Author Topic: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ  (Read 36969 times)

OatBran

  • *
  • Posts: 50
  • moop all day skeent all night
    • View Profile
    • Discord
[FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« on: 2020-05-09 15:55:25 »
There has been many issues and questions arising from using 7th Heaven v2 recently.


7/3/2020
Attempting to manually solve these issues to optimize your FF7 modding experience can become a complicated process. Not only can it be complex, it is completely unsupported by the 7th Heaven team, and will never be recommended or supported. If you continue to pursue any of the modifying-7H-stuff then you are warned, and you should assess the risks and benefits (as well as your technical skill level) before you decide to jump in. There are, however, other sections of the guide that include useful information and techniques to improve your modding experience while also using the default 7H experience, so I still feel it has value until those things become irrelevant as well. I still may delete the guide soon based on response to this.


Until 7th Heaven is updated, or another modding solution is released, I wrote this guide to help people in the interim. It is extremely detailed and laid out step-by-step. It covers every common issue I have heard people come across and provides a walkthrough and solution for the following.
  • I Own a Copy of FF7 on Steam is there a simple modding solution?
  • Using many HD mods causes FF7 to crash frequently!(after battle or in the field) [7H v2.2+]
  • How do I manually update 7H with FFNx?
  • How do I change my FFNx Configuration?
  • 7th Heaven gives value cannot be null error. What do I do?
  • FF7 Feels slow/choppy with FFNx and many mods. What can I do?
  • How do I install DDS texture packs?
  • How do I convert my own mods to DDS?
  • I'm lazy, can you change my FFNx.cfg file for me?

Again, here is the link to the guide. I had to put it off-site because these forums do not support markdown language and the guide was formatted and written for markdown before I realized this fact. Sorry about that.

The need for this guide may not exist at some point in the near/mid future. Whenever that happens someone can delete this thread if they so desire.

UPDATE 7/3/2020 - is also at the top of the guide itself

# HEY USER READING THIS GUIDE!!!
**7th Heaven now uses FFNx natively with a default installation!, you dont have to manually alter the 7H installation anymore to solve common issues caused by the use of the legacy Aali driver. However, 7H gets updated fairly rarely, and is actually in beta right now. FFNx actually gets updated daily pretty much, so if you want to use a canary version of FFNx, or possibly a stable version upgrade that is released ahead of its incorporation into 7H itself you may want to still follow the contents of this section, but depending on factors at the time it may provide relatively little value to go through the effort. FFNx is only rapidly updated currently in the pursuit of major features and bug fixes at this stage in development. this will slow down at some point and become less and less relevant to even consider the already-questionable decision to try and mess with the default driver included with 7H**

**If you would rather just play with the stable version chosen for the release of 7H but you want to either:
learn how to acquire and use IRO mods in the first place, click here.
or just convert/use all DDS texture mods for enhanced performance: click here.

**You can also manually change all the config options that are not included in the UI of 7H.
as well as change the UI of 7H itself but i havent written that yet - if people even want to know how to do that or want me to just make a custom xml to be distributed here then let me know!
« Last Edit: 2020-07-04 12:40:19 by OatBran »

darxide

  • *
  • Posts: 21
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #1 on: 2020-05-16 17:15:30 »
Followed the steps to the letter (starting from Step 6) and the game crashes immediately. I hear the first note or two of the SYW intro video and then boom. I've double, triple, and quadruple checked that I did everything laid out in the guide.

Yes, I have the stable release and not canary. Yes I have the 1998 and not the Steam download.
« Last Edit: 2020-05-16 17:18:55 by Darxide »

OatBran

  • *
  • Posts: 50
  • moop all day skeent all night
    • View Profile
    • Discord
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #2 on: 2020-05-16 17:39:38 »
Followed the steps to the letter (starting from Step 6) and the game crashes immediately. I hear the first note or two of the SYW intro video and then boom. I've double, triple, and quadruple checked that I did everything laid out in the guide.

Yes, I have the stable release and not canary. Yes I have the 1998 and not the Steam download.

what does your log say?
Code: [Select]
ffnx.log (not the 7h app.log)

I haven't heard of many cases where the game will crash immediately after actually launching. You may want to come to the discord and get faster paced support cause I am always active there and I don't always check the forums. Thanks for reading the guide though hope we can sort this out.

https://discord.gg/kAKZzbV

darxide

  • *
  • Posts: 21
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #3 on: 2020-05-16 18:10:39 »
There is no ffnx.log file generated.

