Ah alright thanks for the explanation. Guess we have to wait for someone to make somekind of patch for that aswell then? Well anyways I'm kind of satisfied enough being able to play with hardware acceleration.

I have uploaded version 1.1 of the Final Fantasy VIII Launcher which can be found here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/78672746/ff8_launcher_v1.1.rar

This new version adds very early/basic support for custom resolutions within the game.

The 1920x1440 resolution works well with only minor glitches experienced so far.

Other resolutions exhibit the same texture corruption that can be replicated through forcing most FSAA settings to enabled. I have yet to find any workaround that eliminates the artifacts entirely. It seems to be a hardware or possibly Direct3D Immediate Mode issue with texture sampling when small textures are scaled to fit vertices that span a larger area. It is possible that this does not happen on ATI cards but not certain and I have no way to test.


I have worked to add support for Vista in this version and recoded the hooks to support the security limitations in the OS. Sadly when I tried it on my brothers' computer with Vista x64 it only led to more artifacts. I can't do any tests on Vista x32 but chances are slim that it will work.

My English is very poor. I hope you guys could understand what I say.

I have GeForce 7600GS(ForceWare 163.71), V1.0 patch can resolve black boxes question.

Tonight I will test V1.1 patch on ForceWare 93.71 and 94.24, and the NOCD Crack exe too.

If anyone is playing Final Fantasy XI, there is a new beta driver for you.

169.28

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=55036&hl=

If anybody can not run the patch, try to use this:

1.download D3DWindower
2.Add "FF8.exe"(not the PATCH's EXE) into D3DWindower
3.Click "Settings..." button
4.Inut or choose the full path of dx_hook.dll into DLL textarea
5. Use D3DWindower run FF8.exe

BTW:I do not know whether D3DWindower can support for Vista.

I just logged a session with all textures loaded plus their handles and compared it to a log of all vertices and their coordinates and UV mappings. From this information I was able to extract the structure of background- and interface textures and how they are mapped and drawn in 3d-space.

With this information I have modified the draw-calls to translate the UV-maps of all vertices in background- and interface textures to compensate for the overlap caused by the inaccuracy of directx/hardware rutines for texture filtering.

The result is exceptional; there are hardly any artifacts left in any resolution (even non-even multiples of the original resolution) from what I've seen in my testruns.
16xQ FSAA and 16x Anisotopic Filtering can be forced through the NVIDIA Control Panel and works without corruption.

Here's the updated version 1.2 of the Launcher:
http://rapidshare.com/files/78767857/ff8_launcher_v1.2.rar

omg this works nicEEEEE thanxs a lot you`re the best
running on 8800gt (8x fsaa, 16 anisotopic
Q6600
3gb ram
2*500 hd western digital sataII
windows xp 32
forceware 169.28
XFI fatality

good work.

Thank you very much magixts! Now the characters are more beautiful.
It would be so great if you did the same with the decors...

No problem.

Sadly, the textures are hard to enhance without redoing all the work that the original artists put into creating them. There are programmatic ways of enhancing 2d graphics (most notably seen in emulators etc.) but they often rely on advanced features in current hardware and the results are varied and up to personal preference. Final Fantasy VIII is implemented with DirectX 6.1 which leaves much to be wanted and there's no support for pixel shaders etc. that are commonly used to implement these enhancements.

Minor update of the Final Fantasy VIII Launcher brings the current version to 1.21.

What's new in version 1.21:
- Additional custom resolutions have been added (1152x864, 1600x1200, 2048x1536) [If you know any other standard 4:3 resolutions that I have missed out on, give me a shout]
- FSAA / Anisotopic Filtering fix is now applied in 640x480 in addition to all custom resolutions from version 1.2

Version 1.21 download link:
http://rapidshare.com/files/79037441/ff8_launcher_v1.21.rar

Very Good work magixts. Thank you very much. You've solved a very long problem in this very long thread.

There, i registered just to thank you.

You're the man.

Glad you like it!



