Speed game way too choppy

[happsai]

Hi all,

I'm playing FF7 with lots of patches applied (including the mini-game fix) and when I play the Speed game (rollercoaster with a gun) at Gold Saucer I get less than 1 frame per second.  It is completely unplayable.
Is there any way to fix this?
The motorcycle game is also a little choppy but very playable.  Every other part FF7 in general is fine except the minigames being too choppy.
Like I said, I applied the mini-game patch.  Did I do something wrong?

Thanks.

[Covarr]

Hmm... Probably. The Hi-res patch can also cause problems if you have a slow processor. Exactly what patches do you have installed?

[happsai]

I have the 1.02 patch, NPC patch, hi-res patch, new cloud battle model, chocobo patch, mini-game patch, FF7Music (with psx music) and battle swirl fix all installed.
I tried reverting back to low-res mode, but it doesn't make a difference in framerate at all.  My processor and video card are pretty good, so I'm not too suspicious about those areas.  What else could it be?

Thanks.

[dziugo]

Any chances that I can look at your ff7.exe? Email me it, or upload it somewhere if you don't mind.

dziugo

[happsai]

Sorry I took so long to reply.  I was at work all day. 

Okay, dziugo.  I just emailed you my ff7.exe.
Please let me know if you can figure out why the speed mini-game is so choppy.
Thanks, buddy!   

[happsai]

I just found something out.
If I change FF7Music so that it doesn't work (hence the psx music does not play) the minigames run nice and fast.
I don't understand why FF7Music would slow it down by that much though (I use the PSF files -- would that explain anything?).

[dziugo]

I checked your ff7.exe, and things that you have installed are:
 - FF7 Music (Cetra patch)
 - Chocobo Patch
 - Battle-Swirl Fix

Nothing else (or, did I miss something?). You said that it was FF7Music's fault - wasn't there a new version of FF7Music? Maybe try that insead of Cetra patch?

dziugo

[happsai]

Hi dziugo,

Thanks for having a look at the FF7 file for me.
The version of FF7Music that I use is 1.51.  Is that the latest version?

Thanks.

[dziugo]

This version doesn't patch anything, does it? You only need the *.ini file from the previous version of FF7Music, so start with original 1.02 ff7.exe and make sure that you don't install anything unnecessary.

dziugo

[happsai]

Hmm..
I just tried using 1.02 of FF7.exe (with no patches attached to it) and if I play without applying CETRA (for FF7-music) then the minigames run fine (a little fast, but very playable), but as soon as I use Cetra.exe to apply the PSF or mp3 music, the speed game runs at less than 1 frame per second.

Does the speed game run fine for you when you use FF7Music?

btw, I have an ATI Radeon X800 and am using the TNT fix -- I tried turning that fix off and playing in low-res/software render mode, but it didn't make a difference.

[Aaron]

Read what dziugo has been saying?
There is a new version of FF7Music that does not need to patch FF7.exe.

[Otokoshi]

I have been experiencing the same problem with the Speed Mini-Game as well.  The only modifications made to the .exe is as follows

1) Install official 1.02 patch
2) Install SaiNt's Hi-Res patch
3) Various YAMP patches (mini-game included, set to 30fps)
4) Using FF7Music, latest version, and obviously not patched using Cetra

I am also running it on an ATI card and this is the only conflict I have run into.

[happsai]

Ahh I understand now.  Indeed cetra is no longer necessary with FF7Music V1.51.

Avoiding cetra doesn't seem to solve my problem though.  Even with a fresh 1.02 FF7.exe with no other patches, I run FF7Music.exe and set it up to use in_psf.dll and out_wave.dll and run the game by clicking the "Run FF7" button, the Speed game is still the same.

Otokoshi, since we are in the same boat, I have a question.
I haven't been able to check yet.  How is the performance for the snowboarding and submarine minigames?  Playable?

[Otokoshi]

I actually started a fresh game a while back and haven't gotten to the submarine or snowboarding mini-games.  Thank goodness this was my last day of classes until fall!    Now I can just go to work and enjoy the pile of games that have been collecting dust.  I'll let you know when I reach to it.

[happsai]

I see.
I was asking because I recently started fresh and haven't made it that far. 
I guess we'll see then.  I just hope the mandatory parts of the game where you have to use sub/board are all right.

So is it fair to say that this is a problem exclusive to ATI users? 
Is there anything left that we haven't tried?

[Otokoshi]

So is it fair to say that this is a problem exclusive to ATI users?
Is there anything left that we haven't tried?

Well I'll try running the speed game without using FF7Music and see if that resolves the issue.  If that doesn't work I'll be out of ideas. 

[EmperorSteele]

I just tried this: yeah, that mini game has NEVER GONE THAT FAST HOLY CRAP o_O

I'm using the high res patch, version 1.5.0 of ff7 music... (I could never get 1.51 to work the way i wanted to.. try using 1.5?) uhm, and if i have any of D.s patches installed, I forget. (might have battle-swirl fix installed... Also, Dziugo, I havn't gotten around to beta testing; sorry man, i'll get to that when i have more than an hour of free time -_-)
But yeah, the game went at warp speed for me.  it was kinda cool.

running a 6600gt and a 2.2 g proc with a gig of ram, and had both monitors running at the time so that i could use the task monitor and ff7 music to look for any oddities (spike in resource use, debug info, etc)