Messages

1

Troubleshooting / Re: Aali's driver [v 0.7.10b] Help/Bugs/Suggestions

« on: 2011-02-21 21:29:31 »

Maybe it would be very unwise to speculate about their purpose, creating alot of confusion and misinformation in the process.
Some of them do nothing, most of them are of absolutely no use to anyone but me and the rest should only be modified if you have a very good reason to. I can almost guarantee that you (yes, you) will not find anything useful.

Of course, but it's up to each people to use or not these options, and we all know that a warning has been writen so that each people know to not mess with that.

If people are posting here because they didn't read the readme and hence didn't know how to install it, how likely do you think it is that they'll follow disclaimers?
It's also "up to each people" to read the documentation, and you can see how well that has worked.

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Troubleshooting / Re: Aali's driver [v 0.7.9b] Help/Bugs/Suggestions

« on: 2011-01-22 01:27:04 »

When it is ready.

Thanks for the smart ass comment.

The fact is that software development is non-linear: you can add as many sweet features as you want, but if there are *any* significant bugs, the whole program generally comes crashing down. Hence, estimating when *any* software project will be complete is very difficult. Just look at Valve's historical release schedule and you'll find this comment is more used than you'd think.

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Troubleshooting / Re: Aali's driver [v 0.7.8b] Help/Bugs/Suggestions

« on: 2010-07-29 04:07:44 »

I bought a copy of FF8 for the PC, and I've enjoyed being able to set my resolution (been meaning to try another Final Fantasy besides VII as well).
I had a random crash when I was fighting Fake President Whatshisname. It happened in the middle of the battle, which was wierd, and it worked the second time, so I don't have an APP.LOG to post (sorry), but I'll get the crash.dmp up in a minute.
Here it is: http://rapidshare.com/files/409716957/crash.zip

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Troubleshooting / Re: Aali's driver [v 0.7.8b] Help/Bugs/Suggestions

« on: 2010-06-26 00:44:00 »

You said it yourself. You can't speak for FF8.

And you misinterpreted it. I don't own FF8. I should have made that clear.

It might help tremendously in FF7, but it seems to break things, more or less, in FF8. Also, you are sorely mistaken about replacing the API, it is already present.

Yes, Square wrote in an API, but Aali discovered that API and wrote a driver that fills it completely, and he's added features that aren't really based on that API as well. I don't think you really understand what the term API means here. All it means is that Square set up a way for the game to communicate with a graphics driver. That communications method was undocumented and only used by the built-in default renderer, so I consider finding it and writing a driver that uses it successfully to be an achievement. Do you see any other replacement drivers around? Aali has put a lot of work into writing something that has pretty much revived FF7. As I said before, I don't own FF8.

5

Troubleshooting / Re: Aali's driver [v 0.7.8b] Help/Bugs/Suggestions

« on: 2010-06-26 00:33:59 »

I can't speak for FF8, but in FF7, the default driver didn't allow the resolution to be raised beyond 640x480. TheSaint made a patch that gave you two more resolution options, but it was fairly glitchy (on my machine, random objects would randomly be turned yellow until the entire screen was yellow). It was also fairly slow (although that was just because of FF7's outdated rendering methods, not the patch).
The OpenGL driver makes the lives of modders easier, allows for simpler content replacement, and adds a whole host of configuration options and expandability that were never present in any way in the original driver.
As I said, this is in FF7.

The short answer is that this is a one man volunteer project on games that are more than 10 years old. There will be glitches, and while the goal is to improve the experience, if you don't think it will help, just don't use it. The fact that Aali has managed to replace the entire rendering system is an achievement in itself, and the driver has been improving for quite some time now.

6

Troubleshooting / Re: Aali's driver [v 0.7.8b] Help/Bugs/Suggestions

« on: 2010-06-24 01:35:25 »

No I did not "improve the GUIs transparency", most likely you just didn't update the vertex shader.

Those messages are there for a reason, you will not see any of them with original data or wellbehaving mods. (Unless something really goes wrong)
There is a way to turn them off since 0.7.8b because after all it was not in the original game and so should be optional. The option is called disable_popup, turn it on and you will never see them again. I beg all of you modders out there to leave it off however so these issues will not continue to go unnoticed and end up in even more released mods.

Thank you very much for the info, it's great to be able to disable those messages. I'm no model-creator, and it got tiring to see those messages appear when battles / field files were loaded.

