Topics

1

General Discussion / Final Fantasy VII is a horrible game!

« on: 2022-04-01 15:19:40 »

Hello all! Spoilers be warned. Clickbait topic aside, and no I'm not lost I know where I am... put away your pitchforks and torches for a second and hear me out - before I throw myself in the proverbial ditch.

I'm mostly through a 2022 run of Final Fantasy VII, as some can attest I'm one of and will always be its biggest fan. That said, the tale of Final Fantasy VII is a horrible one. Filled with sadness and grief only to be wrapped in a bow of sadness and despair. It might even be the most unsatisfying story ever told!

Why do you ask? Well, tl;dr version the bad guy wins. Humanity is extinct, and as far as we know, the being known as Jenova/Sephiroth is still free. This is even made worse when you take the compilation into account. The planet wants to collect the remaining (presumably uninfected) Mako and cut bait. The party stops this in Dirge of Cerberus, effectively stopping what the planet does to naturally defend itself. Making Cloud and company the "bad" guys. But putting the compilation aside for a moment, the original is quite bleak. ALL HUMANITY DIES. that's right according to the original director. Some barebones analysis from the final scene shows that Gaia, can, and still supports life. So did Sephiroth win? Did the planet concoct another Weapon and destroy humanity? After all there were some that lived off the land and did not embrace Mako energy. In the end it doesn't matter, the end result was/is the same. While you are playing FF7 they spend a great deal of effort to try and shift the goals to saving the planet. But it's a zero-sum game, either way, you lose, and we are not entirely sure you managed to save Gaia.

Making it the ONLY story I've witnessed/read/played where the bad guy wins full stop. "But Mako we defeated Sephiroth!?" Nah, the game makes it quite clear through itself and its extended media you did not. It's also hard not to believe Sephiroth didn't appear when Cloud and company were in assisted living facilities and finished the job.

To be clear it's not bad, it's horrible. Since 1997 I have had no good resolution to the tale. To be fair in ANY story that flashes "and the all die -The End" would feel pretty terrible. Except for Red XIII, he lives... so that's something I guess.

As Red XIII pointed out in the remake, this^ is the bad ending. Meaning your fighting in the original for the worst to happen. This is one instance where I would love someone to prove my own interpretation wrong. As it would only help me fall in love with the FF7 story again... but I don't see how that's possible. I'd have to ignore outright too much. Anyway thanks for reading my long-winded rant. lol

 

2

Completely Unrelated / Need a definitive FF7 mod list for those willing to help.

« on: 2020-11-15 03:55:33 »

Hello all! Long time user here, sadly I have not been keeping up on things... and sadly I get stuck in my ways. Is Aali's driver still the best way to play FF7 PC? Is the PC port even still the way to go?  I'm so old I remember having to download the duck codec to get the game to boot up. heh

On the social end of things is Obesebear still cool? Sl still grumpy? Covarlett still Covarlett? Dan still well.. Dan? and Sith still the Linux wiz?

I can't for the life of me find a few essential mods Aali's Driver, Reuion, Soundtrack by FFtim. Ether I'm getting too old to use SMF, or I'm blind I dunno which is worse.

3

General Discussion / Cloud's new face, and the possibility Square pulled a reset with the remake.

« on: 2018-07-10 18:59:51 »

https://wccftech.com/final-fantasy-vii-remake-cloud-new-design/

The real question is, why would they feel the need to re-do Cloud? There have been rumors (IGN and other places) that Square scrapped FFVII and started over of sorts. What are you guys thoughts on this? Do you like the new face?

4

Support / A great discovery!

« on: 2018-07-10 10:14:29 »

I'm not sure how many (if any) of you know about this but, there is a way to replace the textures in the PSX version of seemingly unlimited size.

Sort of proof:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1v5VWxz9fElwp8x2bTcNa5TEiV71dMqPS

In this image I replaced the standard Cloud image with the head of a Chocobo from the pc version. at 8x the size. Due to the way the plugin renders at higher resolution this actually works! I've also tested it on a few font items and icons. But it works! Not only that it handles layers properly.

There is a rub, the current way is a bit... tedious. To say the least, the output folder is dumping hundreds of small images that need to be assembled then you can replace.

As you no doubt figured out it's a plugin for an Emulator.

http://emu-russia.net/en/files/plugins/psx/

gpubladesoft to be exact. This is great news for anybody interested. It doesn't seem to be limited color in pallet as well. The only restriction I can find thus far is the image needs to stick to multiples of the original. As soon as get up from my nap I'm going to try and replace the font! LOL

5

WIP / [WIP] FFVII and Godrays/Global Lighting?

