FF7 help!... compatibility issues?

[cheerchick]

Somebody help me please,
Right now I'm on win98 with a Rage LT Pro AGP 2X, ES1869 Plug and Play Audio Drive, and Direct X 5 installed.  FF7 keeps on crashing after the FMV sequences of giving Seph. the black materia on the second disk.  I've tried everything mentioned at Eidos.com but they said I had compatibility issues w/my drivers and direct X 5... can anyone tell me what I need to do/upgrade???
Thx

[Sephiroth 3D]

Have you tried updating your drivers? That sometimes works. I also seem to remember some Rage compatability issues with FF7...

At the very least, try updating your video drivers and DirectX.

[Giffen1]

downloading the latest version of directx might help if any...

the latest is directx v 8.1 or sumfin not really quite sure...i'm an airhead when it comes to technical stuff. :z

[Jedimark]

8.1! Bah... 'tis old! Direct x 9 is out!

[cheerchick]

thanks all, I'll give it a shot

[Nori]

That reminds me something good,  
http://forums.qhimm.com/viewtopic.php?t=1036&highlight=

My suggestion:
rpro_540-1b02k (upgrade your ATI driver)
DirectX 8.1 will solve the most of compatibility issues

By the way, how fast is your system? If it is below the 333MHZ
I will suggest you to use DirectX 7.0a...

[Giffen1]

8.1! Bah... 'tis old! Direct x 9 is out!

cool. gotta update then. thanks for the info

[Jedimark]

Good luck....

[cheerchick]

ack!  It didn't work, I tried updating my display driver and to Direct X 8 but now I have funny little grid lines on the screen and the movies won't even play... hmm.  I hate technology.

[cheerchick]

hey, does anyone know where I can download every FMV sequence for FF7?  I think some of the video files might be corrupted from the CD and that could be my problem b/c disc 1 worked just fine.

[Threesixty]

I don't recall you being on the FF7 forum at Eidos....

I wish I'd seen this earlier...but I believe you shouldn't have updated DirectX, FF7 only likes working with older video drivers with the Rage card, and I don't think those older version drivers play well with the newer DirectX versions.

Right now I would suggest using the upsidedown patch, and playing in software mode.

If I'd seen this earlier, I would have suggested playing with Directsound in Basic Acceleration mode. It's what worked for me....

[cheerchick]

Threesixty,
I'm going to format my comp anyway and go back to my original drivers and direct X 5... how do I set it to direct sound and basic acceleration mode?

[Sephiroth 3D]

A few times, those grid-lines show up because of anti-aliasing. Turning it off sometimes works.

[cheerchick]

yay! I fixed it    it was the movie files.. my cd must be scratched.  But now does anyone have movie files from disc two that they could send me or know of a link where I could download them from???
thx

[Aaron]

I run an FTP server on my computer, and I can leave my FF7 Disc 2 in the drive if you want to download the movies off it.  Send me a Private Message if you want more info.

[Threesixty]

Just for your information:
To set Sound Acceleration, type dxdiag in the Run under the Start button, and go to the Sound tab.

[cheerchick]

thanks

[Goku7]

I've been thinkin' (yes, I know, its scary. ).....

Perhaps when you update DirectX to 8, 8.1 or 9, it screws around with the DirectShow files that FF7 uses.  I've noticed problems with DX8.1 and FF7 recently (before I upgraded to DX9 at least, haven't tried FF7 with it...)

So, perhaps Re-installing the DirectShow drivers off the Install CD could help?

[Jedimark]

I run Direct X 9 and experience no problems running FF7. But then again.... Direct X has this unique ability of screwing peoples computers up. It's a bit tempremental!