OatBran

  • *
  • Posts: 50
  • moop all day skeent all night
    • View Profile
    • Discord
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #4 on: 2020-05-16 18:13:25 »
There is no ffnx.log file generated.
You probably need to edit your ffnx.cfg file (or download one from the guide) with debugging options enabled
« Last Edit: 2020-05-16 18:16:33 by OatBran »

OatBran

  • *
  • Posts: 50
  • moop all day skeent all night
    • View Profile
    • Discord
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #5 on: 2020-05-16 19:38:27 »
Through the support process of @Darxide's issue we realized that the recent stable release of FFNx is actually incompatible with Windows 7. I will add the info to the guide soon but for now I'll just post this here. Using any version above 1.6.1 of FFNx most likely will not work with Windows 7.

Here is the link to a compatible version https://github.com/julianxhokaxhiu/FFNx/releases/tag/1.6.1


Bafio99

  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #6 on: 2020-05-24 11:43:17 »
Hi everybody i'm trying to use the seventh heaven mod launcher but i have some problems. I followed all the instructions but it still doesn't launch the game. Can u help me please?
Here it is the error code:
### Launching Final Fantasy VII ###
Checking FF7 is not running ...
Checking FF7 .exe exists at C:\Games\FINAL FANTASY VII\FF7.exe ...
Verifying installed game is compatible ...
Error code: YARR! Unable to continue. Please report this error on the Qhimm forums.
Failed to launch FF7. View the above log for details.

Rumbah

  • *
  • Posts: 58
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #7 on: 2020-05-24 14:42:31 »
And it launches without FFNx?
Are you sure that you renamed and copied the files to the correct folders?

You coud try https://github.com/Rumbah2/psychic-garbanzo/releases to install it. If it still does not work then you'll have to wait for OatBran ;) .

OatBran

  • *
  • Posts: 50
  • moop all day skeent all night
    • View Profile
    • Discord
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #8 on: 2020-05-24 19:03:07 »
Hi everybody i'm trying to use the seventh heaven mod launcher but i have some problems. I followed all the instructions but it still doesn't launch the game. Can u help me please?
Here it is the error code:
### Launching Final Fantasy VII ###
Checking FF7 is not running ...
Checking FF7 .exe exists at C:\Games\FINAL FANTASY VII\FF7.exe ...
Verifying installed game is compatible ...
Error code: YARR! Unable to continue. Please report this error on the Qhimm forums.
Failed to launch FF7. View the above log for details.
The absolute fist thing said in the guide


if you are getting the YARR! error, then 7th heaven is detecting that your game exe is a pirated copy. Even if your copy is not pirated, you may have applied some kind of crack or non-official hex edit, or possibly something advertised as a language conversion. If this is a legitimate purchased copy of FF7 then you will have to message unabomb with proof of purchase or come to the discord for further support. Don't waste his or my time with lying about a pirated version please.

And it launches without FFNx?
Are you sure that you renamed and copied the files to the correct folders?

You coud try https://github.com/Rumbah2/psychic-garbanzo/releases to install it. If it still does not work then you'll have to wait for OatBran ;) .
There is absolutely no way in my mind that could be a possibility. FFNx has nothing to do with the piracy check, and is loaded afterwards.
« Last Edit: 2020-05-24 19:05:38 by OatBran »

Erogard

  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #9 on: 2020-05-29 21:47:24 »
I'm having a problem when trying to play the game in fullscreen... The screen keeps flicking, I don't know if this is the right word for this, but the screen glitches basically...

I tried to activate vsync on the FFNx.cfg but it doesn't work. If I use 7th Heaven without FFNx the fullscreen works perfectly and in windowed mode the game works fine, do you have any idea of what could possibly be causing this?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: The screen glitch happens even when I run FF7 without mods.

OatBran

  • *
  • Posts: 50
  • moop all day skeent all night
    • View Profile
    • Discord
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #10 on: 2020-05-29 23:06:28 »
I'm having a problem when trying to play the game in fullscreen... The screen keeps flicking, I don't know if this is the right word for this, but the screen glitches basically...

I tried to activate vsync on the FFNx.cfg but it doesn't work. If I use 7th Heaven without FFNx the fullscreen works perfectly and in windowed mode the game works fine, do you have any idea of what could possibly be causing this?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: The screen glitch happens even when I run FF7 without mods.

I havent heard of that issue before, I will ask odin about it later and see what he says. Have you tried different backend renderer options? dx11 instead of opengl? I usually play in a borderless window, and if the problem persists without resolution then I recommend you to do the same I suppose.

Erogard

  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #11 on: 2020-05-29 23:14:22 »
I havent heard of that issue before, I will ask odin about it later and see what he says. Have you tried different backend renderer options? dx11 instead of opengl? I usually play in a borderless window, and if the problem persists without resolution then I recommend you to do the same I suppose.

If I use any other backend render option besides opengl the game crashes instantly lol (I already tried to update DirectX, but I already have the newest version), and yeah if the problem persists I'll follow your suggestion to play in a borderless window.

Erogard

  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #12 on: 2020-06-16 21:26:19 »
Forget about it, using the new canary version the fullscreen issue is fixed even if the game crashes sometimes on startup due to being a unstable version.

