Possible solution for FFVII, gridlines and ATI cards (confirmation please?)

[ketsui]

Hi everyone, 

I've been coming here for the last few weeks ever since I dusted off my copy of FF VII and wanted to play it again on my newer PC. I noticed the grid lines when I played it again on this computer and found that other people had it too with nobody having any answers...

Well, I fiddled with my settings and somehow got it to work on 640x480 fullscreen without the gridlines. I was wondering if others could try it and see if it works...

Here goes with my settings:

FF VII 1.02 official patch (no other patches applied)
   -640x400 fullscreen
   -NVIDIA checked, TNT picked
   -exe file with only "Windows 98/ME" option picked in the Compatibility tab

ATI Catalyst Control Center used
   -Anti-aliasing: Let the application decide
   -Anisotropic Filtering: Let the application decide
   -Catalyst A.I. disabled
   -Vsync: Off, unless application specifies
   -Mipmap Detail level at High Performance
   -Adaptive Anti-aliasing greyed out since my card can't use it
   -All Direct3D API Specific settings unchecked (OpenGL settings both checked if that matters)

Computer configuration
   -AMD Athlon XP 3000+
   -Windows XP Home Edition with SP2 fully updated as of May 17th, 2006
   -1 GB of DDR 400 RAM
   -ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9800 Pro with 128MB (Catalyst 6.4 with Control Center)
   -Creative Soundblaster Live! 24-bit

I just want to see if my settings are different from anyone elses and maybe that I could help at least one person here with this problem. Please, anyone here with an ATI card that could test this out and confirm please? Thanks 

[dziugo]

I've got an ATI card, but I use Omega drivers - never had any problems with gridlines not wanting to disappear. I think that I have Catalyst with CCC at home (not my PC, something may have changed ), so I can check it when I'll be there.

dziugo

[Zack]

You're using similar settings to me. Grid lines with ATI cards aren't a problem as long as you choose TNT mode. They only occur if you use riva mode or manually force Anti-aliasing.

I think that Saint's High-res patch may elliminate grid lines altogether.

[ketsui]

Thanks for that tip Zack. I may just try the hi-res patch when i get home. I also wanted to to do this since NVIDIA users have a way to turn off AA for getting rid the grids but ATI users don't really have one.

I'm also trying to find out which particular setting in CCC might be triggering the grid lines. I'm not sure yet but, I think Catalyst A.I. may be forcing AA on and disabling it may have the same effect as turning it off. That's also the reason why I haven't tried all the interesting patches out there that I see.

I'm no graphics card expert but, I figure maybe I could find some answer so that maybe the grid lines won't be an issue for any user, whether they got an ATI or a NVIDIA. 

[ketsui]

Well, I decided to fiddle some more with the settings with FF VII, CCC and the Compatibility Tab. I wanted to see how many settings I could enable without grid lines showing up at all. I did these settings one at a time to check...

List of changes I made without grid lines:

CCC
   -didn't enable AA because we all know it makes grid lines
   -AF on to 16x
   -Catalyst A.I. up to Advanced
   -Mipmap Detail up to High Quality
   -API Specific
      -Enable geometry instancing ON
      -Support DXT texture formats
      -Alternative pixel center off (I'll explain after)

FF VII .exe
   -applied the Chocobo patch and the Upside-down movie patch from ff7-universe
   -Turned off all compatibilty (apperently with win98 compatibility, the ff7.exe would have to be shut down from Task Manager for me to start it again)

Alternative pixel center was actually causing grid lines on my computer from what I could see. I tried with different API Specific settings on and off and different CCC 3D settings on and off. I also tried with Riva128 instead of TNT in the FF7Config.exe program. So, from what I can see, Alternative Pixel Center MAY be the cause of AA staying on. I'd ask if people can test if they can.

[voodoo47]

alternate pixel center+FSAA= no problems for me.our systems are almost identical..