Greetings,
So far I'm loving the work that you've done, this is fantastic and really streamlines a process that would otherwise deter a lot of people from experiencing FFVII at its finest. I have, however, encountered a few issues that I have not been able to find solutions to, within the FAQ and this thread (though I will admit that I did not sift through all 100 pages of this thread).
A little bit of preliminary information:
I'm running Windows 8, 64 bit.
I'm using the Steam version of Final Fantasy VII, which I have installed to C:/Games and NOT in the Program Files folder.
- I have user account control turned off (always do), installed everything as an administrator and turned off my anti-virus/firewall for setup.
- I downloaded the compilation torrent provided with all of the mods that are supposed to work together seamlessly.
- I'm operating on a laptop with a dedicated Nvidia GPU.
- During the installation process, I was only prompted once to configure the installation of a mod as it ran through the command prompt. I can't remember which it was, but, as suggested, I selected "1997 version" and continued with the install. (Is this normal? When I read "pick 1997 for EVERYTHING", I can only assume there should have been more configuration prompts...)
I put my mods in the suggested folder (Games/FF7Mods) and my FF7 install is in Games/Steam/Steamapps/Common/FINAL FANTASY VII. I ran bootloader and the command prompt went to work. After installation was completed, I went through and set all of my options in Bootleg Front End and upon using the Bootloader, I went ahead and configured everything to the recommended specification (minus Postprocessing - I read that it doesn't work on Nvidia cards and it does result in a post-processing error at launch).
Anyhow, on to the problems. When I launch the game with bootloader, FF7Music launches in the background as well. Upon starting a new game, the music in the opening starts about 20 seconds later than it should, but it does start (with the remastered music too). Is there a reason why it launches FF7Music in the background? I read in some of these threads that the game must be launched with FF7Music in order for the mod to work, but I also read that for a good portion of the other mods to work, the game must be launched with Bootloader. Is it normal for the FF7Music launcher to pop-up in the background when you start the game with bootloader? Sometimes when I use bootloader to launch the game, there is no music at all. This is more of a curiosity and an annoyance, it isn't really a huge deal.
However, the thing that really bothers me is that the Bootleg Front End doesn't remember all of my settings after exiting. Again, this issue isn't enough to make it unplayable, but still. It makes me paranoid that not all has gone smoothly. Under "models", "Guard Scorpion" and "Sweeper" won't stay selected. I always pick "Team Avalanche" for the save point and it does show it as such in the bootleg front end, but in-game it actually shows the Final Fantasy X savepoint. Under "Overhaul", "Always Run", "Re-Translation" (including Canon Names, Canon Items and American Spelling) won't stay selected.
Also, my APP.LOG:
INFO: FF7/FF8 OpenGL driver version 0.7.11b
INFO: Auto-detected version: FF7 1.02 US English
INFO: Intel Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600 4.2.0 - Build 10.18.10.3355
INFO: OpenGL 2.0 support detected
INFO: Using PBO
INFO: Found swap_control extension
INFO: Max texture size: 16384x16384
INFO: Number of texture units: 8
INFO: Original resolution 640x480, window size 1920x1080, output resolution 1440x1080, internal resolution 3840x2160
INFO: FBO extension detected, using fast scaling/postprocessing path
INFO: Shader limits: varying 64, vert uniform 4096, frag uniform 4096
INFO: FFMpeg movie player plugin loaded
INFO: FFMpeg version SVN-r25886, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
INFO: FF7Music helper plugin loaded
INFO: Loading external library Multi.dll
LOCK UNLOCK TEST
MATRIX INITIALIZE
INITIALIZE DD/D3D END
ERROR: could not open file C:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII\ff7input.cfg
initializing sound...
creating dsound primary buffer
reading audio file
loading static sounds
sound initialized
set music volume: 127
set music volume: 127
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF CREDITS!!!
INFO: C:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII\movies\eidoslogo.avi; h264/aac 1280x960, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 10.193000, frames: 153
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=60
INFO: C:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII\movies\sqlogo.avi; h264/aac 1280x896, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 14.605000, frames: 219
END OF CREDITS!!!
Entering MAIN
set music volume: 127
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
INFO: C:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII\movies\opening.avi; h264/aac 1280x896, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 127.570000, frames: 1914
WM_CLOSE
Field Quit
UNINITIALIZE DD
END UNINITIALIZE DD
Just in-case something looks odd there too. Is it weird that during installation, I wasn't prompted to configure more than one mod? Is it normal to have FF7Music launcher open in the background when I launch with bootloader? Any insight as to why the options I mentioned earlier won't save in bootleg front-end? I'd really love to use them.
Sorry if this post was needlessly verbose. Appreciate any feedback/insight. Thanks!