Messages

101

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Direct X 9.0a and W2000

« on: 2003-05-29 21:13:28 »

Well, to get the movies to work, you can download the newer version of the Duck True Motion codec on Eidos' site and install that.  Eidos has it listed as a fix for upside down movies, but it tends to fix alot of movie related problems (including the movies not working in Win2K)

To get the game to work properly, though, you'll need to go to this page and follow the instructions there.  (It says not to use the TNT patch.  Depending on your card, you may need to use the FF7config.exe from the patch.  NEVER use the ff7.exe from the patch though)

You'll also need to download and install the chocobo patch to fix a crash at the chocobo races.

102

Archive / Error In Battle....All Enemie Are A Gold Pyramid

« on: 2003-04-16 00:47:18 »

Well, that is the 'creature' you can fight in the debug room.  If you're actually getting that in the game, I'd say there are serious issues.  Back up your saves and then uninstall and reinstall the game.  That's about the only suggestion I have.

103

General Discussion / Help with FF7, Win2k and Radeon 8500

« on: 2003-04-02 21:24:37 »

If you did the full install, all you'll need from someone else are the movies off of disc 1 (too lazy to check how many megs this amounts too.  I would imagine about 300.) Just stick those and the movies from your disc 2 and 3 in a directory on your hard drive (I put mine in a directory called movies in the FF7 directory.)

Then there is a value in the registry that you change to point the game to that new directory for the movies.  (If you can find someone to send you the movies, reply here and I'll post the instructions for editing the registry . . . or someone else who knows will.)

104

Archive / Some one hear this

« on: 2003-03-23 19:12:33 »

Damn . . . I really feel for you there.  I had that 'scare' just the other day when I thought I lost all of my stuff.  (I had set the NTFS permissions to the folder that I keep the bulk of my 'projects', images, school stuff, etc. in so that only *my* user could access it.  I pretty much did it one day to see how it worked . . . I forgot about it until I backed everything up onto another partition so I could re-format and re-install Windows.  I was afraid all my information was gonna be locked, but luckily, the NTFS permissions didn't copy over when I backed it up.)

It's a shame on that soundfont, too.  I listened to those 2 MP3s and they sounded pretty good.  How'd you manage that in just 4 megs?  (If you've seen my Soundfont, it's around 23 Megs.)

If it ever happens again where Windows refuses to start, take the drive over to a buddy's house (who has some version NT, 2k, or XP, if you're using NTFS) and install it as a slave in his machine.  Usually when windows F---'s itself like that, it doesn't take all your information with it.

105

General Discussion / A Different FF7 story view...or the same one..(spoilers)

« on: 2003-03-23 18:54:55 »

The only thing is, Aeris is 22 years old.  That means Gast had to have left Shinra at least 22 years before FF7 starts.

106

Archive / FF7 with GeForce 2: No hardware rendering?

« on: 2003-03-15 18:07:49 »

Yeah, installing the 1.02 patch WOULD work, but judging by the fact that you need this patch, you're probably using a fairly old driver set.  If you go here, get the newest drivers and install them, you'll notice a few benefits (speed increases in all your games, FF7 should work without the patch, and there's also a bug in the older drivers where it would crash on Cloud's final limit.  The new version seems to have fixed that . . . on my machine, anyway.)

You'll also want to download and use this, it will fix the problem Aaron mentioned above (the chocobo race crash.)

107

Archive / FF 7 no sound & please help me!!

« on: 2003-03-08 18:30:58 »

If you're having problems with the sound effects, I highly doubt the MIDI driver is the culprit . . .

I've seen this problem a lot in the past.  (Before you try this, make sure the volume in the game isn't somehow turned all the way down for the sound effects . . . I've had stuff like that happen to me before.)

Anyway, alot of times, the audio codecs that come with Windows seem to be the problem.  Go to Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs.   Under the Windows Setup tab, one of the components will be Multimedia.  Select that and click the details button.  Another Window will pop up with a bunch of sound and video components.  'Audio Compression' is probably the first one.  (It is on Win98, anyway.  If it's not the first thing, it should still be in there somewhere.)  Uncheck that box to uninstall the codecs. (If the box is already unchecked, that probably is your problem in the first place . . . just check it off, insert the Windows CD when it asks, restart your computer, and you should be fine.)  Tell it OK, then restart your computer.  Then go back to where you just were (Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Windows Setup -> Multimedia components) and re-check that 'Audio Compression' box.  Tell it OK. (it'll probably ask for the WindowsME CD.  If your computer came with everything pre-installed, and all you got was a Recovery CD, you should be able to enter 'C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS' at the prompt when it asks for the CD . . . most manufacturers will put the setup files there.)  Then restart your computer again, and try running FF7.

