Final Fantasy 7 question

[Gamesoul Master]

Well, the changes I mentioned are just as versatile, but I listed them because they will allow the emulator to run faster, with little quality loss, on a lower-end system. I'm more used to that mentality because, for quite a few years, I had to use my computer with a Celeron @ 1.0 GHz and 512 MB of RAM (well, I have that in *this* computer too, which has a P4 @ 2.93 GHz). Not to say your settings aren't good, but I'm thinking that for his system (especially considering his RAM and Graphics situation), using lower settings may very likely enhance his experience overall in relation to speed.

[patrickp]

Seems to me the plugin may have been a typo, GM - jonc2006 wrote v 1.1.76; he probably meant 1.76, the current version.

However, jonc2006, when you say "the emulator with those settings runs fine for me, even at tha high of a resolution," you've got a fairly fast machine there - certainly a lot faster than mine or Easty's, and I'm pretty sure faster than GM's, as well. The emulator certainly should run fine for you; something would be very wrong if it didn't. But not everyone has systems as fast...

[jonc2006]

right i know, i gave him those as an example sort of on how to get rid of some of the glitches that are common in FF7 such as the green lines. in another thread i told him that it wouldnt be a good idea to use those exact settings if super nice performance was his main goal, specifically the screen smoothing due to his setup, but for me those are the settings that allow FF7 to run with the least amount of graphical issues. sorry for the confusion there.

[patrickp]

I'm curious, though, that with your setup you aren't using Pete's OGL2 plugin, jonc2006. If you have a videocard and system that will support it well, it will usually run better than the plugins that are suitable for lower spec systems. In fact, even with an ATI 9700 or 9800, it's the only ePSXe plugin that works well for me in Linux; the others have too many problems; most notably not going full screen properly.

And I have to say - glitches that are common in Final Fantasy VII? Not in pSX, mate!

[jonc2006]

i just havnt tried it, im kinda lazy i suppose.

[Gamesoul Master]

Well, I figured that he must've been using an older version (and that it wasn't a typo), because a couple of the options he mentioned used an older naming scheme that was changed more recently in those plugins, and an option that doesn't even seem to exist ("Full vram"). Well, my original question about that still applies... Is the newest version the best version, or is there an older version that works better?

I really do wish I could use OpenGL plugins/options. But my 9250 just can't handle it, as it seems to have horribly incomplete compatibility with OpenGL (enough so that OpenGL usually won't run on it). Unfortunately, my video card was recently fried, so now I'm stuck with the Intel integrated crap, probably until I buy or build a new computer (I'll probably just buy a cheaper computer and upgrade it... I have absolutely no use for a quad-core processor, or even a dual-core processor, I just need a PCI-Express graphics card and a decent amount of RAM). Being limited to regular PCI at this point leaves me with no worthwhile options, since I'll be getting a new computer in under a half year either way.

With a newer card that fully supports OpenGL, is OpenGL *faster* to run, or does it simply provide nicer graphics to look at?

[strike105x]

I would say nicer garphics and when it comes to pete's opengl2 plugin better compatibilitie to but if you want the best out of opengl stay away from ATI )

[Gamesoul Master]

Hmm... I may have to stay away from OpenGL then. I've always strongly preferred ATI over nVIDIA, especially after seeing that nVIDIA wasn't capable of properly rendering many of my older games, while all of my ATI cards, new and old, were able to perfectly fine. I've gone this many years without OpenGL, so I suppose that, down the line, having mostly functional OpenGL with full retro support is better than full OpenGL with lacking retro support. Thanks for the heads up.

[strike105x]

Actually latelly ATI drivers seem to have gone worst i loved them 2 until now when they started messing things up big time in drivers i also liked 2 more especially how ati performed in 2d games and aplications like photoshop. I may move to Nvidia if they continue like this or buy X360 and forget about my PC at all )

[patrickp]

Well, in Linux ATI support is actually improving quite a bit since AMD took them over. I'm sticking with mine. I never liked the 2D quality and colour values on Nvidia cards either, strike105x. And, of course, in Linux it's OpenGL all the way.

[strike105x]

Well i wanted to change to linux 2 wanted to change to ubuntu but the lack of a good DC emu stops me (my DC doesent have long to live i think ) its making verry strange noise when reading Roms actually it broke my DOA 2 good thing it wasnt my DOA2 LE disk ) ) So until a decent DC emu's launch on Linux i dont think i'm going to try it and i must be onest i'm a little afraid 2 that i wouldn't know much in it )

[patrickp]

You can dual boot, strike105x. In fact a lot of Linux users do this; one of the most common reasons being to continue to play Windows only games, particularly ones that won't run in Wine etc.

Personally, I keep a Windows installation running, but really just for ripping DVDs and CDs; CloneCD and CloneDVD won't run in Wine, I know of no Windows ripping application that will rip to subcode-including formats that will, and there are no Linux ones.

But dual-booting is easy. Install Windows first (it's not nearly as good as Linus applications at sorting out dual booting) then install Gutsy, which will set up dual booting for you. You get a menu that comes up when you boot up that gives you the option of which installation you want to boot into (easily customisable).

Since Gutsy now includes full NTFS read/write capabilities, you can put all the data you want to share (eg Playstation emulator images, BIOSs, saves etc) on an NTFS partition for it to be accessible to both installations.

[LiquidAcid]

Both CloneCD and CloneDVD work well in VMWare. I have a small W2k installation setup in a 4gig container which I use to rip discs, WHEN it's needed (I usually rip audio discs, where I can use EAC through wine). Keep in mind that the VM setup is a bit weird, you need SCSI passthrough when you want to use CloneCD/DVD.

[patrickp]

That's ineresting, LiquidAcid - I'm going to have to look at VMWare, thanks.