Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8 [v0.8.1b]

[Kompass63]

1. Extract the archive into your ff7 or ff8 folder

I had assumed that this sentence is understood by ALL.

 

[Erdrick The Hero]

FINALLY! I've been trying to register for days but was running into the "registration is currently disabled" bug. So this would be my first post. Though I've been lurking around here for a while, and have been using many of the wonderful mods here to play FF7 PC. I'd like to play FF8 someday too, if I can get ahold of it, but unless there's a conversion patch, I don't want to get the Steam version. (I have the PSX version, but there's something wrong with my disc 1 as the game crashes after the intro. On my PS1, PS2, and in ePSXe.)

Anyways, I have an important question to ask: I would like to use the latest version of the custom OGL driver, but I have a couple of issues with it. Now that the external textures feature has been removed, is it possible to use mods like Team Avalanche's World Map Reconstruction Project? Or any custom models that have new textures, like the Barrett battle/field model from TA's graphical overhaul? I imagine if I could extract them from the LGP files and convert them to PNG, I could place them in my mods directory or the appropriate "direct" folder, but that will probably lead to longer load times, and I wouldn't know how to convert them anyways.

Also, Aali, is there a chance that you would ever add disable_popups to be an option again? I'd like to Let's Play FF7 eventually with mods, and those errors wouldn't look nice in recording. If not, that's not too bad though, I only recently learned that was an option in 7.11b so I have grown accustomed to the errors and hardly notice them. (The Zero Count errors seem to stand out a lot in scenes with Bugenheigen if you use the Pheonix Rejuviation mod, but I see they've been removed from 8.1b anyways.)

If these features cannot/will not ever be added back in, does anybody know of a patch that will fix the coaster aimer bug? I've seen DLPB's patch, but his changes the mini games A LOT and for my first play through I'd like to leave the gameplay alone and only enhance graphics/sound. (I've had the game pretty much since it came out on playstation, and the PC version for about 3 years now, but really just recently got around to ACTUALLY playing it -I already know about aerith though, the internet ruined the "spoilers" for me- and I'm about to do the temple of the ancients portion of the game once I can get the Umbrella.) I might try DLPB's patch in my modded Let's Play though.

Whew, that's a long first post! Thanks in advance for any help though. I'd like to be a productive member here, and actually have some ideas for mods of my own already.

 

[Erdrick The Hero]

@Jaki: Can you no longer use ff7 OpenGL 0.7.11b? I'm pretty sure that one supports OGL 1.1. You may need to do a fresh install of the game to revert to the old driver, however. I had to do that in order to revert when I realized that almost half the mods I was using didn't work properly with 0.8.1b.

 

[lolmetimbers]

Just reporting that this breaks the new battle interface option in bootleg .040. Since you removed the option, my game always has the black bar in place where the battle menu is so i'm forced to revert.

And as stated, disable_popups is gone now? Why? I hate messages spamming my screen when something goes wrong.

Please add these two options back in for compatibility and convenience.

 

[cmh175]

Just reporting that this breaks the new battle interface option in bootleg .040. Since you removed the option, my game always has the black bar in place where the battle menu is so i'm forced to revert.

And as stated, disable_popups is gone now? Why? I hate messages spamming my screen when something goes wrong.

Please add these two options back in for compatibility and convenience.

Change the texture cache to 1024 to fix the battle menu. And it'll work fine, otherwise something may not have installed correctly.

 

[EQ2Alyza]

Just reporting that this breaks the new battle interface option in bootleg .040. Since you removed the option, my game always has the black bar in place where the battle menu is so i'm forced to revert.

And as stated, disable_popups is gone now? Why? I hate messages spamming my screen when something goes wrong.

Please add these two options back in for compatibility and convenience.

Bootleg is optimized for 0.7.11b, so expect issues if you're trying to use the newest Aali Driver. We just haven't had enough testing to figure things out yet.

 

[guitar_dudester91]

Hey all.

Got back into FF7, but I can't get it to play. Movies are on my hard drive, I installed the game off of my original PC disc and downloaded and extracted Aali's files to my FF7 folder. I ran the registries, and went in to the Config file to switch to Aali's driver, although it doesn't appear.

