[FF7PC] NPC Reconstruction (Discontinued, use Unified Model Installer)

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Sen: Well the thing is that with the old version (including Reunion) the models are too tall and clip over the background... I resized them so it fit the backgroud... however Cloud is my very first test model on this game so... it's why it's a little less good than the others... one day I'll redo it ... well if you prefer to use tall model that's your choice... but they won't fit properly with the backgroud...

Thatamos: Are you saying that you redone all the models in ff7 ?? if it'S the case may I see your work?? ... anyway... our work will be more elaborated than it looks right now... thing is it's far from over even though most of the models in the field are done... truth is ....  once all the field models are done.. we will do other models... and redo some old field models that we did long ago.... since we can now convert 3ds to .p we can do about everything we want with the models of ff7.

Anyways ppl here the models I was working on from some time now entirely made from the scratch with 3ds max hehe:
snwom.JPG

Link for bigger size

I'll have to redo some textures ..... but it's almost finish.
This is rendered from 3ds max... I didn't have time yet to put it ingame... beside ... until the lighing can apply to the textures... it won'T look good ingame anyway.
 
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Well Thatamos, now that was a surprising anounce! As stormmedia said, we'd be very glad if you posted some images from your project.

About your cuestion regarding the PS1 version, sorry, I must say it's way too hard. Because of the way files are stored and read in the PS1 version, you can't simply replace files and expect the game to keep working, unless they are smaller or equal in size (which would defeat the purpose).

By the way, great model stormmedia! I still think the nose makes her a bit manly though.
 
OMG, the last model its amazing (compared to all others i think)!! Hey, its ok, the 2nd bug I reported was only a question or suggestion from me, its ok if its not possible to do it "perfect" for the char actions^^ its enough for now i think^^

PD: Yeah Thatamos we REALLY WANT TO SEE something about your project^^
 
Borde: Yep ...  I will modify the face a bit .... especialy the nose now that you tell me hehe.  As I said to you in msn this head was made for a men ... I have to modify it a little more.

Sephiroth Crescent : Thanks  :-) most of my new models will be like this one because it makes me pratice 3ds max and I have to get good enough with 3ds so that the college will take me in  :-D hehe
 
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Thatamos, Are you prepared to share out your enhanced version when its done???
 
Hey everyone!
Well, i have been away from this forum for a long time! Maybe a year or more!
But these last days, I was travelling and thought about this forums post, the "NPC Reconstruction Project"!
yeah, and I didn't remember the forums adress site, I had to google xD and then recover the pw!
Anyways, I started playing FFV7 on my new PSP! Yes, it works excellent! Thats the reason I remembered this topic!
What I really would like to know, is if it is possible to import this NPC char into a PSX iso. If so, I would be able to play ff7 in a wonderfull way on my PSP! =) =)
I'll be waiting for your answer Icecold, and other developers!
Thanks for all, and for keeping FF7 scene alive!
 
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Sorry, just read Thatamos post after posting mine..
Anyways, we must find someone who could convert it!
 
About hacking the PS1 version...
Unless you have the ability to re-author a whole new CD using Squaresoft's BIOS sector accessing system, you aren't going to be modding anything.

I'm probably going to be putting this in a FAQ soon...

The PSX version of FF7 does *NOT* load any data by filenames. You can delete the directory entry on 90% of all the files and the game will still run. (They fixed this in FF8, where they got rid of filenames all togeather)

The game is hard-coded to look for data directly at sector locations on the disk. The game doesn't look for models by opening a file called "cdrom:/enemy/cloud.lzs" It looks for sector 3753983 and is told to load 16 data chunks in 8k segments. Unless the data you replace is exactly the same size and exactly on the same location of the disk, it's not going to load. You make the file larger, you are going to overwrite other data. If you make the file too small, you will underun the streaming buffer and most likely cause a divide-by-zero error.

Also, this is a PSX we are talking about. You have about 512 bytes of texture space for your character. If your character has eyes, you have used half of it already. The system only has 2MB of video ram, and a 3rd of it is being taken up by the video buffers, and a half is for the background, you have about a 5th of it used for statics and text.... You really don't have enough room left for textures after that.

If you can tell me where the master sector lookup table is for loading data, and if you can sucessfully edit it so that it won't point to the hard-coded locations on the disk, *then* you can actually start editing the data....

Keeping in mind that you have to make sure that any extra data is properly timed for entery into the polygon ordering table, and that you don't have a DMA buffer overrun when you stream the data packets to the GTE. You are also going to have to make sure the extra data isn't going to choke the GPU, which, if not timed correctly, will lock your rendering pipeline.

The PSX and PC data formats are different. PCs are well-known for happily taking garbage. On a PSX, if you mess with the rendering pipeline just a little bit, you've locked the system and you aren't going to be drawing anything on the screen.

Not even garbage.

You don't tell a PSX to "draw a model" like in OpenGL. You have to hand-make every data packet that's going to the GPU. I wish you luck, but I think it's a fool's errand.
 
I just learned about all these cool improvements to FFVII after not touching it for 10 years.  I followed the instructions on http://fem1.uniag.sk/Miroslav.Jezik/ff7ncopam.html (which are repeated in a lot of places).  However, I'm not seeing the new NPC models on the field.
Videos are working fine.
I patched to 1.02 and applied the high res patch.  That is working fine.
I applied the high res Cloud patch for battle scenes. That is working.