« on: 2017-01-11 10:40:07 »

Yup, I've been working a a shader using Nvidia's new SSDO algorithm http://kayru.org/articles/dssdo/ to approximate global illumination effects to simulate light and the new "Godray" shader. I've got it working to the point where Cloud is the global light can finally be controlled.

https://developer.nvidia.com/sites/default/files/akamai/gameworks/events/gdc14/GDC_14_From%20Terrain%20to%20Godrays%20-%20Better%20Use%20of%20DirectX11CantlayTatarinov.pdf

Now the global light can be assigned to any character even invisible ones that can be placed strategically. But that's not the hurdle I'm trying to clear. I'm trying to find the best way for the light to effect the 2D backgrounds - and I think I've got it. I can actually single out a very specific color key and tell it one of three things. Does it Absorb Light? Generate Light? or Reflect Light.

Hard to imagine from this crusty informative video but I'm imagining real shadows cast and sun glare on the world map. Glowing objects will now shade the character, so on and so fourth. Anyway progress is slow but I made some headway tonight.

https://youtu.be/BEjx0uiQavU

Sorry don't have much more to show y'all. The video depicts Cloud as a global light and you can see the light shifts with him, also the light peaks through the cracks in the vents. Now what this video unintentionally has is light beaming from everywhere that is because I assigned it to colors that are commonly found to test to see if the light was shifting. But with some tweaking to a scene maybe I can show you my overall vision better...

Using Sweet.fx to load a specific tone map when a scene loads seems like one possible way.

6

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Implementing the 9,999 patch (Raw editing the .exe) Question.

« on: 2017-01-09 20:10:07 »

...Ok so I'm in the process of Implementing the 9,999 patch I'm using HextCompare and DuP2 (as other tools seem to be down) I compare the original 1998 .exe file to dziugo's 9,999 limit break patched .exe - sure enough I got the raw values to implement. Sadly, that's where my quest ended. As comparing those values to Dan's R05C some of the original values have changed.

What would be the best way to implement this patch and am I on the right path? Comparing R05c to the original leads to many changes. I could compare just the values that I'm looking for, but changing those might interfere with functions that R05c is looking for.

7

Releases / [FF7PC-98] A few shaders I've found work over the years.

« on: 2016-02-25 11:41:04 »

First is the AA Color shader released by Guestr. There are a few options for customizing for performance and saturation, brightness, contrast. This has been tweaked for my specific needs.

Code: [Select]

const vec3 c_ch = vec3(1.0,1.0,1.0);  //  rgb color channel intensity
const float   a = 1.50 ;              //  saturation
const float   b = 1.00 ;              //  brightness
const float   c = 1.30 ;              //  contrast   

// you can use contrast1,contrast2...contrast4 (or contrast0 for speedup)

float contrast0(float x)
{ return x; }

float contrast1(float x)
{ x = x*1.1547-1.0;
  return sign(x)*pow(abs(x),1.0/c)*0.86 +  0.86;}

float contrast2(float x)
{ return normalize(vec2(pow(x,c),pow(0.86,c))).x*1.72;}

float contrast3(float x)
{ return 1.73*pow(0.57735*x,c); }

float contrast4(float x)
{ return clamp(0.866 + c*(x-0.866),0.05, 1.73); }

uniform sampler2D OGL2Texture;
void main()
{
vec3 c10 = texture2D(OGL2Texture, gl_TexCoord[1].xy).xyz;
vec3 c01 = texture2D(OGL2Texture, gl_TexCoord[4].xy).xyz;
vec3 c11 = texture2D(OGL2Texture, gl_TexCoord[0].xy).xyz;
vec3 c21 = texture2D(OGL2Texture, gl_TexCoord[5].xy).xyz;
vec3 c12 = texture2D(OGL2Texture, gl_TexCoord[2].xy).xyz;

vec3 dt = vec3(1.0,1.0,1.0);
float k1=dot(abs(c01-c21),dt);
float k2=dot(abs(c10-c12),dt);

vec3 color = (k1*(c10+c12)+k2*(c01+c21)+0.001*c11)/(2.0*(k1+k2)+0.001);

float x = sqrt(dot(color,color));

color.r = pow(color.r+0.001,a);
color.g = pow(color.g+0.001,a);
color.b = pow(color.b+0.001,a);

gl_FragColor.xyz = contrast4(x)*normalize(color*c_ch)*b;
}

The other is a shader created by Kauto. Adjust the line commented to increase/decrease the result, I don't prefer this one it makes everything look like an oil painting. But what the heck someone might use it...

