Yeah, I'm using Windows 2000, not XP
My video card is a ATI. Specifically, a 8MB ATI RAGE PRO TURBO 2X. Kind of old, like 1998-1999ish, but it still works beautifully on newer games such as FIFA 2002.
However, each time I launch ff7.exe it crashes (goes to a blue screen and reboots). It is the exact same effect on the original ff7.exe and the one supplied in the patch. Again, I am able to configure Direct3D Hardware mode in FF7Config.exe, but as soon as I launch ff7.exe, it crashes.
Unfortunately, the driver doesn't have relevant options in Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced. I can only change the color balance, the brightness, and things like that. It does support both Direct3D and OpenGL, though I cannot control/configure it.
I've tried other drivers. Well, two I've found. One on the Windows 2000 CD just doesn't work, and another one that a person "hacked" crashed my computer all together.
I am not a Windows 2000 or NT expert, but I think ff7.exe is trying to "talk" to a hardware that Windows isn't allowing. Sort of like a firewall for hardware communication. I don't know.
On my test machine w/ Windows 98, I did like the battle in Direct3D. It looked great. But the rest (like walking in area maps) is the same. I didn't notice any good changes. Well, the colors were a little better and the blue menus were actually blue and not blue stripped (you know what I mean?).
But if Direct3D on FF7 only enhances the battles, I guess it is not worth trying to get it to work. At least not to me. Can someone confirm that Direct3D *only* enhances battles?
Thanks.