FF8 Launcher - Custom resolutions and 8-bit paletted textures fix (patch)

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Hi I tried installing the visual c++ file but whenever I try to install it, this comes up:

errorbh4.jpg


Anyone know what it means cos I'm a bit of a computer moron!
My comp spec:
Asus notebook pro31 series
Vista Biz 32-bit
1015MB memory
Intel Core Duo T2350 1.86ghz
Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family
thanks a bunch!
 
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Hey Grandmaster! :)
Everything is working fine here... i just found an old loader "ff8w" that was able to launch the game in window mode.. does not work in vista of course. :( ^^
Maybe you will add such a functionality? :)
-Luc-
 
hey thanks a lot for the help!
Just something really weird is going on...
I installed the Visual C++ and it's fine but now I still can't load the newest version of the ff8 launcher.
Don't know if I'm right but I was thinking of something about that 1.2 patch that Lucleonhart mentioned earlier.
What is it?

OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!11 It worxxxx... Did a stupid trick and it works!!!
Now a tut how to do this:

Got FF8 to run on Vista x86 without any Graphic Glitches
You need:


Now installing:

  • Install FF8 normally, EAX will install itself at the end of the installation
  • Copy 1.2 patch files to installation directory (no Game subfoler at all!)
  • Copy the loader files to the installation directory
  • Install the Visual C++ 2008 runtime
  • Got to the software deinstallation in the control center and UNINSTALL eax unified
  • Extract the new downloaded eax.dll to {Windir}/system32

Now the fun:

  • Run FF8_Loader.exe, Set Resolution to whatever, check the 8bit paletted texture fix checkbox, click PLAY and enjoy! :)
Click to expand...
Or maybe I typed something wrong in the command prompt
I followed the advice from the thread that magixts gave me

"Turns out I had a corrupt transaction log on my C drive. There was an fsutil command that i ran at the command prompt:
fsutil resource setautoreset c:\ <enter>
ran that command, rebooted, and 1.3.1 installed without a hitch"

so I typed: fsutil resource setautoreset c:\ true
is that right or did i muck up?
thanks so much!
 
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Lucleonhart:
I did a few tests to try and make it windowed before I started working on the custom resolutions. I got it to run in a window and while you could hear everything working in the background the entire window was black. I didn't do much of any debugging on it before I shifted focus to custom resolutions so it's possible I could pick it up again. It's almost guaranteed that it should be possible on both xp and vista.

Haven't done a lot of coding over New Years but what I'm working on currently is to port the launcher to work with Final Fantasy VII. My Final Fantasy VII does not work in XP though since I have a GeForce 8800GTX and from what I understand there's some kind of driver issue. The errors I get are very elaborate and probably not something that can be easily worked around so I'm stuck with Vista.

alysun:
If you got the Visual C++ 2008 Runtime Redistributable to install but still can't load the launcher then what error are you getting now?

The 1.2 patch that Lucleonhart was talking about is the official 1.2 patch from Eidos. There are two versions; one meant for Nvidia GPUs and another generic one.

The fsutil command was mean to fix the previous error with installing "Visual C++ 2008 Runtime Redistributable" that you posted a screenshot of. From reading your last post I gather it worked, no?
 
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The visual C++ runtime worked after the advice from the threads (thanks so much!) but the launcher is still not working, still has the "application is either in unknown format or corrupted" message.
Hmm whenever I download the launcher it's only 6kb, and that's all the versions.
Is it supposed to be that small, for all versions?
If not, then there's obviously a problem... grr

and I can't see the visual c++ program in my list of programs for uninstallation in control panel... am I supposed to or is it normal for it not to be seen?

The weird thing about this is that I can now play the game after putting the eax.dll in the installation directory of FF8 but it's small, the game display only takes up a quarter of the screen excpt its in the middle and I want to play it in full screen. I tried configuring it in the FF8 config but it's still not full screen. and it's like that for all games I play, it used to be normal full screen mode but recently you can only play games in this quarter center screen mode! anyone know how to fix this?
 
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The launcher archive (.rar) that you download should be about 40-50kb. When you extract it (using winrar or .rar extraction software) you should have 4 files: FF8_Launcher.exe (~30kb), dx_hook.dll (~70kb), config.cfg (~1kb) and readme.txt (~9kb).

The Visual C++ 2008 Runtime Redistributable not showing up in Add/Remove Programs is not a problem.

If both FF8 and other games only occupy a small area in the center of the screen it's likely because you have a LCD monitor, are not running the game at your monitors native resolution and have "Flat Panel Scaling" set to not scale the image in the preferences for your graphics card (for Nvidia cards: NVIDIA Control Panel -> Display -> Flat Panel Scaling).
 
Heyy Magixts

I was wondering if I can put in a request for something to be put on the patch?
I was thinking, maybe you can put in like a Windowed Screen box that we can select, since you put in a stretched screen option so that we can do other stuff like forum jump or I.M while we're playing :D:D

Just an idea :lol:
=]

xLoveLikeWinterx


ps: I had a little bit of lag in the World Map.. Not sure if its coz of the patch, but maybe someone should check it out?  :?

 
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thanks heaps!!
Got it to work now XD :-D :-D
Now with the fun! :mrgreen:
 
I've been waiting for this for a looong time, thanks a lot. Just one problem... It works normaly if the resolution is the original one, but when I put it on 1280x960, I get gridlines on the menus and backgrounds (Note: Expert mode is checked)

I tried with both the 1.2 Nvidia patch and Non-Nvidia. I have a GeForce 7600GS, BTW.

