Final Fantasy IX

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dartek_syes
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Re: Final Fantasy IX

Postby dartek_syes » Fri May 11, 2012 11:51 am

I have not found on the forum any solution to the problem that i found: on disk 1 after the end of the festival of hunting, the game crash every time...someone know any solution?

Regii
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Re: Final Fantasy IX

Postby Regii » Wed May 23, 2012 12:43 pm

Sorry to bring this up, but I haven't found a clear solution to this yet.
On my Arc, Gameplay is really fluid when outside of battle, but in Battle, when the Menu and the ATB Bars show up, everything slows down to about 50 fps (from originally 60). Pressing Square to make them disappear makes the Framerate rise to 60 fps again. No idea why this is, but does anybody have a solution to this?

deltron0
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Re: Final Fantasy IX

Postby deltron0 » Mon Jul 02, 2012 4:42 am

Can't use in game saves at the moogles. Any way to fix this?

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bluezeak
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Re: Final Fantasy IX

Postby bluezeak » Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:22 am

OpenGL notes & compilation of issues

First off, common issues:
    - "can't see HP / MP" - if using default / softgpu turn off frameskip. if using opengl plugin, turn on offscreen drawing.
    - savestates issues - this happens sometimes. They don't work, or they work but game has problems. Restore from memory card. For this very reason, do not rely on savestates. Always save you game using in-game save points, and only use savestates as a quickfix. Also, if savestates don't work, you may not be using the BIOS. You must use the BIOS for savestates to work - see next point.
    - can't save game / use moogles - make sure you have a bios file, and that you've told FPSE where it is. If you have fpsece, turn off HLE mode, and make sure you're configured to use BIOS.
    - game crashes when I get to <specific part of game> - I don't actually have advice to fix this. But, to get around it, you can copy your memory card file to your computer, play through that point on your computer (using an emulator like ePSXe), save the game, then copy the save game file back to your android device. How to do that? In the fpse menu, go to misc, backup config. Then plug your android device into your computer with a USB cable and copy the fpsebackup/memcards files from your android to your computer (they may be in /sdcard/fpsebackup, and on they android itself they may be in /mnt/sdcard/fpsebackup). When you copy the files back, you will need to point fpse to the location you copy them to (you can put them wherever you want, it doesn't need to be in the backup folder) - from fpse menu go to misc, select memcard.
    - no audio in mdecs(videos) - need to turn on spusync in audio options
    - game runs slow in battle (unless I hold down {square} to hide HP/MP/ATB) - This applies to the default / softgpu. I don't know, Schtruck said he would look into this (back in March I believe). if you have a dual core you can make sure 'force mono core' isn't checked. For me this tends to make the game 'jerky' similar to frameskip, and also makes buttons not respond sometimes.

My post about OpenGL ... Generic OpenGL info
Let me just start off saying that playing the game with OpenGl is SO much better. The game looks FANTASTIC. I do need frameskip though as I am often around 40 FPS, with FS I'm around 60 FPS.

Main Options
    Advanced Blending - disable - turns up contrast too high.
    Alpha Multipass - enable - needed for some ingame popup dialog bubbles to show properly ("?" and "!", maybe others). It puts black boxes around characters in start screen, but in game things seem to run fine without it.
    Framelimiter - use the 'special' frame limiter, or game will slow down too much in some scenes.
    Frameskip - normal frameskip seems to work fine. I need it - in some scenes I get 35-40 fps, with framskip I get 55-60.
    32bits - recommend off. Makes shadow under character a dark black square. Also breaks the alpha multipass "?" and "!". May make thinks look prettier.
    offscreen drawing - enable - needed for battle menus

Other options
    Anti Aliasing - only if your device can handle it. I have a good device, and I had issues (and disabled it)
    Texture filtering - should increase graphics, I didn't see a difference. I got ~5 less FPS. I disabled.

Unverified if needed or not:
    mask bit - tested, didn't see a difference)
    frame texture - tested very little, didn't see a difference)
    special game fixes (busy fix, Adjust framebuffer access, Special upload detection) (tested - didn't see a difference)

Issues:
    - slowdown before battle (where there should be a pre-fight battle swirl the screen just goes dark and slows down) - slowdown is just for 1 or 2 seconds, game is still very playable (unlike FF8 where it's 5-10 seconds)
    - thin black lines around objects - pretty inconsequential. I've come to like the effect.
    - black rectangle lines inside edges of text boxes - more annoying, but still not a problem
    - should load from a save game, then load savestate. otherwise alpha multipass will be broken. alternatively you can go to any "!" or "?" dialog popup (e.g. ladder) which will force it to work
    - the menus in the start screen where you choose your save game to restore to have dark black boxes around the words - this is caused by alpha multipass, but is needed inside game. seems to not be an issue int the game, so cane be ignored.
    - world map - my game slows down noticably on the worldmap where there's mist (haven't been outside the mist yet). down to ~44. Putting map into overhead view is better, but only sometimes. I had this same issue if FF8. Battle transitions are different, instead of just black it tires to do swirl (but fails); time to get into battle is about the same though (extra 1-2 seconds).

