A Few FF9 Questions...

Hey peeps!

Ok, I've been through the FAQ's and seached the forums, with some luck (I'm just happy it's working, even if not the best)

Here are my problems:

1. Menus are slow (apparently this is a resolution issue)
2. Sounds are not right, ie they don't sound like the Playstation
3. From time to time, FF9 has a massive slowdown, for about a minute, and they returns to normal

Here are my specs:
Dell Inspiron 8100
1GHZ P-III
512 Megs/Ram
GeForce2 GO 32Meg
(CD doesn't matter, using ISO)

Settings:
Plugin: Pete's D3D Driver 1.1.55
Author: Pete Bernert
GFX card: NVIDIA GeForce2 Go (Dell Mobile)

Resolution/Color:
- 800x600 Window mode

Textures:
- Default
- Filtering: 0
- Caching: 2

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

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 3
- Framebuffer texture: 0
- Alpha multipass: on
- Mask bit: off
- Advanced blending: hardware

Misc:
- Scanlines: off [0]
- Unfiltered FB: off
- Dithering: off
- Full vram: off
- Game fixes: on [00000200]

----
Petes DSound
XA Playing = On
Change XA Pitch = On
Slow timer Updates = On
Use SPU IRQ = on

Any help would be great!

Thanks,
Akido

[password0k]

There are several settings you can tweak to make the game run faster. Try running it in a window with a small resolution. You can also go to the video configuration and click the 'fast' button at the bottom, then set whatever you need to to the way you had it before. Also, If you set framebuffer textures to '1-black' the battle won't be slowed down at the beginning (but the blur effect is turned off). There is also a special game fix for FF9 battles.

Oh, and if Off-screen drawing is 'off,' you won't see the battle menus.

Thanks for your reply!

The same slowdown happened in Gran Turismo, so...
The battles are fine, except during spells (and I don't get the swirl)
Off screen drawing is "enhanced"

Thanks!

[Arpanet]

Hmmm... the random slowdown sounds like an outside problem with your comp. Try disabling unnecessary apps before running ePSXe. One way is to run msconfig (in Start > Run) and go to "Startup." There you can disable any unneeded progs that might start when the comp is turned on. For example, the Winamp agent, RealPlayer agent, AOL agent, etc. If you have Win98, you can press Ctrl+Alt+Del ONCE and then manually shut down any extraneous progs there. Everything but explorer and systray can be closed. In WinXP, press Ctrl+Alt+Del ONCE, go to "processes," and close everything with your user name under the "user name" category, EXCEPT explorer.exe. All this might help the slowdown problems.

As for the sounds, try the Eternal 1.1 SPU, available for download of course off www.ngemu.com. It's pretty much widely accepted as the best SPU out right now. No offense to Pete, but his SPU plugin isn't all that hot.

The menus being slow is indeed a resolution issue. Bump it down to 640x480 and see how that helps.

[smartguy15_2000]

try turning frame skipping on

Hey!

1. I've disabled (before you posted) everything buy my touchpad driver, and a few windows things (ie power profile, run32, etc)
It *could* be Intel's Speed Step powering up or down (if it is.. grr)

2. I have the latest version, and the sound actually is extremely slow, ie: I'll go down one menu item and it'll make the sound about 5 seconds later

3. I've played with different resolutions, and seem to have one, but I'm missing have the background in menus.. I tried that fix but it didn't seem to work (in the FAQ)

[StarkRaven]

That 2go video card is a geforce, so try these settings:
"Caching Type" to 3
and
Framebuffer Textures to 2. (this SHOULD give you the battle magic effects at full speed. if it doesn't, just set it back to 1)

I personally have the "Special Game Fix" for FF9 disabled. I played the whole game through perfectly before this option was even created, so I'm not sure why you would need it. And when I tried turning it on recently, it just messed FF9 up.

You may have to mess around with the "off screen drawing" if you are having problems with the menus. Remember you can change most of these settings while you are still in the game. press "Delete" to bring up the video menu. Press page up or page down to scroll through the choices. Then hit "end" to change the setting. Mess around with disabling/re-enabling some of the settings while you are in the game and see if that helps.

For the sound, I think you should try a different plugin. I used Pete's at first just because it sounded better. But after a while I switched back to the ePSXe default sound plug in, just because it was more acurate and had less garbage sound. These days you might want to try the Eternal spu also, although that will require more tweaking than the built-in ePSXe one.