Any thoughts?
 
xlovelikewinterx:
I might look into adding support for windowed-mode if I have the time. I have worked on it previously but did not finish before moving on to working on implementing custom resolutions.

If I don’t add it I’m sure someone else could when I release the source for the launcher.

alysun:
I’m glad you finally got it working! :)

terid_k:
Did you use the hotkeys that are enabled in Expert Mode to adjust the uv-map compensation? The hotkey are as follows:
- Decrease background-texture uv-map adjustment (ctrl+, [CTRL+COMMA])
- Increase background-texture uv-map adjustment (ctrl+. [CTRL+PERIOD])
- Decrease interface-texture uv-map adjustment (alt+, [ALT+COMMA])
- Increase interface-texture uv-map adjustment (alt+. [ALT+PERIOD])
 
Thanks, it looks the way it should now. Congrats on the tool. Did you consider enabling 32-bit support?

Edit: The FSAA settings are greyed out for me. It won't accept anything other than global configuration, is it supposed to be like that?
 
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Thanks, it looks the way it should now. Congrats on the tool. Did you consider enabling 32-bit support?

Edit: The FSAA settings are greyed out for me. It won't accept anything other than global configuration, is it supposed to be like that?
Click to expand...
Enabling 32-bit really messes up the graphics, I haven't looked into it any more than that yet.

FSAA settings can be set in the NVIDIA Control Panel -> 3D Settings -> Manage 3D Settings. I originally intended for it to be an option that could be set from within the launcher (hence the option being there but grayed out) but it turned out that the Direct3D version being used by the game only supported one setting. The launcher however enables support for FSAA in the game through global and application specific settings by supplying the user with a way to deal with the graphical glitches that it causes (uv-map compensation).
 
Wow, nice find on the eax.dll that fixes the launching of it.

I finally get to use it.. after trying everything under the sun! Now my game has huge graphical lag, and i barely get like 10 FPS. I give up, jesus hates me.

(for the record, Geforce 8600 GTS, Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2gb ram, no AA on, forceware 169.25 drivers)

Glad that vista people will finally get to enjoy it though.
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I really wish I could help you with this problem but I have no idea what might cause it. Ryg reported that the launcher worked on his AMD Athlon X2 6000+, NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS and there are others that have had it running on GeForce 8600GTS cards as well. And you were running 32-bit OS so it couldn't be that either...

It would be really weird if this problem is limited to FF8 and the Launcher alone. You haven't had any similar problems in other games? That would probably be an easier way to finding a fix as the userbase is most certainly larger.
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I've been on vacation since posting. No, I have zero problems in any other games. That really only consists of EQ2 and some really basic games though. I got home tonight and decided to play again. I've figured out the problem though, and I feel like a big dumby.

The NOCD "crack" i was using was for non geforce cards. I had a geforce crack, but it quit working after disk1, and all I could find was a non-gf crack. I found a gf 1.2 no-cd exe tonight, ran it, and the game runs perfectly using your launcher.

So for the other guy that had a "good" system like myself and experienced massive lag, you may wanna check that.

[link removed]
 
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But... there's no way to play the movies if you use no CD. The movies are all stored within the CDs and, unlike FF7, you can't copy them to your Hard Drive. It's better to make an iso out of your CDs and mount it on DAEMON Tools.
 
But... there's no way to play the movies if you use no CD. The movies are all stored within the CDs and, unlike FF7, you can't copy them to your Hard Drive. It's better to make an iso out of your CDs and mount it on DAEMON Tools.
Click to expand...
We're getting completely off topic, but if that's the case then someone can just use the 1.2 gf .exe w/o a no-cd crack and be fine. My whole post was just referring to the problem-solution that myself and a very few select others were experiencing when using the Launcher.
 
i tried the launcher all versions and all i get is an error saying "The Application has failed to start because its side by side configuration is incorrect". I'm using windows Vista Ultimate, with 2gigs of ram, nvidia 8800gts 320Mb graphics card and realtek Highdef 7.1 sound and i have an xbox360 controller connected to usb. any ideas why I'm getting this error, tried running as administrator and stuff but it makes no difference.
 
i tried the launcher all versions and all i get is an error saying "The Application has failed to start because its side by side configuration is incorrect". I'm using windows Vista Ultimate, with 2gigs of ram, nvidia 8800gts 320Mb graphics card and realtek Highdef 7.1 sound and i have an xbox360 controller connected to usb. any ideas why I'm getting this error, tried running as administrator and stuff but it makes no difference.
Click to expand...
I got that once, IIRC, i didn't overwrite all the previous [version] files. I'd try re-extracting to the folder you're running it from.

And there's nothing wrong with vista. People who whine about vista sucking either run some obscure ass software or just like to repeat what they read on some random website.
 
Ok i didn't install it over previous versions so that can't be it but i read in a previous message that i need Visual c++ 2008 re-dist so I'm gonna try that to see if it works and i Will let you know and i agree with you there is nothing wrong with Vista I've been using it since it was released and the only trouble i had was finding a compatible firewall when it first came out apart from that i have had no trouble with Vista what so ever and i find it easy to use.

Ok i installed Visual c++ 2008 redist and it starts but when i click on play ff8 i now get the message CreateProcess(ff8.exe) returned error code: Error Code 2 Which means nothing to me so any ideas?  BTW i'm using the latest version of Directx its dated Nov2007
 
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