Code: [Select]

uniform sampler2D tex00;
uniform float width;
uniform float height;

#define s2(a, b) temp = a; a = min(a, b); b = max(temp, b);
#define mn3(a, b, c) s2(a, b); s2(a, c);
#define mx3(a, b, c) s2(b, c); s2(a, c);

#define mnmx3(a, b, c) mx3(a, b, c); s2(a, b);                                   // 3 exchanges
#define mnmx4(a, b, c, d) s2(a, b); s2(c, d); s2(a, c); s2(b, d);                   // 4 exchanges
#define mnmx5(a, b, c, d, e) s2(a, b); s2(c, d); mn3(a, c, e); mx3(b, d, e);           // 6 exchanges
#define mnmx6(a, b, c, d, e, f) s2(a, d); s2(b, e); s2(c, f); mn3(a, b, c); mx3(d, e, f); // 7 exchanges

vec4 xlat_main( in vec2 tex ) {
   
    // Calculating texel coordinates
    float w = 540.0; //Set this value to a lower amount increase effect.
    float h = 540.0; //Set this value to a lower amount increase effect.

//    vec2 p0     = vec2(1.0/width,1.0/height);
    vec2 p1     = vec2(1.0/w,1.0/h);
vec2 p0     = p1*0.6;

vec4 v[9];

//MEDIAN-Filter to round edges

// Add the pixels which make up our window to the pixel array.
for(int dX = -1; dX <= 1; ++dX) {
for(int dY = -1; dY <= 1; ++dY) {
  vec2 offset = vec2(float(dX), float(dY));
   
  // If a pixel in the window is located at (x+dX, y+dY), put it at index (dX + R)(2R + 1) + (dY + R) of the
  // pixel array. This will fill the pixel array, with the top left pixel of the window at pixel[0] and the
  // bottom right pixel of the window at pixel[N-1].
  v[(dX + 1) * 3 + (dY + 1)] = texture2D(tex00, tex + offset * p0);
}
}

vec4 temp;

// Starting with a subset of size 6, remove the min and max each time
mnmx6(v[0], v[1], v[2], v[3], v[4], v[5]);
mnmx5(v[1], v[2], v[3], v[4], v[6]);
mnmx4(v[2], v[3], v[4], v[7]);
mnmx3(v[3], v[4], v[8]);
return v[4];
}

void main() {
    gl_FragData[0] = xlat_main(gl_TexCoord[0].xy).rgba;
}

Copy ether into a notepad and save them as a .post file. Then place them into your shader directory and tell your driver where to find them. Don't forget to enable.

8

Troubleshooting / A few Questions.

« on: 2014-08-01 18:35:04 »

Hello, trying to play a game of FFVII here and I had a few questions for ya.


1) The new driver got rid of "break 9,999 limit" how do I go about implementing it back into the game?


2) How do I just remove the borders around the dialog boxes? I did it once before but to lazy to research how.


Thanks all!


Edit: These questions really apply to all versions of the game but I am using the Steam converted copy. But I can use the 98' version I just need to get off my lazy butt and find it.

9

Troubleshooting / Missing Movie file in the re-release?

« on: 2013-04-15 03:22:00 »

Hi All! I just installed FF7 (Rerelease) fresh, it seems to be completely missing the Jenova_e movie file... can anybody confirm this?

10

Team Avalanche / Any body got a copy of the Hi-Res overhaul?

« on: 2012-08-19 06:09:00 »

Title says it all. All the links are busted and I'm dying to play FF7 over the next few days... anybody got a link?

11

General Discussion / Which version do you prefer? New vs Old.

« on: 2012-08-15 02:15:39 »

Hello all, with the release of FF7 Re-Release today, I'd thought it be nice to have a discussion on which version you prefer. Here are the pro and cons I can think of:


Re-Release:
Has .ogg support.
Much cleaner fmv's (then anything I've seen on Qhimm)
Battles look amazing, while staying true to the original.
Slightly easier to Mod in some aspects.


Original:
Support for great mods.
Better Backgrounds. (Does not seem like the shaders are used at-all in the re release on the backgrounds. Altering the shaders only affected the .fmv files.)
Fixed mini-games thanks to Dan. (This might be available in the future for the re-release)
Better translation options.
More graphical options.


**
Me, I actually prefer the original over the re-release. The inclusion of .ogg, fmv, and battles aren't a strong enough case to deal with the horrible drm issues and the loss of really great mods.

12

Completely Unrelated / BATTLE!!!

« on: 2012-07-08 00:02:34 »

Ahh good ol' DLPB.


