FFIX Problems #1&2

Hey all, I tried playing FFIX on the expsxe 1.52 or whatever it was, and it crashed for some reason, near the begining sometime after the ship crashed, plus i didn't like the window it loaded in, there wasn't an easy way to load or save, besides the f1/f3 buttons. BTW:(I downloaded all the files for disc 1 from this site). Anywho, I picked up the psx v1.10, since i heard it plays the older FF games a lot easier, and without all the annoying configs and stuff. it's playing right now, and all looks good, although the sound is a bit messed up. What are good settings to make it sound perfect, if at all possible? I love the sound to this game and it'd be a shame if it sounded like this through out the game. It's a scratchy and almost echoey sound.

Thanks in advance everyone, looking forward to your replies!
=]

Hmm, actually...upon playing the first battle, not only is the sound slow, but the movement and gameplay is slow. Any help please? =[[

Video config window, enable FPS limit and set it to 60 (or 50 for PAL games).

EDIT: Don't double post, use the edit button, and the above is for ePSXe.

For psx 1.10 though?

Yeah, I read that wrong. My bad.

Can't help you with pSX, it runs like crap for me. My PC's way too old, it seems. :shrug:

Anyhow, that usually doesn't happen in ePSXe 1.5.2, but it does in the 1.6.0 version. Make sure which one you used.

Yeah i used the 1.5.2 one, and it actually worked really well, sound and display, but i couldn't easily get in and out of it, like the window mode was really weird, and it crashed for me early in the begining, so i tried the psx one. 'Cept it's so slow and kinda choppy =/

What do you mean, you "couldn't easily get in and out of it? What about the window mode?

Well, the only way to save it was the f1 key, and I couldn't get into any configs or anything, so it was difficult to fix things or get into internet explorer. Plus if it was windowed, it's become choppy and slow and basically unplayable, unless it was in full screen. Then it crashed. SO i said the hell with it. =/

You can save via memcards, in-game. To create one, open the emu, go to config>memory card, select a location, and click Open. Then, the file will be created as soon as you save while playing.

Yeah, you can't change settings once the game has started.

If you can't navigate and play windowed at the same time, I have to ask what kind of computer you have. Specs?
Anyhow, you can always put it on stand-by by pressing Esc. Then, play again, you select continue from the menu.

What plugins are you using, btw?

vid - pete's open gl 1.76
sound - eternal spu plugin 1.41
cd - epsxe cdr (not that it matter because i'm using an iso image)

i run a windows xp home edition sp2, direct x9, nvidia geforce fx go5600

How much RAM?

510mb it says

That should be alright.

Oh wait, you didn't mention the CPU either.

ah my bad, it's intel pent 4 CPU: 2.80ghz

Strange, your rig should be able to handle a windowed ePSXe nicely.

Go to the video config window, click on the "copy settings to clipboard" button, and ctrl+v in your next post.

Plugin: Pete's OpenGL Driver 1.1.76
Author: Pete Bernert
Card vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
GFX card: GeForce FX Go5600/AGP/SSE2

Resolution/Color:
- 640x480 Window mode
[32 Bit]- Keep psx aspect ratio: off

Textures:
- R8G8B8A8
- Filtering: 0
- Hi-Res textures: 0
- VRam size: 0 MBytes

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

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 3
- Framebuffer texture: 2
- Framebuffer access: 0
- Alpha multipass: on
- Mask bit: on
- Advanced blending: on

Misc:
- Scanlines: off
- Line mode: off
- Unfiltered FB: off
- 15 bit FB: off
- Dithering: off
- Screen smoothing: off
- Screen cushion: off
- Game fixes: off [00000000]

Can't tell if anything's really slowing you down...

At any rate, you can try Frame Skipping in pSX if it isn't enabled already. That could speed it up a little.

You know what, after playing around with some of the options, I've got i to work. I used a different video plugin and changed a few options around, now everything's working great. This is with the epsxe 1.5.2 one. It's getting close to the point where it last crashed, so hopefully it'll ork this time, if not, i'll be back complaining. ;P Thanks for your time and support evans, I appeciate it. =]

Hmm..okay, well the part that crashed, didn't this time. I think I've finally done it. However, the battle screen is really slow when it coems up, and the start of the battle is too. It kinda picks up momentum through-out the battle but it's still slow. When i first tried the new vid plugin, it was extremely fast, like unbelievably fast lol. All i did was hit the "Nice" button and that was that. Is there any configs I need to make sure the battle system is properly configed? The cinematics and regular gameplay is proper speed. Thanks.

Hey all, I hate to make a new thread about a similar problem, but this is a new problem and I don't know how to delete a post. ;P

Anyways.

I've been playing FFIX for a bit now, i'm not far at all, but i'm driven to madness by all the problems i'm having. For past problems and results, look at my other thread. This problem is, the screen is blocky. There's little blocks here and there of other screen of the game it seems like. I've tried different things, but it won't go away. I tried different plug-ins and it's not there, however, the battle screen is extremely slow and not fun at all. The battle screen in the Peter Open gl thing i'm using, isn't very fast either and seems very slow and fast at times, i don't know if i'm using he right config, or if there's some thing i can change so it runs perfectly. I just want to play this damn game -_-. My specs are high enough, it's been checked, and the video plugins are below. Please, if anyone, could check this and look to see if something should be changed or not, I want this to run smooth and normal.

