Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v0.7.11b]

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.1b.zip

Installation
Run FF7Config to setup sound/midi if you haven't done that already.
Extract the archive into your ff7 folder (where ff7.exe is), run one of the .reg files (64-bit Vista users have to use the vista64bit file)
FF7 will now use the new driver. (To revert the changes made by the .reg file, run FF7Config)

Changelog
Fixed the cross-fade-to-same-song stopping problem with FF7Music.
Native png texture support, .tex files can be replaced by 24- or 32-bit png files directly, no conversion needed.
Better error handling for external textures.
Direct mode for bypassing LGPs, more information is available in the .cfg file.


If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from APP.LOG and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and APP.LOG (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.2b.zip

Installation
Run FF7Config to setup sound/midi if you haven't done that already.
Extract the archive into your ff7 folder (where ff7.exe is), run one of the .reg files (64-bit Vista users have to use the vista64bit file)
FF7 will now use the new driver. (To revert the changes made by the .reg file, run FF7Config)

Changelog
Overall improvements to transparency effects.
Alpha blending enabled for everything that doesn't already have a blending effect.
External texture cache added.
Fixed a crash that could happen when no suitable movie codec could be found.
Replacing the buster sword background in the main menu with an external texture will make it fullscreen.
Fixed a random crash that could happen when loading a 24-bit PNG file.
Changed external texture behavior w.r.t. palettes, if the PNG for a certain palette cannot be found, palette 0 will be tried instead. This should save some space on all those textures that don't really need different palettes.


If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from APP.LOG and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and APP.LOG (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.3b.zip

Installation
Run FF7Config to setup sound/midi if you haven't done that already.
Extract the archive into your ff7 folder (where ff7.exe is), run one of the .reg files (64-bit Vista users have to use the vista64bit file)
FF7 will now use the new driver. (To revert the changes made by the .reg file, run FF7Config)

Changelog
Fixed the random crashing.
Fixed some less than random crashing.
Added configuration option to enable/disable the new transparency features.
Improved error handling w.r.t. broken models.
The drivers own text rendering doesn't look like crap anymore (not that anyone gives a shit, it's only used for the debug info anyway)


If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from APP.LOG and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and APP.LOG (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.4b.zip

Installation
1. Extract the archive into your ff7 or ff8 folder
FF7:
2a. Run the modified FF7Config, pick custom driver in the list of renderers, you should get confirmation that the driver is working.
3a. Change your settings in ff7_opengl.cfg
FF8:
2b. Make sure EAX is properly installed (run EAXUnified.exe to install it if unsure)
3b. Change your settings in ff8_opengl.cfg
4. Play!

Changelog
The driver now supports both FF7 and FF8 at the same time, there is no longer any need for specific FF8 releases.
Fixed problems with fancy_transparency, it should now be safe to keep it on at all times.
Reduced the amount of objects z-sorted by fancy_transparency, at the moment it is hardcoded to only sort fonts and transparent dialogs but in the future this will be customizable on a per-external texture basis, this will fix the black screen bugs and some flicker glitches.
Added texture compression/caching for external textures, this will reduce initial load times greatly for the cost of some disk space.
FFMpeg version updated and tweaked, many codecs that weren't working before should be fine now, but it's also possible that some old ones have stopped working.
Transparent dialogs is now a config option for FF7, functionally equivalent to the YAMP patch.
Important messages are shown in game (glitch/error messages).


If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from app.log and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and app.log (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.5b.zip

Installation
1. Extract the archive into your ff7 or ff8 folder
FF7:
2a. Run the modified FF7Config, pick custom driver in the list of renderers, you should get confirmation that the driver is working.
3a. Change your settings in ff7_opengl.cfg
FF8:
2b. Make sure EAX is properly installed (run EAXUnified.exe to install it if unsure)
3b. Change your settings in ff8_opengl.cfg
4. Play!

Changelog
Fixed broken movie playback and related random issues.
Fixed random crashes at scene transitions.
If the driver fails to set a fullscreen mode it will revert to 640x480 window mode instead of just showing a borderless window.
Removed warning about unstable QPC timers.
New config option that modifies the battle interface, removes all the black borders and makes parts of the menu transparent.


If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from app.log and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and app.log (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.6b.zip

Installation
1. Extract the archive into your ff7 or ff8 folder
FF7:
2a. Run the modified FF7Config, pick custom driver in the list of renderers, you should get confirmation that the driver is working.
3a. Change your settings in ff7_opengl.cfg
FF8:
2b. Make sure EAX is properly installed (run EAXUnified.exe to install it if unsure)
3b. Change your settings in ff8_opengl.cfg
4. Play!

