Some FFIX "bugs" and a question

[Archlyn]

First off, the dreaded system specs:

PIII/800mhz
128 mb ram
WinME / DX8.Oa
Voodoo3 3000 agp w/16megs
ePSXe 1.4.0

My ePSXe config:
Lewpy Glide 1.53
Pete's CDR aspi core 1.6
standard epsxe spu core
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alrighty ^_^ here are the "Bugs" I've seen. (note: these are extremely minor things, they don't neccasarily affect gameplay)

First one...

Summon Leviathan and watch the little box in the corner (the one with all the characters' stats) when the tidalo wave hits.. the box picks up trails... I can attach a pic if neccasary

Second one...

That little yellow highlight bar seems to show through the battle submenus (pic available on request)

Third one.. this oine is only mildly annoying as it does affect gameplay a little...

Summon Ramuh.. at the end of the summomn when the enemy is surrounded by blue lightning the emu bottlenecks and becomes really slow until the summon is completely finished, then it goes back to the wonderful 60fps we all love

Okay, enough with the bugs, now onto the question..

The PSX CD copy protection, how exactly is it done? is the information for the CD burned first and then at some later time the sectors themselves are physically damaged? or is it that the data has already been "corrupted" before it is written to those sectors on the CD?

[SimonMallion]

I dunno about problems 1 and 3 but for 2, maybe you could try enabling G4 Polygon Cache on the special game fixes page on Pete's Plugins, see attachment:

[gerbilcannon]

Which would be nice if he was using Pete's plug-in, but he isn't so he'll have to wait for the Lewpy users to show, sorry.

[SimonMallion]

Oh yeah, sorry I didn't read the post too well!!

[fivefeet8]

1. Blurr effects are used throughout some parts of the summons.. Which is why those menus have trails.. If you don't want them that way then, set OSD to "basic" or "extra".. (you won't get the full effects though)

2. Yes attach a pic please.. I have a guess but not too sure so the pic would really help..

3. Almost the same as 1. Use "basic" or "extra" for OSD and set framebuffer to "write".. It should keep those parts moving fast.. You can also lower the resolution too..

I usually play at 640x480 with 4xFSAA.. Check my screenshots.. There is a battle shot too.. 60 fps all the time.. It does slow down to 50 fps with that Rumah part, but I got OSD set to "Full" and framebuffer at "read\write"..

[EfrainMan]

Just wait 'til you summon Ark. Almost the entire summon is one big blur effect :eyes: . One way to help a bit with speed is to set the DMA Chain Fix to "short". Does help a bit. My specs, no problems with yellow rectangle, very fast, but slow during blurring:

Lewpy's Glide³ Plugin Configuration Information v1.35
-----------------------------------------------------

Computer Information
OS : Microsoft Windows 98 SE (v4.10 Build 2222)
DirectX : DirectX 8.0 installed
Processor : AMD AMD Athlon(tm) Processor, 699Mhz (1 off) (00/0621)
64kb L1-I, 64kb L1-D, 512kb L2 (on-chip)
Memory : 192Mb

Core Emulator
ePSXe : C:\PROGRAM FILES\EPSXE\EPSXE.EXE
: 25/06/2001 20:31, 153088 bytes

*------*----------------------*---------*------------------*
| Type | Name | Version | Date |
*------*----------------------*---------*------------------*
| BIOS | Scph1001.bin | | 11/07/1997 05:38 |
| CDR | cdrPeteAspi.dll | 1.5 | 10/06/2001 13:31 |
| GPU | gpuLewGlide.dll | 1.35 | 01/08/2001 20:05 |
| SPU | spuIori.dll | 1.4 | 15/08/2001 07:09 |
*------*----------------------*---------*------------------*

*-----------------------------*---------------------*
| ePSXe Configuration Item | Current Setting |
*-----------------------------*---------------------*
| Sound Enabled | Yes |
| CDDA Enabled | No |
| XA Enabled | Yes |
| XA Read Enabled | Yes |
| SPU IRQ Hack | No |
| CDROM Drive Letter | First Available |
| CDROM Accurate Timing | No |
| Disable CDROM Status | Yes |
| Disable CDROM RT Status | No |
| MDEC Enabled | Yes |
| MDEC Timing Enabled | Yes |
| SIO IRQ Always Enabled | No |
| Country | AutoDetect |
*-----------------------------*---------------------*

Glide³
Board : Voodoo5 (tm)
Version : 3.10.00.0658
File : C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\glide3x.dll
: 06/12/2000 20:44, 329728 bytes