Here's my config in cfg -

Code: [Select]

# ff7_opengl-0.8b config file## USER OPTIONS #### If you just want to play the game, these are the only options you'll want to change.# set the window size (or fullscreen resolution) of FF7# 0 means use original resolution in window mode, your current desktop resolution will be used in fullscreen mode# preserve_aspect adds black borders as needed to preserve a 4:3 aspect ratiowindow_size_x = 0window_size_y = 0preserve_aspect = yesfullscreen = yes# mod directory# subdirectroy of mods/ where textures will be loaded frommod_path = none# check your Nvidia/ATI/Intel control panel settings if this option doesn't seem to workenable_vsync = yes# allow FF7 to use linear filtering for its textures# some things look slightly better with this option on, but alot of textures just lose their detail# only affects low-res textures, high-res replacements will still be filtered where appropriatelinear_filter = off# plugin used to play music, VGMstream requires a set of looping .ogg files in the music/vgmstream folder.# If no music plugin is loaded the game will play MIDI as usual but FF7Music will NOT work.#music_plugin = plugins/vgmstream_music.fgp## ENHANCEMENTS #### All the little extras that weren't part of the original game, default options include only trivial bug fixes.# make all dialog boxes transparent, same effect as the transparent dialog boxes YAMP patchtransparent_dialogs = off# include armor in magic defense calculationmdef_fix = yes# post-processing shader, used to apply fullscreen effectspost_source = shaders/bloom2.postenable_postprocessing = no## ADVANCED OPTIONS #### Don't fiddle with these unless you know what you're doing.# enable alpha blending for textures without an existing blending effectfancy_transparency = on# display frames per second counter in upper right cornershow_fps = no# display some real-time debug informationshow_stats = no# store external textures in a compressed cache for increased performance# compression is not lossless, some artifacts may appear when this option is in use# texture cache does NOT update automatically if the source image changes, however, deleting anything from the cache# will cause that file to be recreated from the sourcecompress_textures = no# max size of the texture cache to hold in RAM, in megabytes# don't set it any higher than 1GB unless you want your game to crashtexture_cache_size = 256# use pixel buffer objects to speed up texture loading# might crash horribly on ATI cards but should work for NVIDIA usersuse_pbo = yes# use mipmaps (anisotropic filtering) for high-res texturesuse_mipmaps = yes# replace FF7's default framelimiter timer sourceuse_new_timer = yes# plugin used to play movies, FFMpeg is the only choice for nowmovie_plugin = plugins/ffmpeg_movies.fgp## MODDER OPTIONS #### These options are mostly useful to modders and should not be enabled during normal play.# read files directly instead of using LGP archives# for example; if FF7 is looking for aaab.rsd in char.lgp, this option will make it open direct/char/aaab.rsd first,# if this file doesn't exist it will look for the original in the LGP archivedirect_mode = off# show every failed attempt at loading a .png textureshow_missing_textures = no

I don't want any updated graphics at the moment, because I haven't had time to play around with what I want. I'm a busy college kid so I haven't had much time to look at this. I tried looking through my old posts to find answers but the servers have been overloaded, although I've skimmed through tons of posts looking for help.

The servers that are linked in these posts to the 1.02 patch are down or don't work, so I had to go to a different site to get the patch.

The opening movie isn't loading, but I can get to the main New Game/Continue screen.

I'm running on a HP Elitebook 8470w with Windows 7. I have an AMD FirePro M2000 ATI adapter. Setting in Config are set to full screen with Riva 128 bullet is checked, all tests pass except for the 8-bit paletted textures. Sound works just fine.

That's about all I can think of, but I'll post more, whatever helps.  Thanks in advance.

C'mon, man. You've been around long enough to know how to use code tags. ~Covarr

Actually, I've just started coming back in the past week since 2012 or so. So sorry I'm not up to date, but I really appreciate the humiliation. Thanks!

 

[Kompass63]

I ran the registries, and went in to the Config file to switch to Aali's driver, although it doesn't appear.

First start FF7Config to adjust sound and MIDI.
Second run ff7_opengl_corrected.reg in order to integrate the driver (see also here).

The opening movie isn't loading, but I can get to the main New Game/Continue screen.

The old game has movies in TrueMotion2.0 format.
Aalis driver should be able to play this, but I have not tested.
If it does not work, you can install the K-Lite pack 10.3, this works for me.

Setting in Config are set to full screen with Riva 128 bullet is checked, all tests pass except for the 8-bit paletted textures. Sound works just fine.

Please set to "TNT"...

 

[Aali]

The old game has movies in TrueMotion2.0 format.
Aalis driver should be able to play this, but I have not tested.
If it does not work, you can install the K-Lite pack 10.3, this works for me.

Can we please stop telling people to install some codec pack? It has never made any difference whatsoever to the drivers ability to play anything and it never will.

