[Doskei]

Gaming Gods and Gurus~
Yes, I know there's another post about FFT. I read it. It didn't help. Please don't yell at me for not paying attention.
Final Fantasy Tactics is the first PSX game I've tried to play on an emulator, and if things don't take a turn for the better, it may be the last.
I'm running what passed for a good system a year ago:
- Athlon T-Bird 800MHz
- 256 MB Ram
- GeForce 2
- SB Live!
- 56x CD-Rom
- 20 gig HD
and I can't seem to get FFT to run anything like normal.

The Problem:
Game loads fine, with framerate steady at ~60. Intro movie tries to load, fails, ePSXe gives me a screen-full of rainbow static garbage. Music starts, stuttering badly. Hit a key to make it stop and the intro screen comes up, but audio still just as bad. Select "new game" and the music starts speeding up and slowing down a lot. Choose a name and birthday (sounds of cursor moving and such are still bad), and the next movie yields same results as first. Battle runs a little slow but otherwise fine. I haven't had the patience yet to get to the map to see whether I have the common menu problems, but I'm sure I will . . . sigh.


I've Tried . . .
Obviously, I'm running ePSXe. Currently, v1.4.0.

Video settings:
- Pete's OpenGL
- Pete's D3D DX6
- Lewpy's 3dfx (told me I didn't have a 3dfx card)

Audio settings
- Pete's DSound
- Null2's
- ePSXe core

CDRom settings
- Pete's CDR ASPI
- ePSXe CDR ASPI core

Within the above plugins, I've tried many options, but the thing that confuses me is that they
don't make ANY diferrence. They don't make the problem any better OR worse.
Also, I've tried using my 8x/4x/24x Yamaha CDRW instead of the 56x (don't know brand) CD-ROM, and this also doesn't change a thing.
Finally, if there's a chance making an ISO would help, I'm more than willing to do so . . . but I don't know how. Anybody willing to help me with any of my questions / problems will earn my undying gratitude. Thanks.
- Doskei :eyes:

 

[gerbilcannon]

Use Pete's opengl and try setting it to 640x480 with the framelimiter on set to 60 fps (ntsc) or 50 fps (pal) and you'll want to try using eternal spu. As for the opening movie, it sounds like your cd might be scratched, but also make sure that mdecs are enabled. Use epsxecutor or a reg editor to check on that. And finally, if all else fails, use an iso. You'll still be stuck with the sound going all weird in the opening menu, but it is fine after that. And you'll have a few map problems but nothing major.

 

[KojiroTakenashi]

Opening menu still messed up...
Don't use Eternal, though. It misses out on some of the sound effects sounding right.
Use Iori's.

 

[Zell]

Sorry KojiroTakenashi , but Eternal SPU is better for FF Tatics ! And for the messed up Menu , Use this config

Plugin: Pete's OpenGL Driver 1.1.54
Author: Pete Bernert
Card vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
GFX card: GeForce2 GTS/AGP/SSE

Resolution/Color:
- 1024x768 Fullscreen - Desktop changing [16 Bit]
- Keep psx aspect ratio: off

Textures:
- R8G8A8A8
- Filtering: 2
- Caching: 2

Framerate:
- FPS limitation: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: 70

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 3
- Framebuffer texture: 1
- Alpha multipass: on
- Mask bit: off
- Advanced blending: on

Misc:
- Scanlines: off
- Line mode: off
- Unfiltered FB: off
- Dithering: on
- Full vram: off
- Game fixes: off [00000000]

and it should be fine !!

 

[AznProphetXV]

I tried Kell's exact specifications, except for - Keep psx aspect ratio: off which i didn't find. I may also have a different version of Pete's OGL plugin.

It worked fine except for the following i've seen so far:

In battle the abilities, such as wish and potion, are kinda weird lookin in the menu. It looks like they are too skinny and are missing parts. By messing around with Kell's configs you could probably fix that.

Second, the map still does not work.

But, the menus for abilities works great. I haven't noticed any other problems.

 

[Doskei]

OK, well I've all but given up on ePSXe at this point, but I thought I should let those of you who've tried to help know what's going on.

