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26

Archive / The Maybe-Not-So-Great FF8 FAQ

« on: 2006-12-20 17:31:07 »

The Maybe-Not-So-Great FF8 FAQ

Seeings as how there is an FAQ for FF7, I decided it was high-time for one for FF8. Be aware that I have by no means encountered all of these FF8 errors. I’ve just compiled other problems as well as my own. Also, I do not know hardly anything about hardware. All of my knowledge comes from searching these forums and listening to those that know and my mother’s 25+ experiences with hardware and software on computers. This isn’t every question anyone ever had, but mostly ones about crashes in the game and antialiasing.

Help! My game crashed and I don’t have any idea why!
First off, there are any number of different reasons this might have happened, so being more descriptive would help. Below, I shall list all of the possible crashes and what you can do to fix them.

Q.1 The game runs fine, but the FMVs crash me to desktop/computer/blue screen of death. Why?
Oooooh, one that has happened to me before…at least generally. First, whenever you have a FMV crash, before doing anything, go back to FF8Config and set your FMV video option to Lowres, instead of Highres (as there are two available on the discs). If it still crashes, use Qhimm’s FF8FMV program to see if it’s the FMVs themselves. (Also, make sure your disc isn’t scratch on the bottom and is clean, sometimes this can happen).

However, if you are an nvidia user, like myself, you should put in the official 1.02 patch for nvidia cards that Squaresoft released.

Q.2 Whenever I go to a new screen, video and audio seem to freeze for a second. It’s annoying.
Ahhh, another one that has happened to me! And yes, there is an answer to it. Make sure your drives are DMA enabled.

Q.3 But my drives are already DMA enabled!
Yes, your CD/DVD drives may be, but you also have to have your Disk Drives on DMA. I believe all newer harddrives and operating systems have them on by default, but if you are running, say, Windows 98, go to My Computer>Device Manager>Disk Drives. Make sure your IDE under properties is checked for DMA and then restart. On my old 98 machine that I run FF8 on, it wasn’t checked by default and I had that stuttering.

Q.4 Why do I get black blocks all over my screen?
That’s because you have hardware acceleration on. Go to software mode.

Q.5 But I want to run hardware acceleration mode! Software mode looks like sh*t! *pout*
Well, you’re not going to get hardware acceleration mode with any new video card because many in the era of, for example, NVIDIA GeForce 6+ no longer support 8-bit palette. You’ll notice that test will fail if you have a new video card.

Q.6 Is there a patch or way to make it work?
Perhaps the most common question and the answer is no. Not with a new video card. (All this knowledge comes from NVIDIA mind you. Those that have a Radeon card can try this)

Q.7 But I realllllllly want to play in hardware acceleration mode! *cry*
Well, if you insist, there is a way, but you’re not going to like it. It involves digging out that ancient, dusty video card you have stored in your closet. NVIDIA users can use any card that is up to GeForce 4 (including TI and FX) to make it work with the right drivers. I for one, have a GeForce3 TI 200 in my Windows 98 machine and it’s so ancient that with the forceware drivers installed (71.something…) that it passed the 8-bit palette test with no tweaking.

Q.8 Okay, I got my old video card out. Now how do I make it all pretty like the screenshots people put up?
That, my dear cute newbie , is done with antialiasing. First, download the latest version of Rivatuner. Open the program, and find the little triangle button in the drivers setting section, and then select "DirectDraw and Direct3D Settings." Go to the Antialiasing tab, and where it says "Antialiasing method," and choose which you want to use.

Q.9 Wow, it looks great in the game, but now my FMVs don’t work. I tried both Highres and Lowres.
Ahhh. I found the answer to this and on the off-chance that someone happened to have this problem too, I decided to put this question here. If you did what I did and used the FF7FAQ stickied in the forums (the description of how to get to the antialiasing I used from there), then you most likely used 2x2. However, on a card such as the GeForce3 TI 200, they will be corrupted, if they don’t crash altogether. I did a few tests on other antialiasing methods of the newest Rivatuner and here are the results with FF8 that has had the GeForce patch installed to 1.02:

Computer OS: Windows 98
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 3 Ti 200
Sound Card: Soundblaster (NOT the live or Audigy)
CPU: 500 Mz Pentium III
Memory: 128

2x1. Works
1x2. Works
2x2. Will either crash the fmvs/or corrupt them during the game and the text afterwards
4x4. Works
2x. Works, but gridlines in menus and no discernable effect in gameplay.
Quincunx. Works but gridlines in menus and no discernable effect in gameplay.
4x. Works but gridlines in menus and no discernable effect in gameplay.
I didn’t go past these options, but I would assume they are the same as the 2x-4x.

