Final Fantasy 7 PC - Best Solution?

[diamondblade]

Hi FF Freaks

I just sorted out my old games and found FF7 among those. Now, some years after playing it first time, I want to play it through again (its final fantasy, u know ^^). But with my all new PC there are some problems.

My System:

AMD XP 1800+
Geforce 3 Ti 200

I read some threads about those problems but theres no thread containing all the stuff and/or giving a small guide how to configure and play it best with new PCs.

First off, I patched it with the FF7 Riva TNT patch (german version, if that matters). Then I wanted to turn on the Nvidia box and play it in direct 3d. But after getting black, the screen exits right back to windows. That happens with both, Riva 128 and Riva TNT. Is there a way to play with the Nvidia box or isnt it required? Should I preferably use the following 3d option?

Then I tried deselecting the Nvidia box but selecting the Direct 3d Device from the Drop Down Menu. Though it works, the fonts in the menu are really ugly. I tried some things in my Detonator Driver settings but nothing worked. Does anyone know how to solve this?

Last but not least, software mode. Works just fine (could expect that from an 1800+) and the Menu font looks very clean. I dont know if the framerate stays this good in software mode, even on my 1800+, just think about Knights of the Round summon or the world map. (I remember well, that FF8 was horrible in software mode, even on my good PC)

Well, I could just go with software mode. But I really wanted to know, if there is a way to play FF7 in 3d mode, and which is best/works best. So if anyone could help me I would really appreciate it.

(Sorry if my english isnt so good, im german and only 16 old, so forgive me ^^)

[Aaron]

World map runs near-perfect on my 400 mhz laptop in software :-p

Can't say that much about the summons.

[Threesixty]

It all depends on the Nvidia drivers.  6.50's work well with FF7 and FF8, no special modifications need to be done, except for installing the TNT patch.

For the newer drivers, you need to disable the 8bit pallet for the driver. To verify that it's disabled, the pass/fail test of FF7config should say, "FAIL". If it says PASS. Either the game is going to crash with the TNT FF7.exe, or the game is going to have bad backgrounds, with the original FF7.exe.

Only one program that I know of allows disabling of the 8bit pallet, and that's "Rivatuner".

The programmer of that program updates it just about everytime a new driver comes out. Only problem is that his site is in Russian. It can be found at: http://www.guru3d.com/download/
but it'll be updated first at
http://www.nvworld.ru/

Looks like it doesn't support the newest 29.42's, but I'm sure it will, if ver. RC10.3 is "ever" released.

But then maybe Nvidia fixed the 8bit pallet in their drivers? If that's the case, then using the original FF7.exe, with the FF7config from the patch (so you can see the Hardware Acceleration option), should allow the game to work without ugly backgrounds. I haven't tested the newest drivers in this fashion. It's too much of a pain, and I don't have the itch.

[ffgriever]

Well, for me the best solution is 12.41 detonators, TNT patch installed, NVIDIA box not selected, DIRECT 3D mode.... It works perfect (well almost... sometimes when I run ff7 for the first time after windows restarting the text seems to be a bit odd, but alt+f4 and running the game once again helps). Oh, and I don't have to disable 8-bit palettes (ff7 config says PASS). Why it is so great? Well it gets rid of some bugs (if you run 6.50 det, nvidia enabled you will have some problems with the transparency and background - the mist in temple of the ancients, the lights in gold saucer when cait sith escapes with the key, etc - it's not so much of problem but...). First reply after a looooong breake...

[KojiroTakenashi]

29.80 beta drivers. 3D Chipset.com. Use the nvidia patches, also note the new speedup it will deliver you and the ability to run alot of things with good FSAA. I've got a Geforce 2 and I'm running 4X on my FF games

[ffgriever]

I don't know why but almost every new drivers (29.x) don't work on my comp (29.80 doesn't). All i get are blue screens and blue screen until I reinstall the older one. (duron 950, geforce2mx400). (29.41 works)

[Aaron]

*Any driver* gives blue screens on my system.  I finally figured out that to get rid of the blue screens, I have to go to the nVidia NVIEW Desktop Manager control panel and disable nView.

This is Windows XP, but I think it could also affect Windows 2000.  Possibly 9x.

Maybe that'll help you?

[ffgriever]

Well, it helped. Instead of blue screens I'm getting now black screen with orange text saying that it is now safe to turn my computer off.   (what is funny, I have atx mb and it doesn't turn off automatically after that). I think I'll stay with the older ones   . Damn, I bet it's my mainboard fault. F**king sis chips, hate, hate and hate them again... Got to change it for something else. (Well, I got it as a gift so I'm not that mad, at least I didn't lost my money on that crap)...

[KojiroTakenashi]

Hmm, any word on how these "Omega" drivers work for FF7? Supposedly they're for quality, not speed, and they do thier job. I'm wondering how they would look on FF7, since it doesn't take a whole lotta power, so you can focus on quality more...

[Threesixty]

Are you using the self install thing?

On my PC I find that the self install doesn't work, at all. It stays in the default VGA mode, if I go that route.

Here's the sequence I use, now.

I use Winzip and open the self-extracting file, and unzip it into a new directory.

I uninstall with the Add/Remove programs.
Then I use Detonator Destroyer.
Then reboot.

Plug and Play tries to reload an old Geforce driver. I cancel. It goes into VGA mode. I then go to Control Panel, System, Device Manager. And go into the Video card settings and reload the driver from there.

[diamondblade]

First off, I got to work FF7 in the nvidia 3d mode by disabling the 8bit paletized textures with nvidia tuner. I think its the only solution for running in in 3d mode properly, 'cause theres no solution to the text problem in the normal 3d mode, isn't there?

But sadly I can't choose anti-aliasing. I already read the thread about the xp patch. Did anybody already test it? And yes, technical infos where really useful because I don't trust those unofficial patches that much...

[h2opoloplyr_11]

hi there!!! Yes i use the 12.41 drivers and it worked like a charm but now since i have a geforce4 mx420 with the new drivers.... now im totally screwed!!! FF7 and FF8 have the graphical glitches again (ff7 has the corrupt graphics... and ff8 has the messed up color.) can anyone help me with the geforce4 problem. thankx