Version 1.3 is now available to download below:
http://rapidshare.com/files/79664278/ff8_launcher_v1.3.rar

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package is required to run version 1.3 of the launcher due to being built using Visual Studio 2008 instead of 2005:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&DisplayLang=en

[ Version 1.3 ]
- Vista x32 is now supported
- Non 4:3 aspect-ratio resolutions added. The display is padded with black borders to retain original
4:3 picture aspect-ratio.
- Texture flickering on black borders fixed
- New option "Expert Mode" enabled advanced control of display properties. See OPTIONS in the readme.txt for more details.

magixts its there a way you can get to work final fantasy 7 like you did with 8 ? im know im asking too much but i just wanted to ask you,
by the way the 1.3 patch its working great, i have control over the lines with 1280*1024 very nice work

It's not impossible, they are both likely to be pretty much the same as far as DirectX goes. Sadly FF7 has some major trouble with incompability with XP and game-breaking bugs. I tried to run it just now with and without the inofficial XP patch and it wont even start.

oh sorry to hear that, yeah i tink final 7 has some mayor problems with xp and new graphics, i suppose that you tried tnt patch cause it works for me that way but the characters look dark T_T, anyway very good work with the last patch it fixes everything with final 8

Got ahold of another version of the game that worked better. With the nvidia 1.02 patch installed the game runs but I get the same issue that I bet you have when you say the characters look dark; For me most menus etc. are covered in black and all characters/npcs/monsters are black aswell.

Have run some logs on the game and it does indeed seem to work very similar to FF8. The big difference I've found is that it queries for earlier versions of most DirectDraw and Direct3D interfaces but seemingly end up using the same versions of the interfaces as FF8 in the end. FF8 use the IDirectDraw4, IDirect3D3 and IDirect3DDevice3 interfaces while FF7 in addition to those interfaces make a bunch of calls to IDirectDraw2, IDirect3D2 and others that I'm not yet able to log.

I'll need to add hooks for the interfaces that are not used in FF8 to get the full overview which is a dull job (copy & paste old hooks and make changes to hundreds of lines of code). The DirectX 6.1 SDK that I got ahold of does not cover these interfaces in great detail so I'll also have to find the SDK for version 5 which is easier said than done today.

Dear friends, I am using the patch version 1.21 in my system (Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H, Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.80GHz, HDD 320Gb Seagate Barracuda SATA-2 16Mb Cache, 1Gb (2x512) DDR2 PC 6400 800MHz Corsair XMS2 5-5-5-12, EVGA GeForce 7600GT + Evercool Turbo 2 Heat Pipe dissipator, ASUS DRW-1814BLT LightScribe, Samsung 932B Plus Monitor and this is my History:

The game begins very well but to the few minutes it begins to slow down little by little until finally the image of the game is freezed, but the sound still continue.

This problem can be fixed on future versions of this patch???

Please, respond my question more soon possible.

Att: Megabytedesu

megabytedesu i tink that problem its not from the patch because the only thing that the patch does its fix the black box with geforce and to me its working great, maybe you should check if this happens with the official patch from squaresoft, if this doesnt happen then maybe it is the patch from magixts, but i dont beleave that its magixts patch


magixts reading your post i see that to get ff7 working its a hard work


i tink you have done a lot with ff8 patch

Well, I am using the offiial Geforce Patch from Squaresoft in order to correct the problem of the square lines in the image of the game.

Am going to reinstalll the game to apply the patch directly without apply the squaresoft patch.

This is a ForceWare driver's problem. I've got the same problems with 169.21. And it doesn't matter whether the launcher is used or not. With 163.75 everything works fine. I didn't try other versions.

New version 1.31 of the launcher:
http://rapidshare.com/files/80132624/ff8_launcher_v1.31.rar

What's new in version 1.31:
- New option "Stretch 4:3 Aspect Ratio" stretches the picture to the full screen width and height without maintaining original 4:3 picture aspect ratio. OPTION ONLY APPLIES TO NON-4:3 RESOLUTIONS.
- Added 1366x768 custom resolution.
- Fixed UV-map Compensation bug that made it impossible to remove all line-artifacts in background textures (very noticeable in wide-screen resolutions.)
- Fixed bug where the entire Black Borders Flicker Fix was not included in the release build of version 1.3 as intended.

