Author Topic: FF7 Radeon Hardware Rendering!! (Read 11802 times)

Greendragon · « **on:** 2004-01-17 19:03:47 »

Can't take it anymore! I recently built an AMD3200+, ATi Radeon 9800 Pro power gaming system and FF7 runs only in Software rendering mode. 8-bit palleted textures fails, and ATi Radeon series Catalyst drivers DO NOT SUPPORT 8-bit textures. I've tried too many versions of Catalyst as well as Omega-modded drivers. None are effective. Which is pretty f*cked up since they support 16, 32, 64, etc. You'd think adding support for old-school sh*t wouldn't hurt'em that much. I have emailed ATi, called them, harassed the hell outta them and they cannot offer a fix or solution or even consolidation. "Sorry, but we can't please all our customers". Can't please everyone, yes I agree, but check your own forum-like support system and find that this error has been around for a while. They've chosen to ignore it. Fire the telemarketer on the other end of the line, 'cuase I'm ready to take the few hour drive and give ya's some in-person "complaints". If the store I purchased all my parts from wouldn't charge a damn 15% restocking fee as well as some "it's been used, now beg us to take it back" bullsh*t, I'd go back to nVidia in a minute! Hell, a second! I'd be on eBay grabbing a high-end FX series GeForce after this post.

Anyways, the adventure continues...

I used the bootleg XP patch to try and fix compatibility sh*t (yeah AnimeVamp needs to have his head cracked open, but too late for that now). It kind of worked, but I still couldn't push the hardware envelope. With some patience I found I can FORCE hardware rendering with the RenditionPatch (version 0.95 beta). Problem is, many textures simply fail to load and I get more white-screens then I can mentally cope with. It always seems the author of this patch abandoned it years ago, since there's been no future updates or news. The Chocobo Racing patch (version 02, release 4) adaptively applied over the Rendition one fixed many of the white-screens, but it's an overall diminishing experience when you walk around white caves, fight white bosses, and gamble in a void-like wanna-be Gold Saucer casino.

Overall, I'm just WISHING for an ATi hardware patch (for Radeons), or a method to fixing the white sh*t with the current render-forcer! The promising Canadian graphics provider has lost my faith...

Just some thoughts to anyone that may want future patches to be a little further hardware-friendly and compatibile.

I'd love any input or help someone may offer.

Peace!

Aaron · « **Reply #1 on:** 2004-01-17 19:30:22 »

Um... the FF7 1.02 patch allows you to play the game without 8-bit palleted textures support. Even though it says it was designed for nVidia cards, it usually works fine for ATI cards. ATI may include support for 8-bit palleted textures in future drivers (nVidia fixed this relatively recently), but until then, this patch is your only option...

You can get the patch from Eidos's site, or you can get it here:
http://aaronserv.dyndns.org/hosting/ffsf/patch.html

If you install the 1.02 patch and select nVidia TNT mode, it should allow you to choose hardware rendering. Does this fix anything?

Greendragon · « **Reply #2 on:** 2004-01-17 19:43:09 »

Nice and fast response, I like that in a forum. I'm downloading the FFVII 1.02 patch right now. I've removed all other patches I had installed, but cannot find "gm.dls" in any .cab files on my WinXP Pro disc. Wondering if I could get a good copy of it since the "XP patch" decided to murder my old "gm.dls".

I'll get back to you on how the patch works out.

Peace!

Greendragon · « **Reply #3 on:** 2004-01-17 20:08:09 »

Thank you very much Aaron, it worked excellently! There is only one small, minor, little, unimportant thing I must add... there is a 1-pixel wide vertical line going thru the entire screen on the Chocobo betting screen. Other than that, perfection!

Best forums I've ever been on I must add...

Peace!