Other considerations:
- There was a special game fix for FF9 on the PC version of PEOpS - "G4 polygon cache". This was for "FF9 battle mode, yellow rectangles". It's not available on FPSE currently.
- May need "Adjust framebuffer access" - this was a special fix for battle swirls for FF7 (I believe). It may make no difference on FF9. - Tested, it made no difference for me


Issues from other users:
"I can't see the battle opening scene in Final Fantasy IX with OpenGL plugin. Well, I mean the opening scene that only lasts for 1,2 seconds when a battle starts"
- This sounds like a framebuffer access (and texture) issue. I don't know how Schtruck implemented the framebuffer access in FPSE (there are several options in the PC plugin). Seems like it isn't implemented fully enough to get the battle swirl to work - which may be good for generic use as full implementation is slow. Also this could be caused by the G4 plygon special fix which isn't implemented in FPSE.

Performance
    Overall - I must say the game is VERY playable, and is SOO much better (IMHO) than softGPU that I don't think I can go back.
    Generally - I get ~35-40 FPS when things are running 'slower'. With frameskip, I get ~58 (56-60). Often 60. I always play with frameskip. Many screens I get 60fps without frameskip.
    My device - I have a Motorola Droid Bionic, which is dual core, 1GB ram (usually ~300 megs free) and has PowerVR SX540 GPU (which is stock overclocked about 50%). From research I've done, it's about the same as the mali-400. Resolution 960x540 (higher than many others 800x480, making it work harder).
    Battles
      battle swirl - no battle swirl. I miss it, but I'm happy it works, vs FF8 where it does it but drags to 2 FPS while it draws it. Not a big deal.
      inital setup - there's a couple seconds of lag (1-2) and stuttering while it draws the battle. Very playable.
      special effects - so far, everything is pretty smooth. I don't think I've seen it drop down past 50. I have not done summons yet.
      overall - just a bit choppier, but just fine. And gfx are SOO much better.
    overwold
      general - definite slowdown, to ~44FPS. still ok though really (playable). setting camera to overhead helps (but not always). I do miss the smoothness of the softgpu, but it's not too big a deal - and the mist is drawn better. Similar to Final Fantasy Tactics where you don't get rain with the softGPU, but with OpenGL you do (but OpenGL makes FFT unplayable sadly).
      mist - drawn much better than in softGPU (which is likely why there's so much slowdown - I haven't been outside of mist yet, but I don't think it will fix it, should just make it a bit better)
      battles - battle swirl is different, still fails, still ultimately is same as far as slowdown
Last edited by bluezeak on Fri Jul 06, 2012 10:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
FPSE OpenGL info - click here

FreeSpirit
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Re: Final Fantasy IX

Postby FreeSpirit » Fri Jul 06, 2012 2:50 pm

Hi! Thank you for the info. I will give it a try this evening.

You did forget to most important part imho, some images showing the difference between SW and OpenGL mode. ;)

*edit* to help out, I added them myself just now. Thanks to your settings. Looks good!
Attachments
capture_49.jpg
capture_49.jpg (168 KiB) Viewed 30237 times
capture_54.jpg
capture_54.jpg (203.13 KiB) Viewed 30237 times
capture_52.jpg
capture_52.jpg (201.95 KiB) Viewed 30237 times

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bluezeak
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Re: Final Fantasy IX

Postby bluezeak » Fri Jul 06, 2012 9:09 pm

Great idea. I took these with "screenshot it" (which is paid, but that's mainly cause I haven't rooted my phone).

