FF7Music

[Freakwency]

Yo, I can't get this program to work. I'm running Windows 98 SE and an AthlonXP 1800+, if that matters. I also have a GeForce2 MX. I got the Hardware rendering working fine and dandy. I downloaded Cetra and installed the music patch, and downloaded FF7Music and put the DLL in the FF7 folder and basically followed everything in the readme. I even put a totally different song to play in place of the battle song, but it still plays the regular battle song. Nothing I do will make FF7 play something different than the midi.

[Rubicant]

You must set up everything just right in the config program. You need to specify the directories where your music files are, and winamp plug-ins for input and output. But that's irrelevant if you've already done that. By the way, are you just trying to replace the files with mp3's, or what?

Try checking the actual ff7music.ini and see if your music directory is correct. Sometimes there is an extra space after the end of the name of the directory which screws everything up. To ensure no conflicts while trying this, try muting the midi channel in volume control.

[Freakwency]

Okay, I'll try muting the midi output. I already have the plugins set and everything else is fine. I am just trying to play the mp3's on my hard drive in place of midis. I do have the TNT patch installed, but I tried it with the original FF7.exe file and it still didn't work.

[Freakwency]

Nope, muting didn't work. It just made no music play at all.

[Rubicant]

Muting midi wouldn't solve anything. I just suggested that for when you finally get FF7Music to work. By the way what versions of FF7Music and FiceLib are you using for this? I may be able to help you more with some extra info. Also, if you can, try sending me a copy of your ff7music.ini file. My e-mail is [email protected]

Yahoo and Hotmail suck, but at least they're free.

[Aaron]

Make sure you set it to "General MIDI" in FF7Config.  I forgot to do that the first time and had the same problem

[Nori]

I'm not sure about MP3s but minipsf/psf, it only works well with SBLive...
Oregon, nice place

[Freakwency]

Yep, it's set to General MIDI and I tried all the selections for the MIDI Driver. My FF7Music version is 1.1.0 Build 2 and my Ficelib version is 1.1.1 Build 0. If it makes any difference, I'm using my onboard sound card which is a VIA AC'97.

[Contra]

I don't wanna make you sound dumb, but did you apply the patch? You HAVE to put that patch on.. if you downloaded the lateest version, I don't think it's self-patching.. you'll need to download Cetra.

[Freakwency]

(Taken from original post)
... I downloaded Cetra and installed the music patch, and downloaded FF7Music and put the DLL in the FF7 folder and basically followed everything in the readme...
So, yeah.

[Contra]

Ack, I missed that, gomennasai.

[Rubicant]

I finally got ahold of your ini file, and I know what is wrong. You're using out_mp3.dll, which I believe WRITES MP3 FILES!!! You need to use something like out_wave.dll or out_ds.dll for you to actually output sound. The paths should be okay, but you don't need to put the full path when you type in the file name. That's already taken care of with the file paths.

However, if I am wrong about your out_mp3.dll being an mp3 writer, then I must still insist that you are using bad plug-ins. You're using Nitrane MPEG Decoder, correct? I doubt they even have support for that anymore. I'll send you the plug-ins I have that will work with mp3's.

The rest of your file looks all right, though. I noticed something was wrong right away with the name of your plug-ins.

By the way, people, you no longer need the ID's inside the ini file with version 1.10. I've deleted them..so..you know what to do.

And yes, that means that it doesn't matter what midi data you choose. I've been withholding that information for awhile...

[Freakwency]

'kay man, thanks. I use Winamp3 and couldn't find anything when I searched my computer with either in*.dll or out*.dll. I'm thinking that maybe Winamp3 doesn't use them. So what I did is I searched the net for the plugins and used the ones I found I hope this works fine. Now all I need is to borrow my sister's friend's FF7 soundtrack and rip 'em, hehe. BTW, I was wondering if there is a patch in existance that stops FF7 from stretching the FMV's and distorting them.

[Freakwency]

Well oddly enough, I tried the plugins that Rubicant sent me and it still doesn't work. -_- It's probably some dumb thing. Would it be pointless to try uninstalling and reinstalling FF7? I've already tried the patch on the FF7.exe directly from the setup disk though.

[Rubicant]

Since I almost never make errors in processes like this, I would not try re-installing. But for your case, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it. I have an idea. Strip your ff7music.ini file down naked, except for the id section (the one with all the names and long numbers). Then, you'll have a fresh start with your config.

[Freakwency]

stripping didn't work. I'll update once I've completely taken away FF7 and reinstalled it and tried it from scratch. But just wondering, I have to install the Cetra music patch for FF7Music and the nVidia patch for my GeForce2 card to run with it properly, so does it matter which I install first?

[Rubicant]

The nvidia "patch" is just an updated version of FF7.exe and FF7Config.exe. All you need to do is download the 1.02 patch and extract the files into your root FF7 directory. Not that hard, huh? Afterwards, run the Cetra program and patch your recently updated FF7.EXE with the FF7music patch. Then, run the FF7music config program correctly, and it should work.

You probably already know this, however. Before you do anything else drastic (like reinstalling) try deleting all traces of ff7music.dll on your hd. Does the program still run? If the program refuses to start, then you've got a config or other freakish problem. If it does run, then you have patched it wrong.

[Freakwency]

Here's what happened: I deleted all the FF7Music.dll files (there were 2) and tried running FF7Music. It started, but when I clicked on the "Information" tab, it said "FF7Music library NOT located. Check FF7MUSIC.DLL is in correct location." Does that mean anything strange?

[Freakwency]

Okay, okay, guess what! I got it working! It was actually a file called out_ds.dll that I needed instead of out_wave.dll that Rubicant sent me. I'm guessing it was an easy mistake to make, or it might not have been a mistake and either one could work depending on the system. Whatever the case, thanks Rubicant for all your help and I wouldn't have gotten close to this far, let alone tried a different plugin if you hadn't helped. Thank you to the others who posted with ideas too.