[AirTrack]

:emb:
I just starting using this emulator and it freakin kicks ass!
I wuz just wondering which brand of CD-rom i should get cuz whenever i play FF8, the screen skips whenever i move to a different part of the level or when i go into the menu

What do u guyz think?
Oh and if i just update the firmware for my cd-rom will it do that trick?
any help would be appreciated

mr rom : Pioneer 104s DVD-rom

 

[cluthu]

>the screen skips whenever i move to a different part of the level
>or when i go into the menu
The best method to use in reducing the lag you encounter in your games is to dump your CD to your hard drive and run it as an ISO. Otherwise, you might want to check out Pete's CDR plugin and its speed limiter option. It'll load scenes a bit slower, but it might prevent any jarring skips and such.

 

[Enigma1982]

In my opinion..........
Buy FF8 PC version
Use power less than PS version in Emulator
And you will got high quilty movie at 640*480 too
Plus perspective correction...................

 

[AirTrack]

Well i ran the game with my burner and it didn't skip but i hate my dam burner cuz it makes the loudest squeaking noise
So definately the problem is within the burner

Is the PC version good?
FF7 for the pc had like midi music

 

[cluthu]

>i ran the game with my burner
"CDR" in this case doesn't refer to using a burner, it just means it's capable of playing backup discs too. Try using the speed limiter on your DVD drive. Generally a setting of 2x works well because it's the same load speed of a real PSX. For the best performance of all* nothing beats dumping an ISO.

>Is the PC version good?
If you get the PC version be sure to get all the patches and bugfixes that correspond to it. Notably the patch that allows you to have more than one battle without having the game crash.

*Yes, you could argue getting a gig or more of ram, making a 700MB RAM Disk and putting an ISO on there would probably give the "best" performance, but I doubt that's a solution for many

 

[AirTrack]

Cool
The speed limiter is with pete's plugin right?
Do you know if updating the firmware will make it any better?

 

[cluthu]

>The speed limiter is with pete's plugin right?
Pete's CDR, yes.

>Do you know if updating the firmware will make it any better?
Unless you grab the wrong firmware, I've never known it to make things worse, so give it a go if you'd like.

 

[Guest]

Updating your "firmware" can never hurt, it can only help. Updating all your drivers is good too. Do follow the advice and give Petes CD plugin a try and try the 2x speed limiter. I say this because doing this fixed Gauntlet Legends for me so that now it plays perfectly.
sincerely,
sx/amiga

 

[AirTrack]

Ok i'll try to upgrade the firmware (wish me luck )
The speed limiter didn't do much still slow as hell during battle entry and exit

I heard u have to turn off DMA mode during firmware update is that true?
Thanx again guyz

 

[Bubsy]

Hey Airtrack, I got FF 8 for the PC and it rocks . Just like Enigma 1982 said, it's definitely high resolution in 640X480. Plus the music is crisply clear and excellent. Check it out .

 

[AirTrack]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh wtf?
Both my roms won't read blank Cd's anymore!!!!!
They can read regular cd's but not blank ones
Don't tell me both of them are dead...............
are they?

 

[Eluder]

Man, that's no good... did you upgrade the firmware? Maybe the upgrade went bad or something, or even the manufacturer stopped CDRs from being read after the upgrade, though that's very unlikely, cause everyone uses CDRs nowadays. I'm not sure what you can do, try using those CDRs on a friend's drive, maybe those went crappy on ya? Good luck.

 

[AirTrack]

No no this happened before i upgraded the firmware
Any other cd reads fine, they just don't read BLANK ones

I upgraded the firmware successfully and they still don't work
Are there any settings in the control panel that i should turn on/off?
Thanks

 

[Eluder]

Well it's normal for the CD/DVD drive to not read BLANK CD-Rs, however the burner should read em and tell ya that they're blank.

 

[AirTrack]

Yea man i know
So is my burner dead?
i tried reinstalling it, reinstalling easy cd creator, and still nothing works...........
Could this be the end of the Matshita burner? hehe

 

[dpence]

Make sure DMA is selected in the windows device manager for your Cdroms...DMA will greatly affect the cd performance...

 

[Eluder]

Does it read any other CDs? I know when my Ricoh crapped out on me it stopped reading everything. If yours is still reading other CDs, I wouldn't be sure if it's toast. Maybe it's dirty, maybe it's those blanks. If you're drive did crap out, go get a Plextor, I've had mine for a while now and love it.

 

[AirTrack]

Yep I just checked and it reads NOTHING!!!!!!!
*sniff*
I remember back when i used to burn 3 cds in one day
My burner will be missed...........
So plextor is the way huh?

 

[cluthu]

>Yep I just checked and it reads NOTHING!!!!!!!
And it worked (realtively) fine before you upgraded the firmware? How odd. You're certain you got the right firmware to go with your hardware? Were you given an option to save your old firmware? Can you download the old version from the site that you got the new version from? You didn't patch it from within Windows, did you?

 

[AirTrack]

Nah it didn't work even before i updated the firmware
I know it has something to do with ePSXe because when i tried to play the cd using my burner on epsxe it worked ok but the next day it just sat there and did nothing oh well
Burners don't last forever hehehe
Thanx for all your guyz' help