[tspikes51]

I bought a used copy of FFVII last night. I popped it in, and I couldn't play it at all. In came plenty of tweaking, downloading new plugins, and the like, but still I got nothing. I got the most recent version of ASPI, and suddenly I could get it running. However, when I tried it again, I got the same result as before. I then "downgraded" to v 1.52, and now I'm getting the same thing, and the console reads "ePSXe (error) recompile block too large." Here's my specs:

1.6 GHz Pentium M
512 MB RAM
Sony DVD/CD-RW
ATI Mobility Radeon 300 128 MB

Thanks for your help

 

[dbhankins]

Sometimes you get that when there's bad data on the disk. Suggest you make an ISO of the disk and play from that. Make sure that in your image-making program you set it to [highlight]not[/highlight] skip/ignore errors, and that it retries as many times as possible.

You might also want to limit the read speed to something like 4x.


Dan

 

[bluekirby0]

Check if it plays in a console if at all possible

 

[tspikes51]

Yep. Figured that damage was the case, but the disc looks pretty good. Anyways, when I get home tonight I'll try to write an ISO on my desktop. Thanks for the help, I don't want to be a douche and just ask questions.

 

[dbhankins]

The disk can look fine on the bottom and still have problems. Label-side scratches can actually cause worse problems than bottom-side ones, as a label-side scratch almost always takes off some of the reflective layer and the data layer, leaving the disk unrecoverable.

Also, various forms of disk rot can cause an okay-looking disk to become unusable. Layer separation, data layer oxidation, reflective layer oxidation, and warping can all make a disk marginal or unreadable.

The only way to be sure is to either run the disk through a quality checking utility like the one in KProbe2 or Nero CD-DVD Speed, or try to make an ISO with error-checking left on.


Dan

 

[hushypushy]

try this first: http://www.ngemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65247

and next time, try Searching. funny thing that i searched, i foudn this thread: http://www.ngemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64400 in which, i said, look what i found while searching, which was: http://www.ngemu.com/forums/showpost.php?p=766863&postcount=4

 

[bluekirby0]

meh, you would think i would have remembered that thread...My suggestion:
www.isobuster.com
Make yourself a new image.

 

[tspikes51]

I returned the copy and got another. It works fine now, albeit there are green lines around some of the textures, but I'll tinker till I get that fixed. Thanks for all of your help.

 

[BRILLIANT]

set filtering to other values to solve that.

 

[bluekirby0]

if you do a search on here for FF7 configs, you will find a lot...my personal suggestion would be to use Pete's OGL1 plugin:

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 3
- Framebuffer texture: 2
- Framebuffer access: 3
- Alpha multipass: on
- Mask bit: on
- Advanced blending: on

Toss in the First and last two Special Game Fixes and you should be able to play correctly. Play with the other settings as you please till it looks good.

 

[tspikes51]

Actually, I did play around with settings for a while, using Pete's OGL 2, got it running great. I'll put some good screens up tomorrow of my $900 PSP (aka my lappy) running at it's best, and give some good pointers for using the Mobility Radeon set (in a different section of the forums, of course).

 

[bluekirby0]

The Characters don't look good in OGL2 w/o filtering, thats why I suggested OGL1.

 

[tspikes51]

Ah, but I am using filtering and shading. Here's what I came up with:

Plugin: Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.7
Author: Pete Bernert
Card vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
GFX card: MOBILITY RADEON X300 x86/SSE2

Resolution/Color:
- 800x600 Fullscreen - NO desktop changing
- Internal X resolution: 1
- Internal Y resolution: 2
- Keep psx aspect ratio: off
- No render-to-texture: off

- Filtering: 4
- Hi-Res textures: 2
- TexWin pixel shader: off
- VRam size: 128 MBytes

Framerate:
- FPS limitation: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: Auto

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 1
- Framebuffer effects: 3
- Framebuffer uploads: 2

Misc:
- Scanlines: off
- Mdec filter: on
- Screen filtering: on
- Shader effects: 1/3
- Flicker-fix border size: 0
- GF4/XP crash fix: off
- Game fixes: on [00001002]

And a screen:

 

[bluekirby0]

Well, besides some contrast issues (which probably have to do with how the screenshot was taken), my only problem w/ that pic is that the textures look stretched. That may only be because it is in a 800x600 resolution though. I would suggest testing it out in 640x480 and see if you like how that looks a little better. Keep in mind I am absolutely anal about graphics and even moreso about sound

 

[tspikes51]

I hear you with the sound. I'm running an onboard soundcard because of a lack of financing, and I'm hating not having EAX. Anyhow, I took the screen by simply pressing the old PrintScreen key and pasting 'er in paint. Prolly a better way to do it with ePSXe, but I'm a bit lazy.

Erm, for some reason compy isn't liking the reduced resolution. It runs kinda slow. I think maybe the stretch in the screenshot is due to having a widescreen, but I don't know for sure.

 

[hushypushy]

press F8 to take a screenshot, btw

 

[bluekirby0]

If you have a widescreen, try 720x480. I am surprised a widescreen performs well at 800x600, though.

You should be able to pick up a SB Live w/ EAX for $30 which isn't a bad card, but isnt the best either. Nothing above that will give you better performance on an emulator though, and I dont think EAX will help in an emulator either
I use a SB Audigy 2 ZS Platinum for gaming, movies, and recording. Awesome card, just expensive. The front drive is convenient but not 100% necessary.