[FF7PC-98] Higher Resolution (v1.00)(Discontinued, use Aali's driver)

[virtual]

I have the same problem, i.e. Saint's Hi-Res patch being "not responding" when I launched the game and the whole thing became a black screen.. to remedy this I had to end the task (hi-res program), and replace my ff7.exe and FF7Config.exe back to the original 1.00 version..

[your evil twin]

When I try to do the patch it says CRC32 check failed, nothing patched.  Is this because I already have the chocobo patch installed and the upside down video patch installed, and the patcher is looking for the original 1.02 version without the chocobo patch?

(Heh, I don't think I even needed that upside down video patch - at first I cuoldn't get the videos to work, turned out it was to do with soemthing that matroska video stuff had installed.)

[dziugo]

Is this because I already have the chocobo patch installed and the upside down video patch installed, and the patcher is looking for the original 1.02 version without the chocobo patch?

Chocobo patch is now included with HiRes and upside down patch doesn't modify the ff7.exe.

dziugo

[hay]

Great timing I'm near first chocobo race

[your evil twin]

Erm, the High Resolution patch comes with an extra patch to increase the resolution even further, but what is the 'normal' resolution that the High Resolution patch makes the game run at?  Nowhere in the readme or the patch does it say what resolution it makes the game run at.

[dziugo]

1280x960

[proud-clod]

Ok, I'm having a small problem with this, but first-off I'd like to say that this really adds a lot to what is probably still one of my favourite ever games and I'd like to thank SaiNt for all his hard work in what is no doubt an otherwise busy schedule. So thanks.

As for my problem, I don't have this issue when I run the .exe patched with FF7 patch v1.02, it only occurs when I apply one or both of the SaiNt patches. I did try running the game after only having applied the main SaiNt patch for higher res textures, thinking it might be some issue with forcing the game to run at a higher resolution (i.e. 1280 x 1024) but with or without the secondary high-res patch I see the same problem. Here are two screenshots to demonstrate the problem I am seeing:


With this one you can hopefully see that I've lost my horizon. It's hard to describe, but where I would normally expect to see white fluffy clouds down on the horizon I now see only a slightly wobbly looking ocean or landscape. Also... (this is impossible to capture in a screenshot, but...) as I switch my view down from over-head to this angle, I catch a brief glimpse of the clouds and stuff, before it gets clipped down to what you see in the screenshot, almost as if the viewing distance is somehow being trimmed down.


This is another part of the problem that I've noticed since getting the highwind. It's meteor.. or should be, but it's too low in the sky as you can see. It's like the whole sky texture has been shifted downwards to the point where I lose all my horizon clouds and get a nasty looking line and default blue sky where the top of the screen should really be.


(edit) Figured I ought to just take a quick screenshot of how it looks with the 1.02 patch applied, running in Direct3D 640x480 16bpp (Full Screen) and NVIDIA + TNT checked. This is how I always run it, but without the SaiNt's patches the horizon looks just fine as you can see. Help! :P

I know this isn't a problem with the patch as such, because I can see in some of those first screenshots on the first page that your world map looks fine, and you have clouds as you should have. I was just wondering though if anyone has any suggestions of how I might fix this problem? I love the patch, this is just really bugging me as I fly from place to place. It looks horrible! I've tried a few basic things like messing with desktop resolutions and color depths but I know that's just clutching at straws. Nothing seems to help. My gfx card is pretty new, an ATI Radeon X800 XL, very latest Catalyst drivers etc.

Anyone have any suggestions? If not, thanks for taking the time to read this all the same.

[EmperorSteele]

I reported this problem several pages back.  Try reading the efifn thread =P

but yeah, hopefully this will remind saint to fix this issue =)

[The Skillster]

i dont think the horizon thing is his fault
It reminds me of a playstation emulation bug.
When you increase the resolution, the actualy real X Y 3d co-ords are still the same, even though you are running in a higher resolution 3d space.
This sometimes causes Zig Zags in 3d polys (very evident in PSX emulation because you are increasing 320*240 tp say 800*600. but due to compatibility the 3d co-ords are still mapped to 320*240)

[Borde]

The Zig-zag polygons are already there in the PSX games at their original resolution. I think that's due the fact that PSX hasn't got enough acuracy when calculating vertex positions (I supose it uses 32-bit floats instead of 64-bit doubles).