Changelog
Updated eax.dll to the new version that looks for ff7_opengl.fgd instead of ff8_opengl.fgd.
Added fast(er) shader path for YUV decoding.
Added a warning for codecs that still use the slow software path.
Implemented frameskip in the movie plugin, if video falls behind too much it will try to catch up by not rendering new frames.
Fixed a problem with new_battle_interface where the menu would turn opaque while a big sub-menu is open.
Fixed a problem with fancy_transparency that would cause character names not to fade in battle.
Forced linear filtering for external textures in the menu, this will make all that menu text look a whole lot better.
Fixed a possible crash on exit.


If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from app.log and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and app.log (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.7b.zip

Installation
1. Extract the archive into your ff7 or ff8 folder
FF7:
2a. Run the modified FF7Config, pick custom driver in the list of renderers, you should get confirmation that the driver is working.
3a. Change your settings in ff7_opengl.cfg
FF8:
2b. Make sure EAX is properly installed (run EAXUnified.exe to install it if unsure)
3b. Change your settings in ff8_opengl.cfg
4. Play!

Changelog
Added a "mod path" option and a mods folder where .png textures will be loaded from in the same way as external textures except this is done automatically and uses the original file name (so you don't have to modify the original file at all).
Added show_missing_textures option for modders, this option will make the driver print a message to app.log every time it tries to load a png file and doesn't find it.
Direct mode no longer requires a full set of files to work, if a file cannot be found in the direct/ folder it will fall back to the original LGP archive.
Frame skip in movies is now an opt-in setting, add "skip_frames = yes" to the config file if the feature was useful to you.
Fellow programmers can add "load_library = <dll file>" to the config file and have their own libraries loaded into FF7.
FF8 credits and card game should be working again.
Models using the wrong vertex type are handled a bit differently, instead of complaining once when the first such model is drawn the driver will instead produce a glitch message whenever such a .p file is loaded, also printing the name of the file in question. I'm aware of the fact that this is really annoying to some people but hopefully some of these models will actually be fixed now.


If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from app.log and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and app.log (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.8b.zip

Installation
1. Extract the archive into your ff7 or ff8 folder
FF7:
2a. Run the modified FF7Config, pick custom driver in the list of renderers, you should get confirmation that the driver is working.
3a. Change your settings in ff7_opengl.cfg
FF8:
2b. Make sure EAX is properly installed (run EAXUnified.exe to install it if unsure)
3b. Change your settings in ff8_opengl.cfg
4. Play!

Changelog

• 9999 limit break patch is now incorporated as a config option. Functionality should be mostly the same as the original YAMP patch by dziugo, also the GUI changes necessary are applied by this option.
• MDef patch is also a config option, this one is not based on the YAMP patch but the end result is exactly the same.
• Added support for subtractive (mode 2) and 25% incoming color (mode 3) blending and fixed the field files who were supposed to use them. Mode 3 is noticeable already in the first reactor, those code panels were not supposed to be that bright A very noticeable example of subtractive blending is the cat-and-mouse game in the temple of the ancients, where there used to be a mysterious white light in the caves there is now darkness as in the PSX version.
• Popup error/glitch messages could fade away before you had a chance to see them, that is no longer the case.
• Corrected filenames used to load field textures from the modpath.
• Missing external textures can no longer crash the game.
• Every texture is checked against max texture size/NPOT texture support to produce more helpful error messages.
• Added a big warning message for when Windows reverts to using the software OpenGL renderer.
• FF8 will now display a glitch message and a blank screen during moves if you are missing NPOT texture support instead of just making the screen completely white.
• Where possible, removed the gray line that could show up during movies.
• Fixed a problem with modpath not respecting LGP subdirectories.
• Fixed a problem that could crash the game if a file could not be found inside an LGP archive.
• Fixed a problem that would crash the game if a normal file could not be found.
• Fixed the "wind.wav" (and any other .wav file) crash.
• Fixed the wave "music" (usually background noise) that was missing if you were using a music plugin.
• Removed the wine version of the ff7music plugin, it is no longer necessary as of wine version 1.1.35
• Fixed a problem that could crash the game if a missing or broken battle .hrc file was loaded.
• Window title is now "Final Fantasy VII" instead of "DEFAULT" in window mode.
• Movies too big to fit into a texture are now skipped with an error message instead of producing a bunch of OpenGL errors.
• Fixed the new battle interface glitch where battle models could overlap the GUI.

