I feel like we're seeing a lot of the same "FF7 Doesn't Work" questions over and over, so I decided it might be nice to have a big FAQ with lots of the common questions/answers.
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First point: You shouldn't install the AnimeVamp "FF7 XP Patch" / "1.04 Patch" -
here's why. The newest patch you should be using is the 1.02 patch from Eidos.
1.02 Patch:
English |
French |
German |
Spanish--------
This has been a bit of a problem lately. For those of you who actually read this, pay attention:
We only support official copies of the game.If you have the Ultima Edition (which is
not an official version of the game), or some other downloaded/cracked/pirated copy, please don't ask for help with it.
It doesn't matter if you have a broken/misplaced copy of the "real thing..." Keep back-ups of your discs or try to get a replacement from Eidos (it has been done).
If you are having problems with the game crashing or locking up and are using FF7Music, the high-res patch, the Reunion patch, the multipatch, or any other non-official patches/enhancements,
please try running the game without them before posting. Some of these are not quite bug-free.
One last note. Don't IM or PM me for support just because I wrote this FAQ. I don't have a great deal of free time and your message may lay unanswered. If you post, everyone will be able to see it and there are plenty of smart people here who may be able to help you.
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Problem: My game crashes when I try to race my Chocobos, and I'm using Windows 2000/XP/Vista.
Solution: Download and apply the
FF7 Chocobo Patch.
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Problem: Help! The game only lets me select Software Rendering, and it fails the 8-bit Paletted Textures!
Solution: Download the FF7 1.02 patch
here (or do you need the
French version,
German version, or
Spanish version?). Open FF7Config, go to the Graphics tab, check the NVIDIA box and move it to TNT mode. You should now be able to select Direct3D Hardware Accelleration, and play the game.
Alternatively, some nVidia cards "pass" 8-Bit Paletted Textures with newer drivers, which allows you to play the game without checking the NVIDIA box. However, your in-game text may be messed up. To fix this, you need to disable 8-bit Paletted Textures, or get FF7 running with FSAA (both addressed below).
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Problem: I'm having trouble getting the game to run in Direct3D mode, or I see grid-lines on the backgrounds, and I'm using a Radeon card.
Solution: Try upgrading to the latest Catalyst driver, downloading the
1.02 Patch (
French /
German /
Spanish), and checking the nVidia/TNT option in FF7Config.
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Problem: My movies play upside-down, or my movies don't play at all.
Solution: Download and install the upside-down movie patch
here. If you have ffdshow installed (it comes with some popular codec packs, including the K-Lite codec pack and the CCCP), you must disable ffdshow's "True Motion" support through the ffdshow Video Decoder Configuration.
(Side note:
Some experimenting on using ffdshow to improve FF7 movie quality.)
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Problem: When I run FF7, it just hangs at a black screen.
Solution: A movie is supposed to be playing, see question above.
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Problem: How can I get my movies to play off the hard drive?
Solution: Playing the movies off the hard drive is faster, and also can help you track down a problem with the game crashing on a corrupt movie if your CD has a scratch or something. Read EmperorSteele's document,
here.
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Problem: How do I play the game without the CD altogether?
Solution: We don't support cracking the game, but you may have some success with a virtual CD-ROM tool like
Daemon Tools.
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Problem: FF7 gives me some garbage about autoexec.nt when I try to install it.
Solution:
Read this.
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Problem: I'm using Windows XP and a SoundBlaster Live!/Audigy, and the soundfonts don't work!
Solution: You must manually load the soundfonts in AudioHQ, and select SoundFont MIDI in FF7Config (without hitting the "Test" button). You should now be able to run the game and hear the SoundFont MIDI. Note that you must have a card that supports loading soundfonts to use them, it will not work on just any sound card.
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Problem: The bike minigame is way too fast!
Solution: That's the way it is, sorry. You can try underclocking your processor, or using some third-party app to make your computer slower. It should be possible to beat the bike mini-game with enough health left to beat the boss, though (at least I did it on my 2 GHz computer).
There is a new experimental fix available.
More info here.
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Problem: I'm using an nVidia graphics card, and the text in my game appears slightly garbled, as in
this picture.
Solution: You can (1.) use the
1.02 Patch (
French /
German /
Spanish) with NVIDIA mode on and disable 8-bit Paletted Textures, or (2.) turn on FSAA. To learn how to enable FSAA in FF7 without corrupting the backgrounds, read the next question.
FF7 will crash if you are using an nVidia graphics card, the 1.02 patch with NVIDIA mode on, and drivers that support 8-bit Paletted Textures. To fix this, download and install
RivaTuner. Open the program,
click the little Triangle button in the "Driver Settings" section, and then select "DirectDraw and Direct3D Settings." Go to the Textures tab and uncheck "Enable 8-bit Palettized Textures." After restarting your computer, you should be able to run FF7 with the 1.02 patch installed and NVIDIA/TNT mode enabled, and have regular-looking text. You may need to turn 8-bit palettized textures back on if you see graphics corruption in other games.
Thanks to The Skillster for this information.
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Problem: How do I get FSAA to work without making gridlines in the backgrounds?
Solution: There is no known way to do this with ATI graphics cards, at present. If you use an nVidia graphics card that supports FSAA, read on...
Download RivaTuner
here. After installing it, go to the folder where it is installed and open the RivaTuner.cfg file with Notepad. At the very bottom, there should be a [ForceWareFSAAModes] section. Delete that entire section and replace it with this one:
[ForceWareFSAAModes]
FSAAMode01=2 x 1
Required01=170h,18Fh,200h,
FSAAMode02=1 x 2
Required02=170h,18Fh,200h,
FSAAMode05=2 x 2
FSAAMode06=ff06
FSAAMode0C=ff0c
FSAAMode0D=ff0d
FSAAMode0E=2x
FSAAMode0F=Quincunx
Required0F=170h,18Fh,200h,
FSAAMode10=4x
FSAAMode12=4x 9-tap
Required12=170h,18Fh,200h,
FSAAMode13=4xS
Required13=170h,18Fh,200h,
FSAAMode17=6x
Required17=200h,
FSAAMode19=8x
Required19=200h,
FSAAMode1A=16x
Required1A=308h,30Fh,338h,33Fh
Now, run RivaTuner.
Click the little Triangle button in the "Driver Settings" section, and then select "DirectDraw and Direct3D Settings." Go to the Antialiasing tab, and where it says "Antialiasing method," choose 2 x 2. Now, when you run FF7, it should run with FSAA and no graphics corruption.
Note that for GeForce 3/4 cards, the new "Forceware" drivers seem to work great, while for GeForce FX cards, you may get some graphical glitches unless you use some older drivers (i.e., 45.32).
Thanks to halohalo for this information.
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That being said, if you are going to ask a question, please post with it your system specs, FF7 install type (standard or maximum), any patches you are using, and keep in mind that we do not support pirated/cracked copies of FF7 on these forums.
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If you people have more Q/A's that could go in here, or want to elaborate on / reword / correct something I have already said, post it and I will incorporate it into the original post.