Author Topic: Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]  (Read 755900 times)

Aali

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #375 on: 2009-05-28 02:44:55 »
You can edit the shaders if you want to.
But if you don't know what you're doing, you're probably just going to break things.

It's not going to solve any problems if the driver doesn't load. (I can't recall if you were having problems with that or not)

Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #376 on: 2009-05-28 02:51:58 »
I was but i solved that... For some reason my PC thinks the Exe. is on my desktop so i just put it in a separate folder and placed everything with it and this runs fine....... so i don't need to change the shaders...? The App. log that appears with all these other files (every time you run FF7) says no GL opener detected shaders will not work... but when you play the game the Driver is so obviously working.. I'm somewhat confused.......

Thank you,
Broken Crow (AKA. The Ultimate Newb)

Aali

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #377 on: 2009-05-28 03:16:01 »
Well you don't need shaders to play since I added OpenGL 1.1 support, but it will make things a lot faster.
If you do have OpenGL 2.0 support and it can't find the shaders, it should print the exact path it was trying to access (in APP.LOG). Put the shaders there.

Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #378 on: 2009-05-28 03:34:05 »
How.. do i do that? I hate technology... i takes me forever to understand it... ><... Thank you for being patient with me..

Thank you,
Broken Crow (As always the Ultimate Newb)

Aali

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #379 on: 2009-05-28 03:39:29 »
Run FF7, close the dialog box (if you don't get a dialog box you either don't have OpenGL 2.0 support or the shaders are already working) and quit the game.
Open APP.LOG in a text editor, check the first few lines for something like "ERROR: failed to stat file <path goes here>". It will do this twice, for both the necessary shaders. Simply move the files there and it should work. Generally, the path should always be <ff7 install dir>/shaders/, if you're getting something else, post it here.

Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #380 on: 2009-05-28 03:46:46 »
How do i know if i have Open GL support?

Aali

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #381 on: 2009-05-28 05:10:10 »
How do i know if i have Open GL support?

I'm speechless...


On another note, I found the kludge that does FF7's lighting (yes, it's all done in software :roll:) so if I can decipher the seemingly quite complex light format, we might just have proper, real-time lighting soon.

Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #382 on: 2009-05-28 05:24:36 »
okay be speechless........I'm dead serious........ i know nothing of computers at all and I'm just learning about them so please don't be so cruel...I've had to take a lot of Bull because I'm an English nerd and know nothing of computers so don't give me that okay! And Vista confuses me! Okay... I'm a newb at everything... and I just want to enjoy a good game... so don't give me that crap okay!

I apologize for sounding so bitter... its just i have had to take a lot of bull S*** from people who think I'm an idiot cause I didn't know what a char lgp file was or something... (And I know what an lgp file is.. i was just using that as an example).

Thank you,
Broken Crow


And P.S. real time lighting sounds really cool... please keep up the good work :D...

And again I apologize for being so bitter.
« Last Edit: 2009-05-28 05:32:57 by BrokenCrowe »

Hellbringer616

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #383 on: 2009-05-28 05:44:44 »
I don't even know how to tell if i have OGL support or not, I just assume i do as i've never had an issue.

So, enlightenment on both our parts would be nice  :-D

Only because i like to know things  :-P

EDIT: Google seems to tell me it's Driver/videocard based as Windows Vista comes with 1.5 out of the box, not 2.0 or higher, But that doesn't make much sense to me. Clarification Aali?
« Last Edit: 2009-05-28 05:47:09 by hellbringer616 »

Grimmy

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #384 on: 2009-05-28 13:07:14 »
Aali can you take a look at this crash for me, it's not really driver related since a new model caused it. However you might be able to tell why the model caused the crash.

http://files.filefront.com/crashzip/;13818029;/fileinfo.html

Aali

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #385 on: 2009-05-28 14:06:56 »
I don't even know how to tell if i have OGL support or not, I just assume i do as i've never had an issue.

So, enlightenment on both our parts would be nice  :-D

Only because i like to know things  :-P

EDIT: Google seems to tell me it's Driver/videocard based as Windows Vista comes with 1.5 out of the box, not 2.0 or higher, But that doesn't make much sense to me. Clarification Aali?

The software renderer can do OpenGL 1.5 (if thats the case, I don't know the exact version) but then it's not hardware accelerated.
If you install some drivers for your card, those will be used instead and can provide whichever version they want. Any modern card has OpenGL 2.0 support.

Aali

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #386 on: 2009-05-28 14:12:52 »
Aali can you take a look at this crash for me, it's not really driver related since a new model caused it. However you might be able to tell why the model caused the crash.

http://files.filefront.com/crashzip/;13818029;/fileinfo.html

All I can tell you is that it's looking for the string "head" and then something goes wrong from there.

Idec Sdawkminn

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #387 on: 2009-05-28 15:51:04 »
I found a utility at http://www.realtech-vr.com/glview/download.html that gives you your OpenGL version. It says mine is 3.0, but I'm running Windows 7 RC.