Ok, no problem, am going to try that you say me. I can see that the forceware version 163.75 have the old control panel, but I did not imagine that single for that reason it caused that great problem.

Very Thanks for your Help!!!

magixts, thank you! I'm using GeForce 5500 FX, it has the same problem (black squares). Your loader fixed it
I wonder... Battles in FF8 has 15 frames per second. Is there any possibility to make it 30 fps for example and add more screens, so the motion would be more smooth?
It's 3D action... so movement are coded in formulas (I think), and game checks values of the coordinates only 15 times per second (15 fps)... and I think there is a chance to make it take 30 times per second... Is it possible?
I hope you understand what I'm trying to say

Yes, it should be possible with assembly patching but not through DirectX hooks. It's not something I'm going to attempt but maybe someone else will.

Some problems with launcher:

1. Version 1.31 fixes black squares but doesn't work correct in menus (shows weird artifacts).. it works like it would do FF8.exe without launcher:

[attachmentid=6803] [attachmentid=6804]

version 1.21 works fine.

2. Tested in versions 1.21 and 1.31. When summoning Diablos there are no any bats or that rays... Look at screens:

Without launcher: [attachmentid=6805] [attachmentid=6806]

With launcher: [attachmentid=6807] [attachmentid=6808]

That black squares should be bats


My system is Athlon XP 2000+, 512 DDR, GeForce FX 5500 128MB.

The problem 1 were solved by installing new drivers for GeForce (ForceWare 169.21). Before that version 163.75 were installed.
Even without launcher there are no those strange artifacts in menus anymore.

Problem 2 is still actual.

By the way, I was wonder... I have GeForce FX 5500, so my video card supports 8-Bit paletted textures, right? So.. I should deal with driver... I have RivaTuner 2.06. I've found there the settings for Direct3d and DirectDraw called "Enable 8-Bit Paletted Texures". Those settings are both ON (for DirectX 7 and lower and for DirectX 8 and higher). But it doesn't help me... Why? )

The first one has to do with the uv-map compensation setting in the launcher. If you enable Expert mode it can be tweaked to remove any visible artifacts from the menus and backgrounds.

Look in the readme.txt for version 1.31 of the launcher for details on how to use it and what hotkeys are assigned.


The second one I can't say anything about. I don't have a save-file to test if it works for me. On GeForce 5***-series graphics cards the 8-bit paletted textures fix should not be needed since from what I understand 8-bit paletted textures are supported up to GeForce 6***.

hi,

sorry , it may be off topic, but after a long and fruitless search, i ll try here, since you ve spend so much time trying to find some work around, maybe you have some idea about asimilar problem happening with metal gear solid pc ? it should be related to this 8 bit texture compatibility issue too, and rivatuner, with his 8 bit palletized surfaces enabled by default, brings no change. i cannot run the game either in hardware or software mode, it tries both and crash. i am trying to run it on a 8800gt . i ll be grateful for any advice.

thx

hi

i am running ff8 on vista basic, i can get it to run with no patches and no launcher.

i am running an asus k4n-sli with an amd x2 5200+ processor 4gigs of ram and an nvidia 8500 gt made by gainward.

all i did was take the ff8 run application out of the home directory and place it on the desktop. it does however if placed almost anywhere.