You repeat yourself sir without any new or real relevant information to the subject. No, it's not better to me. To me broken mini games and blocky backgrounds are just plain not worth it. Might be to you (obviously) but I do not sacrifice so much just to have a slightly sharper character. Here's hoping a second try with PC will be better.

If the designers today had access to the original data and could make higher resolution versions of the graphics, they would not have left FF7 PC with the PSX low res data.  Why would anyone want that?

Dunno why this statement is here, my cat sneezing has more relevant information to the topic at hand then this.

13

General Discussion / Final Fantasy VIII Plot Holes *Major Spoilers*

« on: 2011-07-16 17:12:35 »

So, was playing some FF8 (for the first time in my adult life. I'm noticing quite a few plot holes and things of that kind that doesn't quite make sense, so that I may be able to enjoy the game better. *Ahem*...

1) Cid was/is married to Edea, the main cast all grew all grew up in the same orphanage as Edea, her character model appears to be slightly older then the other kids. Yes Cid (is old and all) still went ahead and married her?! (Not really a plot hole just weird)

2) Here I am uncovering their lost past when they begin to question "how" they (the team) all forgot the same memories, seemingly at the same time. When out of nowhere Irvine blurts out "it's our GF's!?!" as they all begin to take this as fact, it begs the question... In a world with time manipulation, drawing magic, and space sorcerers, how in the heck did you pull that one out! There is not so much as even a hint of that up unto this point (second disc,) not only that but you guessed right on the first guess.

The rest of the party seemed to take this as set in stone. But WHY!? My first guess would have been jumping back and fourth though time.

3) Why in the heck would they send 3 newly graduated Seed's to kill Edea!? Blows my mind! So much is resting on this one point in the game, they leave it to teenagers! At first I thought they would like to remain covert. Then Rinoa's father says "we don't care if they know, we need the job done at all costs".

 At this point in the game she blatantly kills the president in-front of everyone. And she has yet to gain control of the military (since they supported Squall.) So with three gardens, an entire military, did they just send three kids!? :O If they did not care, and went for a full frontal assault (which they did) would they not use these immense resources available!? even if you forgo the "plan" she still killed the president in front of everyone! Even a hated president has some support.

I am only on the second disc!? I don't think this will end up on my "greatest hits" list at the rate this is going. =/

14

Completely Unrelated / More bad news for Square-Enix

« on: 2011-05-12 16:45:06 »

Geez, its going from "Really bad" to "Worse" Square is reporting a negative 226% change in there outlook for 2010. After already two years of record breaking losses!


http://www.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/110512.pdf


Excerpt:


Due to the recording of extraordinary losses, forecasted net income (loss) is revised for fiscal year.
Under a rapidly changing operating environment and more prudent estimates of future cash flows, the
Company plans to write down goodwill (approximately ¥8.8 billion). Further, as a result of introducing a
tightened selection standard regarding title lineup to strengthen the revenue base of the Company’s
digital entertainment segment, project development cancellation and related losses (approximately
¥4.5 billion) are expected.
Additionally, damage and losses during closures at, and restoration of, amusement facilities resulting
from the Tohoku Pacific Ocean Earthquakes and Tsunami caused an extraordinary “loss on disaster”
(approximately ¥0.6 billion).
The above factors as well as losses on retirement of noncurrent assets (approximately ¥0.6 billion),
losses on adjustment for changes of accounting standard for asset retirement obligations
(approximately ¥0.5 billion) and other losses are expected to result in total extraordinary losses of
approximately ¥16.0 billion during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011.




Any thoughts guys? Square can't possibly take much more of a beating :/

15

Completely Unrelated / Ridiculous Tax Laws Competition.

« on: 2011-04-09 21:43:04 »

http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=88608&catid=155

I will start ^_^ I always heard NY was the worst but can any of you top this! It's a bagel tax, I challenge you all to a tax duel! Who has a more ridiculous tax?! Hmmm?

16

Completely Unrelated / Chrono Trigger gets another chance at a fan remake.

« on: 2011-01-19 17:18:28 »

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/f3n5h/never_before_leaked_chrono_trigger_crimson_echoes/

Yup these fan's just don't quit! And this project looks even farther along...

Wonder what Square's going to do about this one...Or perhaps this will be the "final straw" so to speak for Square to throw in the towel and cave to the fans. 

Thoughts?

17

Completely Unrelated / Your top 10 favorite games of all time?