The most recent blow to my faith in ePSXe was when, while trying various settings in AdriPSX, I actually got the intro movie to run at almost console speed. Sound was proportionally better as well. I carefully recorded the settings I'd used, and attempted to repeat this miracle in ePSXe (because Adri DOES have the slight drawback of crashing everytime I finish naming my character), and could not. Even with settings that will run the movie and play halfway decent sound in Adri failed to even nominally help ePSXe.

SO, if this post gives any of you unprecedented insight into my problem and you think you can still help me, don't hesitate to post. I'm willing to try anything - it's just I no longer expect it to work. ; )

Thanks, though.

 

[eazye]

hey man

i know this sounds brutal but just use petes soft driver and the internal spu petes soft driver runs this game pretty nicely for me (perfect speed perfect sound)the only thing wrong is you cant see the backround of the world map only the citys and roads but that doesnt matter much to me anyways not much to lose on graphics on a game like FFT try with the soft driver it should work heres my settings and a shot. Plugin: Pete's Soft Driver 1.1.54
Author: Pete Bernert

Resolution/Color:
- 320x240 Fullscreen - [16 Bit]

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

Misc:
- Scanlines: disabled
- Game fixes: off [00000000]
a shot

 

[eazye]

uhh

ummm i know that doesnt look good but that is the first shot i ever took with the soft plugin and it doesnt seem, to work that well i mean the game runs fine (notice the 2 shots on the left side) the shot is messed so try my settings and see how they work

 

[eazye]

re

oh yeah have you tried making an iso image thats what i use?

 

[Doskei]

Originally posted by Doskei
Finally, if there's a chance making an ISO would help, I'm more than willing to do so . . . but I don't know how.

So I guess that's a "no" eazye, but if you know how to do so, I invite you to share with me, or point me in the direction of a resource that tells me how.

Anybody with knowledge of FPSE check out my other thread:
http://www.ngemu.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7237

Thanks

 

[eazye]

re

ok to make an iso go to google .com and search for a program called isobuster(i assume you know how to install programs and what not) then you open isobuster put your psx cd in the drive ans press "refresh" then you will se a cd picture on the left of your scrren right click on that and pick extract RAW then name the file gameX.iso you gotta remember to put the dot iso in there so the file shows up as a cd not just a unkown file then you just open it from epsxe ...i hope this helps

 

[eazye]

oh yeah

i was reading your other posts and no one is reccomending u to USE THE SOFT DRIVER i almost gaurantee this will work the grphics wont be as nice buut then again fft aint got nice graphics

 

[Doskei]

eazye~

Indeed, running the software driver, I have very few problems with gameplay. the game does speed up and slow down erratically, but that's probably just the nature of emulators.

I will check out that Isobuster thing tomorrow. Too beat to do anything right now. But thanks for the heads up. I suppose if I REALLY want to watch that opening movie, I can just uninstall, then reinstall Adri and watch it. You can't have everything.

Good night, all.

 

[gerbilcannon]

I usually don't recommend the software driver as I for one like my filtered textures and fsaa. As for not finding the keep psx aspect ratio, that is a good sign that you should download pete's latest plug-ins. As for the speed ups and slow downs, are you sure you enabled the frame limiter?

 

[AznProphetXV]

What operating system are you using?

 

[Doskei]

As good as it gets . . .

OK, ePSXe is running FFT now. I still can't watch the opening movie, but since those are pretty much the only movies on the disc, I'm not too heartbroken. I'm using eazye's suggested driver, because as expected, I have problems with map and menus otherwise. If I ever decide to play a game that relies more on being pretty on an emu, I'll make more of an attempt to fine tune, but for now I'm content with the software driver.

I downloaded ISOBuster, but I haven't make an ISO yet. I actually had made a cue/bin file earlier due to recommendations on my other thread, and that's been running fine. I had to make that at 2x on my CDRW, though . . .

Finally, AznProphetXV - I'm running Windows 98 Second Edition, mostly b/c I'm comfortable with it. I tend to reformat my c: periodically to keep everything running well ( c is 4GB, d is 20GB, everything I need to keep is on d ), and I can reformat, reinstall everything, and get my settings back to the way I like them in less than 4 hours now. It's going to take a lot of convincing to get me to switch.

Thanks for all your help. I never would have gotten this running otherwise.