Skillster/RedSarg99 · « **Reply #4 on:** 2004-01-17 20:55:17 »

blooming heck
go ahead and get a fx card they are shit anyway, i would know i got one
i HAD a radeon 9700pro and miss is dearly, now i got a fx5900 @ fx5950ultra speeds, and it stinks totally
thw line in the screen is cos of filtering is cutting short the 2d textures in that scene.
simply turn off AFiltering and FSAA turn down the quality settings

Aaron · « **Reply #5 on:** 2004-01-17 21:32:06 »

GM.DLS is stored compressed on the Windows XP disc as GM.DL_ in the i386 folder. It can be decompressed with WinZip. You might have a fun time getting it back, because of Windows auto file protection.

Sukaeto · « **Reply #6 on:** 2004-01-17 23:37:35 »

The Line in the Chocobo betting screen - I have that, too (Radeon 9600 Pro). As far as I know, there is no way around it.

To get your original GM.dls to stay, you have to first replace the GM.dls in the 'C:\%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\dllcache' directory (where, of course, %SYSTEMROOT% is whatever directory Windows is in.). Then you can go ahead and replace the one in the 'C:\%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\drivers' directory.

Greendragon · « **Reply #7 on:** 2004-01-18 02:58:50 »

Thanks, I've now got the gm.dls file firmly restored. I mentioned this in a different, off-topic post, so I'll bring it up here to let it be known. Just after meeting Cid, when I defeat Palmer and take the Tiny Bronco, the video where the plane crashes into the water doesn't run. Final Fantasy crashes just as it trys to play it. I updated fddshow to the latest version, but that didn't fix it. Any tweaks, utilities, or updates/changes I can do that might fix this problem? Every other video in the game has worked up to this point; this is the first video to crash the game. Ideas?

Peace!

Greendragon · « **Reply #8 on:** 2004-01-18 03:15:41 »

Ok, I've narrowed down the problem to "mpeg2dmx.ax" when trying to play "jairofal.mpeg". Is the video simply corrupt (since I cannot play it in windows either), or do I require something special? Codec perhaps?

I loaded my save file on my Pentium II, with an S3 Savage4, using an image of my FF7 disc 1 (which is how I've been playing on PC all along, since I'm too lazy to pop in the CDs). Using the SAME image file, I DID NOT have the video crash on a 6-year-old computer. Therefore it's got to be a driver or codec of sorts...

Hopefully that helps..?

[EDIT]

You're right Aaron, it's *.AVI. I was flipping through descriptions and error reports and mixed the two.

Aaron · « **Reply #9 on:** 2004-01-18 03:55:49 »

.mpeg? Are you sure? The file on the CD is jairofal.avi. Please make sure that the movies are AVI and not MPEG...

This is the Duck True Motion codec. It fixes video problems sometimes, but I dunno if it'll fix anything because your previous movies were working.

Likewoahman · « **Reply #10 on:** 2004-01-18 04:39:29 »

is this guy a moron ?

no one is going to help a lazy slob out, you managed a pc and cant even navigate around a forum for a quick and simple answer for one of the million more difficult ff7/ati threads ?

you did some good though, you harassed ati.

i just yesterday or so emailed their driver feedback crew and on that page it says on the bottom "

too bad, in my comments one of the last things i said was losing them as a customer

i was going to get everyone here to email them but i figured no one would do it

Caddberry · « **Reply #11 on:** 2004-01-18 20:58:07 »

Quote from: Likewoahman

is this guy a moron ?

no one is going to help a lazy slob out, you managed a pc and cant even navigate around a forum for a quick and simple answer for one of the million more difficult ff7/ati threads ?

Actually searching this form for an answer can be very difficult because of all the threads.. I wouldnt call him lazy because this is something you cant pull off of google.. Sometimes its just a TON easier to ask.. I think calling him a lazy slob was pretty rude..