So, the bloom shader does AA? Which types of shaders do you think would look the best in FF7? Have you tried any and determined that they make it look worse or better? I had my eye on the Natural Vision Shader for ePSXe, but I'm having trouble finding a copy.

Hellbringer616

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #388 on: 2009-05-28 18:45:43 »
I don't even know how to tell if i have OGL support or not, I just assume i do as i've never had an issue.

So, enlightenment on both our parts would be nice  :-D

Only because i like to know things  :-P

EDIT: Google seems to tell me it's Driver/videocard based as Windows Vista comes with 1.5 out of the box, not 2.0 or higher, But that doesn't make much sense to me. Clarification Aali?

The software renderer can do OpenGL 1.5 (if thats the case, I don't know the exact version) but then it's not hardware accelerated.
If you install some drivers for your card, those will be used instead and can provide whichever version they want. Any modern card has OpenGL 2.0 support.

Alright so google was right, thanks for the info

Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #389 on: 2009-05-29 02:42:32 »
Yeah... I just don't know if i have it or not... because the drivers seem to be working ... but i never get that box you mentioned upon start up

Aali

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #390 on: 2009-05-29 02:44:11 »
I covered that scenario..

Run FF7, close the dialog box (if you don't get a dialog box you either don't have OpenGL 2.0 support or the shaders are already working)

Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #391 on: 2009-05-29 04:24:11 »
I know... what i want to know is if i have them or not.. so i can deduce if i the shaders are working or not.......... I feel like such a newb with technology:P

Thank you,
Broken Crow

Terid__K

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #392 on: 2009-05-29 04:36:55 »
If you have Windows, you have Open GL. Simple as that.


Goku7

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« Reply #393 on: 2009-05-29 04:59:44 »
Ok, I can not for the life of me get this driver to work on my system.  Relavent specs:

1.5Ghz P4, 512mb RAM, Win98SE, 3Dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP video card (DX7/OpenGL 1.1 compliant hardware, can hit OGL 1.3 using MesaFX driver)

Yes, yes, I know with a system like this Aali's driver isn't really needed, nonetheless I want to try it out for kicks. :-D

Anyway, when I tried to import the ff7_opengl.reg file, Windows said it wasn't a real registry file, and thus refused to import the settings.  So, I had to manually create the keys and import the data.  After copying the files to the ff7 install directory and launching the game, it suspiciously looks like its using software rendering.  Checking the app.log file confirms this, it is definitely either ignoring the driver or silently falling back to software.

Any ideas, Aali?

Terid__K

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #394 on: 2009-05-29 05:05:47 »
Why are you still using Windows 98?


Goku7

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #395 on: 2009-05-29 05:25:24 »
Firstly, because my video card was orphaned, driver-wise, in 2001 when the company went under.  Up-to-date drivers for WinXP/Vista either don't exist, or are hacked together, or are gimped compared to the Win98 drivers.  The card can report Hardware T/L capability under Win9x, but due to how Win2k/XP/Vista don't allow the drivers to touch the hardware directly, I can't do that under them, severly castrating performance in some DX7/8 games if I were to use the newer OSes with it.

Secondly, this particular box has long been relegated to being a legacy system for playing older games, FF7 and 8 in particular, because they work out of the box with FSAA with my setup, and no chocobo patching is needed either.  I have a somewhat-more-modern laptop with XP that I use for today's stuff, though. :roll:

Aali

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #396 on: 2009-05-29 05:47:08 »
Err, windows 98 probably wont work for a number of reasons. I've never tested it on anything older than XP and it uses some functions you *may* find in win2000 but not in win98.

If you have XP you should really use that instead, no patching is required as long as you use this driver, it includes fixes for all known crash issues.

DLPB_

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #397 on: 2009-05-29 05:58:50 »
I am having issues and I am not sure if driver related.

I  am now using vista 64 bit with sp2

The driver seems to have no effect whatsoever (yes I clicked vista 64 bit reg)

I will try and use a past driver version and see if something has been missed in the newest build

.ahh damn what have I done


edit:  tried back to 0.3....no use.  same old.  Does anyone else here have this working with vista 64 bit?

edit 2:  I have read that it may be the new drivers for nvidia again.,...I will roll back to earlier versions.
« Last Edit: 2009-05-29 06:53:26 by Seifer Almasy »

Goku7

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #398 on: 2009-05-29 07:26:12 »
Yeah, I may try it out with my laptop sometime.  It's sporting a Radeon 7500 Mobile, which is another shaderless DX7 card. :|  No post-processing for me, it seems.

However, I may also try it on my fiance's computer, as I recently got her into playing the game on her comp -- she's got some craptastic HP Pavilion running Vista Home with an integrated nVidia Geforce 6150 LE that can't tell the difference between Cloud and the backside of a chocobo barn in hardware mode. :roll:

Pikkuhippi

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Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]
« Reply #399 on: 2009-05-29 10:01:25 »
Guys, make sure you have the correct .exe version because it really affects whether the driver loads or not. Just wanted to make sure you know that ;P You need the 1.02 exe file.