This is the OpenGL. I shrank it a bit so it wouldn't be as large. Full size it REALLY makes the difference shine, but even here you can see the huge difference.
FF9-FPSE-OpenGL.jpg
FF9-FPSE-OpenGL.jpg (91.36 KiB) Viewed 30225 times


This is the SoftGPU, with 'filtering' (really smoothing) enabled.
FF9-FPSE-SoftGPU-smoothed.jpg
FF9-FPSE-SoftGPU-smoothed.jpg (76.5 KiB) Viewed 30225 times



This is the SoftGPU
FF9-FPSE-SoftGPU.jpg
FF9-FPSE-SoftGPU.jpg (92.77 KiB) Viewed 30225 times
FPSE OpenGL info - click here

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bluezeak
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Re: Final Fantasy IX

Postby bluezeak » Fri Jul 06, 2012 9:10 pm

I edited my original post, putting in some more info about performance and added a bit about the world map.
FPSE OpenGL info - click here

FreeSpirit
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Re: Final Fantasy IX

Postby FreeSpirit » Sat Jul 07, 2012 11:11 am

bluezeak wrote:OpenGL notes & compilation of issues

- should load from a save game, then load savestate. otherwise alpha multipass will be broken. alternatively you can go to any "!" or "?" dialog popup (e.g. ladder) which will force it to work
- the menus in the start screen where you choose your save game to restore to have dark black boxes around the words - this is caused by alpha multipass, but is needed inside game. seems to not be an issue int the game, so cane be ignored.


I just booted it up this morning again and had all of these black rectangles all over the place. Please mention that this is what "broken alpha multipass" looks like. Booting from the main menu prevents this (as you stated), then loading a FPSE save game works just fine. Also the black things in the menu are indeed there but not a big issue.

To be precise as soon as you enter the save state lists (with the character pictures) and then you hit back ( the ps controller o button, not the android back button ) the rectangles are gone. From this point on you can load FPSE save states.

Two pictures that illustrate this issue.
Attachments
capture_61.jpg
Black rectangles in menu.
capture_61.jpg (21.11 KiB) Viewed 30205 times
capture_60.jpg
Black rectangles, broken alpha multipass.
capture_60.jpg (41.38 KiB) Viewed 30205 times

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bluezeak
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Re: Final Fantasy IX

Postby bluezeak » Sat Jul 07, 2012 3:03 pm

FreeSpirit wrote:
I just booted it up this morning again and had all of these black rectangles all over the place. Please mention that this is what "broken alpha multipass" looks like. Booting from the main menu prevents this (as you stated), then loading a FPSE save game works just fine. Also the black things in the menu are indeed there but not a big issue.

To be precise as soon as you enter the save state lists (with the character pictures) and then you hit back ( the ps controller o button, not the android back button ) the rectangles are gone. From this point on you can load FPSE save states.



Lol - you perfectly summed up what I was trying to say, with nice pics. Thanks :).

Yes, Alpha Multipass is needed, but it will cause the black boxes around the menus at the beginning when you go to load the game.

Yes, if you load a save state it will often cause the alpha multipass to go crazy and draw black boxes around everything. If you load from a memory card first it shouldn't do that. Alternatively, you can do something that forces the alpha multipass rendering, something that causes the "?" or "!" dialog bubbles - like a ladder or a place where you jump down. I didn't know pushing the ps controller "O" button would fix it, nice.
FPSE OpenGL info - click here

FreeSpirit
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Re: Final Fantasy IX

Postby FreeSpirit » Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:03 pm

bluezeak wrote:
FreeSpirit wrote:
I just booted it up this morning again and had all of these black rectangles all over the place. Please mention that this is what "broken alpha multipass" looks like. Booting from the main menu prevents this (as you stated), then loading a FPSE save game works just fine. Also the black things in the menu are indeed there but not a big issue.

To be precise as soon as you enter the save state lists (with the character pictures) and then you hit back ( the ps controller o button, not the android back button ) the rectangles are gone. From this point on you can load FPSE save states.



Lol - you perfectly summed up what I was trying to say, with nice pics. Thanks :).

Yes, Alpha Multipass is needed, but it will cause the black boxes around the menus at the beginning when you go to load the game.

Yes, if you load a save state it will often cause the alpha multipass to go crazy and draw black boxes around everything. If you load from a memory card first it shouldn't do that. Alternatively, you can do something that forces the alpha multipass rendering, something that causes the "?" or "!" dialog bubbles - like a ladder or a place where you jump down. I didn't know pushing the ps controller "O" button would fix it, nice.


Haha, thank you. Just contributing to your great post on OpenGL for FFIX

What I meant with the "O" button thing is that you can use that to go back in the menu.

It's like this:

1. From the main menu select continue.
2. Select memory card slot, wait through loading (currently the black boxes will be visible).
3. From the save game selection windows (with all the character pictures) go back to the memory card slot selection with the "O" button.
4. Now you have the "select memory card slot" screen, this time without the black boxes. Now load your FPSE save state. Boxes gone in game also. :)

I guess there is something in the save game selection part that forces the alpha multipass rendering.


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