As for the NPC recontruction patch:
I have the English US version of the game.
I made sure that it was the original versions of char.lgp, chocobo.lgp and world_us.lgp in the directory. char.lgp was of size 47,842KB.
I used LGPtools to extract char.lgp to a char subdirectory.
I applied the patch which worked a while and reported success.
I then use LGPtools to create a new archive called char.lgp from the char subdirectory. That char.lgp is size 60,171KB. 

However, in the game, it is still using all the default models on the field.  :-(
Anyone have suggestions as to what might be wrong?
Note: I did NOT apply the hand patch.

Thanks
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Hi

I am new to this site and I first of all thank you for breathing new life in the best game of all time!! :mrgreen: I was just looking at how to make my version run in hardware mode but then I ran across this site  :-D

Anyway I seem to have the similar problem as Diamond when I intsalled the npc reconstruction patch. I have installed all the same thing as Diamond and I did a full installation. My thing is when I click on the executable, it opens the game the exits out to windows with no error.

My character Lgp file after running the lgp file is like 260 meg is that right? Also I put that file in the field folder?

This btw is the 2nd time I tried it. First time I tried the patch It made a differance only to Cloud on the world map but not the rest of the game so I thought I must have done it wrong.

If it helps I have the Aussie version of the game so I hope u are going to tell me it works on it!  :-D
 
I have spent the last hours combing the internet for the answer to this problem and this thread is the closest thing to it but not quite:

I have done the FULL installation, and I have followed every step to a "T", and my language settings were already set to USA, etc.

The Ficedula extraction goes fine and I double checked the FF7\data\field\CHAR folder to make sure the files are there.  But when I run the reconstruction project patch I get "the destination directory doesn't contain any files to update" - which is most certainly does. 

I am so close to victory and this happens........I nearly puked on my keyboard with frustration.  Please help.

- epi
 
I have spent the last hours combing the internet for the answer to this problem and this thread is the closest thing to it but not quite:
Click to expand...
Haha I Hope this is the closest thing to it since it's the official thread of this project  :-D.  So you have the direct answers from us, the developpers of the project.

Anyway this have been discused a lot.  Thing is that with the NPC intaller you have to target the folder: "...\final fantasy VII\data\" instead of: "...\final fantasy VII\data\field\char\".  This is some kind of mistake with the patcher.  I think it will be fixed with the next version.

hope it helped.
 
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Thing is that with the NPC intaller you have yo target the folder: "...\final fantasy VII\data\" instead of: "...\final fantasy VII\data\field\char\".  This is some kind of mistake with the patcher.  I think it will be fixed with the next version.

hope it helped.
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This is fixed in the current version, right? The installer displays the correct path now. Wanted to make a hex fix for it since next version release so I don't see any confused newbies anymore, but as I see targeting seems to be just fine now :)
 
This is fixed in the current version, right? The installer displays the correct path now. Wanted to make a hex fix for it since next version release so I don't see any confused newbies anymore, but as I see targeting seems to be just fine now :)
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Well the problem isn't the default path of the patcher.  It's the fact that it point to the "data" folder instead of the "char" folder. So, if someone didn't install the game into the default directory, they will have to redirect it.  And when they do redirect it, they redirect it to the "char" folder instead of the "data" folder.
 
Ok... got it ;) Thanks for making it clear anyway. BTW I'm playing the game from my widescreen laptop running Windows Vista with no errors at all :D

EDIT: Runs even smoother than on XP. Didn't have any of the issues I used to have on XP till now. Weird, huh?




MOD EDIT: I'm not even going to ask why you would double post, only to quote your entire first post with nothing to add... I'll just delete. I'm the Deletor!
 
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hello everyone!!!

it'a been 1 year since i downloaded the npc construction project!

and it works nicely, i like the models... looks more, cool =D

well anyway!!! its been awhile since i've been here, i guess i just wanna know hows everyone doin!

any news on the patch?

cheers  :mrgreen:
 
Well, I'm doing fine thanks for asking hehe.

Now into the news.  Ice_cold did a lot of new models since the last version of the patch.  Borde improved a lot Kimera which makes our work a lot easier. And for me, well, I've been working a lot on a model that I made from the scratch with 3DS Max.  At first it was a test I made but it turned out fine so I think I gonna use it ingame hehe.  I'm almost done texturing I'll just have to modify one texture and it will be fine.

Here a shot of this model:

I think I don't have to tell you which one is before and which one is after  :-D. (Click on the image for bigger view)

Here a shot of the face of the model:

(Click on the image for bigger view)

After this model I think I'll start to redo some main character (field and battle) because it's starting to get weird since some field model actually looks better than the main characters's battle models:-P.
 
Your model looks really great i think! I cant wait till the next release!

PS: in fact i can wait, because FF7 doesnt work for me at the moment...  :-(
 
Wow! thats so cool! as expected from mr.stormmedia! =D

Wheres Ice_cold now?

So whats the version of the npc reconstruction patch now? last year I think what i downloaded was v0.5
 
Hey just curios but what, out of all the field characters made you decide to do the snow lady. Just asking because it just seems a rather obscure character to pick, nice work with her though by the way.
 
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