Hope this helps!  Maybe Threesixy knows something more (I seem to remember him having an exact method to this.)  He'll probably reply when he sees this topic.

---Edit---

Ah, I missed what Goku said up there about the MIDI playing back through WAV.  I've never run into that before (with the creative SoftSynth, or the YAMAHA), but I suppose it's possible.  I guess this is why the YAMAHA SoftSynth also installs a WAV output device.  If that does turn up being the problem, you can try using the YAMAHA synth's WAV device for your Sound driver (although Aaron's method of using the YAMAHA synth as your MIDI device is, IMO, much better than this solution.  The YAMAHA SoftSynth will give you the best possible MIDI playback with your SoundCAred.)

108

General Discussion / Final Fantasy Origins

« on: 2003-02-25 03:45:02 »

ToP - Played it, loved it.  The guys at dejap did a very good job translating it to English.  (there were less errors in it than, say, FFVII)

nayoung:  That's alot of smileys!! \(^0^)/

109

General Discussion / Final Fantasy Origins

« on: 2003-02-21 03:49:46 »

FF1 is so addictive, though . . .

I was snowed in over the weekend because of a huge blizzard, and about all I did for 2 days straight was play FF1.

I made it all the way from that swamp labrynth near elf kingdom to the last palace.  It really isn't that hard after the ice cave. (which has to be the hardest part of the entire game.)

110

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / sound fonts !!

« on: 2003-01-29 21:17:47 »

Are you sure you've loaded the font into bank 1? (not 'Synth Bank' or 'Bank 0').  Also (and I'm not taking you for an idiot - we all make these kind of mistakes.) make sure you're not accidentally loading the original.  (the easiest way to do that is check the file size.  The original will be somewhere around 4 megs, ff7 for SBlive! will be about 23 megs.  Also, the description for ff7 for SBLive! in the bank stack window is 'FF7 for SBLive! v 1.6')

Another thing to make sure of - in the second drop down box on the FF7 MIDI configuration page (the MIDI Data box) make sure you've selected 'Soundfont MIDI (Creative AWE32/64)'.  I kind of think that defaults to 'General MIDI'.

As far as the test in the Config program, it will fail.  (Just like Aaron was saying) but it still works in the game, or if you extract the MIDIs and listen to them from Media Player of Winamp or whatever.

111

General Discussion / FF6 - Forgotten Story (A fan made prequel)

« on: 2003-01-29 20:47:34 »

I think it looks interesting.

I'll probably follow it's progress now . . . it looks pretty promising. (it's situation kind of reminds me of this Zelda 1 hack I played through once, Zelda: Outlands.)  These fan made games tend to be a little more difficult than the original game (which is usually a good thing.)

112

General Discussion / A Different FF7 story view...or the same one..(spoilers)

« on: 2003-01-21 20:04:03 »

Jenova Synthesis, the monster you fight right before Bizzarro, is the headless Jenova.

113

General Discussion / A Different FF7 story view...or the same one..(spoilers)

« on: 2003-01-18 19:27:32 »

umm . . . Sepiroth's tattoo was on his arm . . . unless Hojo had some kind of . . . thing . . . for Cloud, I don't see why his wouldn't have been in the same place . . .

I think the reason Cloud DOESN'T have a tattoo is because Hojo thought he failed with Cloud.  Remember Cloud WAS barely conscious when he and Zack escaped.

As far as how Cloud knows what Zack saw in the reactor . . . Zack was a member of SOLDIER.  All members of SOLDIER had been injected with Jenova cells.  Jenova experienced what Zack did, and used that to twist Cloud's memory.

I kind of think the flashes go something like this:  When there's a white flash, it's right before a Jenova influenced memory in Cloud's mind, almost like it symbolizes Jenova generating the memory inside of Cloud.  The red seems to happen right before Jenova actually takes control over Cloud, or tells him something in his mind . . . sometimes that "inner Cloud" talks to him, too.  I can't remember what happens then . . . I kind of remember a black screen right after Cloud falls off the bridge in Midgar, right before he meets Aeris, where the "inner Cloud" is talking to him, something about "Back then you only scraped your knees" or something.

114

General Discussion / Rikku in bikini

« on: 2003-01-02 04:42:21 »

They actually probably re-used old sprites from FF4 for certain Jobs in FF5, but other than that, those two games are WAY off from eachother.

They may have re-used Cain's sprite for Butz as a dragoon.  The two of them are nearly identical.

115

General Discussion / Rikku in bikini

« on: 2002-12-31 04:35:13 »

At the risk of sounding ignorant:  What is this FF5 sequel you speak of?

