Aali's driver [v 0.7.7] Help/Bugs/Suggestions

[SnEaKs]

So I replaced the files for the 1.02 patch, then extracted the files for Aali's patch and followed the steps listed. But when I open ff7.exe it always says "ff7.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." But whenever I switch from the Custom driver back to the Direct3D my game will always start up to the new/load game screen.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong or what I could do to fix this, but with this patch are you able to play FF7 in window mode? I hope I can find some way to fix this because I would like to put the Avalanche High Res patch in there as well...

[AngeBleu]

Can we hide all messages that we can notice with Custom Driver 7.7b ?

[InuRa]

Yeah, it's definitely just an error.
To work around it for now just make sure you have saves in all 10 slots (00 to 09) and the game will start, I'm sure Aali just missed it by accident.

[Aali]

Well that was stupid. If you pass 0 to fclose MSVCRT gets pissy and shuts everything down without calling the crash handler. I never noticed it because I had all slots occupied. You don't really need to have saves in all 10 slots, just make sure all the save files exist and it will work. Already fixed for 0.7.8b.

[pyrozen]

InuRa, you could make dummy images of the gamediscs and use those with Daemon tools. The only thing FF7 looks for is the name "FF7DISC1" etc., the contents of the disc doesn't matter. Which means that you don't need a No-CD crack, and can therefore use Aali's driver.

post edited out.... opened a can of worms i can't close!

[Prince Lex]

I was aware of the renaming thing, but in my case, I just didn't want to change the name of my drives lol.

[Hellbringer616]

InuRa, you could make dummy images of the gamediscs and use those with Daemon tools. The only thing FF7 looks for is the name "FF7DISC1" etc., the contents of the disc doesn't matter. Which means that you don't need a No-CD crack, and can therefore use Aali's driver.

actually you dont even need to do this. You can name your C drive FF7DISC1, and point your FF7 registry entry to the C drive and the game works just fine. Whenever you need to swap discs, simply rename the C drive to the next disc you need. You can also delete the CD check with a somewhat simply hex edit, but i won't discuss it here.

Anyway i can do it without renaming C drive? That'll save me TONS of room, as i need to play anything from images now, CD drive broke.. (ever try installing a CD over a networked CD drive? Not fun..)

[Rigel]

I think it's not important how but the principle, if we can speak about no-cd  check we can not differ from who have the original CD and not. I think eidos-squaresoft tolerate mod only for original CD and speaking about copy protection can lead them to action against Quimm or worst against Aali and is incredible driver and I prefer have original FF with mod that a possible solution for cd-check without mod.
I hope to not hurt anyone but I already read about legal action and project lost for this and this is a very pity.

[InuRa]

I think it's not important how but the principle, if we can speak about no-cd  check we can not differ from who have the original CD and not. I think eidos-squaresoft tolerate mod only for original CD and speaking about copy protection can lead them to action against Quimm or worst against Aali and is incredible driver and I prefer have original FF with mod that a possible solution for cd-check without mod.
I hope to not hurt anyone but I already read about legal action and project lost for this and this is a very pity.

It's kind of Square-Enix fault for not re-releasing the game with an updated engine (ONLY!) on STEAM, I'd buy it a 3rd time just so I don't have to keep any media for the PC version anymore since may many computers don't have a DVD Drive anymore.
Plus I think the most valuable version is still the PS1 one with the original black label box, which i own of 'course.

Regarding Aali driver, it doesn't change the ff7.exe game file in any way, so his work is 100% clear.
Plus it helps everyone who has the game being able to play it with modern OS's, something Square-Enix did not do.
(Didn't Eidos even took a patch made by a user to fix the game before..?)

Also, don't bother to refer to it as Square-Eidos or something, Eidos was bought by Square quite some time ago, and think Eidos is also being renamed to Square-Enix Europe Inc. sometime soon.

