FFVII display distortion, no matter which resolution

[Liandras]

Specifically.. Green pixels of doom.    I've googled, and googled, and googled.   I can't seem to find the source of the problem, and it isn't exactly limited to FFVII either. 

Some of the JP games I download and try get it from time to time.   

My system specs.

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 1.9gh
1gig DDR
Nvidia Geforce fx 5500. 
Windows XP w/ service pack 1 (fresh install) 

Right.. down to the nitty gritty.  I install the game, fresh install using only Directshow option  when asked about Directx stuff.   I do a Full install not partial, and run the game.   Good sound,  I can see the picture just fine.   (though I'd prefer to have it windowed)    I'm currently running Directx9c so I can remove it, or reinstall it or what not.   

At first I thought it's because I'm using a wide screen display and the distortion comes from trying to stretch the image across a 1440x900 desktop resolution.   

Changing the ingame resolution makes the graphics clearer but does nothing about the green dots. 

In previous install attempts, I tried the Winxp patch, and the version update patches to no avail.   

I've even gone so far as to consider booting into linux, installing vmware and emulating a win98 environment to try it out.   (Considered... not done.. )   

Now I'm scratching my head, and would rather not have to blow off valuable anime storage space to install an old version of windows...    Any idea's?   

I tried FF7w in hopes that what I read was true and I could force it into a windowed mode.   (it crashed >.> )   

so yeah.   

[ChaosControl]

Precious anime space?
I mean, win98 is like 200mb which equals like 1 anime episode you could download again.

I never heard of the green dots before but you can always just tryg VMware (which can be run also in windows so you dont have to go to linux...)

Hopes this helps a bit.

[Edit]
I had the black block problem in FFVIII when i had that videocard, i fixed that by installing the OMEGA drivers... try those

[zero88]

Green pixels? Or green squares? Like a grid across the screen, with each box being outlined green?

Because if it is the latter most option, then the FAQ covers this, I believe.

[Liandras]

Yeah it's green pixels kind of like "Snow"  annoying, disrupts the video.. but the game is still playable.    May be my video card finally fizzling out but I doubt it cause it still runs FFXI well enough.   

If I could take a screenshot, I would.. but I'm not quite sure how to do that yet from in game.   

[EmperorSteele]

Just hit the PRINT SCREEN (next to f12)  button, then go back into windows (eitehr alt+tab, or quite out of the game), open up a graphics program, make a NEW document (640x480), and hit "paste".

 

[zero88]

Elaborating off of Steele's post, you can just press the "Print Screen" button at any time that it's displaying this graphical problem, exit the game, open up Microsoft Paint (I find it fastest and easiest to use Paint), press CTRL+V, save the image as a .JPEG (retains plenty of quality while saving plenty of memory), go to http://www.imageshack.us (or a picture upload site of your choice), and upload it. I personally use that website because it's fast and easy to upload a file onto the Internet, obtain a link to it, and you don't have to make an account. When you reach the website, it'll ask you to browse for your file. Find it and upload it.

[EDIT]
So just post the link to the image...you don't have to post it on the forum.

[Covarr]

Dude, HTML doesn't work on these forums, at least it doesn't seem to for me.

[Jari]

Naturally.

Very few forums allow it, due to the possibility of pulling nasty tricks with it.


On the topic of green pixels; only card I've seen to do that was my Voodoo 1. Long time ago. It was broken. ...which doesn't necessarily bode well for your card. Funny thing was that you had to be running in certain video mode for it to happen.