116

Archive / Soundfont handling in FF7pc

« on: 2002-12-17 02:32:40 »

FF7.sf2 loads into bank 1, with several instruments loading in banks 2-6, one instrument in bank 7, one in 8, and one in 9.  LB2.sf2 is loaded on top of that in bank 1 right before the battle with Safer Sephiroth.

As far as I know, there is no way to get the SoundFonts to auto-load in Win2k/XP.  You have to load them manually into bank 1.  (I created a new version of FF7 for SBLive a while back, when I was playing through FF7, that incorporates lb2.sf2 into ff7.sf2 without messing up any other songs.  That way, you can manually load the font in Win2k/XP without missing the Sephiroth Choir . . . weather or not I'll ever upload it is another thing . . . )

117

General Discussion / FF7 Questions..

« on: 2002-11-23 23:53:57 »

Joey: c'mon, dude, the game's so much more fun without a walkthru . . .

118

Archive / Have trouble getting FF8 to work with new SY-XG50 4.0 XP/2k

« on: 2002-11-04 04:32:09 »

I will agree that XG MIDI is good (if it's used right) but FF8 (like Goku says) doesn't have any real XG MIDIs (the ones that say they are XG sound pretty bad . . .)

I've actually used the SXG50 with FF8 before . . . Sam Slight's DLS is much better.  It's amazing.

119

General Discussion / Getting Aeris Back

« on: 2002-10-30 02:35:03 »

If I remember correctly, the line Aeris says outside of Icicle (at least, the line she said in the picture) is actually what Vincent would say if you had him in your party at that time.

I'd have to guess the game didn't know how to handle Aeris being in this scene (because she was never meant to be) and somehow managed to stick Vincent's line in there.

120

General Discussion / Music.

« on: 2002-10-09 01:25:33 »

Wow.  I downloaded Corridors of Time and listened to it.  It sounds great.

121

General Discussion / Final fantasy 8 for PC rerelease in Japan.Square back to PC?

« on: 2002-10-09 01:19:40 »

Wow . . . I remember the first time I played FF7 . . .

It was on an AMD K6 MMX 233, with a 4 meg S3 VirgeGX and a SB AWE64 (with only the default 512k of cache).

I had to play the whole game in Software rendering mode (choppy as hell in the battles and on the world map . . . not to mention all of the mini games.), and the music sounded pretty bad.

122

General Discussion / Final fantasy 8 for PC rerelease in Japan.Square back to PC?

« on: 2002-10-04 04:23:34 »

It worked fine for me, too, in Win2k.

. . . I just ran it tonight - upgraded my CPU from a 900 Mhz T-bird to an Athlon XP 1600, had to see any kind of performance increase in different games.  The world map finally ALMOST runs at full speed . . . which is pretty sad.  Damn Square and their poor PC programming. - and it works pretty good in WinXP, as well.

123

General Discussion / Interesting...........

« on: 2002-06-11 03:34:41 »

*Sigh*

 . . . even though every one else has torn this post apart, I just CAN'T sit by and NOT say something about this.

First of all, does anyone here, have an exact idea on how a PS2 works, other than reading from magazines?)

I don't know about 'anyone' else, but obviously you have no clue.

there is a hard disk like device which reads graphics from the DVD at a high speed and then outputs it to the TV, also at a very high speed.

Joey, do you realize how little sense this sentence makes?  Do you even have any idea what a hard disk is?  For that matter, do you even have any idea what a TV is?

Unfortunately, Because of this, the graphics will have to be "redrawn" in the TV, resulting in quality loss.

Redrawn in the TV, eh?  and how does the TV 'redraw' the graphics?  With what mechanism does it accomplish this feet?  Please tell me Joey.  I'd really like to know.  I thought I knew what a TV did, but I guess I was wrong?

(since I know you can't detect it, that last paragraph was blatant sarcasm.)

Xbox elimated this problem by directly outputing the data directly from the DVD to the TV(DirectX techonology).

Joey, what is DirectX?  you can't answer that question, can you . . . actually, I bet you can, but it won't be any where NEAR right, so just DON'T answer.

In fact, for the good of this forum . . . no for the good of the world . . . don't talk . . . ever . . . again.  Just shut up.  Maybe people will start liking you then.  Actually, just forget I said that last sentence, it won't happen . . .  but still don't talk.

124

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FAQ: Chocobo races crash under NT/2000/XP (technical)

« on: 2002-05-11 02:55:38 »

CatsClaw=Grey Mouser?

125

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FAQ: Chocobo races crash under NT/2000/XP (technical)

« on: 2002-04-28 03:24:15 »

I have no idea if that "Make FF7 work in Win2K" topic still exists on the forum, but I downloaded a copy of it a while back.  I uploaded it it here.  Just remember to delete the .zip extension . . . it's really a Self extracting RAR file.