Spooniest

  • *
  • Posts: 17
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #13 on: 2020-06-18 02:35:56 »
Ciaobuongiorno. I was wondering, your guide says to install to C:\7th Heaven\ and also, from this very thread, it seems that it looks for FF7's installation in C:\Games\FINAL FANTASY VII\FF7.exe.

I have Steam installed on an external usb Solid State Drive. Is that going to make it incompatible with this installation process? Your guide seems to skip over this part, unless I'm just not reading it carefully enough. Or do I simply direct it to my installation folder, regardless of which drive it's on? Will it be ok to install 7th Heaven on a drive other than my primary HDD (C:\)? Does this work, or should I install it on the primary HDD?

LordUrQuan

  • Alpha testing your worst nightmares
  • *
  • Posts: 602
  • LOAD "FF2J",8,1
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #14 on: 2020-06-18 12:49:53 »
Ciaobuongiorno. I was wondering, your guide says to install to C:\7th Heaven\ and also, from this very thread, it seems that it looks for FF7's installation in C:\Games\FINAL FANTASY VII\FF7.exe.

I have Steam installed on an external usb Solid State Drive. Is that going to make it incompatible with this installation process? Your guide seems to skip over this part, unless I'm just not reading it carefully enough. Or do I simply direct it to my installation folder, regardless of which drive it's on? Will it be ok to install 7th Heaven on a drive other than my primary HDD (C:\)? Does this work, or should I install it on the primary HDD?
It doesn't matter whether the drive is internal or external, only that the game doesn't live in a system protected folder like \Program Files (x86)\

OatBran

  • *
  • Posts: 50
  • moop all day skeent all night
    • View Profile
    • Discord
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #15 on: 2020-06-18 13:48:35 »
Ciaobuongiorno. I was wondering, your guide says to install to C:\7th Heaven\ and also, from this very thread, it seems that it looks for FF7's installation in C:\Games\FINAL FANTASY VII\FF7.exe.

I have Steam installed on an external usb Solid State Drive. Is that going to make it incompatible with this installation process? Your guide seems to skip over this part, unless I'm just not reading it carefully enough. Or do I simply direct it to my installation folder, regardless of which drive it's on? Will it be ok to install 7th Heaven on a drive other than my primary HDD (C:\)? Does this work, or should I install it on the primary HDD?

7th Heaven (The mod manager client application) is installed into C:\7th Heaven\ by default. The modded game installation is installed by the 7th Heaven app into C:\Games\FF7\ they are 2 different things.

regardless of whether your installation is in a default location or not, as long as you replace each occurrence with your location, configure 7th heaven to do the same, and 7th heaven has read/write/access permissions to the location, it should work.

Spooniest

  • *
  • Posts: 17
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #16 on: 2020-06-18 15:36:50 »
So, then, C:\Games\FF7 can also be read, "wherever it is that Final Fantasy VII is installed," so long as I know where said address is on my computer setup. Is that right?

edit:
I figured out the mistake I was making.

From the guide:


Because of the way the opening half of these two parts of Step 6 were worded, my mind skipped over the 2nd part of it. One says "locate" and the other says "navigate to." It was my fault, I didn't realize you were asking me to rename two of these files (whose filenames are identical) in separate locations.

I'd have made "navigate to [directory]" its own bullet point, there, and then another bullet point that is identical to the previous one "locate the file [filename]" but I get not wanting to be pedantic about things. Sorry, chief.
« Last Edit: 2020-06-18 15:56:18 by Spooniest »

OatBran

  • *
  • Posts: 50
  • moop all day skeent all night
    • View Profile
    • Discord
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #17 on: 2020-06-19 00:35:27 »
So, then, C:\Games\FF7 can also be read, "wherever it is that Final Fantasy VII is installed," so long as I know where said address is on my computer setup. Is that right?

edit:
I figured out the mistake I was making.

From the guide:


Because of the way the opening half of these two parts of Step 6 were worded, my mind skipped over the 2nd part of it. One says "locate" and the other says "navigate to." It was my fault, I didn't realize you were asking me to rename two of these files (whose filenames are identical) in separate locations.

I'd have made "navigate to [directory]" its own bullet point, there, and then another bullet point that is identical to the previous one "locate the file [filename]" but I get not wanting to be pedantic about things. Sorry, chief.

No, don't feel like you are being pedantic about anything. You are describing the core issue that caused me to write the guide in the first place lol. SO many people were confused about this step and made mistakes, creating the appearance that their entire 7th heaven / modded game was corrupted and wouldnt work ever again or something.

I am not exaggerating, dozens of people either messaged me directly or contacted me on discord asking for help because they misinterpreted the original install instructions on the ffnx github.