Q.10 I’m using 2x2 on an old video card and my videos play fine.
Good for you. It’s possibly your video card has different drivers than mine. Can’t really say.

Q.11 Is there a program like FF7Music for FF8?
Nope. There are, however, soundfonts and updated dls, for FF8 to make it sound better. Go here

Q.12 Is there a FF8 version of Saint’s Highres patch for FF7?
Nope.

Q.13 Help! My controller seems to get stuck or go so fast when I'm trying to select the limit breaks/I can't move the hand when in battle, it seems to get stuck for a bit.
I don't know if anyone else has ever had this, but my mother seems to be afflicted with this problem when she plays this game and after some research, I can tell you that it has to do with two things: a) your controller, and b) FF8's sensitivity. My controller works better than my mother's, plus it's newer, so I don't have it quite as often, but sometimes it happens. And it happens quite often when I can't move the hand on the battle commands except after a long time. Your solutions? For the former, get a newer controller. For the latter...not a damn thing, far as I can tell.

Q.14 My game crashes when I get into a random battle in the sewers of Deling/I get in a random battle, the screen goes black, and doesn't ever come back again.
I don't know if anyone has ever had one here except for me, and I'm not honestly sure what causes this. When I went down there with Rinoa, every time, but when I played Squall/Irvine, or Quistis/Zell/Selphie, it was random if it would happen. Your best bet is to just get out there as fast as you can with as little random battles as you can get to lower the chances.

Q.15 My text is jaggy and ugly. Is there a problem?
Nope, but to make it better, go into FF8Config and checkmark the option to use High resolution text.

Q.16 I have lines all over my menu and it looks like crap, but the game runs fine. Why?
This I've had happen to me before. If you apply the NVIDIA Geforce patch (if you have an NVIDIA card, naturally), this should be taken care of. Also, some antialiasing settings might make this happen, depending on your card. Supposing if it was fine when you applied the patch but before messing with those settings (should you choose to use them). Just play with those settings and see which fits best for you overall.

Q.17 My controller seems to be stuck. It's always going to the left/right when I haven't touched anything!
First, make sure your controller is firmly set in your USB hub. If it is, try calibrating or mapping out your controls for the controller itself in the software or with FF8 itself. If that still doesn't work, try opening another game that uses the controller, such as FF7 and make sure it's working there. If not, chances are, something is wrong with it and you should get another one. As controllers get older, they get less reliable and finicky, especially if they weren't made well in the first place, and from my experience the first signs of a dying controller is when it seems to get stuck on a direction even though you haven't moved the analog stick. However, if it works fine in FF7 but not in FF8 (as what happened to me a few days ago), you should recalibrate and map out your controls specifically. That should make it work.

That’s the most questions I could think of answer at the moment. If there are more, feel free to add them to this list or tell me and I shall add them to the above. ^^ This is my very first FAQ that I’ve ever written, so go easy on it, please. hehe

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General Discussion / FFVII Materia Growth

« on: 2006-12-19 21:31:18 »

I didn't know where to put this, so I figured here would be a better place. I'd love it if someone could give me some pointers on how is the fastest way to have the materia grow. I've never even completed some of the materia on master (such as the summons) because there are too much levels to go through ;_; Sure, I get that you can level up with a weapon that has a 3x materia growth, but that still isn't very fast...

Is there some intricate part of the materia system that I'm missing even after eight play-throughs total of this game (both pc and ps1)?

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Archive / Re: Minor problem with FF8, probably no helping it

« on: 2006-12-19 02:37:32 »

Hmm...I did a search and came up with someone mentioning to have DMA enabled on the drive, so I will check that in the morning, though I don't think that's the case. I'm also not sure which direct x I have installed on there...Wish he'd mentioned what patch he had used >< Since that config is close to what I have.

UPDATE: for those of you who have FFVIII fully installed on your machine but are getting stuttering and pauses every new scene of music and video, I have found the solution, thanks to another thread here.

Though all my cd/dvd drives already had DMA enabled, my harddisk did NOT. I enabled it, restarted, and it worked just fine. It's lovely now and I'm going to replay what I did yesterday now that I'm happy with it.