I would like to know if there is any possibility of adding a target box to the launcher so i can force the lancher to run the application from it's new location.

this would cheer me up as i could then get rid of the black box and allow better res

i have also tried moving every thing else about to see if this facilitates working

any way hope this works for others who have run out of things to try.

ta

Hi,

I just discover this topic and it's good to see that i'm not the only one that try to play to this excellent game ^^ thx magixts and the others for ur hard work ^^
So i bought a new laptop a few week ago (T7500, nvidia 8600M GT 512, vista pro) and i've tried all the tricks that i've found to play but it's allways the same result ! when i launch the game, a black screen appears and nothing happen.
patch 1.2 nvidia, non-nvidia, launcher, copy exe into another directory, nothing seems to affect "the black screen"
is there someone that have the same problem or know the solution? ^^

thx
Zak.

hmm, i've tried to copy FF8.exe into a sub directory of my FF8 directory and it doesn't work.. now i've tried to copy FF8.exe into my desktop and it works vista is so freaking logic !
but i can't play with the launcher yet if someone have and idea ^^

see u,
zak.

MGS is actually the reason why I have this thread bookmarked. I know the problems with it are for the same reasons as FF8. Seeing how a very smart person created a solution for FF8 makes me hopeful the same will be done for MGS some day.

MGS is actually the reason why I have this thread bookmarked. I know the problems with it are for the same reasons as FF8. Seeing how a very smart person created a solution for FF8 makes me hopeful the same will be done for MGS some day.



yeah. it would be great, eidos had made a patch for ffVII to make it playable in software mode on xp, konami is really lazy. i could play both on an older laptop, which sadly doesn't work anymore, such games should be given a longer life on pc.

Omoikane:
If you read the included readme.txt file you will find that it is also possible to specify the location of the FF8.exe on the command-line. Hence you can create a shortcut and add the path to the FF8.exe after the path to the launcher and a dividing <space> and it will work.

Z4kn4f3in:
It’s due to a incompability with EAX in Vista. You can download another EAX.dll to replace the one in the FF8 directory and it will work without moving the FF8.exe.
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?eax

Litote & rennervision:
The source code for the FF8 launcher is available to download here (open-source under GPLv3):
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7248.0
You could probably make modifications to the code to make it work with MGS.

Litote & rennervision:
The source code for the FF8 launcher is available to download here (open-source under GPLv3):
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7248.0
You could probably make modifications to the code to make it work with MGS.
[right][snapback]318643[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]


sadly, i wouldn t know what to do with it, it ll have to be another one...some metal gear solid fan around here who understand coding?

i posted in the crash section but noone seems to reply there so i guess its a dead thread so ill post here....

i have tried all these diff ways to get the game to work correctly and so far i got it running and playable even though the graphics blow via using the renderer instead of using the 3d accelerater.

so far i have made it through the game to the point of were you are on the train mission and you have to enter the 4 digit codes....everything goes great untill.... you drop down to enter the code:( as soon as you reach the bottom to enter the code it crashes on the transparent code screen! every time... usually crashes dont have a trigger unless its a draw or some sort of magic spell that causes it seeing as how i have seen many people complain about crashing when fighting diablos. i had no trouble when getting him and succeded. my problem i have went over many times using diff patches even trying to make my own patch that did not work... my coding isint the best but i tried anyways because i am still learning but anyways if someone could help me with this issue or even someone willing to pass this part for me, i would be utterly gratefull.

PS: i am also looking for a way to get rid of the 8-bit texture corruption as i have seen for myself that many people also have this issue and i have tried each and every patch for this i could find so far and nothing works. but i will keep you all updated on my findings. if any need help or any info from me directly my email is xyios360@gmail.com

thank you and best wishes on getting your games to work

oh one last thing. thank you Z4kn4f3in for my getting it to work to start with & magixts for your info on the new eax.dll fill worked great! many thanks

ok well i got everything working well now since i just converted to epsxe but i want to convert it back so i can creat a backup for my pc incase i get it to work on my pc without having to use an emulater and i have googled for a converter but all anyone seems to have is a pc to psx and no psx to pc so im kinda like huh? wtf is that bs. so if anyone knows were i can get one id be very thankfull

when i played WoW, i had that graphic issue, i saw some textures inside black squares :S (i have a 6600 and i've tried a LOT of different drivers)

