Horrible graphics problem with FF7 PC - Need help.

[Prince Lex]

Heres the deal! -

I've been a frequent visitor to this site for a long time now, had an old computer and managed to get FF7 PC working with all patches I wanted/needed for the game to run, which was excellent. So I got a new computer. It has a worse graphics card than my old one with worse memory, but a much better processor.

Specs from dxdiag:- Processor - Intel Core Duo 3.0Ghz (2CPU's)
                                            Memory - 446MB RAM
                                            Display - VIA/S3G Unichrome Pro IGP

Windows XP.

I had already installed FF7 PC the week after I got this PC, and it worked fine, but I did a fresh install last night (and I havent updated any graphics drivers, nothing has changed since I installed it the first time). I tried it without the patches - nothing. I tried it with the 1.02 patch - black screen. So I decided to just apply all the patches I had before, to see if it would work then.

I followed this guide to the tee:- http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6238.0
As I did before. I used the YAMP "movie skip" with ctrl-s, when the Eidos screen is supposed to play I used ctrl-s, and it took me to THIS! -



Which is absolutely ridiculous. I went to the new game option and skipped the "non-existant" opening movie. I can hardly read the dialogue in-game because there are kinda green boxes everywhere? Hard to explain. And also cloud runs EXTREMELY fast XD.

I tried disabling truemotion in ffdshow as is recommended with the k-lite codec pack, I tried uninstalling the truemotion codec, then reinstalling with the "upside-down movie patch" which worked on my old comp but not on this one, I also tried installing the "upside down movie patch" on its own. Nothing works!

Can someone help? 

[miracle.flame]

Oh my, it looks like you've pretty messed with the patches.
Now what I suggest is:
1. uninstall current ff7 and make a new clean install
2. follow the stated intructions again this time exactly and in order


The green boxes you are talking about are possibly this? (another screenshot would help)
Quote me:
>   -   background images are covered in colorful squares or grids making it look like a puzzle.
>   SOLUTION: Use next patch OR turn off any antialiasing you have set on your graphic card via RIVATUNER (nVidia users) resp. ATI TRAY TOOLS (ATI users) or such

Or maybe you didn't set TNT in your config but RIVA 128 which rarely works... for I see you've applied hi-res patch.

That screenshot shows one of the very few bugs that come with hi-res patch. Everything else should be okay. You should be happy that your display along with video card are able to use this patch because many others have problem with this.

Now try to read those steps in my guide carefully and follow them precisely. Report back if something goes wrong. 

[Prince Lex]

Thanks I'll try that and get back to you, although I did already try a clean install before I'll see if it works this time.

[miracle.flame]

I tried it with the 1.02 patch - black screen. So I decided to just apply all the patches I had before, to see if it would work then.

I followed this guide to the tee:- http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6238.0
As I did before. I used the YAMP "movie skip" with ctrl-s, when the Eidos screen is supposed to play I used ctrl-s, and it took me to THIS!
(...)
Which is absolutely ridiculous. I went to the new game option and skipped the "non-existant" opening movie.

You know I've just found out that these black screen "non-existant" movies you are able to "ctrl+s"kip and play normally probably means that the game cannot locate its movie files... so check your "moviepath" in registry thread HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\.

I've tried to enter invalid path in there and it turned out to behave exactly that way - black screen skippable.