Before you disable them, have you bothered the creators of any models you use about them? Those errors aren't there just to irritate you, they're there to make the mod-makers not publish incomplete or broken mods. I personally think that we'd all be happier in the long run if you couldn't turn them off.
Kill the messages if you must, but bother the mod-makers of any mods you have installed about the errors first.

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

« on: 2010-06-23 20:07:09 »

There's a new version out, see http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=10191

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Troubleshooting / Aali's driver [v 0.7.8b] Help/Bugs/Suggestions

« on: 2010-06-20 17:19:54 »

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.8b.zip

Installation
1. Extract the archive into your ff7 or ff8 folder
FF7:
2a. Run the modified FF7Config, pick custom driver in the list of renderers, you should get confirmation that the driver is working.
3a. Change your settings in ff7_opengl.cfg
FF8:
2b. Make sure EAX is properly installed (run EAXUnified.exe to install it if unsure)
3b. Change your settings in ff8_opengl.cfg
4. Play!

Changelog

• 9999 limit break patch is now incorporated as a config option. Functionality should be mostly the same as the original YAMP patch by dziugo, also the GUI changes necessary are applied by this option.
• MDef patch is also a config option, this one is not based on the YAMP patch but the end result is exactly the same.
• Added support for subtractive (mode 2) and 25% incoming color (mode 3) blending and fixed the field files who were supposed to use them. Mode 3 is noticeable already in the first reactor, those code panels were not supposed to be that bright A very noticeable example of subtractive blending is the cat-and-mouse game in the temple of the ancients, where there used to be a mysterious white light in the caves there is now darkness as in the PSX version.
• Popup error/glitch messages could fade away before you had a chance to see them, that is no longer the case.
• Corrected filenames used to load field textures from the modpath.
• Missing external textures can no longer crash the game.
• Every texture is checked against max texture size/NPOT texture support to produce more helpful error messages.
• Added a big warning message for when Windows reverts to using the software OpenGL renderer.
• FF8 will now display a glitch message and a blank screen during moves if you are missing NPOT texture support instead of just making the screen completely white.
• Where possible, removed the gray line that could show up during movies.
• Fixed a problem with modpath not respecting LGP subdirectories.
• Fixed a problem that could crash the game if a file could not be found inside an LGP archive.
• Fixed a problem that would crash the game if a normal file could not be found.
• Fixed the "wind.wav" (and any other .wav file) crash.
• Fixed the wave "music" (usually background noise) that was missing if you were using a music plugin.
• Removed the wine version of the ff7music plugin, it is no longer necessary as of wine version 1.1.35
• Fixed a problem that could crash the game if a missing or broken battle .hrc file was loaded.
• Window title is now "Final Fantasy VII" instead of "DEFAULT" in window mode.
• Movies too big to fit into a texture are now skipped with an error message instead of producing a bunch of OpenGL errors.
• Fixed the new battle interface glitch where battle models could overlap the GUI.

If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from app.log and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and app.log (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)

That's a lot of fixes!
Thanks, Aali, I'll be trying this out shortly.

9

Troubleshooting / Re: Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8

« on: 2010-05-25 13:44:47 »

The crash only seems to occur with random battles, so if you really want to, you can have a clean install and an overhauled install, and just switch to the clean one to get past a battle that causes the overhauled one to crash. Or you can try downgrading the driver. Or you can just stick to the current version of the driver on a clean install.

10

Troubleshooting / Re: Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8

« on: 2010-05-25 03:20:51 »

hmm... well, first, thanks for being very formal and including everything needed, now, i am not the best at figuring out errors, and this one has me stumped, however, i don't think i've ever before seen this error, or at least no one else has posted it, did you try reinstalling (you can copy your save file to somewhere else so you can reaply it)

There have been at least three unhandled exceptions when entering a battle that have been posted within the last five pages, and reinstalling doesn't seem to fix the problem. With any luck, Aali will be able to debug this and find out what's going wrong. Until then, try downgrading the driver version. It may also be connected somehow to the graphical overhaul, so you might try using the same savegame in a clean install of 1.2. Just get past the battle and you'll probably be fine, until you hit another random battle that causes an unhandled exception.
And Jaitsu... I appreciate your attempt to help, but you really didn't convey anything useful.

