FF8 Enhancing

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Yes but i can't actually stand the sub pixel accuracy problem PSX has :/ in fact i hate it, and it just stops me thinking about the game itself. this is only on emulator for some reason though.

if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
 
Yes but i can't actually stand the sub pixel accuracy problem PSX has :/ in fact i hate it, and it just stops me thinking about the game itself. this is only on emulator for some reason though.

if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
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Sub pixel accuracy? o.O Could you make a screenie of whatya mean? Because I don't really see any problems o.o
 
I can't make a screenshot of it because it isnt actually a graphical glitch. The PSX uses a 640x480  resolution, i think. On a Televesion with a real PSX, this is fine. but on a computer with a HD screen, 640x480 is Just simply not good enough. With ePSXe or the like, you can up the resolution. just by a little bit makes it playable, but the problem with this is that the PSX doesn't know how to smoothly move Verticies, since it's never needed to, due to the low resolution. But without this knowledge, You get these awful gittery Verticies and i can't concentrate on anything else. The PC version moves the verticies 100% smoothly, and that's why i'm using it. ePSXe is also especially bad at running FF8.
 
I can't make a screenshot of it because it isnt actually a graphical glitch. The PSX uses a 640x480  resolution, i think. On a Televesion with a real PSX, this is fine. but on a computer with a HD screen, 640x480 is Just simply not good enough. With ePSXe or the like, you can up the resolution. just by a little bit makes it playable, but the problem with this is that the PSX doesn't know how to smoothly move Verticies, since it's never needed to, due to the low resolution. But without this knowledge, You get these awful gittery Verticies and i can't concentrate on anything else. The PC version moves the verticies 100% smoothly, and that's why i'm using it. ePSXe is also especially bad at running FF8.
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Uhm not really o.O With Pete's OpenGL2 plugin it works perfectly smooth.
 
I can't make a screenshot of it because it isnt actually a graphical glitch. The PSX uses a 640x480  resolution, i think. On a Televesion with a real PSX, this is fine. but on a computer with a HD screen, 640x480 is Just simply not good enough. With ePSXe or the like, you can up the resolution. just by a little bit makes it playable, but the problem with this is that the PSX doesn't know how to smoothly move Verticies, since it's never needed to, due to the low resolution. But without this knowledge, You get these awful gittery Verticies and i can't concentrate on anything else. The PC version moves the verticies 100% smoothly, and that's why i'm using it. ePSXe is also especially bad at running FF8.
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I haven't ever played the PC version for reference, but I think I know what you mean. I assume bone positions get blended in fixed point on the PSX, and blocky aliasing probably hides the "space" between frames more at lower resolutions, but the finite range of motion probably becomes much more apparent at higher resolutions. Although I can't say I've ever actually noticed it as being significant when playing FF8 in ePSXe. The other thing to consider is that the emulator might just be frameskipping now and then, making animations appear far more broken up.
 
Look.png


This is the best i can explain it. look at the soldiers right leg in both pictures. he's hardly moved at all, and a vertex on his leg like teleports up quite a lot in the space of half a second, without it moving smoothly.  the best way i can explain it is that the verticies "teleport" to the place they should be every second or so, rather than "Moving" there. I read an FAQ in the ePSXe forums, and they said this is because of "sub-pixel accuracy". its ok, until i think about it, then it's all i can think about. i guess i'll make a video if you guys still dont get me.
 
I think you are describing what I just descibed, NeoCloudstrife. :) "Sub-pixel accuracy" doesn't refer to any kind of sub-pixel rendering in your active framebuffer resolution - it just means that at higher resolutions and with non-software renderers, there is more precision at the point of the model's rasterization (given the size of the polygon on screen and/or anti-aliasing factors), and so you can see more gaps in between animation frames, where before it was hidden by a cluster of blocky pixels due to less precise rasterization.

I actually noticed the hops in animations in many of those characters in the PSX FF8 when first playing through it, they are just harder to see when obscured by blockiness. I'm mildly surprised that they would go to the trouble of adding smoother animation lerping to the PC FF8, but it's nice that they did (if they did).

Sub-pixel accuracy is kind of an incorrect term (it makes sense in a given context, but that's not the context you'd immediately think of when hearing it). I would call it "higher pixel granularity" or something.
 
:lol: Alright, then. thanks for clearing that up! And yeah, looks like Eidos did a MUCH better job of porting FF8 to PC than they did with FF7.
 
Is there any chance I can get help with the issue of the FF8 Configurator?  I checked back after my post and the links on his site are now broken.  I'd like to be able to start playing the game, but the music is so horrible and I'd rather not play without it.  Anyone have a clean copy of this thing?
 
