[Doskei]

People smarter than me~
I can't seem to get Final Fantasy Tactics to run well in any emulator. I've only tried four or five, so maybe I haven't found the right one. I'm currently trying to get ePSXe to run it, but as of yet, only humble success.

The Problem
The game boots with fairly normal framerates. As soon as it's past the "squaresoft" screen, when it tries to load the intro movie, i get rainbow static garbage, with framerates that jump all over the place. The sound starts at this point, and it's stuttery. The movie ends, sound still stuttery. Select "new game" and the sound becomes smooth, but it speeds up and slows down a lot .

Helpful - FYI
I'm running an Athlon 800 MHz, 256 MB Ram, GeForce 2, Sound Blaster Live!, and Yamaha 56x CD-Rom.

I've Tried . . .
The only emulator I've made a concerted effort to make work is ePSXe, b/c of the overwhelming # of people who think it's the best. In ePSXe, I've tried:
- Video
Pete's OpenGL (recommended by ePSXe for my vid card)
Pete's Dx6
Each of these with many diferrent settings. ALWAYS get the same results.

- Sound
Pete's DSound
Null2's SPU
ePSXe SPU core
a few option-settings each. again, nothing helped.

- CD-Rom
ePSXe core
Pete's CDR ASPI
the only valid options

Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, I have plenty of HD space left, and would like to make an ISO of FFT, but I am ignorant of such matters and don't know how.
Thanks in advance for any help.
- Doskei:eyes:

 

[KojiroTakenashi]

for FFT use Iori's SPU...
I have a much lesser system, except for the graphics boardm and it runs fine.
Are all your drivers up to date?
What are your GPU plugin settings?

 

[Zell]

Go here for more details
http://www.ngemu.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=7240

 

[Dark Watcher]

Hmmm

Also see the compatibility reports we submitted at PSX Fanatics

On AdriPSX

On FPSE

And using EPSXE with different Vid cards and ISO

 

[Doskei]

Wow, lots of help. Thanks, all . . .

. . . BUT I am sorry to report that the multitude of recommendations from everyone has still had little effect. In ePSXe, I still cannot watch the intro movie, and immediately after the intro movie fails to load, my sound still goes crappy. I've tried Iori as KojiroTakenashi suggested in my other thread, I've d/l'd the VERY latest video drivers for my GeForce2, I've tried making an ISO with CDRWin (runs, but with same problems), and NOTHING HAS CHANGED! I get exactly identical results with every configuration. . .

. . . SO I've decided to try FPSE. The links Dark_Watcher posted and data from this and my other thread suggest that slower processors run this game better, but the only emu that has a compatibility report with no errors reported is FPSE. Dark_Watcher was the tester for that report, so I have the added advantage of being able to beg him (her? DW, I naturally assume you're a guy, but if I've used the wrong pronoun here, feel free to hunt me down and kill me - I'd deserve it) for extra help. I'm hoping that the problem is not with my CD, but since it plays fine on the PSX I rather doubt it.

In any case, thanks to all of you for your help, and if you see this thread back up at the top, please don't hesitate to help me again ; )

 

[Doskei]

P.S.

Zell, thanks for the thoroughly detailed setup. I've saved it, b/c I have this sneaking suspicion that I'm going to have to put up with the problems I'm having now and just try to fix the ones that plague normal gameplay. From what I've read elsewhere, the most common gameplay problem involves those pesky menus, and so if all else fails I should be able to use your post to fix that. Thanks.

 

[Dark Watcher]

Hmmm

You need not look far..nor need to beg..The Watcher is happy to assist...We find it odd that you are experiencing these problems on EPSXE..but the advantage to FPSE is no menu problems (That we have found anyways...)...Try it and let us know...use Pete's D3D for now...If you need FPSE config guidance look HERE ...

 

[Shiori]

Try using VGS if you have one. I used it to watch the opening MDEC (got no time to actually play it right now ), and it plays great.