« on: 2010-11-20 18:07:06 »

Not just Final Fantasy, but all games! What are the most favorite games to play? My top 10:

1. Xenogears (PSX)
2. FFVII (PSX)
3. Mass Effect 1&2 (PC) (cheating I know)
4. Xenosaga (PS2)
5. Elder Scrolls Oblivion (PC)
6. Diablo 2 (PC)
7. Tales of Symphonia (GC)
8. Fable (PC)
9. Morrowind (PC)
10. Summoner 2 (GC)

18

Completely Unrelated / Petition Qhimm for banning powers.

« on: 2010-10-03 18:15:12 »

How ironic right!.

I elect vote Obesebear as the sole person in charge of banning!...

To prevent Hermoor as well as others from sending PM's and other nefarious deeds.

EDIT: Not that I don't have faith in the other mods, banning could be held to one person to avoid future confusion.

19

Completely Unrelated / Hey guys, have you had any problems accessing Qhimm lately?

« on: 2010-09-25 21:14:48 »

Hey just wanted to know if its just me or is anyone else is having DNS errors trying to access the site (qhimm). If it were my host I would want to know right away:/. Just seems like its happening today more than usual.

20

Completely Unrelated / My heads going to explode!

« on: 2010-04-05 08:09:07 »

Hello all! I am currently trying to reverse engineer the Xenogears game. Long story short...How the heck is anybody supposed to get anything off a file structure that is hidden were do I even start? What do I do?. What programing language do I learn?. What books do I buy?. What programs do I use?. Arg I have much more respect for halkun and cyberman now then I ever have. You ever just want to feel like you know nothing go to Q-gears documentation page. Any suggestions would be GREAT!. I'am not the type of person to give up, but man this is some intense stuff!   

21

Completely Unrelated / Xenogears -Student Edition

« on: 2010-03-16 21:03:44 »

Hello all I have a few questions for my nerdy friends. First off I am looking to "REMAKE" Xenogears plain and simple and I was wondering if you guys know of ANY free/paid engine that would be the most accurate rotating cameras and all. Now I know about QGEARS but I'm not really interested in that as I am just doing this for a hobby. Just to be even clearer I will not be releasing it on these forums (unless requested). Ideal for beginners of course would be preferable also again I am just doing this to learn modeling/texturing so I am not asking for anything other than advice. THANKS!

P.S I made out with an emo goth last night and I like Sephiroth. 

22

Completely Unrelated / Final Fantasy VIII PC or PSX

« on: 2010-02-23 00:25:07 »

Hello all! I am going to buy FF8 soon and I would like to know you guy's opinion on which is the best version of the game? Which has better graphics? One rule I do want to play it (for the first time) relatively soon so I am not looking to see which one has more potential just the better version as of right now...
Thanks All. 

23

Completely Unrelated / Final Fantasy 7 Remake unrealistic!

« on: 2010-02-21 01:32:10 »

Yup that's from kitase himself!

http://www.techdigest.tv/2010/02/final_fantasy_x_1.html

Now before anyone gets upset keep in mind square hasn't had the best of track records as of late...ALSO from the interview it sounds like he envisions a final fantasy 7 remake so epic it would take all of square's resources and manpower over the course of many many years! So at the very minimum he knows just a simple HD port wont do.

So that's good news for us modders I can learn to code and texture then I'll steal the Qgears source code and finish it myself MUHAHA

24

Troubleshooting / Can someone upload all updated PRP files?

« on: 2010-02-16 04:34:22 »

   Hello all I've got my greedy little hands on a fresh new laptop and I was wondering if someone could upload for me all the Phoenix Reconstruction Project files? In LGP format of course...Ficedula's tools seem to be crashing on me everytime I extract a file. If anybody could help me that would be great! I'am so looking forward to jumping back into FF7.

25

Completely Unrelated / Recommendation for a new gaming laptop.

« on: 2010-01-29 23:18:37 »

Hello all first off I'd like to apologize to Neocloudstrife I will hopefully be able to help you with the camera angles in soon  

Well now here is the story I was working on an Opengl shader when poof!... BSoD (Freakin Vista) so I get a new GPU. A couple of days later AGAIN another BSoD so I tossed the PC in the closet of no return. So long story short I'm going to be out for a little wile...Sorry.

Now if you guys had to pick a 15" gaming laptop which one would you guys pick or you can offer you own suggestions...Budget $2000~#3000.

This one.
http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g51jxa1-order-p-2724.html

Or this one (thou a 16").
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/laptop-studio-xps-16/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studio-xps-16&s=dhs&cs=19&~ck=mn

P.S Looks are a plus for me I hate the way Sager/Clevo look. But I will use them if that's what you recommend.