Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v.1-.7.6]

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How do i know if i have Open GL support?
I'm speechless...


On another note, I found the kludge that does FF7's lighting (yes, it's all done in software :roll:) so if I can decipher the seemingly quite complex light format, we might just have proper, real-time lighting soon.
 
okay be speechless........I'm dead serious........ i know nothing of computers at all and I'm just learning about them so please don't be so cruel...I've had to take a lot of Bull because I'm an English nerd and know nothing of computers so don't give me that okay! And Vista confuses me! Okay... I'm a newb at everything... and I just want to enjoy a good game... so don't give me that crap okay!

I apologize for sounding so bitter... its just i have had to take a lot of bull S*** from people who think I'm an idiot cause I didn't know what a char lgp file was or something... (And I know what an lgp file is.. i was just using that as an example).

Thank you,
Broken Crow


And P.S. real time lighting sounds really cool... please keep up the good work :D...

And again I apologize for being so bitter.
 
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I don't even know how to tell if i have OGL support or not, I just assume i do as i've never had an issue.

So, enlightenment on both our parts would be nice  :-D

Only because i like to know things  :-P

EDIT: Google seems to tell me it's Driver/videocard based as Windows Vista comes with 1.5 out of the box, not 2.0 or higher, But that doesn't make much sense to me. Clarification Aali?
 
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I don't even know how to tell if i have OGL support or not, I just assume i do as i've never had an issue.

So, enlightenment on both our parts would be nice  :-D

Only because i like to know things  :-P

EDIT: Google seems to tell me it's Driver/videocard based as Windows Vista comes with 1.5 out of the box, not 2.0 or higher, But that doesn't make much sense to me. Clarification Aali?
The software renderer can do OpenGL 1.5 (if thats the case, I don't know the exact version) but then it's not hardware accelerated.
If you install some drivers for your card, those will be used instead and can provide whichever version they want. Any modern card has OpenGL 2.0 support.
 
I found a utility at http://www.realtech-vr.com/glview/download.html that gives you your OpenGL version. It says mine is 3.0, but I'm running Windows 7 RC.

So, the bloom shader does AA? Which types of shaders do you think would look the best in FF7? Have you tried any and determined that they make it look worse or better? I had my eye on the Natural Vision Shader for ePSXe, but I'm having trouble finding a copy.
 
I don't even know how to tell if i have OGL support or not, I just assume i do as i've never had an issue.

So, enlightenment on both our parts would be nice  :-D

Only because i like to know things  :-P

EDIT: Google seems to tell me it's Driver/videocard based as Windows Vista comes with 1.5 out of the box, not 2.0 or higher, But that doesn't make much sense to me. Clarification Aali?
The software renderer can do OpenGL 1.5 (if thats the case, I don't know the exact version) but then it's not hardware accelerated.
If you install some drivers for your card, those will be used instead and can provide whichever version they want. Any modern card has OpenGL 2.0 support.
Alright so google was right, thanks for the info
 
Yeah... I just don't know if i have it or not... because the drivers seem to be working ... but i never get that box you mentioned upon start up
 
I covered that scenario..

Run FF7, close the dialog box (if you don't get a dialog box you either don't have OpenGL 2.0 support or the shaders are already working)
 
I know... what i want to know is if i have them or not.. so i can deduce if i the shaders are working or not.......... I feel like such a newb with technology:P

Thank you,
Broken Crow
 
Ok, I can not for the life of me get this driver to work on my system.  Relavent specs:

1.5Ghz P4, 512mb RAM, Win98SE, 3Dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP video card (DX7/OpenGL 1.1 compliant hardware, can hit OGL 1.3 using MesaFX driver)

Yes, yes, I know with a system like this Aali's driver isn't really needed, nonetheless I want to try it out for kicks. :-D

Anyway, when I tried to import the ff7_opengl.reg file, Windows said it wasn't a real registry file, and thus refused to import the settings.  So, I had to manually create the keys and import the data.  After copying the files to the ff7 install directory and launching the game, it suspiciously looks like its using software rendering.  Checking the app.log file confirms this, it is definitely either ignoring the driver or silently falling back to software.

Any ideas, Aali?
 
Firstly, because my video card was orphaned, driver-wise, in 2001 when the company went under.  Up-to-date drivers for WinXP/Vista either don't exist, or are hacked together, or are gimped compared to the Win98 drivers.  The card can report Hardware T/L capability under Win9x, but due to how Win2k/XP/Vista don't allow the drivers to touch the hardware directly, I can't do that under them, severly castrating performance in some DX7/8 games if I were to use the newer OSes with it.

Secondly, this particular box has long been relegated to being a legacy system for playing older games, FF7 and 8 in particular, because they work out of the box with FSAA with my setup, and no chocobo patching is needed either.  I have a somewhat-more-modern laptop with XP that I use for today's stuff, though. :roll:
 
Err, windows 98 probably wont work for a number of reasons. I've never tested it on anything older than XP and it uses some functions you *may* find in win2000 but not in win98.

If you have XP you should really use that instead, no patching is required as long as you use this driver, it includes fixes for all known crash issues.
 
I am having issues and I am not sure if driver related.

I  am now using vista 64 bit with sp2

The driver seems to have no effect whatsoever (yes I clicked vista 64 bit reg)

I will try and use a past driver version and see if something has been missed in the newest build

.ahh damn what have I done


edit:  tried back to 0.3....no use.  same old.  Does anyone else here have this working with vista 64 bit?

edit 2:  I have read that it may be the new drivers for nvidia again.,...I will roll back to earlier versions.
 
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Yeah, I may try it out with my laptop sometime.  It's sporting a Radeon 7500 Mobile, which is another shaderless DX7 card. :|  No post-processing for me, it seems.

However, I may also try it on my fiance's computer, as I recently got her into playing the game on her comp -- she's got some craptastic HP Pavilion running Vista Home with an integrated nVidia Geforce 6150 LE that can't tell the difference between Cloud and the backside of a chocobo barn in hardware mode. :roll:
 
Guys, make sure you have the correct .exe version because it really affects whether the driver loads or not. Just wanted to make sure you know that ;P You need the 1.02 exe file.
 
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