Likewoahman · « **Reply #12 on:** 2004-01-19 05:36:10 »

i guess so if most people dont care

and yea it is hard trying to search, but "ati" would get him an answer, its stuff like "rivatuner 8-bit palette" that stumps me

its ok since he hounded ati

i know i sent my email in, and if there were enough willing ati users around id tell them to email ati about ff7

Greendragon · « **Reply #13 on:** 2004-01-20 02:07:52 »

Hmmm... let's address some things... I got RivaTuner FIRST, AFTER searching the threads. I also went through several patches, and utilities; before posting. Despite RivaTurner's potential, it wouldn't recognize my Radeon drivers (ANY of the Catalyst versions, as well as Omegas). That's why I asked. Anyways... moving on... I've found all my mpeg/avi's no longer work. Keep getting *.ax file errors, and multiple-combos of codecs haven't worked. I'm thinking I might have to just format and start shit fresh. If there's any other ideas before I do that, I'll hold off for a couple days

.

As for the mass-hounding of ATi, I'm all for it. Get a thread together, sign up and organize people, then let'em feel the flood!

ATi has the hardware advantage over nVidia, but they lack nVidia's care for driver updates and listening to their customers.

Oh one last thing. Radeon drivers (Catalyst OR Omega) are configured for paletted textures 16bit and higher. Unlike nVidia, they haven't yet re-config'd their .INIs for 8bit. Do some homework before you accuse and/or attack me.

Peace...

Greendragon · « **Reply #14 on:** 2004-01-20 03:21:40 »

After going through some Googling and codec-searches I have found a combo that smoothed out my *.ax problems (video playback in general).
As I mentioned here, this is what I used (in order) to fix my battle-crashing (related to other thread) and *.ax issues:

KaZaA-Lite Mega Codec Pack
Nimo Codec Pack 5 build 9

Use "Full" installs and leave the defaults (unless you REALLY need to make changes), and all should go well. To anyone else that had my problems, hope this helps you too!

Peace!

Caddberry · « **Reply #15 on:** 2004-01-20 20:33:53 »

Greendragon.. Consider this a formal welcome to the forum if you havent gotten one yet ^_^ I believe we can always use more techies around here..

Likewoahman · « **Reply #16 on:** 2004-01-21 05:53:53 »

i already made the rivatuner for ati thread also

congrats on your homework thats interesting but ff7 only uses 8bit, i dont think theres enough people that check this forum enough to email ati

finding out something useful would be good

Greendragon · « **Reply #17 on:** 2004-01-22 16:39:44 »

Heh.. thnx Cadd. Can't complain then not try to help right?

As for the ATi issue, they're in the works of yet another Catalyst update, so after that is released and Omega tweaks it, I'll give'em both a test.

I'm also doubting we'd get enough dedicated ATi users to make any mass-appeal worth while. Not to say that I'm not all for it

Sukaeto · « **Reply #18 on:** 2004-01-23 02:08:59 »

Quote from: Greendragon

Do some homework before you accuse and/or attack me.

Don't worry, dude. It was only a n00b who attacked you. Caddberry spoke best for those of us who've been here for a while: It's allways good to have new members, espeically techy ones.

Anyway, as far as codec packs go, you may also want to look at the DefilerPak. I've had better luck in the past with this than Nimo.

Greendragon · « **Reply #19 on:** 2004-01-23 18:45:37 »

Yeah Sukaeto, I've found that Nimo has been touchy in the past, but this latest pack seems to have been straightened out a bit. I installed your defiler pack... nice, compact and efficient. I'll look to it in the future.

Good to see the "true" forum members come out

PeaCe...

Caddberry · « **Reply #20 on:** 2004-01-24 01:29:55 »

Quote from: Greendragon

Yeah Sukaeto, I've found that Nimo has been touchy in the past

Touchy is a nice way to put it.. Nimo totally screwed up my computer.. LoL just dont try to install the whole thing i guess.. I seem to have a rough time in general with codec packs.. i usually pick them up as i need them.. But Nimo.. :::shudders::: never again..

Aaron · « **Reply #21 on:** 2004-01-24 01:38:40 »

Heh. After having a similar experience to Caddberry's after installing Nimo, I tend not to trust codec packs very much anymore and just install one at a time as necessary