Help to Enhance FF7... [SOLVED]

[Timu Sumisu]

srry bout dat :3

[Bosola]

Why do you care so much? because if he gets in trouble for his pirated copy then thats his fault not ours but im just saying if he is happy with what he does why bother? it makes me laugh tbh because if he gets caught then tough bull i mean the only reason im saying is because he was probally just looking for a mod update not a new game hehe  i also know your going to say you dont care but still why bother with this post we all know pirating is wrong but some of us choose to do this on our own terms ^^ but im being honest its true i dont like piraters either but you dont have to be so harsh about it :L

Because QHIMM is the home of the Avalanche Project, and its members are cautious enough about incurring Square's wrath as it is. Remember the Chrono Remake project? The last thing we need to do is appear to tacitly support piracy if Square rummage through our posts as part of an investigation. We do not need to give them excuses to close down Q-Gears which, though it should be theoretically safe, is nevertheless on shaky ground.

[Kudistos Megistos]

Yeah, there's a tendency here to see the words "Ultima Edition" and immediately write an angry response. A lot of this is because there are so many people who come here asking about the Ultima Edition without realising that, as well as being illegal, it is also obsolete, that people get sick of hearing about it and don't give anyone the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, it looks like it might be a long time before people on the Internet realise that downloading the Ultima Edition is not the easiest way to play FF7 on the PC; people who don't come to these forums tend to be behind the times by about five years when it comes to mods.

Now I'll answer your question.

The first mods you should use are the FF7 1.02 patch and Aali's custom graphics driver; these are the two things you need to use before you can play the game properly and new mods are designed for people who are using both. Once you've got them and have FF7 working, it's really up to you what you want to do with the game. If you want it to be harder, use gjoerulv's hardcore mod (although you're OP suggests you might not want to do that). If you want the game to look better, use Team Avalanche's mod. AFAIK, they both work together. YAMP is also useful, as is FF7 music (unfortunately, FF7 music is hard to get working.

If you want to make your own mods, NFITC1's tools come highly recommended, as does Hojo 1.1 and Loveless. I haven't used titeguy3's "white chocobo" or Bosola's "LiBre", you I'm sure they'll come in handy as well. Lgp tools is useful when you're dealing with .lgp archives and graphics mods. There's others as well; it depends on what exactly you want to do.

[Cuholvke]

I apologize.  There have been a lot of new members lately asking for help with the Ultima Edition.  Which (as you have amptly seen) isn't allowed here.     So stating that you downloaded it makes some people quit reading the rest of your post, because hey..we aren't going to help anyways.

First get Aali's driver, then download the Team Avalanche installer,  then FF7 Music.

Yeah, there's a tendency here to see the words "Ultima Edition" and immediately write an angry response. A lot of this is because there are so many people who come here asking about the Ultima Edition without realising that, as well as being illegal, it is also obsolete, that people get sick of hearing about it and don't give anyone the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, it looks like it might be a long time before people on the Internet realise that downloading the Ultima Edition is not the easiest way to play FF7 on the PC; people who don't come to these forums tend to be behind the times by about five years when it comes to mods.

Now I'll answer your question.

The first mods you should use are the FF7 1.02 patch and Aali's custom graphics driver; these are the two things you need to use before you can play the game properly and new mods are designed for people who are using both. Once you've got them and have FF7 working, it's really up to you what you want to do with the game. If you want it to be harder, use gjoerulv's hardcore mod (although you're OP suggests you might not want to do that). If you want the game to look better, use Team Avalanche's mod. AFAIK, they both work together. YAMP is also useful, as is FF7 music (unfortunately, FF7 music is hard to get working.

If you want to make your own mods, NFITC1's tools come highly recommended, as does Hojo 1.1 and Loveless. I haven't used titeguy3's "white chocobo" or Bosola's "LiBre", you I'm sure they'll come in handy as well. Lgp tools is useful when you're dealing with .lgp archives and graphics mods. There's others as well; it depends on what exactly you want to do.

Thank you...

[Immortal Damyn]

I can vouch for titeguy's White Choco, its pretty good if you are looking to mess with the shops.

[willis936]

I just don't get all of the hostility.  So there's a pirated copy mentioned here, it doesn't need to be met with flames, just ignore it.  Mods won't work on it and they'll find nothing in this community worth using or working on.  You can be a white knight and all and that's great but pretty soon you'll be pushing away possible future contributers who were just wanting to play their favorite game but wanted to get out of paying 100 dollars to have it on PC when they already bought it for the playstation twice.

You can have morals on piracy but the game has long since been out of production, meaning there are ZERO royalties being paid to ENIX and the developers.  It's just legalities that do play a somewhat necessary role that make pirating this game taboo.  Basically:  follow the rules to keep this site from being shut down, but don't go out of your way to be an unhelpful ass to newcomers who may not know all of the rules.

[Kudistos Megistos]

I just don't get all of the hostility.  So there's a pirated copy mentioned here, it doesn't need to be met with flames, just ignore it.  Mods won't work on it and they'll find nothing in this community worth using or working on.  You can be a white knight and all and that's great but pretty soon you'll be pushing away possible future contributers who were just wanting to play their favorite game but wanted to get out of paying 100 dollars to have it on PC when they already bought it for the playstation twice.