 

[Doskei]

Aaaaarrrrrrgh!

Is it just me? Does the world conspire against me?

OK, so here's what's happenned to me in the last few hours. I tried to do as I said I was going to, but FPSE is missing a file called gpurend.dll, and won't start up. I didn't want to come whining back to you just yet, so I gave AdriPSX another try (the only free emu I've managed to watch the intro movie in yet) and GUESS WHAT!? Running the game from my cdrw (rather than my supposedly fast cd-rom) allowed the movie to run at nearly normal speed! Sound was significantly better as well. BUT as all good things, it had to come to an end, and that end happenned as soon as I'd named my character. Adri performed an illegal operation, shut down, etc. Now even loading a game will make Adri crash. So much for that . . .

So I went back to ePSXe, tried the exact same settings I'd used in Adri, and found that ePSXe still refused to work. Movie was a frozed frame of many-colored dots. sound sucked. I quit, and went back to work on FPSE. . .

All to no avail. Web searches suggest that my gpurend.dll problem is unique, or at least uncommon. I LOVE your link, Dark_Watcher, but I can't even open the program, so I can't yet take advantage of it. Grrrrrrrrrr. Anybody have a WORKING copy of FPSE they'd like to send me, or at least tell me where to d/l a good one? The one I've got is from FPSE's homepage. . .

*Help*

 

[Dark Watcher]

Hmmm

Hmm...www.psxfanatics.com should have all the FPSE downloads you need...but if you just need the GPU render...we attached it...place it with the emulator itself...

 

[KojiroTakenashi]

CDRW drives usually have higher-quality motors (the have to) and generally are compatible with more standards (modern ones pretty much have to do that, too),so they give you better gameplay. I play all my games from there if I doan already have an ISO.
Your regular CD drive may not have the ability to read some of the game's data.

 

[Doskei]

Success!

Thanks to all of your help, I've finally got a working emu. I d/l'd the entire FPSE because just adding the file I was missing gave me a new error - my archive must have been corrupt or something. But now FPSE works, and runs FFT well. I made a pseudo - ISO (CDRWin - .bin / .cue) from the CDRW and have been playing off that. I also finally got ePSXe to run the game, although I have the same map problems everyone else does if I don't use the software GPU - fine by me 'cause I never played FFT for the graphics anyway.

That's about it, I guess. Arigato for all the help!

 

[Knightsaber24]

Ummm yes, I've read all of this and have been taking the same approach as he has an I was able to get the video and such to work fine. I just have no sound (which I don't care), but I cain't get my controls to work neither with a usb controller or with my keyboard some help eh??
Plugins : SpuEternal and Eternal lite
padHellMM
gpuPeteOpengl2
gpuPeopsSoft
( note : i'm using an ISO file to run tactics ... and it doesn't seem to want to run without the peopsSoft... )
thank you for any help in directing a noob who wants to play a fun game...

 

[jonc2006]

im too lazy right now to read the rest of this thread so im assuming you are talking about this being done with epsxe, correct?

if you could post the current settings you are using for those plugins as well as some of your main pc specs (video card, cpu, sound, etc.) it would help me get a better idea of what could be doing that. i realize you are talking about a control issue, but you also said the game refuses to work under any plugin other than the software one, so i might be able to help you with that as well if you can post your current video settings and what type of card you have. as for having no sound, run it via cd instead of an ISO and see if the sound works that way.

 

[Xtreme2damax]

Talk about thread necromancy and breaking a record, reviving a 7 year old thread. Please make a new thread instead of reviving long dead threads and someone will be glad to help you.

Thanks, X2DM.

 

[jonc2006]

lol i didnt even notice that until now, looks like we have ourselves a zombie thread here.

 

[Xtreme2damax]

Actually I was a bit off, it's 6 years but still a record.

Anyways, time to let this thread die and go back to it's grave.