FpseCE Forum

FF7 OpenGL Review
(see my signature for a link to my main opengl post)

First, the settings I recommend:

- offscreen drawing - required
- alpha multipass - mostly required
- advanced blending - optional
- adjust framebuffer access - recommend on - see notes below.
- mask bit - recommened off
- 32-bits - recommended to use if having gfx issues (garbage / artifacts)
- FF7 cursor fix (added in a later update)
- Qualcomm fix - if you have a Qualcomm chipset

general opengl game info and testing criteria:

- restart fpse after every change except frame limit / frame skip.
- always load from mem card - save states often don't use options properly if you've changed them
- initial "sony computer entertainment america presents' screen (I have NA ntsc version) - this screen was always 30 fps until the opening credits begin
- opening credits - good test for shadows and foreground ~80 fps
- choose mem card screen
- screen to choose save game that shows character portraits ~62 fps
- inside initial mako reactor, after setting bomb. walking around 75-105 fps
- battles -

- never shows battle swirl
- sometimes it slows down to 12-20 fps for about 5 seconds. frameskip seemed to not help this
- sometimes it loads battles almost immediately.
- after pausing for the 'battle swirl' that it doesn't show, when it was drawing the actual battle fps were ~60
- the hand icon which is used to select enemies that you will fight has a black box / shadow under / around it, fairly small
- fps for actual fighting

- general fighting was ~70-80
- when killing something, if it just turned red and faded away fps drapped to ~50 till it was gone. if it blows up fps doesn't change

breakdown of opengl settings

- frameskip & old framskip - usefulif using a setting that lowers fps, or if your device needs it. use with frame limiter. didn't test old frameskip.
- frame limiter & special frame limiter - both seemed to work the same. both kep fps ~58-59.
- original screen size - I tested this a little. I liked the picture better with the original size, but then it was too small . Didn't notice any real fps difference, but I didn't test extensively.
- adjust framebuffer access - made for FF7. I didn't see a difference . Supposed to help with battle transitions / swirls. I wonder if schtruck did something to just cut out the swirls all together as I never saw one. However - I have not been outside yet, and this may make a difference in the outer world. I'll try to update later.
- special upload detection - didn't make a difference. can break things in some games (possibly, see my spreadsheet). recommend not to use.
- offscreen drawing - needed for battle menus & likely other items
- advanced blending - affects color brightness and lighting. specifcally, noticed it made the yellow floor much brighter in battle. also put a 'box' around the white letters in the initial credits. Fixed black shadow/box under hand icon in battles. Supposed to make colors more true to original. Caused FPS to drop 10-15%. As most of my fps were > 70 this was fine. Undecided if I want to use it, but I think I will.
- alpha multipass - needed to show hand cursor, (most noticeably on the 'new game / load game' screen) and shadows, and other transparent objects. Specifically, makes shadows mostly transparent instead of huge blocky black boxes. May cause black lines around objects, haven't tested enough of game - I never saw any.
- mask bit - showed additional gfx - specififcally blinking red lights on walkway in reactor. Most likely will show other gfx in rest of game. Dropped fps by 50% - requires way too much power.
- 32-bits - breaks alpha multipass. I saw no difference, though I believe it's supposed to help with colors. I tested this in multiple combinations with the above items, but saw no real difference. It has been reported that for some people it can help fix issues with 'garbage' (or 'artifacts') on screen.
- anti-aliasing - I saw no difference. Supposed to make gfx better (from my research, it recuces color to make better gfx, see my spreadsheet linked in main opengl post). drops fps 15-30% for me.
- texture filtering - I saw no significant difference. On opening credits the white letters had a halo / box effect on them. Other parts of game may have been 'softer' possibly. The pc plugin has 6 options for this settings so I don't know how schtruck implemented it. I saw no significant difference. It did lower fps by ~5-10%.
- frame texture - from the 11.14 update notes, and from some of pete's release notes, I thought this might fix the slow down on the initial opening screen. it didn't. It did fix the black shadow under the hand icon in the fight screen when choosing monsters to fight. but, it casues a 30-40% fps drop when hand is on screen. I don't know what else it may do. I'm keeping it off.
- busy fix - noticed no difference.

Hello, i have a samsung galaxy s3, and i bought fpse earlier today, i tried to get ff7 to work but after i load it, i get this incredibly weird screen, called cd player or something. this is a screenshot of what it looks like, what on earth is causing this?

That most likely means you have a bad copy of FFVII, the PS1 had a memory card manager and CDplayer that could be accessed by not putting a working disc in or by putting no disc in.

I have a Droid Razr Maxx, doesn't look like too many ppl are fond of it. Anyways, i was just curious if anyone else had the same sound problem as me, the only sound i get is right at the beginning, when the orange sony thing is coming up, and that's the end of it. I'm gonna dl another game and see if it does the same thing.

Hi Guys,

I am new to installing FPse and the first game I loaded was FFVII (my all time obsession).

The first couple hours were fine, the sound was a bit lag but it was acceptable.

Now suddenly I have no sound at all!!

Are there any easy solutions? I have tried changing the settings on the app as advised. (frame rate & Spusync)

Could I delete the game and re-install? Might that help or would this lose my save files?

Really appreciate any assistance : )

Thank you!

*****I have just tried a different game and I have lost all sound on everything!! aaah!! why!!!*** help

No sound is often caused by a license issue with FPSE. You can try uninstalling and reinstalling. Be sure to backup first. The below instructions are not add important now, Burr toy should still do a backup before uninstalling.
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=3786

Hi guys i am really hoping some one can help here is my issue

I have a galaxy S2 (stock, no rom) whenever i try to play ff7 (in OpenGL) it crashes on any battle start i have tried using all the options listed here 3, different ff7 iso's, uninstalling fpse and reinstalling and just about anything i can think of other then rooting the phone to see if a custom rom helps.

here is my question is there any fix for this other then rooting, if rooting is the only option what roms would you suggest?

thanks in advance guys and gals

Have you tried using the software renderer? The open gl renderer can be both a bit slow and buggy if you don't have it setup right.

hi thanks for you reply

the software emulation is perfect but after seeing the crisp models of OpenGL i would really like to get that working if possible, i have noticed other people on the forum have been able to play ff7 in OpenGL so i know the issue is solvable unless its an S2 issue?

thank you for your answer any advice on getting OpenGL working?

Please see my OpenGL thread (see my signature for link). There its info there for s2 users using chainfire 3d

@ MyslexicDrew - often times you do not need to use a different ROM when routing your phone. Research how to root your phone and you may find you can use stock ROM and just get root access.

For chainfire 3d you need root access.