Messages

1

FF8 Tools / Steam (2013) Version - Borderless Full-Screen

« on: 2021-12-03 14:30:42 »

Just dropping a note for anyone else who might find this useful, since most FF games (especially when doing Nth play-throughs) often benefit from a LOT of Alt-Tabbing to consult check lists, missed items, etc and in my own experience, doing so while running FF VIII with Tonberry+mods was causing a lot of graphic issues as well as random unhandled exception crashes, which was bad.

Anyways, the solution I found was a little $4 Steam "app" called Borderless Gaming. https://store.steampowered.com/app/388080/Borderless_Gaming/
There's others like it, but that's the one I have, and after some testing it seems to behave absolutely as it should with FF VIII.  You start up the game in whatever resolution that equates to native full screen on your monitor (4k in my case) but do NOT enable Full Screen on the launcher.  Once the game launches, fire up Borderless gaming and you've got a wonderful full-screen borderless window that pauses when in background (assuming that option is chosen) and doesn't corrupt or crash due to tabbing back and forth.

So again.. just thought someone else might find this info useful, as I saw quite a few ways to handle this for FF VII and several of the newer/remastered titles, but hadn't noticed anything that seemed to specifically apply to original/2013 FF VIII except FFNx which doesn't work for anyone using Tonberry and its supported texture mods.

Happy gaming.  ^_^

2

FF8 Tools / Re: [PC] External Texture Support - Tonberry: Enhanced (2.04)

« on: 2021-12-02 14:58:52 »

v2.04 Google drive link doesn't work anymore. Shows access denied.

I found an alternate site that, as best I can tell, is exactly what it claims to be and works fine.  Hope it helps someone until the G-drive links are fixed up.
https://www.gamepressure.com/download.asp?ID=70698

Also, on an unrelated note...  This is probably obvious to most, but when I first popped back in here to mod up for a new FF8 run, I was a little lost as to what was and was not needed.  Last time I did this, everything worked off Aali's driver, so this time around I started by setting up FFNx and trying to proceed from there.

Well needless to say, that didn't work so well since everything else I was trying to do was dependent on Tonberry, which doesn't play nice (at all) with FFNx.  Just tossing this note in case anyone else can't figure out why none of their Tonberry/texture stuff seems to want to work.

Installed clean, started with Tonberry and then dropped in all the packs, and everything looks amazing.  Kudos and thanks to everyone involved with all these lovely enhancements.  ^_^

3

Bootleg Questions / Re: [Tutorial] Tifa's Bootleg

« on: 2012-08-25 04:25:59 »

I'm still waiting on the ULGP tool.  The current version doesn't update archives consistently.
If I go back to the old way of building the entire archive from a folder, it adds about 10 minutes to the Bootleg running time.
Meanwhile, I'm adding all the mods that just came out: New APZ Cloud, FMV Cloud and coin skill textures.

Is there a possibility for this to be an option once things get ironed out?  Something for people to attempt if they seem to keep getting weird errors with the faster method?

Just a thought.  Looking forward to the new release either way.  =)

4

Troubleshooting / Re: Final Fantasy VII in-battle menu framerate

« on: 2012-08-18 18:15:57 »

All right, I can wait, I just thought these forums were dead

Nah.  Just the few people who may have a slight clue about how to alter the FPS, let alone if it can be done are super busy these days.  They all had plenty of projects going already, and this re-release thing isn't making things easier.

I know there's been some tweaks to certain aspects in terms of FPS, and talk of others, but I lack enough knowledge to really address what you're asking about, sorry.

5

Troubleshooting / Re: Final Fantasy VII in-battle menu framerate

« on: 2012-08-18 15:29:19 »

Oh dear.  We didn't stop our lives to cater immediately to your every whim?  No one patted you on the head for nearly 24 hours?!

What has this world come to.   

Read: Patience, young padawan.  The few remaining Jedi who know of these secrets are quite busy, and cannot always immediately come to your aid.  Trust in the force.