AHHHHHHHHH i solved it!!! i was installing Samuel Slight's DLS from http://aaronserv.dyndns.org/hosting/ffsf/download_8.html , and i quote from the readme:

   5. If your disk and/or cd-rom support DMA (try this to see if it does), enable it :
       a) right-click on "My Computer" then "Properties"
       b) click on "Device Manager" tab
       c) double-click on "Disk drives" then double-click on your drive
       d) click on "Settings" tab
       e) if DMA is not checked, check it then click "OK".
       f) before closing "System Properties", repeat step b) to e) for other drives
          and cd-rom that you may have.
       g) after clicking "OK" on "System Properties" window, your computer will restart.
          If your drive support DMA, it will remain checked.
     
      Note: By doing so, FF8 will no longer hesitate after moving from scene to scene.
            And also it improves a lot your drive performance in any case.



YES!!!!! this after years of tolerating the annoying pauses from scene to scene!

EDIT again: Oi vey, I just keep finding them. I did wonder at one point if my game was going to crash every time I got in a random battle, but it was just Rinoa down in the sewers it did that on. However, my big problem is with the fmvs. It does not matter if they're on high or low-res, I get the same result. First, before I did the above that solved the pausing, my game would crash if I had them on high-res. But since I put on DMA for my HD, I thought I should try to play the fmvs.

However, the video gives major video corruption, so bad that even in the in-game text the graphics are corrupted and I can't even read it. Think of it like this: dvds are interlaced and have two fields of top and bottom. Taking that analogy and apply it to the fmvs (even though I doubt their interlaced). It's like one of the fields of video got stuck while the rest continues and the video stutters its way through, though the sound is fine.

I will try to get a screenshot for you.

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Archive / Re: Minor problem with FF8, probably no helping it

« on: 2006-12-19 00:08:20 »

Was it on software mode or hardware mode? Because if it was hardware mode without any problem with sound or video, then that means it's something wrong with my game...I don't know what though, all things considered. I didn't add in any patches, other than the official nvidia 1.02 patch, Samuel's soundfonts (which I tried with both the original that came with the game in case that was it and it still did it), and the antialiasing with RivaTuner. I can't see what might make it do that.

Landarma, if you had the problem, what did you do to fix it...?

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Archive / Re: Minor problem with FF8, probably no helping it

« on: 2006-12-18 21:40:03 »

 

That sucks. We don't use the computer enough for my Mom to consider upgrading it. I don't even know which should be updated, RAM or CPU (definitely not the video card, though...:p)

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Archive / Minor problem with FF8, probably no helping it

« on: 2006-12-18 18:09:44 »

Okay, just on the off-chance this happened to someone else, I decided to ask. Here are the specs I'm running antialiasing FF8 on this older machine.

OS: Windows 98 Special Edition 2
Video: GeForce3 TI 200
CPU: 500 Mz Pentium III
RAM: 120 MB
Sound: Sound Blaster (not audigy or live, but can't remember which else)

Lowest end of the spectrum, but it runs it. Just not...well. My ONLY problem with this (besides the fmv, but that's no surprise) is that every time I go into a new area (not including World Map that's just fine), the video and sound will stutter once or twice in any given area. It's in towns and areas, though the world map is just fine.

I tried turning off all antialiasing/touch ups, put the machine on high performance, closed down EVERYTHING running in the background, tried running the iso in Daemon Tools to speed it up, nothing changed that stutter. Even went down to low-res text and graphics, but still no. Haven't tried software mode. If it works in software mode, I might as well play it on my XP machine since the reason I play it on the old machine is for hardware acceleration in the first place. (The video card is so old it PASSED the 8-bit texture without tweaking).

Has this happened to anyone else? I expect there's no way around it, probably lack of RAM or CPU, but...in case it's not...

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Archive / Re: Serious keyboard/controller problem for FF8

« on: 2006-12-18 14:07:21 »

To play FFVIII? That's what I'm doing. I was playing it on my comp (the one that's in my room), but that's windows XP with my GeForce 7600 GS card. The one in the my mother's bedroom (the '98) has a very old GeForce TI, which should work with some fiddling. And I know the controller works because I use it perfectly on my computer. I just have to figure out what the problem is with the '98 one.

EDIT: I've got it working. Had to use the software and run the game from the profiler for my Logitech Dual Action (which in XP, I don't have to do) and it works just fine Had to map out the buttons (ergh), but at least that hurdle was crossed within the first half-hour/hour I started working on it.

Put in the geforce patch: the menu is beautiful and this game is *_*!! This was how it was meant to be played. For those that wondered, the video card is geforce ti 3 200-something. with force driver 71-something. Rivatuner on 2x2 antialiasing with antropic (or whatever) at 2x...*_*

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Archive / Re: The Great FF7 FAQ (read before posting for FF7 support!)

