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FFVII on Windows XP: problems?

Posted: 21st February 2005 19:46

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Quote (Tiddles)
A word of warning on the PC version: it's pretty difficult to get it working well on a modern system. Not impossible, but by far the best way to run FF7 is on a Windows 9x system with a 3dfx graphics card.

On a better system, I'd tend to recommend PSX emulation, though you can't get the graphics looking quite as nice, and you don't get the dialogue fixes from the PC that way.

As for me, I last played through in 2002. I've briefly been back since, mostly for data checking and graphics captures, but I just don't have much time now. I still have very fond memories of my first run through the game, but personally, I don't think any FF I've played replays especially well.


Does this explain the fact that my PC copy of FFVII crashed at the start of the first chocobo race?

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Posted: 21st February 2005 20:21

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Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 21st February 2005 14:46)
Does this explain the fact that my PC copy of FFVII crashed at the start of the first chocobo race?

Not 100% necessarily, but the odds are good. There is a patch for this at http://www.qhimm.com/ that should, but again, not 100% will, fix your problem.

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Posted: 21st February 2005 20:25

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Yeah, there are patches around for the chocobo race issue that are definitely stable and worth applying. I'd recommend getting it from a known reliable source like qhimm.com rather than through potentially dodgier installers elsewhere. There are also some patches on the Eidos site that might help with other issues (they may even have that one too now).

Even then, getting it to work with hardware rendering is a pain, and it looks like crap without it (and doesn't run too snappily either). The feature needed to make it work properly seems to get broken in every other driver release from both NVidia and ATi because it's rarely used, and even when it is working, you need some ungodly combination of some patched, some unpatched files from the old TNT patch, from what I remember. And even with all THAT fixed, having any kind of antialiasing enabled on newer cards tends to make the font screwy. (Works fine on a Geforce 2, though.)
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Posted: 26th February 2005 01:47

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No you just need to know how to instasll it right you need to go into install wizard manually in the start menu i don't know exactly where it is but it's on all xp comps when you get it from the factory and just go from there

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Posted: 26th February 2005 01:59

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GMH, I had the exact same problem.... how weird is that o.o?

Well, the same problem if you mean the chocobo race when you're...
Possible spoilers: highlight to view
Trying to escape corel prison


I heard there was a patch for FFVII for the chocobo race problem, but since I no longer have FFVII on my pc i didn't bother to get it. 'Tis a shame I don't remember the site.

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Posted: 26th February 2005 09:59

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Ummm strife they posted the site just above.

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Posted: 26th February 2005 10:21

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Quote (Zeil @ 26th February 2005 01:47)
No you just need to know how to instasll it right you need to go into install wizard manually in the start menu i don't know exactly where it is but it's on all xp comps when you get it from the factory and just go from there

No. There are still frequently problems making the game run with 3D hardware acceleration, i.e. not looking and running like crap. It has nothing to do with using any wizard that came with XP.

If you can live with running the game without hardware acceleration, and you apply the chocobo patch, then yes, you can make the game work.
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Posted: 26th February 2005 16:59

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What's hardware acceleration?

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Posted: 26th February 2005 19:38

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Using your video card to "do" the visual effects where possible, leading to increased speed and visual quality. The most obvious visual difference I noticed in the brief time I used software mode was the horrible pixelation of textures.
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Posted: 26th February 2005 20:53

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I think I get what you're saying, but I'm not sure how to turn it on/off...are you referring to the various installation choices? I generally go for as full an installation as possible, and I don't remember having problems when I played the game.

(I know this is starting to become a one-to-one conversation but I'm still posting this because I think other people might benefit from this information.)

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Posted: 26th February 2005 21:26

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The option is available when you run the FF7 config program. It's available regardless of installation options. Underneath the area where you select, there are a list of tests for 3D acceleration compatibility which should say PASS or FAIL next to them (8-bit palettized textures frequently fails on modern cards).

You may not be able to change the option if FF7 is too stupid to recognise your video card. In other cases, you may be able to select it, but it'll just break horribly. If you've collected all 50 horseshoes hidden in your town, it might have a chance of working.
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Posted: 27th February 2005 02:33

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Ummm strife they posted the site just above.


Wow, didn't realize the link. (Seriously, I only read like 2 posts before I added my 2 cents, ^-^)

..... Either way, I had a different site in mind. ^-^

Does that patch work to fix the problem? Cause if it does I'll install my FFVII again, (Id' hate to play through the game bak to that point to find the patch does not work o.o)

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Posted: 27th February 2005 09:02

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The patch does indeed fix the chocobo race crash.
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Posted: 27th February 2005 20:46

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The patch does indeed fix the chocobo race crash.


Thanks, I'll have to give it a shot then ^-^.

This post has been edited by Strife543 on 3rd March 2005 15:25

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Posted: 27th February 2005 20:52

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What about the problems outlined here?:

http://www.sofotex.com/cgi-bin/ls/reviews.cgi?ID=5052&nh=3

It seems someone got a patch then had other crash problems.

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Posted: 28th February 2005 18:20

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I gave up on getting my PC Copy to work. I got a patch to fix the chocobo races, and I got a patch to make it more compatible w/ my new video card, but there is no way to get it to not look like crap on my current system. Eidos or whoever did a pretty crappy job on that game.

I can verify that they do have copies of these patches on the Eidos website, as well as links to 3rd party fixes for things they don't officially support.

This post has been edited by The Ancient on 28th February 2005 18:48

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Posted: 28th February 2005 18:29

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http://forums.qhimm.com/viewtopic.php?t=1656

That's why we said to get the one off Qhimm's site. It's only 23K, not 8MB, which is stupid since IIRC it's basically one memory address that needs changing to fix the chocobo error.

Other crashes are not likely to be related to this patch, but just in case, it's easy to keep a backup of FF7.exe and swap it back to work around them.
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