11

Troubleshooting / Re: Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8

« on: 2010-05-19 03:42:19 »

Try running your game in XP compatibility mode, that may resolve it. You're sure that it's the original 1.02 English EXE with no other mods applied? The driver is generally tolerant of things like YAMP, but I'm not sure how Aali's checking the file, so I'm not sure what will set it off. You're also sure that cdcheck.exe is original as well?

12

Troubleshooting / Re: Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8

« on: 2010-05-10 02:27:13 »

Firstly, does anyone remember back in the day when I suggested that this driver get its own subforum due to its popularity and the confusion of supporting it? Well, this is now the longest thread in the forums. Just wanted to point that out.

Anyway, I have the same issue with 0.7.7b that Shoe had a few pages back, which is that the game seems to crash when entering a random battle just after the battle swirl. End of APP.LOG looks like this:

Code: [Select]

reading midi file: BAT.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 399
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
ERROR: unhandled exception
The installation is just FF7 + Remix Patch + Aali's Driver 0.7.7b

APP.LOG and crash.dmp are in a zip at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YWA1XZ6O

EDIT:
It should be noted that the save file for that game was made before I installed the Remix Patch. I know that shouldn't make a difference, but when I start a new game with my patched FF7, everything seems to work correctly. It's probably not related, but I thought it was worthy of note.

13

Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2010-03-10 05:03:48 »

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8758.0  Keep one .exe patched and one not patched.  That's how you can toggle it.

Oh, yeah, I'm doing just that, but since it's such a nice feature and there's a public for it... why not add it if Aali finds time and maybe has the will to do it? Right? Plus, being a quick-toggle would fix the problems with the areas that mod doesn't work.

Just curious, where have you found that it doesn't work? 

EDIT

Why hasn't this thread been stickied yet?

That my god sir, is a very good question...

Well, this is the longest thread in the forums at this point, and I still think it almost deserves its own forum. This is probably the most successful FF7 mod on these forums, if only because Aali is providing an essentially complete mod.

14

Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2010-03-08 20:56:40 »

@Aali, Can you make another version of your driver that support No-Cd patches? I have an origanal cd's but recently i play on my netbook (Asus eeePC WITHOUT CD Drive).


//Sorry I don't speak english ggod

If you have the original disks, just use something like Daemon Tools Lite or Alcohol 52%. You make images of your FF7 disks and use those images in a virtual CD drive.
I doubt Aali will make his driver work nicely with other patches. It's just effort with little gain.

15

Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2010-02-04 20:46:58 »

Also I'm having crashes every time i try to play through the opening bomb mission with the 'oops something went terribly wrong' message. I can get past the elevator but not as far as arming the bomb.

Is a crash.dmp created? If you can post up crash.dmp and app.log somewhere in a zip file, there's a decent chance that Aali will tell you what's wrong.

16

Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2010-01-01 01:35:02 »

Good job on the custom driver Aali, works like a charm! Would be nice if you could add a feature to boost the overall FPS of the game a little though.

He already added one, you just have to buy a better video card or a new computer for it to work.
Seriously, that's something that just can't be done here. You want better FPS? Lower the resolution, turn off shaders, or get a better computer. This isn't a graphically demanding application.

Now, rage aside, this just isn't something that's technically feasible or a priority. You can't just "speed it up" under normal circumstances. Aali might find some sort of optimization that would make the game faster, but that's not likely to happen, nor is it a priority. On ordinary hardware, this game runs with no performance issues, and the custom driver already makes it faster.

17

FF7 Tools / lgp/unlgp - command line tools for LGP archives

« on: 2009-12-14 00:54:54 »

any updates on creating a GUI for this utility?  I know it was discussed earlier but i haven't heard anything since.

lee

If there's still interest, I could look into it after this week.

LeeHiOoO was working on one in VB, but that seems to have stalled.

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Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2009-12-13 23:07:59 »

Hello, I'm back after falling off the face of the Earth for a while.
Just wanted to point out that, as far as I can tell, this is now the longest thread on these forums.

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Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2009-11-15 17:26:29 »

Sure, but it's getting late here. I'll install and then post back. I however had no idea on how to provide the crash.dmp as it's so long. Do I upload the file (as I never had)?

It looks like the best way is probably to put APP.LOG and crash.dmp into a zip file and upload that to RapidShare or a similar site, then post the link here. It'd be handy if the forum allowed attachments, but that would probably wind up killing the server if it was enabled.

