FF8 PC started giving you weird visual fx when you Improved your rig?

[Silent Warrior]

Weird visuals in question: Brick-like effect on 2D, quite disturbing. Happens on a machine with WinXP and a Radeon 9700, for example. :)
In that case, through the unexpected guidance of Freespace 2_Open I've found a reasonably effective cure! It comes in the shape of registry-tweaking, but Never Fear! I'll walk you through it nice and easy.

Short version (for regedit-literate):
Find FF8's registry-bundle (the one with datadrive e: or whatever, etc) and add the DWORDs D3DTextureDivider and D3DTextureOrigin and set them both to 1. An' that's that.

Long version (for regedit-illiterate):
Fire up regedit (Run->regedit) and navigate to... HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Square Soft, Inc\FINAL FANTASY VIII\1.00. Rightclick on an open area in the rightmost frame and select New->DWORD-value/key. Name one D3DTextureDivider, repeat the procedure and name the other one D3DTextureOrigin. Doubleclick each of them and set their values to 1. No strings attached, no chance of screwing your computer up unless you're UNBELIEVABLY clumsy. Really. Well, as long as you follow my instructions to the letter, anyway. :radred:

This fix makes the brick-effect on the 2D-backgrounds go away, but the menu still looks a little messed up. Still, it's a perceivable improvement. And FF8 with 6x FSAA... Easy on the eyes. :) FF8 without FSAA... not so easy on the eyes these days.
If someone knows of a way to make the numbers, you know, resampled to its targeted resolutions, I'm all ears.

Oh, one last thing... Don't "manually" update FF8's Bink-DLL, or the game won't even get past the Eidos-video. :o

[volkyrai]

Wow thanks a lot. Ever since I installed my new card, I've been getting those blocks. And I couldn't even use AA. I'm guessing now that things will work the way they should though. Thanks a lot, I'll try this out once I finish playing IX.

[Silent Warrior]

Hm... *Spontaneous thought* Can someone make this a sticky, or should it be shoved in a FAQ somewhere? Well, not that many people are going to buy FF8 PC in the future, but it might be good to keep available somewhere. More easily available than a forum-search, that is. :mog:

[lonely]

I'm sorry but your help with the computer, well what you said just went right over my head, I didn't understand any of it, it was way too complecated! Would you mind explaining it a little bit better, in other words not so complicated please?

[Silent Warrior]

lonely: I... don't understand the question. Did you read the long vers... Oh, right, you must have. :) Alrighty, I'll just try to make a list of it.

1. Start regedit. (Open/activate Start Menu, click Run, type regedit, hit enter.)
2. By clicking the plus-signs to the left of the folder-icons, locate and open the 1.00 folder. Detailed path: Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Scroll down (a long way, most likely) until you find SOFTWARE. Expand. Scroll further down until you find Squaresoft, Inc. Expand it, and the Final Fantasy VIII you find there as well, and you'll see 1.00. Click the folder or otherwise select it for browsing. The contents appear on the right part of the screen. (A bunch of registry-entries. If you're at the right place, you'll see a datadrive-entry in the left column with your CD-drive named in the rightmost column.)
3. Right click on an empty area in the section with all those entries, and you'll be able to select New. :rolleyes2 Gee. Holding your mouse over New will make a new menu appear. Select DWORD, and a new DWORD-entry will show up. (While you're at it, you might as well create yet another DWORD. Same procedure, yes.)
4. Name one of the DWORDs D3DTextureOrigin (with capitalization, or Bill Gates will send a SWAT-team to your house), and the other D3DTextureDivider.
5. Doubleclick one of them, type 1 and close the little dialog-box that popped up. You shouldn't need to do anything else before doing so - I just double-checked, and there's only one field where you can type anything for those entries. Repeat for the other entry.
6. Play FF8 PC.

[lonely]

Thanx alot! That helped alot! That really helped, that was better it wasn't so complicated, wow so that is how you do it, I always wondered how to get the PC version working better!

[Silent Warrior]

Whoa! Crazy idea, like! DirectX 9 registry-tweaks! :cool: Bells and whistles, ho!

*I'll be back.*

[Later]
Hm... Dude, I only dug up some Speech-API-entries. Well, ONE, actually...
DWORD: SpeechIngame, set to 1. Same location as the other two. I haven't tested it myself yet, so don't shoot me if it doesn't work.