 

[Dr. Zaius]

I followed the instructions exactly as they were posted, I had the 0.7 something version that I had installed with Tifa's mod pack using the Bootleg mod installer. After overwriting all the opengl files with the new ones from v0.8.1b and following the provided instructions, my game now says "GLITCH texture conversion error" when I get to world map immediately after loading my save. I also noticed that the bottom quarter of the battle screen is all black now. Anyone know what's wrong?

 

[Kompass63]

Some mods are not compatible with 0.8.1b.
If you've used bootleg, you must continue to use 0.7.11.

 

[DLPB_]

Can we please stop telling people to install some codec pack? It has never made any difference whatsoever to the drivers ability to play anything and it never will.

Do you want me to create you a small readme, Aali?  I mean, it would help a lot if you released one with your driver.  Would stop so many of these issues.

 

[EQ2Alyza]

Bootleg installs v0.7.11b automatically, and it never suggests to use any versions beyond that. There is a child forum specifically for Bootleg questions, so we need to ask them there rather than spreading them across all the different mod threads.

Do you want me to create you a small readme, Aali?  I mean, it would help a lot if you released one with your driver.  Would stop so many of these issues.

Dan, if you create a readme, I would suggest putting a note that Aali's driver needs to be tested alone with a clean installation first. If it works well, then mods can be installed and mod related bug reports sent to their respective mod thread. I don't know if that's what we're aiming for here, but I'm finding it difficult to collect driver bug reports in between all the driver+mod bug reports.

It's up to you though 

 

[cmh175]

After figuring out the battle menu issue I haven't come across any other issues. I do suggest installing with a new installation, but it worked fine with a bootleg installation too. Just either skip or replace ff7music with an ogg music mod and change the texture cache.

 

[Salk]

A readme would be good.

And maybe some FAQ for the most common issues.

 

[CamelStrike]

First, thank for your hard work as a fan of ff7 aali
After all those trial and error,
I finally figured out how to get your driver work with reunion, anxious heart, bootleg contents and other texture mods thanks to cmh175 and other folks(seems you always had same issues that i have encountered so far)
Used CFF explorer to tweak FF7.exe to handle memory up to 2GB and changed the cache size in cfg file to 2048.
Now it runs perfect without any glitch on battle menu or other issues for hours play.
cheers!!

 

[cmh175]

First, thank for your hard work as a fan of ff7 aali
After all those trial and error,
I finally figured out how to get your driver work with reunion, anxious heart, bootleg contents and other texture mods thanks to cmh175 and other folks(seems you always had same issues that i have encountered so far)
Used CFF explorer to tweak FF7.exe to handle memory up to 2GB and changed the cache size in cfg file to 2048.
Now it runs perfect without any glitch on battle menu or other issues for hours play.
cheers!!

Glad we could help, and even better to hear tweaking ff7.exe to use 2gb works. Granted it's worked fine so far at 1gb so it may not be necessary.

 

[guitar_dudester91]

First start FF7Config to adjust sound and MIDI.
Second run ff7_opengl_corrected.reg in order to integrate the driver (see also here).


The old game has movies in TrueMotion2.0 format.
Aalis driver should be able to play this, but I have not tested.
If it does not work, you can install the K-Lite pack 10.3, this works for me.


Please set to "TNT"...

So I uninstalled, reinstalled with a maximum install. the aarondev server website that is posted for the 1.02 patch is down, or I can't load it, so I got the patch from a different site. I downloaded the updated openGL registry and ran it in my FF7 file folder. I ran FF7 config, and switched the RIVA 128 to TNT, but to do that I had to check the NVIDIA box. All sound still works, but I still can get the opening video to play, let alone anything after the first menu. The driver is the Direct 3D driver. All settings in my openGL are the same.


EDIT: I went to the Qhimm Wiki page and tried the 7.11 version, fixed all my problems. One last question. Years ago I ran Wallmarket and I think Jenova to modify some gampeplay aspects, because I don't have an extra 80 hours to master materia. Will I need to run the bootleg stuff or can I just download the programs?

Thanks for the help by the way.

 

[Kompass63]

First start FF7Config to adjust sound and MIDI.
Second run ff7_opengl_corrected.reg in order to integrate the driver (see also here).

Each time the original FF7 Config starts, it will automatically reset the display driver.
After that must be activated with the reg file Aalis driver again.

Am I really so hard to understand?  :'(

 

[DLPB_]

You can also use Otyugh trainer to add mastered materia and so forth.