[Rigel]

Fault or not fault bypass cd-check without original cd is illegal. Don't have a dvd drive is not a reason. I don't have a dvd drive from five year and I don't use FF original disk from ten years. I rip the original CD of FFVII - FFVIII for pc and FFIX-FFXII for emulator before they works on emulator and also now I can play FFX and FFX-2 on pcsx2.
How can you know if a user speaking about no-cd have the original copy? And if you speak about bypass cd-check, are you sure that I user without original CD use this knowledge for illegal purpose?
No matter the software house name, anyone has the copyright of FF can take action against the user that not respect the license, fault or not fault. Would you like to risk or you prefer to use this wonderful mod?
I hope not to be melodramatic but FFVII and FFVIII are my best preferred game and even if I am a Newbie on this forum I read this from long time.

[Colonel Ramsay]

Well I do have an official Cd and I am looking forward to the day a no cd crack comes out, because it does get tiresome messing with images....

[eXistenZe]

Is this the best this plugin has to offer to ff8 or am I missing something?

[BlitzNCS]

It's not gonna be able to magic the field images into higher resolutions - They'll still be the same ones at the same old resolution. The only noticable Difference you're gonna see is the 3D aspect of the game, Which from that screenshot are quite clearly in a higher resolution than the original game.

[eXistenZe]

The thing is, post-processing can do wonders with backgrounds, but it messes up too much. bloom2 causes with reflections all around.

[Rigel]

For post-processing try this wonderful from Kramer, copy and past in Final Fantasy VII\shaders\median.post as text file

uniform sampler2D tex00;
uniform float width;
uniform float height;

#define s2(a, b)            temp = a; a = min(a, b); b = max(temp, b);
#define mn3(a, b, c)         s2(a, b); s2(a, c);
#define mx3(a, b, c)         s2(b, c); s2(a, c);

#define mnmx3(a, b, c)         mx3(a, b, c); s2(a, b);                                   // 3 exchanges
#define mnmx4(a, b, c, d)      s2(a, b); s2(c, d); s2(a, c); s2(b, d);                   // 4 exchanges
#define mnmx5(a, b, c, d, e)   s2(a, b); s2(c, d); mn3(a, c, e); mx3(b, d, e);           // 6 exchanges
#define mnmx6(a, b, c, d, e, f) s2(a, d); s2(b, e); s2(c, f); mn3(a, b, c); mx3(d, e, f); // 7 exchanges

vec4 xlat_main( in vec2 tex ) {
   
    // Calculating texel coordinates
    float w = 640.0;
    float h = 480.0;

//    vec2 p0     = vec2(1.0/width,1.0/height);
    vec2 p1     = vec2(1.0/w,1.0/h);
   vec2 p0     = p1*0.6;

   vec4 v[9];

   //MEDIAN-Filter to round edges

   // Add the pixels which make up our window to the pixel array.
   for(int dX = -1; dX <= 1; ++dX) {
      for(int dY = -1; dY <= 1; ++dY) {      
        vec2 offset = vec2(float(dX), float(dY));
            
        // If a pixel in the window is located at (x+dX, y+dY), put it at index (dX + R)(2R + 1) + (dY + R) of the
        // pixel array. This will fill the pixel array, with the top left pixel of the window at pixel[0] and the
        // bottom right pixel of the window at pixel[N-1].
        v[(dX + 1) * 3 + (dY + 1)] = texture2D(tex00, tex + offset * p0);
      }
   }

   vec4 temp;

   // Starting with a subset of size 6, remove the min and max each time
   mnmx6(v[0], v[1], v[2], v[3], v[4], v[5]);
   mnmx5(v[1], v[2], v[3], v[4], v[6]);
   mnmx4(v[2], v[3], v[4], v[7]);
   mnmx3(v[3], v[4], v[8]);
   return v[4];
}

void main() {
    gl_FragData[0] = xlat_main(gl_TexCoord[0].xy).rgba;
}

If this is too slow use // to comment this line:

//#define mnmx6(a, b, c, d, e, f) s2(a, d); s2(b, e); s2(c, f); mn3(a, b, c); mx3(d, e, f); // 7 exchanges
//mnmx6(v[0], v[1], v[2], v[3], v[4], v[5]);

If still too slow use comment also this line:

#define mnmx5(a, b, c, d, e)   s2(a, b); s2(c, d); mn3(a, c, e); mx3(b, d, e);           // 6 exchanges
mnmx5(v[1], v[2], v[3], v[4], v[6]);

Thanks to Kramer

p.s. Remember to change Aali config

[phongvm90]

hello Mr Aali, i am a new member of the forum and i've just awared of the mod for FF7 since 4 days ago. Well, it is incredible! I am now using the REmix-patcher v2.5.1 from Titeguy3 which is using your opengl driver v0.7.3b.

The game is running smoothy!

But, would you like doing me a favor? Because i'm a newbie (which means noob, as you know it), so if i want to update the driver frm 0.7.3b to your newest driver 0.7.7b without destroying the remix-patcher v2.5.1, what should i do?

And if it's ok, i would like to update your version with the speedhack version from kranmer.

P/s: i copied and replaced the 0.7.3b in the Remix-patcher with yours 0.7.7b and the game can not start. after the starting movie it show that "ff7.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." . I can't even acess to the new game/continue screen.

thank you a lot for your great work.

[Kranmer]

hello Mr Aali, i am a new member of the forum and i've just awared of the mod for FF7 since 4 days ago. Well, it is incredible! I am now using the REmix-patcher v2.5.1 from Titeguy3 which is using your opengl driver v0.7.3b.

The game is running smoothy!

But, would you like doing me a favor? Because i'm a newbie (which means noob, as you know it), so if i want to update the driver frm 0.7.3b to your newest driver 0.7.7b without destroying the remix-patcher v2.5.1, what should i do?

And if it's ok, i would like to update your version with the speedhack version from kranmer.

P/s: i copied and replaced the 0.7.3b in the Remix-patcher with yours 0.7.7b and the game can not start. after the starting movie it show that "ff7.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." . I can't even acess to the new game/continue screen.

thank you a lot for your great work.

phongvm90 if you read a few posts back you will find this is a error with the latest version. all you need to do is fill your empty save slots up (if you have any saves just go to your FF7 save folder and make a few copys then rename them until all slots are filled)

[Colonel Ramsay]

ahh wondered what that was. and yes I checked the log and did just that a while ago

[Goku7]

Aargh.  I hate to bug you again Aali, but I've got another error.  It's kinda awkward:



This was taken from Odin's "Gunge Lance" summon animation.  Naturally, its with the new battle interface turned on.  From my testing, it occurs in 5.7b, 6.7b, and 7.7b (I think that's the latest one), so that's why I think its either an unquashed bug or yet another Radeon driver screwup on my part.

If this is another case of my Radeon drivers screwing up, then my apologies.

[Kranmer]

Aargh.  I hate to bug you again Aali, but I've got another error.  It's kinda awkward:



This was taken from Odin's "Gunge Lance" summon animation.  Naturally, its with the new battle interface turned on.  From my testing, it occurs in 5.7b, 6.7b, and 7.7b (I think that's the latest one), so that's why I think its either an unquashed bug or yet another Radeon driver screwup on my part.

If this is another case of my Radeon drivers screwing up, then my apologies.

i just tested this and the same thing happened to me with so its definatley not your drivers (i am using a geforce 9600GSO with 197 drivers)

[Goku7]

Thanks for the confirmation, kranmer.  Now, we wait for Aali.

*Shines giant silhouette of the openGL logo into the sky*

[Colonel Ramsay]

I don't mean to keep brimging this up but the title screen (the one with prelude music) does seem to be way too fast, it should be 30fps not 60fps....and the menu's should be 30fps too.