« on: 2006-12-18 01:39:50 »

Most people seem to have problems, but I felt that I should post and say thank you to the people who put this guide up:

FINAL FANTASY VII HAS NEVER LOOKED THIS BEAUTIFUL.

I did try making it work with the Reunion patch still in (though I was gonna take it out and put in NPC Restoration anyway), but after some abortive attempts, I started fresh off with a fresh install. (I also was one of those that had put in the XP Patch).

I put it in exactly the order listed, with the latest RivaTuner, and the antialiasing at 2x2 with supersampling and I nearly fell over my chair at the results when everything came together with the high quality patch and all...*_*

I also was a tad worried if I was going to get gridlines because I wasn't able to get the direct 3d option without checking the nvidia option and choosing tnt (when my video card is Nvidia Geforce 7600 GS, with driver 91.47), but it worked like a beauty. I have to figure out a way to take screenshots to show you all

I may get glared at from those having problems, but it's nice to hear success stories to remind you what you're working for, right? Now I wish FFVIII was as easy to get to working with direct 3d and antialiasing.

EDIT: Screenshots from Fraps (I resized them, but if they're too big, let me know)
Finishing Touch


Menu


Gongaga Town


Shiva


I have lots more that I took (all in the gongaga area, since that was where my save was). If anyone wants to see more, I'll be happy to show you

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Archive / Re: Serious keyboard/controller problem for FF8

« on: 2006-12-18 00:05:48 »

:/ I wonder if Logitech happens to have a premade, FFVIII calibration and stuff. It's a Logitech Dual Action and I really love it. I just never once needed to use their software before. With XP, I just plug it in to USB and away I go...Not so with Windows 98

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Archive / Re: Serious keyboard/controller problem for FF8

« on: 2006-12-17 23:45:19 »

I'd love to calibrate it, but I can't find in the software where to do that. I mean, obviously it's a game problem when the controller won't work and neither will the keyboard, right?  I shall work more on it tomorrow, but I'm not sure what I can do at this point.

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Archive / Serious keyboard/controller problem for FF8

« on: 2006-12-17 23:17:18 »

All right, for lack of any other solution, I wanted to play FFVIII with hardware acceleration and antialiasing, since it's beautiful. Low and behold, thanks to my mother's obsession with computers, we have one in almost every room of the house and in her bedroom, there happens to be a Windows '98 machine (rarely used) with a GeForce TI 200-something like that. From all my research, on a card that old, FFVIII should work.

I was about to give up when I got a wrong disc error, but since the dvd drives are so old, I took a chance as a last resort before image/daemon tools plan and just refreshed my computer when the cd was read. Hurdle 1: Crossed with minor scrapes and bruises in the War To Make Final Fantasy VIII Work.

The major problem that I'm encountering that I cannot get passed is FFVIII's heightened sensitivity to game controllers and keyboards. The controller won't work period even after I took pains to install the software and driver (made me miss XP's 'do it for you' real bad). The USB hubs in the back of the machine aren't 2.0, so...might be the problem. I thought, 'fine, so long as the keyboard works, I can get back to the controller'. Wrong. The keyboard won't even work. It's like it's perpetually STUCK on right or something. I can't load a save and I can sit there and watch Squall twitch his way on the screen. Amusing for the first three seconds. Annoying after half an hour. I tried using ff8play.exe and its configurator. No luck. The config for 8 originally won't even let me choose keyboard, it keeps going back to controller even if one isn't plugged in. Even thought it was the machine overboosting it and went to software mode. Still the same.

Tally of wins and losses:
Human wins: 1
Computer Error wins: 5726932

Help please? 

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FAQs and Tutorials / Re: Get the Most Out of FF8 (PC Version)

« on: 2006-12-15 17:30:09 »

Rather than start a new thread, I hope this one isn't dead and I'll ask here.

I have read the fixes to get anti-aliasing to work with a geforce, but the geforce card I have is not the one listed. I have a 7600, a card I really like. I didn't do the riva thing yet. In fact, all I did to try (before I did a lot of unnecessary work) was set my graphic card settings for anti-aliasing on it. I didn't see any different results, not like the screenshots the people posted here.

I was just wondering, before I do the riva things (I'm assuming this is a driver?), if anyone has gotten anti-aliasing on FF8 (hopefully it won't screw up ff7) to work on an nvidia geforce 7600 GS

EDIT: Okay, after system restoring my computer several times in the last few minutes, I have determined that for an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS with the Asus driver 91.47, in order for FFVIII to register your settings (regardless of Rivatuner) with antialiasing, you must have hardware instead of software mode set. However, this brings the black boxes that everyone seems to have. So, I guess for us people that have this card, unless there's a workaround which seems very unlikely considering my extensive searching, we're sorta stuck with either living with the black boxes or having no antialiasing. I like this set of drivers, so I have no interest in putting in Omega drivers or going down to a lower version, like some have suggested. Which is a real pity, since the game looks so beautiful with antialiasing.