Thanks in advance!!

You didn't need to make another thread. ;)

As you did before, copy your settings in your next post.

If you still want to use pSX then upgrade to version 1.13 as the sound for FFIX was fixed in version 1.11 for this game. I have videos on my YouTube channel of this game running it 1.11.

Ok, I'll give it a whirl. However, i have a saved and loaded state in my FFIX, not a memory card (i don't know how to work that, it never saves when i turn off the power) but at least when i press f1, i can go back to that spot). How can I transfer my save file? And how can I save to a memory card? Thanks all.

You have to use a memory card save or the game will eventually crash or the save state could get corrupted so try to make a memory card save as soon as you can so you don't have to start all over again. Just save the game like you would on a real PlayStation as the memory cards are already set up on ePSXe.

You save in-game at a designated Save Point or on the Overworld.
That's how you save to the memory card.

And you don't turn off the power.
You press ESC to exit the game window and bring up the GUI, then go to File > Exit.

Try closing it properly and see if ePSXe retains your memcard saves.

i just saved at a kupo thing, and after i saved to the mem, i pressed esc, and then file - exit, and then loaded the iso, and let it run through the begining and pressed continue, but itsaid there was no save file, luckily i saved the state. what do i do?

EDIT

Not only that, when i loaded my game, it was slow and coppy. =[ This is getting old, I just want to play damnit ;P

Download and unzip these files to ePSXe's memcard folder:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yf9wz1

Replace your .mcr files with both of them.

Now try saving in-game again.

hmm. yes it worked, thanks. the transfer worked as well. but how can i change it so the sound works right and it's not so slow? i appreciate this everyone. =]

Config > Sound > Configure > check Update before accessing register.

i'm sorry, i mean for psxfin 1.13, not epsxe. it's so slow. i don't know what to do..

What are your PC specs?

win xp home edition sp2, direct x 9, 510mb ram, intel pent 4, cpu: 2.80ghz, nvidia geforce fx go5600.

Your computer specs look decent enough to be able to run this as it doesn't really use that much processor power (1-2% on my computer's 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo) and your video card is more then enough to handle it as it only uses Direct Draw to generate the video which a simple Intel card can do.

Check to make sure there are know programs running in the background that might be taking up resources and alow try checking the Microsoft Update page to see if you really have the latest version of DirectX 9c (this fixed a problem I had with one of my controllers I was using and might fix other issues as well).

If you are still having problems we may have to direct this to the pSX staff to see what they can say about this. I'll let someone on the forums know about this thread and see if they might be able to help you if it comes to that.

okay thank you. nothing seems to be working, i even ampered with some things, so i'm at a loss. i'll just play on epxe for now, but looking forward to anymore feedback and results on this matter. thank you all for your time and help. =]

pSX Emulator runs full speed on my P III, 128 MB, 600 MHz computer.
At least the older versions of pSX did.

So, it should run full speed on yours.

Try restarting your computer.

Also try CTRL-ALT-DEL to see what programs are running in the background, as Haldrie suggested.

You could also try versions of pSX to see if they run any faster:
http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/

I just PM'd someone named patrickp over on pSX's official forums about this thread so hopefully he should be able to help in some way. He is an admin on their board and has been with pSX for some time now and he really seems to know what he's talking about. I would get pSX Author himself but I don't want to disrupt him from deveoping pSX anymore then he is already.

ah nice, thank you guys very much. =] just let me know if anything pops up.

I got a reply from patrickp and he had this to say.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by patrickp (pSX Forums)

Had a quick look and my first response is like yours and others': his specs should be running Final Fantasy IX easily on pSX. If he can run the game satisfactorily in ePSXe, he should be able to run it in pSX easily.

One thing, though, the guy quotes his RAM as 510MB: when you get a non-standard amount like this (it should be 256, 512, 668MB etc) it's usually because something, most likely the videocard, is integrated and using system memory. 2MB is puny,even for an old videocard - and it seems odd that a board that will run a 2.8GHz P4 has a card _that_ old; usually they're 4MB at least.

If it's not the card, it might be damaged memory. memtest86+ would be the next step.

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memtest86+ is a program that checks the system's RAM for any problems by bombarding it with random data and verifying that the data is read back correctly. The program is best run from a bootable floppy disc or bootable CD and the link to the official site is below. This program is freeware and I have used it myself in the past so I know it works. Since it runs in a DOS environment it is not OS dependent and running it that mode allows it more access to the RAM then if it run in Windows.

http://www.memtest.org/

He says he has a "nvidia geforce fx go5600" card, so either that 510 MB is a typo or he might have bad memory.

Because GeForce FX GO 5600 is 128 MB:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/fx_mobile.html

I had a feeling about that too but either way it would be good to try that memtest program anyway.