6

Aali's Custom FF7/FF8 Driver / Re: Aali's driver [v 0.7.11b] Help/Bugs/Suggestions

« on: 2012-08-18 13:53:54 »

@ Stan - Sound like the Everything Made of Light glitch.

There are files floating around somewhere to fix it, but you seem capable of editing a text file.  All the replacements do is this:

Aali's 'everything is made of light' fix for NVIDIA cards:
        Use Notepad to open the file .\shaders\nolight\main.frag
        Move the line 'texture_color = texture2D(tex, gl_TexCoord[0].st);' to above the IF statement:
            texture_color = texture2D(tex, gl_TexCoord[0].st);
            if(texture)

Obviously, that path begins in the root of your FF7 install.

7

Team Avalanche / Re: STICKY: 2D Overhaul & WMRP *OFFICIAL PROBLEM THREAD*

« on: 2012-08-18 06:32:08 »

False positive.

Due to a small exe file included with the update to fix a black-bar glitch, and the way that file is constructed, it scans often as a virus.

If you got the files here at Qhimm, they're perfectly safe.  Ignore the scanner and tell it to allow your mod files, or better still, temporarily disable the scanner before you run the installer. 

8

Bootleg Questions / Re: [Tutorial] Bootleg Configurator and FF7 Mod Installation

« on: 2012-08-17 05:08:32 »

UMI itself isn't technically part of Bootleg, but most if not all the models can still be installed.  The options are set up a bit differently between the two, but for the most part, the first two pages of BFE mainly do the same thing as UMI in a slightly different way.

I haven't tried it yet (since the current bootleg just won't install properly for me), but I also suspect once you got it working the way you wanted, you should be able to run UMI (multiple times if needed) over the top of a bootleg installation, since as I understand it, it works with your existing files. 

It would, of course, be wise to make initial backups of the lgp's (at least battle and char, not sure if UMI touches any others offhand.. possibly flevel?) first, just in case. 

9

Completely Unrelated / Re: future windows

« on: 2012-08-17 02:39:21 »

Don't forget double the system resources too!  If it doesn't suck down 8 gigs of RAM, it aint a real OS!

10

FF7 Tools / Re: WIP a patch to convert new FF7 to old

« on: 2012-08-16 20:35:55 »

Yeah, this really wasn't that uncommon back then.  For a long time, copy protection pretty much meant you used write protect tabs so you didn't accidentally erase your floppys. 

OK, maybe not quite but yeah, a simple disk volume check and similar methods were in place on loads of titles, and plenty more didn't even have that.

11

Releases / Re: [REL] Anxious Heart

« on: 2012-08-16 06:55:55 »

Wish I could help with the mirrors.. I have a media server here with oodles of space (though probably not much upstream bandwidth) that I *want* to get a net and email server running on.. but I know diddly poo about how to work in linux.

My friend who could set it up has been procrastinating forever.  =/

Is there anything specific you need us to be looking out for in terms of the old standard version install, Or just a general "watch for anything it shouldn't be doing" sorta deal this version?

And thanks much for the update. 

12

Completely Unrelated / Re: GBC Emu for Android (save states?!)

« on: 2012-08-16 03:19:12 »

Edit - Ugh... nevermind.  Lying ads.

Sorry.. don't know of any save-working freebies. 

13

Releases / Re: [REL] FF7 Unified Model Installer

« on: 2012-08-16 00:50:02 »

OK, can do.

May take me some time.  I have no old saves lying around, so I'll inevitably have to do a full play-through and grab shots as I go, trying to create a myriad of useful save points so I can alter my models and get more shots, etc.

Also, I'm making preparations for a trip to Egypt in late September, so depending on how much more bashing on the game to make it go I have to do, that may snag things temporarily.  I will start working on this though as I'm able.  Wish I could just figure out how to look at whole models in any of the tools.  That'd really speed this up a lot, but sadly, from what I can tell most of the models are all chopped up into pieces and right now I have no clue how to assemble them anywhere useful besides in game.   