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Archive / Re: FF8 music patch?

« on: 2006-12-14 21:26:52 »

Thank you. Okay, got the configurator to load DLS files, problem is...I have no idea if it's loading them o.o I'd really like to try this orchestral version, but I'm assuming that I can either use Samuel's or the orchestral, only one or the other?

Also, at least alt+f4 works

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Archive / Re: FF8 music patch?

« on: 2006-12-14 21:12:43 »

Without a Creative card you probably want to use a DLS instead of soundfont.

I think that there are two ways of doing this... it's "only" been something like six years since I last touched FF8 - that's why I'm not sure at all.

Anyway, the Final Fantasy VIII Configurator claims to be able to manage soundfonts (probably DLS files as well) and the .sgt files (those would be the songs themselves in MIDI format).

And if that fails, it would seem that there are instructions for manual install on the FFSF page; check the right column. The part about DLS is under the heading "Windows 2000 and other soundcards".

I suppose that Samuel's DLS might be a good one to start with. Grab the big file (smaller ones are updates) and the SGT package (it has modified songs) as well. And then... eh... install.

Good luck.

Seriously though, I hope that someone with more recent experience might explain this bit better.


PS. As for that error... no idea what that is about, sorry.

So if we don't have a creative card, we shouldn't mess with the soundfonts? Okay. I did find some "instructions" with the configurator, though that tends to give me trouble as well. However, the configurator won't load any of the DLS things.

I got Samuel's to install and all, that seems okay (My mom really liked the improved one on the FFSF page, but I have no idea how to make *that* work as I keep getting an error, even though it could be because I tried to patch the already patched Samuel's one...and it can't be the read only error since it wasn't read only).

I'm ignoring the error that I got for now, as I've got too much to do to worry about that (including a botched Christmas present for my sister). I wish I could get that orchestral version that I found on FFSF, since that is right up my alley, but since the configurator just won't load that, I don't know what to do.

On a side note, could someone PLEASE tell me how to exit FF8? >< It doesn't have a 'quit' option like ff7 does...and I do admit that I haven't actually PLAYED FF8 except once on the PC, since I'm more of a 7 girl, so I can't remember what key combination quits the game.

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Archive / Re: FF8 music patch?

« on: 2006-12-14 15:46:49 »

Sadly there is no mp3-instead-of-MIDI-patch for FFVIII - at least I'm not aware of such thing - but seeing that it was FF8 which got the whole music replacement business started, there are couple of soundfonts and DLS' for it.

Here.

They should sound better than the quite bland MIDI it comes with, anyway.

I believe that the DLS' are far more recent, and should be lot easier to get working - especially if you don't happen to have a Live or Audigy as your sound card.

I used to have an Audigy 2 card, but neither Mom and I have that anymore when we got much better sound cards after Creative f***ed us over >< When my mom tried to update her drivers, it fried her speakers physically! And she loves the livin' crap out of those Monsoon speakers.

Anyway, thank you very much. I'm still unsure, however, which to download...

EDIT: Please give me instructions as to how to install these soundfonts? There was no readme in anything that I downloaded. Also, whenever I try to use any of the configurations, I get this error "Access violation at address 773012BA in module dmime.dll. Write address of 00000056". o.o I'm running Windows XP SP-1 and I just installed FFVIII (haven't even put in any patches, not that I think I need to. I don't think it's a problem with the video card at all...)

My sound card is  CHAINTECH AV-710 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card (Love this card to death, much better than the Audigy 2 IMHO).

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Archive / FF8 music patch?

« on: 2006-12-10 03:56:28 »

Okay well...it had been a long time since I last played my FF7 PC game, but I finally decided when I did to put in the Restoration Patch and the FF7Music patch. Let me tell you, it roxored my soxes (Or however you say it to sound cool :p). I showed my mother and she thought it was just awesome and it takes a lot to impress her.

However, her favorite game is FF8, rather than 7. I thought I'd look, but I didn't see any patch for FF8, that I did for FF7 that would replace the midi music to the mp3 that, for example, comes with the OST. Is there one and I'm just missing it or is there something that prevents this? I saw a few sound extractors, but nothing like what the FF7Music patch did.