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1

Troubleshooting / FF8Config.exe cannot find MIDI device

« on: 2008-11-12 22:39:44 »

Urgh, ff8config.exe is convinced that there's no MIDI device in my system. I pops up the 'Unable to locate MIDI device... FFVIII requrires a Windows95-compliant MIDI device'. The same setup works flawlessly with FFVII. FFVIII has been patched to 1.2 non-nvidia and used with FF8launcher. What's wrong? My FF8 is the square and not the eidos version.

2

Archive / Portable FF7 *UPDATE: Now with video proof!*

« on: 2008-08-15 16:39:30 »

Ever wanted to play FF7 anywhere? Now you can, with portable FF7!

Things needed:
Brain
Original FF7 disc set
Ollydbg
FF7 1.02 patch from edios (not the XP patches made by animevamp)
2GB thumbdrive/memory card
tm20dec.ax (Truemotion codec for FMVs)
Notepad

Optional: YAMP and various patches made by dziugo to enhance gaming experience
Optional: FF7w to play in windowed mode
Optional: Minigame patch
Optional: My version of the Advent Avatars patch

If you're not paranoid, skip steps 2, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16, scroll down to the bottom, get portableff7.zip, and unzip to your ff7 install dir.

Steps:
1. Install FF7 from the Install Disc, taking care to select Maximum Install and not to install DirectShow and DirectX 5.
2. Copy version 1.02 of FF7.exe and FF7Config.exe from ff7_102.zip to the FF7 folder (not the start menu entry!), overwriting the originals.
3. (Optional) Use YAMP to install various patches. I *STRONGLY* recommend at LEAST the battle swirl fix.
4. Get OllyDbg.
5. Patch FF7.exe as per the first post in http://web.archive.org/web/20080115210409/http://forum.exetools.com/showthread.php?t=6926
6. Make a folder called "movies" in your FF7 install dir. (It is C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII if you didn't change it during install)
7. Insert FF7 Disc 1 and navigate to <CDROM drive letter>\ff7\movies.
8. Copy everything in the CD's movies folder to the movies folder in your FF7 install dir.
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 for CD 2 and 3, and insert Disc 2 and 3 accordingly.
10. After copying from the last disc, the movies folder in the FF7 install dir should have 106 files and take up about 880MB.
11. Open notepad and paste all of the following into the empty text file:

Code: [Select]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Square Soft, Inc.]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII]
"DataDrive"=".\\"
"AppPath"=".\\"
"DataPath"=".\\Data\\"
"MoviePath"=".\\Movies\\"
"DiskNo"=dword:00000000
"FullInstall"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\1.00]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\1.00\Graphics]
"DD_GUID"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
"DriverPath"=""
"Driver"=dword:00000000
"Mode"=dword:00000002
"Options"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\1.00\MIDI]
"MIDI_DeviceID"=dword:00000001
"MIDI_data"="GENERAL_MIDI"
"MusicVolume"=dword:00000064
"Options"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\1.00\Sound]
"Sound_GUID"=hex:1a,d7,6d,bd,eb,3d,d1,11,b1,71,00,c0,4f,c2,00,00
"Options"=dword:00000000
"SFXVolume"=dword:00000064

12. Go to File > Save as..., name it ff7.reg, select All Files in the "Save as type" drop down box, and make its encoding ANSI, and save it in your FF7 install dir.
13. Navigate to your FF7 install dir, double-click ff7.reg and click yes to import its data into the registry.
14. Get tm20dec here. http://cl0ud.net/tm20dec.zip, unzip tm20dec.ax into the FF7 install dir.
15. Open notepad again and paste the following into the empty file:

Code: [Select]

copy .\tm20dec.ax %windir%\system32
regsvr32 %windir%\system32\tm20dec.ax16. Go to File > Save as..., name it tm20dec.bat, type All Files, encoding ANSI, and save it in the FF7 install dir.
17. Go to the FF7 install dir, double-click tm20dec.bat and a message should pop up saying that the registration has succeeded. Click OK on the dialog.
18. Copy the FF7 install dir to your thumbdrive. (It should take up about 1.28GB)
19. Double-click FF7Config to select hardware/MIDI settings that work (or leave it as-is if unsure), as my registry entries are using very conservative defaults to ensure compatibility with wide ranges of hardware.
20. Double-click FF7.exe. With luck, FF7 should run from your thumbdrive and play the opening FMV with the animated EIDOS logo!
**NOTE: MAKE SURE THE FF7 FOLDER AND THE SAVE FOLDER IN THE FF7 FOLDER ARE NOT SET AS READ-ONLY.**

**FOR NON-PARANOID USERS: DOWNLOAD ZIP FILE BELOW AND EXTRACT TO FF7 INSTALL DIR, OVERWRITING ANY EXISTING FILE THAT (MAY) EXIST.**
http://cl0ud.net/portableff7.zip

A downside is that administrator privileges is needed to install and register tm20dec.ax, even though FF7 runs fine as a limited user. I'll see if converting the FMVs to a more common codec will eliminate the need for the TrueMotion codec.

**UPDATE: Video proof now available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEeX-Zg4MVo for non-believers!**

EDIT [9/9/08] Thanks to Drizzt for reminding me, don't install DX5 or DirectShow!

3

Archive / Advent Avatars - self-made

« on: 2008-08-15 15:09:52 »

Couldn't get the AdventAvatars patch to work on my PC, so I made my own! (Yes, the portraits are actually 256 colors! Much less dithering artifacts than the original AdventAvatars!

http://cl0ud.net/FF7_AC_Portraits_Finished.zip

The zip file contains the portraits (256 color/8bit BMPs) in both normal and small versions. There is also the menu_us.lgp from the North American version of FF7 PC. Just drop it in the data\menu folder in your FF7 install dir. (Back up your original menu_us.lgp first!) Saves fiddling with cranky patch files.


http://i33.tinypic.com/2z8yfs4.png for fullsize
First two images correspond 640x480/320x240 with hardware rendering, last two correspond to 640x480/320x240 with software rendering.
Tested on 640x480/320x240 with hardware/software rendering. Also tested on my server with an old GPU that actually passes the 8bit paletted textures test. No problems whatsoever.

P.S. I tried to find scenes in which the characters were as close to their poses in the "original" concept art portraits as possible, so I hope that this will appease the "I want the original Cloud/Tifa" people...