I've created a launcher application called "Final Fantasy VIII Launcher" which adds support for custom resolutions and a fix for the texture transparency issues (black boxes) from lack of 8-bit paletted textures support in NVIDIA GeForce 6xxx+ graphics cards.
The launcher works by injecting a DLL into an FF8.exe process. The DLL hooks the DirectX COM interface of the
running process and is hence able to freely manipulate any and all DirectDraw/Direct3D calls being
made by the Game.
Supported Custom Resolutions (version 1.3):640x480 (16-bpp FS 4:3) [Original Resolution]
800x600 (16-bpp FS 4:3)
1024x768 (16-bpp FS 4:3)
1152x864 (16-bpp FS 4:3)
1280x720 (16-bpp WS 16:9)
1280x768 (16-bpp WS 1.67:1)
1280x800 (16-bpp WS 16:10)
1280x960 (16-bpp FS 4:3) [x2]
1280x1024 (16-bpp FS 5:4) [x2]
1360x768 (16-bpp WS 16:9)
1366x768 (16-bpp WS 16:9)
1440x900 (16-bpp WS 16:10)
1600x900 (16-bpp WS 16:9)
1600x1200 (16-bpp FS 4:3)
1680x1050 (16-bpp WS 16:10)
1920x1080 (16-bpp WS 16:9)
1920x1200 (16-bpp WS 16:10)
1920x1440 (16-bpp FS 4:3) [x3]
2048x1536 (16-bpp FS 4:3)
2560x1600 (16-bpp WS 16:10)
2560x1920 (16-bpp FS 4:3) [x4]
Additionally the launcher fix texture edge corruption when forcing FSAA and Anisotopic Filtering settings through the NVIDIA Control Panel. Settings as high as 16xQ FSAA and 16x Anisotopic Filtering are supported without any visible corruption.What's new in version 1.31:- New option "Stretch 4:3 Aspect Ratio" stretches the picture to the full screen width and height without maintaining original 4:3 picture aspect ratio. OPTION ONLY APPLIES TO NON-4:3 RESOLUTIONS.
- Added 1366x768 custom resolution.
- Fixed UV-map Compensation bug that made it impossible to remove all line-artifacts in background textures (very noticeable in wide-screen resolutions.)
- Fixed bug where the entire Black Borders Flicker Fix was not included in the release build of version 1.3 as intended.
What's new in version 1.3:- Vista x86 is now supported
- Non 4:3 aspect-ratio resolutions added. The display is padded with black borders to retain original 4:3 picture aspect-ratio.
- Texture flickering on black borders fixed
- New option "Expert Mode" enabled advanced control of display properties. See OPTIONS in the readme.txt for more details.
Version 1.31 download link:http://rapidshare.com/files/80132624/ff8_launcher_v1.31.rarMicrosoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package is required to run version 1.3 of the launcher due to being built using Visual Studio 2008 instead of 2005:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9b2da534-3e03-4391-8a4d-074b9f2bc1bf&DisplayLang=enVersion 1.31 rev9 source download link (released under GPLv3):http://rapidshare.com/files/87080293/ff8_launcher_v1.31.r9-source.rarDirectX 6.1 SDKhttp://rapidshare.com/files/87123406/dx61sdkimage.exeFor additional information see the readme.txt file included in the launcher archive or read the discussion in the following topics:
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=5731.75http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=4908&st=240Vista Fix for "Black Screen of Death"-issue due to no EAX support in Vista on non-Creative SoundcardsGot FF8 to run on Vista x86 without any Graphic Glitches
You need:
Now installing:
- Install FF8 normally, EAX will install itself at the end of the installation
- Copy 1.2 patch files to installation directory (no Game subfoler at all!)
- Copy the loader files to the installation directory
- Install the Visual C++ 2008 runtime
- Got to the software deinstallation in the control center and UNINSTALL eax unified
- Extract the new downloaded eax.dll to {Windir}/system32 (NOTE by magixts: It's also possible to put the .dll directly in the ff8 installation directory to achieve the same result)
Now the fun:
- Run FF8_Loader.exe, Set Resolution to whatever, check the 8bit paletted texture fix checkbox, click PLAY and enjoy!
