Final Fantasy VIII PC Problem.

[ChaosControl]

Yeah, I finally decided to play FFVIII again, I really got bored.

Anyway, I install the thing and everythings fine, I play it, watch the intro movie, BUT THEN!

ROAR AARGH RAWR UGGH AR!

And FF8.exe has encountered a problem (or atleast, thats what windows says in its nice pop-up)
and I get back at the desktop..

I tried some of the usual things like compatibility and the geforce patch, but nothing works...
Anyone know the answer to this?

SPECS:
Pentium 3 1,2Ghz 2x
1024mb ram
Geforce FX5200

Thanks!

[stormmedia]

Hey hey crappy GF FX5200 (sorry I had to say it haha)

Well... when I had this graphic card I got the game working perfectly by installing the geforce patch and the Ficedula version 2.2 of Final Fantasy VIII Configurator... I never had this problem though... but maybe the game freaze without the ficedula version... worth the try I think .

Well I hope this will help.

See you!!

[ChaosControl]

Yeah, this card is crappy, and I upgraded it from a TNT2 (which worked perfect btw, but randomly died when tried to overclock)...
I have the geforce patch en the new Config.exe but nothing seems to help.

I don't think its the GFX card because it lso does it in software mode.
I'll tinker with it today, I may find the solution myself... i hope XD

Anyway, any advice is welcome!!

(I searched the forums and people have had this problem for ages and no one ever gave a decent answer how to fix )

[Decayrate]

A few months ago, I had that problem. But I can't remember everything I did, but one thing I remember is, I removed all codecs and just installed WMV9 codec. And it just happen to Load the intro movie.

It could be more, "but I can't remember the life of me".. (ahh god'ol sage)

[ChaosControl]

Well it does play the intro movie but when it wants to go to the infermary where Squall will be treated for his wound in the face, it shuts down with an error and returns to desktop.

I tried an old save game now, it from ultimecias castle and everything works fine (except for the black boxes now and then)
Help?

[stormmedia]

You are right it's not the graphic card since I got this card and it worked fine.  For the black box you have to make sur that the 8-bit Paletted Textures is enabled.  I don't remember exactly how to do this but I know you can do that with riva tuner.  By the whay I think it's the reason why Final Fantasy 8 doesn't work properly with newer NVIDIA cards ... I think the 8-bit Paletted Textures doesn't exist anymore in those cards...  But... I can't realy help you with your infermary problem .... exept for trying a fresh install... witch I think you already done...

[RW_66]

Chaos,
Try "rolling back" or D/L'ing your Nvidia driver's to 77.77 . That's about the last driver set that was fully compatible with alot of the older games. Also, if you're using XP, make sure to set the shortcut/start-up menu for "Win 98/ME compatiblity". BTW, an FX5200 is just fine for FF8. Anything more than a GF4 is pretty much over-kill, since you can't adjust the resolution. A FX5200 will run it just as well as a 7950GT2.

[stormmedia]

You got it false RW_66 ... the FX5200 will run better than the 7950GT2 because newer NVidia card doesn't support the 8-bit Paletted Textures anymore... so in fact for Final Fantasy VIII the FX5200 is good... but try to run newer game with the FX5200 You'll see that it's not even better than a GF4.

When I had my FX5200 I ran FF8 with the 91.xx drivers on XP without any compatibility mode and it worked fine... so I don't think the problem is driver related or XP related...

[ChaosControl]

I'm running out of ideas, my cd looks kinda scratched so that may be why it doesnt load after the intro movie..
That only leaves the black blocks then...
and can anyone give me a save file from the first save point in the game?

[stormmedia]

Here chaoscontrol.  I took the 2 first GF. gave a tour to Selphie, took the 7 first cards and then save.  I kept the original names for all the characters.

And as I said for the black blocks you have to make sure that the 8-bit Paletted Textures is enabled... I guess that you disable it  for ff7 because for ff7 you got to disable it... kinda weird... but that's it... download riva tuner, install it... run it and go to the dirctx option in riva tuner then go to the textures tab then it should be there 8-bit Paletted Textures just enable it and it should work fine.

[Edit]

Haha sorry I forgot the link to my save  !!
http://spinningcone.com/ff/stormmedia/Save.zip
Now here it goes

Well See you.

[ChaosControl]

Thanks for the save, I can finally play now!

[stormmedia]

No problem !! did you managed to get rid of those black blocks ??

[ChaosControl]

no
I checked rivatuner and it's on (the 8-bit pallete textures).
It still says fail in the ff8config.exe though..

Pfff, It only works ok in software mode, but it's too ugly and laggy to play that way..
Does the 1.2 patch fix any of this?

RECAP:
It didnt work at start but it works now.
I have black blocks
I have set 8-bit plletized surfaces in rivatuner.
i have the geforce patch and the new ff8.exe

still black boxes, this should be able to be normal because a friend of mine has the same gfx-card and no problem whatsoever (and you, storm, said you once used it too and had no problems also)

So...

[stormmedia]

Well ... you could try to turn it off...... but I'm pretty sure that it has to be on.... you could try to trun it off and then turn it on .... I once had a software that was starting at windows startup and in the option of this software it was off... I turn it on and then turn it off and it worked ....

And well... I think that the geforce patch is the 1.2 patch and yes it should work with your graphic card.... however .... I remember that I once used the omega drivers http://www.omegadrivers.net/ but I think it should work with the nVidia too... (BTW if you want to try the omega driver... go the the quick menu at the left side of the screen and go the the "omega drivers archive" and take the Forceware 61.77 because I've never been able to make the last omega driver with the GFX5200.)

Maybe a reinstallation of the driver you use could work as well...  but before messing with the drivers I think you should try messing with the the 8-bit pallete textures try it off .. and then retry it on... because I'm pretty sure it got something to do with this... if it's not working you could try the omega drivers.... or reinstall your courrent driver.

Well hot this will help.
Tell me if something worked or not.

[ChaosControl]

Hmmm nothing works so far so I'm gonna try the Omega Driver and hope that'll let me run the game.
Should (if checked in rivatuner) 8-bit pallete textures be FAIL in the ff8config.exe??

Anyway, I'm gonna install the Omega driver now.

EDIT:

YAAAAAAAY!!
It works!! XD

Thanks storm for telling me about the Omega drivers
yaaaaaaaay
*does a dance*

[stormmedia]

No problem 

have fun