If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from app.log and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and app.log (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.9b.zip

Installation
1. Extract the archive into your ff7 or ff8 folder
FF7:
2a. Run the modified FF7Config, pick custom driver in the list of renderers, you should get confirmation that the driver is working.
3a. Change your settings in ff7_opengl.cfg
FF8:
2b. Make sure EAX is properly installed (run EAXUnified.exe to install it if unsure)
3b. Change your settings in ff8_opengl.cfg
4. Play!

Changelog

• Hopefully fixed crashes with FF7Config.exe and DEP.
• eax.dll no longer breaks FF8Configurator.
• Added glitch messages for various Vsync problems due to buggy drivers/wrong settings.
• The driver now tries to check the version of ff7.exe when loaded by FF7Config before announcing that everything is okay.
• Prevented screensavers and sleep/suspend from activating while the game is running.
• Fullscreen uses the same title as window mode.
• Fixed subtractive blending crash on startup.
• Applied some minor fixes from DLPBs menu mod to the modified 9999lb interface.
• Fixed problem with modpath trying to use odd filenames in direct mode.
• Removed native PNG support, noone was using it anyway and there are better ways to load PNGs now.
• Fixed problem with modpath trying to load the same texture for everything in battle.
• Fixed glitches with the semi-transparent battle menu.
• Fixed menu border glitches with the GUI overhaul.
• Fixed minor blending issues in battle.
• Removed warning about 24-bit PNG files, they're still slower to load than 32-bit ones but caching has made this a non-issue.

If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from app.log and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and app.log (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)




:EDIT:

If you get a message about shaders not loading even after updating the drivers for your graphics card, try replacing them (they're in the "shaders" directory) with these ones: http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.9b-nolight_shaders.zip
This is especially likely to happen with older hardware.
Visually there should be no difference.

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.10b.zip

Installation
1. Extract the archive into your ff7 or ff8 folder
FF7:
2a. Run the modified FF7Config, pick custom driver in the list of renderers, you should get confirmation that the driver is working.
3a. Change your settings in ff7_opengl.cfg
FF8:
2b. Make sure EAX is properly installed (run EAXUnified.exe to install it if unsure)
3b. Change your settings in ff8_opengl.cfg
4. Play!

Changelog

• Fixed YUV shader to account for non-full range formats (which is most of them).
• Added refresh_rate setting, with this option you may be able to get a more suitable fullscreen mode, but there are no guarantees!
• The "nolight" shaders are now included and activated automatically.
• Added support for all official translations of FF8.
• Added limited modpath support for FF8. (Only some textures can be replaced)
• NPOT textures are no longer required to make FMVs work in FF8.
• Fixed random crash bug for FF7 that has been in the driver since 0.1a
• Removed kernel2 size limit.
• Massive speedups in FF8.
• FF8 battle swirl kind-of works.. sometimes.
• Movie plugin is faster, more reliable, more accurate and supports more codecs.
• Fixed some fancy_transparency issues (most notably KOTR) and made it alot less resource-intensive in general.
• Textures load faster on newer graphics cards. (OpenGL 2.1 and up)
• Fixed embarrassing screwup that made texture compression entirely useless and super slow.

If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from app.log and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and app.log (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)

http://backup.ninjaloot.se/share/ff7_opengl-0.7.11b.zip

Installation
1. Extract the archive into your ff7 or ff8 folder
FF7:
2a. Run the modified FF7Config, pick custom driver in the list of renderers, you should get confirmation that the driver is working.
3a. Change your settings in ff7_opengl.cfg
FF8:
2b. Make sure EAX is properly installed (run EAXUnified.exe to install it if unsure)
3b. Change your settings in ff8_opengl.cfg
4. Play!

Changelog

• Fixed FF8 crash-on-start bug. (Mostly affected other translations of the game)
• Reduced memory footprint.
• PBO is now an option and its off by default, this fixes the ATI crashes with 0.7.10b.
• The "missed palette write" message now tells you which texture FF7 was trying to alter.
• Worldmap textures replaced by modpath now use AF all the time.
• Added some support for FF7Music's emulate ramps feature to FF7Music plugin. (It may not be perfect)

I was not able to figure out why shaders don't work on newer nvidia drivers, for now I'm going to assume the problem is with them.


If you find any issues, please post screenshots, relevant information from app.log and if possible, a savegame.
If you get a crash, provide a copy of crash.dmp and app.log (preferably in a zip archive, this will make it 10x smaller)