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Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2009-11-15 16:32:47 »

Thanks for letting us know, but it would be a lot more helpful if you provide more information.
Was a crash.dmp generated? App.log?
What other mods are installed?
What was the error that appeared?

Any information you can provide will help this bug get fixed. Saying that something broke between the old version and the new version doesn't really help.

21

Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2009-09-23 22:19:00 »

No, you can set the resolution to whatever you want as long as your video card and monitor can handle it, and you can run fullscreen if you want as well.

I have you set fullscreen to false in the guide so it's very obvious if the driver doesn't load. Once you've got it loading, feel free to change whatever you like.

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Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2009-09-23 03:43:38 »

sorry for not posting my problems, but the app log file shows no abnormalities, and i don't know if there is a separate app log file for the drivers, (i don't think there is.) so unless any one knows of a way to list my errors, all i can say is that ff7 runs fine, but the driver didn't do anything. i'm running vista sp1

Do you have an APP.LOG, and if so, is there a mention of OpenGL in the first 10 lines? If so, the driver loaded successfully and you can change settings in ff7_opengl.cfg. Otherwise, here's the giant instruction list of doom:

Make sure your graphics drivers are updated to the latest version.
Make sure you have the 1.02 patch from Eidos (other mods/patches will probably be okay, but if the driver doesn't work, try replacing ff7.exe with the original 1.02 version)
Open FF7Config.exe and make sure MIDI is all good.
Install the graphics driver by unzipping the latest release to the folder that contains FF7.exe.
Run the correct reg file to put the driver into the registry. (under Vista, type regedit into the search box in the start menu, run it as administrator, and import the correct reg file from the "file" menu)
Edit ff7_opengl.cfg and set fullscreen to false and resolution to 800x600.
Run the game and report back whether it works or not

If your game launches in a window, you're all set. You can change settings in ff7_opengl.cfg to whatever you want; just use a text editor like notepad and read the comments so you know what the options do.
Once the driver is installed, don't open FF7Config.exe again unless you reimport the correct reg file afterward.

23

Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2009-09-19 15:08:48 »

gimme openGL download link please

If you have a computer with a graphics card, you already have OpenGL. If may be the crappy Windows software OpenGL driver, but you have one. Even if you somehow managed to break the laws of the universe and not have OpenGL installed, you wouldn't be seeing the results you're getting. The driver would load and then fail to initialize.


Your APP.LOG shows that the OpenGL driver isn't being loaded at all. Firstly, everything should have been extracted into the same folder as ff7.exe, and secondly, which registry file did you run?
You need to unzip the driver's files, run the correct reg file to patch your registry settings, then DON'T EVER RUN FF7Config.exe AGAIN. If you run that, it will reset the registry settings, and you will have to rerun the reg file to fix them.
Oh, and one thing that will make it obvious as to whether the driver is loading: change fullscreen to false in your opengl_ff7.cfg. If you run the game and it pops up in a window instead of fullscreen, your driver is working.

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Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2009-09-13 23:30:49 »

You need to put windo size x to 1280 window size y to 1024 and turn full screen bak on then install the driver. After you install if do not touch the config cause it will uninstall the driver just start up the game it should work fine.

Okay, you don't seem to be clear on the concept here.
The OpenGL Driver users a config file (ff7_opengl.cfg, if I remember right). You can touch this all you want before and after the driver is installed, and it will safely change the driver's settings. You might break things, but you won't uninstall the driver.

The original game uses FF7Config.exe for configuration settings. Running this will uninstall the driver, and you'll have to run the registry changes again.

So touching "the config" won't kill the driver. At all.

25

Troubleshooting / Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

« on: 2009-09-09 22:34:20 »

omnivorism.. will you use edit instead of "triple-post"?

hey Aali! got question here... i'm using your ff7 opengl... but why it doesn't change anything? everything are looks the same

The driver itself doesn't change anything, it just makes FF7 use OpenGL output instead of DirectX, and in doing so it makes FF7 work in a lot of places where it didn't, and it makes life easier when adding custom models and backgrounds.
Plus you can crank the game's resolution up to insane levels, run it in a window, and in general configure it in ways that were impossible before.

The simplest way to make sure the driver is loading correctly is to set fullscreen to false in your config and make sure the game starts in a window. You can also look in APP.LOG and make sure OpenGL is mentioned in the first 10 lines or so.