14

Releases / Re: [REL] FF7 Unified Model Installer

« on: 2012-08-16 00:19:05 »

Storing user selections is virtually impossible with inno (the installer package I use) and hard with any other for that matter.  Simply isn't going to happen.  It takes you a few seconds to take the extra time to select things.  It takes me hours to make the installer.  Sorry, but no

I have asked numerous people to create images for this mod to aid other people.  Strangely no one has taken me up on that offer.

Completely understandable.  The last serious programming I've done (not counting hacking apart game scripts in Python and the like) was in Borland TC++ 3.0, so I come from an entirely different perspective.  A feature like that would take me minutes, but then it wasn't windows based programming either.

I'll be playing around with things a lot, so if I can manage to start grabbing some images I'll work on a compilation little by little.  I'm still trying to hammer my game into a working state, but it's only a matter of time.  I be a stubborn lass. 

Assuming I can get something useful for you, what format, size, etc would you prefer?

Edited to add TC version number, which was kinda required to convey just how ridiculously long it's been.

15

Releases / Re: [REL] FF7 Unified Model Installer

« on: 2012-08-15 23:52:20 »

Hate to be a pest, but I have a request / suggestion should a future release happen at some point.

It'd be rather nice if the installer could store a user's choices once they click the install button, and upon a re-install, load that up as a "last settings" option at the top.

Reason being, it's anywhere between hard to impossible to find images of most of these models, so knowing just what you're going to get isn't easy, and it's also a bit hard to remember from one install to the next exactly which you picked last time through in order to try to get the options you're happy with.

If not, no big deal, and I certainly wouldn't go crank out a new version for this alone in any case.  Just figured I'd ask. 

16

Releases / Re: [REL] Anxious Heart

« on: 2012-08-15 23:40:06 »

Sounds awesome.  Can't wait to play it.  I always did feel that track was especially lacking, even though as I never played the PSX version, the "crap midi" didn't but me so much at the time.

My initial experiences were with a high end sound font capable sound blaster and the yamaha enhancements.  Was pretty good, for its day, but a few tracks (like this one) still seemed a little lackluster.

17

FF7 Tools / Re: WIP a patch to convert new FF7 to old

« on: 2012-08-15 23:34:42 »

EDIT- someone beat me to it, yeah the everything is light fix is the nolight folder in the shaders folder.

As I understood it, that was an older method.  I thought we were now supposed to do this:

Code: [Select]

If you're using an NVIDIA Video card, the nolight shaders require modification.
    Aali's 'everything is made of light' fix for NVIDIA cards:
        Use Notepad to open the file .\shaders\nolight\main.frag
        Move the line 'texture_color = texture2D(tex, gl_TexCoord[0].st);' to above the IF statement:
            texture_color = texture2D(tex, gl_TexCoord[0].st);
            if(texture)

Which I've done on my own system and it worked fine.  Not sure why it's better or whatever than the other way, just what I've read here and there around the forums.

18

FF7 Tools / Re: WIP a patch to convert new FF7 to old

« on: 2012-08-15 23:00:46 »

If you're using NVIDIA, try the 'Everything made of light' fix.  Only thing I know of that consistently gave that all white deal (old game).  Worth a shot anyways.

No clue what the sound buffer deal is about though.

19

General Discussion / Re: Status of Mods and Tools with New FF7 PC

« on: 2012-08-15 21:24:06 »

I believe someone earlier said they figured out their problem using UMI on the new release was that for some unknown reason, it was appending "New Folder" to the end of its installation path.

They didn't note it the first time around, assuming that it just had it right (as it normally would).  Second time, they deleted the extra folder so it was the correct, core path and it worked.

Others having issues may want to carefully verify the install path and try again.

20

Troubleshooting / Re: Bootleg Troubleshooting: Battle Crashes with Yuffie

« on: 2012-08-15 18:45:06 »

I'm no expert, but those sound like reasonable options to me.

