[FF7PC-98] Higher Resolution (v1.00)(Discontinued, use Aali's driver)

[ragnarok13]

"The Ur-Quan Masters" (sort-of remake of Star Control II) has five scaler options. Perhaps a demonstration is in order. I took screens and bunched them together in this .gif, with no quality loss. The scaler names are as they appear in options. The first image is just a direct x2 scale, the other four are x2 scale using scalers.

http://freeweb.siol.net/rmihor/scalers/scalers.gif

My point is: a well-chosen scaling algorithm can do miracles. For FF7, as well. The biggest change can be made here, SaiNt, since it would improve the backgrounds. Bilinear looks too blurry to me. "biadapt" and "biadv" seem like a much better choice. And "triscan" preserves sharpness better than the other.

UQM link: http://sc2.sourceforge.net
Source code is available for download, so perhaps you could check out those scalers, eh They all seem to be fast, as well.


EDIT: images seem to misbehave all of a sudden... adding a direct link to the image

[Tamakachi]

Like tha blue screen of death in the older versions of windows.....
Only.... Black
and
for Final Fantasy VII  :weep:

Does anyone have any idea why this patch seems to work on only 2% of the computers that attempt to use it? What do the working versions have that the others don't?

[dziugo]

What do the working versions have that the others don't?

Maybe nVidia graphic cards with 8-bit paletted textures disabled?

[virtual]

What do the working versions have that the others don't?

Maybe nVidia graphic cards with 8-bit paletted textures disabled?

I've got a nVidia geforce4 mx440, but it doesn't work as well. Hmm.

[Fafara]

How can I get this to work with FF7Music?

[dziugo]

I've checked it yesterday with GF3Ti but it didn't work. I downloaded rivatuner, disabled 8-bit palette textures and voila. Works like a charm. So... The point is having those 8-bit palette textures disabled, not the nVidia chipset on board.

dziugo

[Otokoshi]

ragnarok13 brings up an interesting topic about the scaler options found in "The Ur-Quan Masters."  I was just wondering what some of the pros here thought of it.  Alhexx, The SaiNt, Borde, Cyberman, L.Spiro, Reunion, ficedula, anyone?  Could this open source scaling be a possibility, or is it a flop like my "fractal interpolation" idea?  I do agree that bilinear looks too blurry.  In my opinion, biadapt or biadv would be the best choices.  The triscan screenshot just has too many jaggies for my taste.  With all the great work that has been done with updating ff7 (hi-res, reunion, npc patch, ffmusic) the backgrounds are really the only thing that looks dated in the game now.  Believe me I could live with that!  And that whole "only 2% of people can get it to work" is crap.  Seriously, everybody is not going to post that it worked just great and thank The SaiNt.  Many people will download it, install it wrong or on a pirated copy of FF7, then register on the forums and plead for help to their problem that was already resolved three pages back in the same thread.  Sorry, I just don't think it's fair to say that all of The SaiNt's hard work put into this patch has a 98% fail rate.

Oh funny story!  Not trying to make this the worlds longest, or most boring post.  But I showed off FF7 to some of my friends the other day.  These guys were the same ones playing it right with me back in '97.  They first thought I had obtained some pirated or illegal remake of the game.  They in no way thought I was playing with my original copy. I assured them it wasn't pirated and pointed them to this forum.  Now they are hunting the internet for the best deal for a pc version of their own.  I'm not suggesting these mods are in any way illegal, I just think that it speaks towards the quality of their work that it could be mistaken for a remake.  

[The SaiNt]

Does anyone have any idea why this patch seems to work on only 2% of the computers that attempt to use it? What do the working versions have that the others don't?

Well from the statistics I gather, it's more likely only 2% can't run it.

Most problems lie in the fact that the 1.02 executable doesn't work in the first place:-
1. If you're having an NVidia card, try disabling 8-bit palletted textures (Nvr was a problem for me, even if it supported it, just ticking NVidia TNT in FF7Config would work)
2. Ensure that the the videos play in media player (If they don't you'll need to get the proper codecs.
3. Enable Windows 95/98 compatibility mode.

After you're SURE that the 1.02 executable works things to make sure are:
1. Monitor supports either 1280x960 or 1280x1024

For users of foreign language versions, apparently you just need to change the filenames of some of the lgps. (Haven't tried it myself sinceI don't own any foreign language versions, but it's mentioned by someone in this thread who got it to work).

As a last resort you can post a copy of APP.LOG that FF7 writes to in debug mode.
To enable debug mode, create a new string value in the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII" key, and call it SSI_DEBUG. Enter "SHOWMETHEAPPLOG" as the value. FF7 should now output all of its hidden debug messages.

That should give you a good idea of where it crashed.

[Modem]

I can't seem to get the res patcher to work with the music.  I've tried v. 1.1.1 and v. 1.1 of the multipatch (without installing the high res patch, I do that seperately), then the newest res patch, but I just can't get them to work together.
 
I've tried:

installing multipatch with just the music (already have the riva patch from my install CD), then installing the high res patch (complains about bad filesize).

Installing the high res patch (works), then installing the multipatch with just the music (puts the new ff7.exe in there, getting rid of the new high res patched ff7.exe), music prompltly works but w/ res at 640*480.

