Serious keyboard/controller problem for FF8

[#Sen-chan#]

All right, for lack of any other solution, I wanted to play FFVIII with hardware acceleration and antialiasing, since it's beautiful. Low and behold, thanks to my mother's obsession with computers, we have one in almost every room of the house and in her bedroom, there happens to be a Windows '98 machine (rarely used) with a GeForce TI 200-something like that. From all my research, on a card that old, FFVIII should work.

I was about to give up when I got a wrong disc error, but since the dvd drives are so old, I took a chance as a last resort before image/daemon tools plan and just refreshed my computer when the cd was read. Hurdle 1: Crossed with minor scrapes and bruises in the War To Make Final Fantasy VIII Work.

The major problem that I'm encountering that I cannot get passed is FFVIII's heightened sensitivity to game controllers and keyboards. The controller won't work period even after I took pains to install the software and driver (made me miss XP's 'do it for you' real bad). The USB hubs in the back of the machine aren't 2.0, so...might be the problem. I thought, 'fine, so long as the keyboard works, I can get back to the controller'. Wrong. The keyboard won't even work. It's like it's perpetually STUCK on right or something. I can't load a save and I can sit there and watch Squall twitch his way on the screen. Amusing for the first three seconds. Annoying after half an hour. I tried using ff8play.exe and its configurator. No luck. The config for 8 originally won't even let me choose keyboard, it keeps going back to controller even if one isn't plugged in. Even thought it was the machine overboosting it and went to software mode. Still the same.

Tally of wins and losses:
Human wins: 1
Computer Error wins: 5726932

Help please? 

[Jari]

It's like it's perpetually STUCK on right or something. I can't load a save and I can sit there and watch Squall twitch his way on the screen.

If you have any analog controllers - joysticks, gamepads with analog sticks, wheels - connected, disconnect them all and try again. I did notice your comment about about the config and not having a controller plugged in, but I'm just making sure, since uncalibrated analog controllers will do the exact thing you describe.

And if that doesn't work, search the forum... there was a post about similar problem where a MIDI-device somehow managed to cause havoc with the controls. Not sure if it was with FF7 or FF8, though.


EDIT: It's this thread. So, it's for FF7 and there's an external MIDI keyboard in use. 

[#Sen-chan#]

I'd love to calibrate it, but I can't find in the software where to do that. I mean, obviously it's a game problem when the controller won't work and neither will the keyboard, right?  I shall work more on it tomorrow, but I'm not sure what I can do at this point.

[Jari]

Calibration should be possible using the Game Controllers-thingy on Control Panel. Although some analog controllers are actually auto-calibrating, so there shouldn't be a need to calibrate them.

In any case, just disconnecting all of them is probably less of a hassle. That should work.

[#Sen-chan#]

:/ I wonder if Logitech happens to have a premade, FFVIII calibration and stuff. It's a Logitech Dual Action and I really love it. I just never once needed to use their software before. With XP, I just plug it in to USB and away I go...Not so with Windows 98

[ChaosControl]

If you have computers in every part of the house, why don't you try another comp?

[#Sen-chan#]

To play FFVIII? That's what I'm doing. I was playing it on my comp (the one that's in my room), but that's windows XP with my GeForce 7600 GS card. The one in the my mother's bedroom (the '98) has a very old GeForce TI, which should work with some fiddling. And I know the controller works because I use it perfectly on my computer. I just have to figure out what the problem is with the '98 one.

EDIT: I've got it working. Had to use the software and run the game from the profiler for my Logitech Dual Action (which in XP, I don't have to do) and it works just fine Had to map out the buttons (ergh), but at least that hurdle was crossed within the first half-hour/hour I started working on it.

Put in the geforce patch: the menu is beautiful and this game is *_*!! This was how it was meant to be played. For those that wondered, the video card is geforce ti 3 200-something. with force driver 71-something. Rivatuner on 2x2 antialiasing with antropic (or whatever) at 2x...*_*