And hey.. I've *attempted* to install FF VII about 20+ times a day for over 3 days now without success, so... things could be worse. 

21

Troubleshooting / Re: Bootleg Troubleshooting: Battle Crashes with Yuffie

« on: 2012-08-15 16:09:15 »

If you're installing Bootleg with Grimmy's AC Tifa and Yuffie HQ models, these are bugged in Bootleg 0039.  Actually, I think just Yuffie is bugged, but there's a second bug that always installs her when you just select Tifa, so neither works right now.

This has been addressed and should be fixed in 040, which should be released very soon.

ETA: I just began learning how to mod this game manually yesterday, so I can't tell you which file(s) would need to be changed by hand, so your best bet is probably to either do a clean FF7 install followed by bootleg again without AC Tifa or Yuffie, or just leave her out of the party for now, and wait to reinstall when Bootleg 040 comes out.

PitBrat had said previously he was only waiting on luksy's new version of ulgp, which is up now, so barring any major surprises popping up last minute, it should be up soon.

22

General Discussion / Re: SecuROM... lovely.

« on: 2012-08-15 11:40:57 »

Way to go Squeenix.  Give people another excuse to pirate this thing. 

Seals it for me.  I do not touch SR.  Evil evil stuff.

23

FF7 Tools / Re: [0.7] ulgp / ulpgGUI - lgp inserter / extractor / repacker

« on: 2012-08-15 04:55:49 »

Here's one for testing

Thanks Luksy. 

I'm gonna be sleeping soon, but have plans to be using this a lot over the next few days, and I know PitBrat said he was needing this for his Bootleg 040 release, so that should definitely get it some good testing too. 

ETA: I was doing some tinkering and testing, and dropped this version over the one bundled with Bootleg 0039 (prior to it being used by the program).

It seemed to dump everything ok, but it hard crashes when trying to encode char.lgp

I know there are like 3 files in there that gave the last version some errors about being externally modified and no longer valid or something, but beyond that, it's hard for me to offer much, since none of these are my projects or work, so I can't really be sure what's happening.

Doubt it's much use, but the "more info" box from windows when I tried to manually use the GUI version on the same encode operation:

Code: [Select]

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
  Application Name: ulgp.exe
  Application Version: 0.0.0.8
  Application Timestamp: 502b272d
  Fault Module Name: ulgp.exe
  Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.8
  Fault Module Timestamp: 502b272d
  Exception Code: c0000005
  Exception Offset: 00005540
  OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
  Locale ID: 1033
  Additional Information 1: fd00
  Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
  Additional Information 3: fd00
  Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

Read our privacy statement:
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50163&clcid=0x0409
 
The most specific I can be is that I think it's trying to encode to:
C:\Temp\Bootleg\Bootleg_Setup\Data_Working\field\char.lgp
Taking (all?) files from:
C:\Temp\Bootleg\Bootleg_Setup\char_lgp.patch

Would need PitBrat's input to be more specific and/or accurate.  I'll update if I discover anything else that may be helpful.

24

General Discussion / Re: Status of Mods and Tools with New FF7 PC

« on: 2012-08-15 03:52:23 »

Right, I didn't mean hardcore would move them.. but the game might.  Either right while you're looking at it (Windows itself does this, say if you try to simply delete or replace notepad for example), or more likely, the very next time you launch the game, it will decide it doesn't like the new file and replace it.

If neither, and it works, fantastic.  Just pointing out things to watch for that I've seen in other software.

25

General Discussion / Re: Status of Mods and Tools with New FF7 PC

« on: 2012-08-15 03:43:49 »

Worth a shot.  Keep an eye on the folders though.. see if you actually CAN move it, or if it just fixes itself.  Help get a handle on just how much file monitoring this thing can do when it's not even running.

ETA: Not sure what all files hardcore mod messes with, but you might wanna do a quick search on "lang-en" (or whichever applies) and note what files you discover in them.  I'm guessing they probably did that for just about everything that has text, which is quite a few of the core files.