:lol: Alright, then. thanks for clearing that up! And yeah, looks like Eidos did a MUCH better job of porting FF8 to PC than they did with FF7.
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Then you clearly didn't try Pete's latest OpenGL2.0 driver. The problem you mention shows up only in the old D3D plugin.
 
Doesn't Neo have Vista? It would explain why he was using DX, because Vista has a lot of problems with OpenGL generally.  :wink:
 
I do have vista. But i was using the OpenGL2.0 plugin, thats what i took the pics with. believe me, i've tried every plugin.
 
Edit: Checked on virusscan.jotti.org and virustotal.com.  Both sites report that this file seems to be a false positive when using AVG as infected with a trojan horse.
 
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Hey guys.

I've decided to get FFVIII out again thanks to the guys in work constantly talking about it. I've got a lot of useful information from this thread, so thanks a lot for the advice.

I'm almost set up now, but I'm having some issues with my 360 controller while using XBCD. The analog stick works fine in most menus and when exploring, but it's barely functional when trying to navigate through the options during a battle (Attack, GF, Magic, etc). I tried playing with the deadzone, the range and the scale but nothing seems to remedy the problem.

Has anyone else had a similar issue? And does anyone have any solutions?

Any help is much appreciated.

Edit: Nevermind, I managed to fix the issue by dropping the scale on the X axis right down.
 
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I have an offer for whoever wants it, im already doing high quality models for ff7 and im going to make high quality models for 8 too if anyone interested.  If anyone wants to do a patch like that just let me know.
 
Hi.
I've installed FF8, applied patch 1.2 and "FF8 Launcher", but I have a problem. I've got freezes every 10-15 min of playing (through "Launcher"). Freezes occur only during conversation and card games (not in combat), when they do the music keeps playing, but screen freezes (I can even hear cursor moving behind the freeze - "beep", but I can't choose anything, so it's not only the display's fault [I can't play from behind freeze]).

The only solution is alt-f4, and start over from the savepoint. I think this problem does not exist on "software render" as long as I was playing, while normal "Direct 3d" is not playable (8-bit pallet bug).

It can be anything that's causing this. Does anyone heard of the problem that I've got ? If not then it may be my PC determined.

WinXp 32bit, Athlon 3000+, GF 7600, SB X-fi
 
I'd like to add that if anyone has problems with instruments not playing in Vista (and they sure do because of how Vista handles audio) especialy when using custom DLS (like Samuel's) there is a way to fix it by putting an "old" dmsynth.dll (aka Microsoft Synthesizer) file in the game directory. The file can be downloaded here.
I tested this on 64bit Vista and it works like a charm.
This dll file and the marvelous FF8 Launcher from magixts bring this game into the modern era,what more can a ff8 fan ask for? :)
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Another addition to this issue.
With SP2 for Vista they updated the dmsynth.dll as well.The best part of it is that many games got surround sound back, and a lot of games work as they should now (if they had issues because of sound).
It also fixes the missing instruments issue in FF8 when using the "Microsoft Synthesizer" as the device which is necessary for Samuel's DLS and gives the best sound.
It's nothing new for FF8 because it worked great with the method I wrote before but just as information, another way you can get normal sound back is by installing Service Pack 2 for Vista or just using the dmsynth.dll from it.

Also, I tested it on Windows 7 RC too and it works.
If anyone wants only this dll - download here
You can put it in the game directory just like the previous, older dll that fixed the problem (I see 71 downloads, looks like it was usefull) but there is no reason to do it because the old one works just as fine.

So why would you need it? If you have sound issues with other games too and not just with FF8, this new dmsynth.dll will likely fix those problems too, on Vista and Windows 7 (currently RC status).I noticed that I got surround sound back again in all the games that didn't want to use surround in Vista and Win7 and Metal Gear Solid 2 actually starts, without sound issues+surround and is playable untill the end!
For it to work on a "global" level, you have to put the dll in C:\Windows\System32 ...the old dll there may have some protection, so you have to "own" it to delete/rename :P
 
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Does anyone else find that FF8 slowly gets jerkier and jerkier over time of playing?
 
Does anyone else find that FF8 slowly gets jerkier and jerkier over time of playing?
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nope, i dont find that at all. maybe its your PC.

anyway, i have a problem. i like to play FF games as i remember them, and as such, this means low resolution and software rendering. however, although software rendering maybe a lot less glitchy with models, it does annoing things to menu textures as well as some text.
Screenshot of problems
any way i can fix this without having to swith to Direct3D? (which i hate, and it ruins the experience and nostaligia for me)
 
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