Final Fantasy VII

[IsomorphicGroup]

I was just wondering if anyone has been able to get Final Fantasy VII to run with 3-D graphics on the Matrox G400. The G400 is great but having to run FF7 in software mode is getting on my nerves!

[uberlad]

I have it working fine in D3D, using the 5.30 drivers. Got directX7, but I think I let FF install its own DX drivers (didn't do anything).

Doubt that's any help but at least you know it _can_ work.

Uberlad

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Celery 366@550
128Mb 133Mhz SDRAM
G400MAX, MonsterSound MX300

[HollyBerri]

From Eidos' Tech Support site for FF7:

Final Fantasy VII currently supports 3D accelerator video cards that pass the criteria contained in the FF7 Configuration graphic card test. At release time, the game supports the cards that contain any of the
following chipsets:

3Dfx Voodoo
3Dfx Voodoo2
3Dfx Voodoo Rush
3Dlabs Permedia2
ATI Rage Pro
Intel I740
Matrox G200

Why do you have to run in SW mode, then???

Perhaps you have some other problem...?

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Holly

[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 01 February 2000).]

[HollyBerri]

more from Eidos Tech Support:

DirectX 6 is Micrsoft's latest endeavor to standardize game programming for Windows 9x. This update has had mixed results with Final Fantasy 7 and we do not recommended for use with the game. Final Fantasy 7 was developed using DirectX 5.2.

Some users have found that DirectX 6 has helped with the game performance, but more often than not it creates problems. This is (as of this writing) because there are no DirectX 6 hardware drivers available.
Any problems you have with Final Fantasy 7 and DirectX 6 must be addressed to Microsoft or your hardware manufacturer.

Well, we do have DX6 drivers, but maybe uberlad is on the right track....

What, exactly, happens when you try to run in HW-accelerated mode??

System specifications (CPU/CPU speed, motherboard make and model or at least chipset, installed hardware components, operating system and version, DX version) might be helpful at this point... you really might have some other problem... do other games run correctly??

---------------------
Holly


[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 01 February 2000).]

[IsomorphicGroup]

I'm running the 5.30 drivers and DirectX 7. The problem is that in the FF7 configuration window, it only lets me select software mode. There is no option to go to D3D.
I'm going to try "installing" the DX 5 drivers like you guys suggested. Here is my full config:

PII-450 (440BX motherboard)
128 MB RAM
Matrox Millennium G400
Win 98 SE

All other games like Ultima IX and Thief detect the G400 fine. But, as I said, FF7 will not let me select anything besides software mode.

Thanks to all of you who have replied and thanks in advance for any future advice!

[Gurm]

The problem is that the G400 doesn't, by default, support 8-bit palletized textures. Try downloading one of the G400 tweakers (available from the MURC homepage)... one of them has an option to enable this, as I recall. Then reboot, and et voila!

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Minstrel]

It works just fine for me, DX7, driver 5.41. I didn't have to do anything wierd, and I didn't let FF7 install DX.

[Wombat]

I'm pretty sure that FF7 required a patch. Go check download.com, or somewhere like that.

[IsomorphicGroup]

Gurn,

Thanks to your good advice I finally got the darn thing to work! Woo-hoo!

[HollyBerri]

Wombat, I thought I remembered a patch as well... I even remember a whole TechWizard (I think this was on the Matrox site) section involving FF7 as one of the specific softwares you could choose as "your problem" (I was having trouble running the demo on the G200 back in the good ol' bad ol' pre-OGL days)... but I didn't see it anywhere, now that FF7 is old news...

But then again, I didn't do a full-bore search, just a thorough scan....

----------------------
Holly

[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 02 February 2000).]

[HollyBerri]

Yeah, I know, Gurm... I was just mentioning that I remember a patch as well and thought it might still be around, like the time someone was looking for that original D3D patch for ...was it Unreal?

Just thought this patch might have still been around like that one was... but it's probably been incorporated into the tweaker.

Not important, the problem's solved, I was just schmoozin'.

--------------------------------
Holly

[Gurm]

Holly,

Read my post above. Your handy-dandy G400 tweaker (you do have that installed, right?) fixes the problem. In fact I think Matrox's own tweaker includes that setting (8-bit palletized) but I'm not 100% sure.

- Gurm

------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.