[The Skillster]

thats correct, but it is amplified when the resolution is higher

[The SaiNt]

Yeah, it's due to bad code on their part.
Took ages to find the problem code.
Anyway, new version again, fixed the world map.

[proud-clod]

@EmperorSteele: Oookay. I actually did try reading through as much of the 15-page thread as I could to see if anyone else had this issue, from the front few pages onwards and from the most recent few pages back a ways. Evidently I missed your post, sorry. If I had more time I'd have read the whole thread, but I don't.

@Everyone else & SaiNt: Thanks very much. I wasn't certain whether or not this was an issue that was widely recognised or whether it was something that only I was experiencing. Either way, appreciate the input and especially appreciate the v1.00 update! :D Just got done installing it and problem solved, so thanks again!

[Borde]

Excelent news The Saint! I think that was the last major bug in your patch, wasn't it  

[EmperorSteele]

=O

=D

\,,/

Theres still a few things to do.  

For one, fixing the "no green haze" glitch which seems to happen in the unpatched version of 1.02 TNT, and is carried over to the high res patch.

Same thing with the final map, theres a series of large, white boxes around Holy's prison, which, again, is from the 1.02 and not high res, but it's still something i'd like to see fixed.

Also, if theres any way to correct the "crashes after alt tabbing when entering battle" problem, i'd love that; but this seems to be a video card/driver issue more than a ff7 issue, as i found when experimenting around with a different cards and drivers.

And it may be a nvidia issue, but transparency also doesn't want to work correctly, in my experience anyway.  The characters will be opaque, but you can still see all thier joints and parts, but you can't see anything that's actualyl behind them (like other characters, the background, etc).

I've also noticed that Clouds hands clip through themselves in the field.  I'm not using any graphic enhancements packs, btw (like the hand patch or the reunion patch), so its prolly a high-res patch issue (Well, non issue, really.  It doesn botehr me, it's just when i noticed it, i was a little "hey, wtf?"

Then just get better interpolation for the text (a very, very minor issue), and this patch will be done and done!

Saint, you're a... saint, hahaha =P

[The SaiNt]

Major bug, the upper-left corner quarter screen bug.
Well and stuff like the credits not being done properly. (Can't really be bothered really)

[enigma^^]

Erm... I can't seem to find the correct version.. What I keep downloading is v0.99... ^_^;;;

[AmienZero]

huh? i've just downloaded the patch and it's version 1.0.

[virtual]

I'm not able to use the 1.02 patch at all (game goes to black screen when starting up..).. am using nVidia GeForce4 MX 440. Is there any way I can get the hi-res patch to work?

[EmperorSteele]

I had the same card at one point, and it worked fine for me.

Are you using a pirated copy?  cuz the 1.02 will cause that to stop working =P  Also, try different drivers.  The newest may have dropped support for ff7, or may not be 100% compatable with your card.  I recomend the 52.xx or 53.xx series =)

[enigma^^]

Yeah.. I got the right version now! ^^

The world map looks great now. Even the meteor looks happy floating in the sky ^_^;;;

[virtual]

I had the same card at one point, and it worked fine for me.

Are you using a pirated copy?  cuz the 1.02 will cause that to stop working =P  Also, try different drivers.  The newest may have dropped support for ff7, or may not be 100% compatable with your card.  I recomend the 52.xx or 53.xx series =)

I'm using the legit copy.. and have tried old and new drivers for the graphics card. The result is still the same, though. Patched to 1.02, and got the black screen of death right after double-clicking the game to start

[Starlith]

you sure it ain't something to do with your movies not playing cause that fool you into thinking nothings happening.

[EmperorSteele]

Yeah, sounds like the movies wont play.  Try installing the directshow drivers from the install cd.  if that wont work, get the codecs here:

http://www.ff7-universe.com/Downloads/ff7moviepatch.zip

[virtual]

Yeah, sounds like the movies wont play.  Try installing the directshow drivers from the install cd.  if that wont work, get the codecs here:

http://www.ff7-universe.com/Downloads/ff7moviepatch.zip

OK, I've re-installed the 'movie player' from the install disc, my directx version is the latest (ver 9), nvidia geforce4 mx440 drivers are upgraded to the latest version, tried to start the game with NVIDIA button checked (set at TNT), and unchecked as well..

.. but I still get the black screen on start up. Help?

EDIT : When I replaced the ff7.exe with the original 1.00 version, it works fine (but without the hi-res.. sob sob..). The moment I replaced it with the 1.02 version, the black screen thing happens. What should I do?