*-----------------------------*---------------------*
| Plugin Configuration Item | Current Setting |
*-----------------------------*---------------------*
| Active Configuration | 1 |
| Active 3dfx Card | 1 |
| Enable HotKeys | No |
| Resolution | 640x480 |
| Refresh Rate | 100Hz |
| Emulate MASK Bit | Yes |
| Dynamic Texture Caching | Yes |
| Custom FrameCap | 60Hz |
| On-Screen Display | Off |
| Frame Skip | Disabled |
| FrameRate Limit | Auto |
| System Type | NTSC |
| FrameCap Method | New |
| Draw Method | Bright |
| Alpha Blending Mode | Advanced |
| Bilinear Filtering | Enabled w/o Sprites |
| Alpha Testing | Normal |
| FrameBuffer Access | Write |
| Off-Screen Drawing | Extra+FBR |
| Polygon Mode | Textured |
| Texture Windows | Enabled |
| VSync | Enabled |
| Banshee Code | Disabled |
| MDEC Format | Texture |
| Experimental Flipping | On |
| Experimental Screen Sizing | Off |
| FrontBuffer Rendering Fix | Off |
| FF7 TextureWindow Fix | Off |
| DMAChain Fix | Short |
*-----------------------------*---------------------*

I'm also gonna try fivefeet8's recommendations for speeding up the game during blurring.

[EfrainMan]

Tried the Off-S-D settings. Basic: no blurring or battle swirl, but full speed. Extra: no battle swirl, blurring is there, but still slow. Gonna stick with Extra+FBR., no change in speed, but full swirl effects.

F-B-A: Write: full speed except during blurring. Read: slower than Write. Read\Write: even slower. No visual change.

[Archlyn]

alright.. fort whichever of you requested that snapshot, here it is ^_^ sorry it took so long... took me forever to log into the board; here is as well that little text file generated by ePSXe:

*-----------------------------*---------------------*
| ePSXe Configuration Item | Current Setting |
*-----------------------------*---------------------*
| Sound Enabled | Yes |
| CDDA Enabled | No |
| XA Enabled | No |
| XA Read Enabled | No |
| SPU IRQ Hack | No |
| CDROM Drive Letter | F |
| CDROM Accurate Timing | No |
| Disable CDROM Status | No |
| MDEC Enabled | Yes |
| MDEC Timing Enabled | Yes |
| SIO IRQ Always Enabled | Yes |
| Country | NTSC |
*-----------------------------*---------------------*

Glide³
Board : Voodoo3 (tm)
Version : 3.10.00.0674
File : C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\glide3x.dll
: 16/01/2001 12:38, 348160 bytes

*-----------------------------*---------------------*
| Plugin Configuration Item | Current Setting |
*-----------------------------*---------------------*
| Active Configuration 1 |
| Active 3dfx Card 1 |
| Enable HotKeys No |
| Resolution 1024x768 |
| Refresh Rate | 60Hz |
| Emulate MASK Bit | Yes |
| Dynamic Texture Caching | Yes |
| Custom FrameCap | 60Hz |
| On-Screen Display | Off |
| Frame Skip | Disabled |
| FrameRate Limit | Auto |
| System Type | NTSC |
| FrameCap Method | New |
| Draw Method | Bright |
| Alpha Blending Mode | Advanced |
| Bilinear Filtering | Enabled w/o Sprites |
| Alpha Testing | Normal |
| FrameBuffer Access | Write |
| Off-Screen Drawing | Extra+FBR |
| Polygon Mode | Textured |
| Texture Windows | Enabled |
| VSync | Enabled |
| Banshee Code | Disabled |
| MDEC Format | Texture |
| Experimental Flipping | On |
| Experimental Screen Sizing | Off |
| FrontBuffer Rendering Fix | Off |
| FF7 TextureWindow Fix | Off |
| DMAChain Fix | Long |
*-----------------------------*---------------------*

^^;;; forgive the messup in the paste... i dont feel much like fixing it atm...

[Archlyn]

lets try this again

http://www.geocities.com/rand_sedai/PSGLD002.bmp

[fivefeet8]

That is a dead link.. Make sure you save the bmp screenshot as a jpeg.. Under 200 k is all that is allowed for pics on the boards..

[Archlyn]

lets see if thuis works

[Fou-lu]

YYUUUCCCK! I really hope that you don't play the game like that.

[Archlyn]

no i dont, basiclly I used Paintshop to compress the image, it went from 2.2meg down to 17k... ^^'''

auuuuuugh my eyes

[SimonMallion]

hehheh, what game did you say you were playing? j/k!

[EfrainMan]

Wow, everyone is just one big pixel . I see the problem, and I used to have it, too. Don't have the problem anymore, and yet it seems like we're using the exact same settings. Hmmm . . .

[Archlyn]

^_^;;; I got sick of all the problems i was having trying to upload that damn pic so i finally ddecided "aww **** it, I'll just compress the damn thing and deal

[fivefeet8]

I guess you didn't save it as a jpeg.. It would take up less space and would have better quality.. That is probably the ugliest shot I have ever seen on the boards.. Well onto your shot about the yellow strip showing through.. Its not a big deal.. You can still see through it.. I did some testing and that yellow strip is still there.. Maybe it will be fixed later in the gpus or epsxe.. For now though, its not a big problem.. You only see that when you press L2 in battles..