[phongvm90]

hello Mr Aali, i am a new member of the forum and i've just awared of the mod for FF7 since 4 days ago. Well, it is incredible! I am now using the REmix-patcher v2.5.1 from Titeguy3 which is using your opengl driver v0.7.3b.

The game is running smoothy!

But, would you like doing me a favor? Because i'm a newbie (which means noob, as you know it), so if i want to update the driver frm 0.7.3b to your newest driver 0.7.7b without destroying the remix-patcher v2.5.1, what should i do?

And if it's ok, i would like to update your version with the speedhack version from kranmer.

P/s: i copied and replaced the 0.7.3b in the Remix-patcher with yours 0.7.7b and the game can not start. after the starting movie it show that "ff7.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." . I can't even acess to the new game/continue screen.

thank you a lot for your great work.

phongvm90 if you read a few posts back you will find this is a error with the latest version. all you need to do is fill your empty save slots up (if you have any saves just go to your FF7 save folder and make a few copys then rename them until all slots are filled)

Thank you Kranmer, I can play the game with your instruction now. But one more thing, the "original" remix-patcher v2.5.1 has a Ficedula music patch starts with the game, but after i copy Aali opengl driver 0.7.7b, these is no Ficedula music patch, only the speed hack of you appear. I wonder if the things happenned with the Ficedula patch also happen with other patch like limitBreak, choboco race patch, etc then the game may be broken in the future.

And now the game show a message : "libpng error: Read error" but still playable. I don't know what does it mean 

[Goku7]

Just to get your bases covered:

Doublecheck your "ff7_opengl.cfg" file, as it probably got overwritten when you upgraded to 7.7b.  There should be an entry under "#plugins" that reads something like this:

Code: [Select]

#music_plugin = plugins/ff7music.fgp
You'll want to remove the "#" symbol that's in front of it, if you haven't already.  It lets the OpenGL driver know that you're trying to use FF7music with it.

[Kranmer]

hello Mr Aali, i am a new member of the forum and i've just awared of the mod for FF7 since 4 days ago. Well, it is incredible! I am now using the REmix-patcher v2.5.1 from Titeguy3 which is using your opengl driver v0.7.3b.

The game is running smoothy!

But, would you like doing me a favor? Because i'm a newbie (which means noob, as you know it), so if i want to update the driver frm 0.7.3b to your newest driver 0.7.7b without destroying the remix-patcher v2.5.1, what should i do?

And if it's ok, i would like to update your version with the speedhack version from kranmer.

P/s: i copied and replaced the 0.7.3b in the Remix-patcher with yours 0.7.7b and the game can not start. after the starting movie it show that "ff7.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." . I can't even acess to the new game/continue screen.

thank you a lot for your great work.

phongvm90 if you read a few posts back you will find this is a error with the latest version. all you need to do is fill your empty save slots up (if you have any saves just go to your FF7 save folder and make a few copys then rename them until all slots are filled)

Thank you Kranmer, I can play the game with your instruction now. But one more thing, the "original" remix-patcher v2.5.1 has a Ficedula music patch starts with the game, but after i copy Aali opengl driver 0.7.7b, these is no Ficedula music patch, only the speed hack of you appear. I wonder if the things happenned with the Ficedula patch also happen with other patch like limitBreak, choboco race patch, etc then the game may be broken in the future.

And now the game show a message : "libpng error: Read error" but still playable. I don't know what does it mean 

well in the file "ff7_opengl.cfg" if you open it with notepad you will see a line that says
#music_plugin = plugins/ff7music.fgp
on this line just remove the # so it says
music_plugin = plugins/ff7music.fgp
then save the file and that should (hopefully) enable it again.
also the chocobo patch is no longer needed (Aali's driver elimnates the need for chocobo patch and True motion codec) and the 9999 limit break and other patches are usually done on the EXE which Aali's driver doesnt touch so they should be fine.
Also i have never had the "libpng error" before so i cant help there, sorry.

EDIT- LoL looks like Goku7 beat me to it.