You can have morals on piracy but the game has long since been out of production, meaning there are ZERO royalties being paid to ENIX and the developers.  It's just legalities that do play a somewhat necessary role that make pirating this game taboo.  Basically:  follow the rules to keep this site from being shut down, but don't go out of your way to be an unhelpful ass to newcomers who may not know all of the rules.

Squeenix is ridiculously litigious; they're the kind of company who are wont to send C&Ds just because they can, even if they're not being harmed and even when no laws are being broken (yes, companies can and do send C&Ds to people who aren't doing anything illegal because most people will back down rather than spend time and money defending themselves; the Bleem fiasco is an example of what big corporations can do to people even if when they haven't done anything wrong).

They've shut down many CT projects and we never know when they may decide to cause trouble here. Discouraging piracy might increase the chances of them turning a blind eye to what's going on here.

Also, as I said, people tend to react badly to questions that get asked over and over again, even if the people asking them have no idea that they've been asked before. We keep getting people coming here and talking about the Ultima Edition, so after a while people lose patience and get angry as soon as they hear those words.

[willis936]

I think the admins should make a bot user that automatically responds when they detect certain words in early posters.  Namely: ultima, pirate, problem, etc.
It replies immediately with a post outlining rules and the situation the forum is in playing under the twitchy trigger finger of a large corporation and to read the rules thoroughly and adhering to them strictly before posting again.

[Bosola]

Yes. That sounds like a good idea.

The thing to keep in mind is, it doesn't matter whether what's done here will cause SE any real financial loss. Companies will send out C&Ds by default the moment anything that appears to harm the 'goodwill' of the IPs surfaces. SE has a habit of this, and, in fairness, is well within its rights to do so. There's too much at stake. Especially as there's reason to think Square staff may visit this website from time to time (I'm sure El Ammo Bandito posted something to that effect - a small but consistent number of visitors from Square-Enix). Let's not irritate them.

Thanks for the people who reads before posting.

And thank you, son, for spending seconds reading the forum rules before posting. Oh wait.

You see, you might ask why I'm so irritated, but I see similar kinds of rubbish all the time, not least on places like GameFAQs. Not the piracy stuff, but the attitude. Speaking generally, there's usually a typical pattern: People show up, demand attention NAU (and bump their threads every ninety seconds to clamour for immediate attention), for nothing in return, and then have the cheek to start getting ****** when they're rightly scolded for not RTFM. IRL, I'd be tempted to grab them by the collar, speaking loudly and clearly:

"YOU are asking for OUR help. YOU are offering NOTHING in return. YOU are demanding that WE spend several minutes of OUR time, when YOU can't even be bothered to consult the forum rules! YOU should get your head around the fact that YOU should be pretty ******* deferential, all that considered!"

[Cuholvke]

Thanks for the people who reads before posting.

And thank you, son, for spending seconds reading the forum rules before posting. Oh wait.

You see, you might ask why I'm so irritated, but I see similar kinds of rubbish all the time, not least on places like GameFAQs. Not the piracy stuff, but the attitude. Speaking generally, there's usually a typical pattern: People show up, demand attention NAU (and bump their threads every ninety seconds to clamour for immediate attention), for nothing in return, and then have the cheek to start getting ****** when they're rightly scolded for not RTFM. IRL, I'd be tempted to grab them by the collar, speaking loudly and clearly:

"YOU are asking for OUR help. YOU are offering NOTHING in return. YOU are demanding that WE spend several minutes of OUR time, when YOU can't even be bothered to consult the forum rules! YOU should get your head around the fact that YOU should be pretty ******* deferential, all that considered!"

I wasn't the one who bumped the thread every 20 seconds, when I was going to preview my third message I got the red message saying that there where 5 new replies already ¬¬
Yes, I asked for help, I did never demanded to anyone to help me, I ASKED.

And I read the rules and didn't broke them.

No linking to/discussion of/advertising of illegal downloads, including FFVII **TABU NAME**.

I didn't post any link related to it, didn't even talk about it for more than the first sentence as simple comment(*), I just mentioned it... I didn't expect such reaction for just naming it.

*Then all started talking about it in every corner ¬¬

[Bosola]

No matter. If you fancy better graphics, you should do a forum search for the 'NPC Restoration Patch'. These just change in-field models (which are usually cited as the ugliest). There's no change to mechanics etc., so that's a good starting point. I've used it myself; it gives FF7 about the same sort of detail in the field as 8.

[Xelane]

Ignoring the arguement section of this thread and moving on to the actual info he/she needs:

I think the common list of patches/mods you typically want are along the lines of this:

1:chocobo patch

2:YAMP

3:aali's driver

4:1.02 patch (i think aali's driver makes that obsolete, check to make sure)

5:NPC recon patch OR Rejuvination patch (both enhance the character models)

6:Apz's cloud model (kuz it kicks ass)

7:Wallmarket (in case you like to make and change anything in battle)

8:I'll have to see if there is an 8....in fact, why the hell did I even bother pushing the "post" button...

EDIT: My apologies, I did not realise that Kudis said pretty much everything I just did.

[Kudistos Megistos]

EDIT: My apologies, I did not realise that Kudis said pretty much everything I just did.

 

Also, the Chocobo patch is no longer needed IIRC; the custom graphics driver fixes all of the glitches