Hi hello I'm completely new to PC gaming, no wait I'm almost completely new to PC. Now my brother found this game and installed it for me. I got those damn black boxes, I downloaded this patch extracted it in the same folder as the game and launched it and I got this "The handle is invalid.". What am I to do if anyone can help me please be specific to the detail step by step, if anyone can help me I'm forever in your debt. Thanks in advance.

well im playing it on epsxe and im on disk 2 right after you come up on that lift from the md level and you talk to cid and he wants you to go to check on the others and you re supposed to go out on the balcony evidentaly or something like that... well when i go out there i get a cinimatic of squall rinoa and zell standing there and then it shows rinoa standing with her hair etc.. blowing in the wind and the cinamatic ends with my party standing on the balcony still.... but i cant get off the balcony at all like to go back inside through the door so im kinda stuck and i dont know what to do here. ive played ff8 befor but it was like 3 years ago or more and i dont remember how to get off of this thing so when i go out i just walk around and nothing happens ( note: i walked around for like an hour incase me walking into a certain spot i supposed to trigger something ) so if someone can help i would really be greatful thanks

avto patches and stuff wont work if your graphics card is too new.... if im not mistaken anything higher then a g-force 5500 wont work i dont think. the only way to get it to work without the 8-bit texture corruption is to use it on rendering instead of 3d acceleration but then at the same time when i did that it crashed like a million times so i had to save at every save point i found so i wouldnt have to go back over and do it again. so you best bet is to use a tool to go and download epsxe and run cd-rom with it but if its a pc version it prolly wont work so you may have to make and iso of all your disks and save them to your HDD and then use another tool to convert them from pc to pal or one of the other versions thats compatable with psx.... otherwise you best bet would be to p2p a psx version of the game and play it that way ( so either try and play it on rendering or go buy a playstation version and run it in epsxe emulater and play it that way like i did.) but it isint going to work any other way unless nvidia makes a working patch or something like they did with ff7 to fix the 8-bit texture corruption.
and fyi it isint your game its your gfx card and not drivers all new cards do not support 8-bit textures as ff8 requires 8-bit texturing to work properly.
if this helps you then fantastic if not then im sorry but i had the same prob as you are having now so i just use and emulater and a ps1 version to play it.

Hey thank you Pirate for the info, but what about this patch magixts came up with? Anyway I have a PS the original one, the problem is I can't get a FF8 but I'll keep on looking. Thanks again Pirate.

If the launcher does not start you need to download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&DisplayLang=en

Thank you magixts I'll do that, but do you know what the really strange part is patch version 1.0 up to 1.2 work but 1.3 and 1.31 do not. Anyhow thank you so much I'm forever in your debt.

It's not really strange. I switched to a newer version of Microsoft Visual Studio when compiling version 1.3 and 1.31 of the launcher and hence you need to install those new runtimes for the launcher to work. The 2008 runtimes are not included in either XP or Vista yet but will probably be added in the next service pack when it is released for respective OS.

It worked magixts thank you so much like I said I'm forever in your debt.

ive recently got 'hold' of the ff8 for pc. im on vista 32-bit and have a nvidia 6200. i have downloaded this patch etc. but every time i try to launch the screen still turns black and the program becomes non responsive....is there any solutions to this problems? any help on this matter would be much appreciated!

i got the launcher to work thx very much for the patch ....i just never really thought tht disabling the sound card (i have a crappy realtek 97'audio) would allow me to launch...But sadly the joy did not last long...it says when i press 'new game' please insert disc 1 even tho i have mounted the img file onto the emulator. any solutions to my new problem???

I might have a solution Auron_911 well if you installed the game of the disc I suppose you know what to do, but if you did that of an image here is what you can try change the letter of the virtual drive to the letter of the first real drive for example if you have (C:) as your HDD local disk and let's say (E:) for the phisical drive and (F:) for the virtual you have to change this so that virtual drive should be (E:) note: if you have multiple phisical drives the letter you have to pick is the letter of the first drive, try this worked for me.