until I am finished and can export it.) The soundfont player that comes with it only supports SF2 soundfonts.

When I tried this I didn't have internet access on WiFi, and had very little data left on my phone, so I didn't go poking around for SFC because I thought the file wasn't being replaced. I'll check that out though.

Yeah, it probably is dllcache, I didn't have the tutorial up when I posted that. I don't have a folder there with either name though.

Unfortunately I won't have access to my Vista machine until this weekend (It's at my mother's house) so I won't be able to test with that until then (and I don't have internet there, so I can't let you if it works until sunday night), but I can try this out on my Win7 machine this week.