With that said, I went through many iterations to describe the process in what I (with conformation from others) decided was the most clear and understandable way to do the task correctly. However, There are all kinds of issues introduced when a language barrier (non-native english speaker) is involved or just personal interpretation of the words. English is all kinds of messed up even for native speakers lol.

Another complication is the fact that in computing, there are multiple ways to accomplish the same task, and the way I would interpret the directions and the process to execute them might be different than yours. Anyone can make a simple mistake along the way, and not realize it - but be completely convinced they read and followed the instructions explicitly. I have had arguments over it with people swearing up and down they read it and did it right, only to find out they originally made a mistake. Just an inconvenient issue with human existence itself I guess lmao.

sorry for the legnth of this post, I can get extremely long winded with my explanations, and I havent even explained why the current version of the guide is the way it is yet :p

Okay you may have skipped all that crap above but here is my real explanation for the current wording.



Assuming you have nothing but steam, 7th heaven, and your internet browser open at this point in the guide I tell you to "Open" a directory. (meaning explorer / your file manager)

The way I would do this when following a guide that has explicit paths written and formatted in an easily copy-able way i just copy (Ctrl+C) the path from the guide / 7h itself then "run" (WinKey+R) that path to explorer. (Ctrl+V) Using suggested defaults, and copy+pasting the information is a foolproof way of avoiding mistakes, as long as the guide is correct lol. The term "Open" is used for this step (and others) because that is the term the run dialog uses.



Once explorer is already open, you can then "Navigate" to further locations by using the same method as the initial step by copying the path, but then pasting it into the address bar of explorer. You could keep using the run dialog for every step but if you are not closing the window when you are done, then you might end up with a lot of windows by the end. It's hard to know what someone will do and I can't accommodate every situation unfortunately.

The reason step 6 is in 3 bullet points and not 5, is because the guide is already littered with them. It's a mess and I feel bad lol. you are doing 2 things in each bullet point and I didnt think it would be too much to expect people to understand that. Locating/Identifying a file by it's name, and rename it. Then navigate somewhere else, locate the file and rename it. I suppose a better way now that I am deep diving into it once again would be to say "rename this (separate) file." or something that implies it is a unique file itself.

Anyway if you read that then idk, you have too much time on your hands or something lol. I don't think Ill be changing step 6 in the guide, but you will have to wait a little bit to understand the reason why. ;)

Spooniest

  • *
  • Posts: 17
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #18 on: 2020-06-19 03:02:29 »
Anyway if you read that then idk, you have too much time on your hands or something lol.

... Get outta my HEAD lol

:D I don't think I was seriously suggesting that you make an edit to the guide, but upon reading your description of why it's written that way, I realize that I am presuming knowledge of how to navigate Windows (and also that there is only one way to do things - silly me). It didn't occur to me at the moment I wrote it, but of course, there are multiple ways to call up a file address in Windows. I didn't think of that.

I guess that's a very human trait, to use one's own knowledge of how something is done to describe it to someone else when making instructions, but you're right, instructions have to be written in whatever way is the simplest and most straightforward way to explain it to someone. What's that old saying about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing? Heh.

SwordofAeons

  • *
  • Posts: 29
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #19 on: 2020-07-17 21:04:54 »
Trying this today with the latest 7H Version 2.2.1.486, one version past what's listed at the top of the guide.  It appears that C:\Games\FF7\ is no longer used?  The folder doesn't even exist on my system.  7H seems to be working, though, as I was able to successfully change the title screen with a mod.  I've found copies of FFNx.cfg at both C:\7th Heaven\Resources\Game Driver and the main steam folder, but neither resemble "A Completed 7H Modded Install." 

Apologies if this gives you as much of a headache as I'm currently experiencing >.<

PoolHandMan

  • *
  • Posts: 26
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #20 on: 2020-08-05 21:23:21 »
hello, I can't seem to put the game in windowed mode, even when I change it in the config file. Any ideas?

Geoffpool

  • *
  • Posts: 27
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #21 on: 2021-02-27 18:24:38 »
How do I add my own music and FMVs to 7th Heaven? I noticed the guide mentioned texture packs but not media.
Thanks in advanced.

spiceagent11

  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #22 on: 2021-11-17 15:36:10 »
I haven't heard of many cases where the game will crash immediately after actually launching. You may want to come to the discord and get faster paced support cause I am always active there and I don't always check the forums.
https://vidmateapp.win/ | https://bluestacks.red | movieswood
« Last Edit: 2021-11-18 18:16:52 by spiceagent11 »

Bonez

  • Cosmo Memory Dev
  • Global moderator
  • *
  • Posts: 262
  • What goes here?
    • View Profile
Re: [FF7] 7th Heaven+FFNx Guide&FAQ
« Reply #23 on: 2022-08-06 14:06:18 »
Given that 7H uses FFNx by default now and there is a built-in updater now, I'm going to lock and un-sticky this thread