Installing the multipatch with all options but the win2000 fix, then installing the high res patch/1280*1024 fix over it (complains about file size).

I really really don't want to have to configure some program to play MP3's in the background, I just want to use the small, original PSX music minipsf files that come with the multipatch to run with the newest res patch (with the snazzy metor fix near the end of the game).

Any ideas?  
P.S.  Excellent work on the high res patch, it's definately a great FF7 addon.

[Coheed]

The new FF7Music doesn't require a patch and can use the psfs. That would fix the 'bad filesize' or 'CRC checksum' errors you are getting. The high-res patch in the multipatcher is also outdated, and you're better off using the new one from the front page of this thread.

[Modem]

Wow, thanks for the quick response.

Okay, kept the ficedula folder, but uninstalled the multipatch (now I have the original 1.02 version).  I install the vid patch, seems to work perfectly.  The sound effects are running okay, too.  The music, however, doesn't work.  The newest  ff7music crashes just after the opening edios movie.  It knows the path of the music files, but it gives me a error when running FF7 from the ff7.exe music file:
Error setting DirectSound cooperative level; please shutdown other programs using your soundcard.  Error code: 80070057

I did a dxdiag, and did the DirectSound tests, and everything passed, no problems found anywhere.  I don't have MP3's open or anything whatsoever that may be "using" my soundcard.

[Coheed]

What output dll are you using? I believe the ds_out.dll is kind of buggy and you may be able to fix your problem using wav(e?)_out.dll or just something other than the directshow dll.

[Modem]

Where do I get it?  I can't seem to find it on my computer (the wav(e?)_out.dll, or wav_out.dll), and the ff7music doesn't seem to come with it.

EDIT:  Looked around, and in my winamp folder was out_wave.dll, which I told ff7music to use.  No more error, but no music whatsoever.  Haha.  Problem after problem, I really appreciate the help though.  

EDIT 2:  Okay, I messed up a bit.  I forgot in my giving up, I installed the multipatch just before eating, then forgot about it when I was done, which caused some problems.

NEW PROBLEM:
The music starts up fine, works great.... except... I just had to start a new game (old computer went up in smoke... litearlly), and say it starts playing the opening music (the one where Aerith is shown and the FF7 logo, train etc. etc, all music works great until it has to change songs, at which time it continues to play the old song *and* starts the new song it's supposed to switch to, both playing at the same time.  Phew, this is confusing, haha.  I'll look into the ff7music config.

EDIT 3:  Phew.  After some tweaking, finally got it working.  Besides a few things, it's working.  Thanks for the help, it's definately very appreciated.

[blaXoid]

I also had troubles getting FF7music to work with this patch. Even though the new FF7music doesnt need to modify the exe, I think it can not get a handle on the FF7window maybe? I noticed that you changed the window name to The_Saints..etc  I experimented, and before I install your patch ff7music worked fine, but afterwards

[EmperorSteele]

I also had troubles getting FF7music to work with this patch. Even though the new FF7music doesnt need to modify the exe, I think it can not get a handle on the FF7window maybe? I noticed that you changed the window name to The_Saints..etc  I experimented, and before I install your patch ff7music worked fine, but afterwards

try using 1.5a  thats the version im using, and it works fine =)

[edit] NEW bug: Snowboarding game: uhm, see for yourself o_o

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/emperorsteele/Snowboardingbug.jpg

Theres a chance that it's some odd incompatability with the new version of the minigames FPS patcher, but, well, i dunno =/

[dziugo]

You can get that effect without mgp installed. Let's just say it's not my fault this time.

dziugo

----------
Edit:

Ok, quick fix:
1. Open ff7.exe with any hex editor.
2. At offset 0x3B69FA change 0xA0 to 0xF0
3. At offset 0x3B69FB change 0x42 to 0x43

OR, wait for TheSaiNt to fix it.

[Xe_Sn@kE]

were do i get the 1.02 patch??
can't find it on the net...

[Nighthawk]

Here:

http://rpghaven.uni.cc/goldfinger/ff7/ff7102zx.zip

[Xe_Sn@kE]

thnx but the link is dead

[Aaron]

There are links to the 1.02 patch at the top of my FF7 FAQ thread, which is at the top of this forum.  You should be able to find that.

[Xe_Sn@kE]

yeah i made it!!!
innstalled 1.02 worked fine

patched whit [The_SaiNt]_High_Res_FF7PC_Patcher
 o... the graph was so ******* bad i have never have it worse

what is wrong??
i realy NEED help, i can't play like that...

[Xe_Sn@kE]

sorry forgot to sett in the screenshot:

http://img416.imageshack.us/img416/1616/110720052018344kn.jpg

[dziugo]

Looks like you chose wrong nVidia fix. Try TNT instead of Riva128.

dziugo

[Xe_Sn@kE]

now i see the problem...

i have been playing whitout the nVidia stuff, and if i sett in on nVidia. the game crach...
i have a nVidia gForce FX 5700 LE

[Coheed]

Get rivatuner and disable the 8bit palletted textures on your card. Then setup FF7 to use the nVidia fix on TNT, that should fix everything, because it sounds like what problems I've had and how I fixed 'em on a FX5200 (DX8).