Final Fantasy 8 PC... can no-one help me??

Hey everyone...

I've got a problem with Final Fantasy 8 (the PC version)... and so far, I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else!

The problem is a graphics glitch... and a very odd one.

The problem is hard to describe, but I'll do my best.

Most of the time, the graphics in the game are fine with no discernable problems. However, at certain times, when the game normally uses a type of 'blurring motion' effect (they happen during Rinoa's final limit break, the Eden summon, and the Gilgamesh 'summon') my computer (when in hardware acceleration mode) does not display them properly - instead, I get sort of static image that just enlarges and blurs over the screen for the duration of the 'motion blur' effect. It looks really ugly.

It's NOT the old 'GeForce Glitch', which is solved by the patch - I know since I have the patch and know what the GeForce Glitch looks like.

(While this problem does not occur when using software rendering, software rendering is slow, ugly, and actually seems to have similar problems with displaying the backgrounds and menus as the game pre-GeForce patch. For these reasons I do not want to use software rendering.)

Basically, what I'd really like to know is: how can I solve this 'ugly blurring' problem?? I've tried everything I can think of, fiddling with numerous settings for the GeForce card and different graphics settings for Final Fantasy 8 too... none have helped.

Am I the only person on earth who is experiencing these problems with the game, or does someone else know what I'm talking about?

Please help if you can... I would really appreciate it.

My system for running the game is:
Windows 98
1.8 GHz Athlon
SBLive! Sound Card
GeForce 4 4400 Ti Video Card
And using latest (1.2?) GeForce Patch for FF8

I know this one... You can only get this to display right with DirectX 6.1. Yes, I know, teh suxx0rs, but that's how it is. (Platform: Win98, P2 450 MHz, 128 Mb RAM and ATI Rage Fury/Voodoo 2.)
That's the only "help" I know of.

How... annoying.

Is there any known way of installing a lower version of DirectX than the one I currently have (which doesn't also involve formatting my whole harddisk?)?

And thank for the help so far, it's the first time I've got any useful advice on this.

No, you can't downgrade/uninstall DirectX, except reformatting then reinstalling Windows. Well, you probably can if you know what files to replace and you know enough about DirectX and Windows and you're prepared to mess about with the registry a lot, but it's completely unsupported by Microsoft. DirectX is supposed to be fully backwards compatible with previous versions of itself anyway, so I'm not sure saying it only works right in 6.1 is correct.

I had exactly that problem too, though I just left it as it wasn't such a big deal for me. I'm surprised your 1.8 GHz Athlon can't run software mode at full speed though :p

Yeah, it surprises me too that it slows down in Software mode, but I suspect its related to shoddy coding for the software rendering. Very very crappy.

I'm interested to know if this is a GeForce specific problem... and I would be most interested to find out if anyone has ever managed to solve it themselves somehow? Persnally I think it's quite a major problem: it totally spoils the animations for the biggest summon in the game, Rinoa's highly-powerful limit break, the cool-looking Gilgamesh, and partly even screws up the last sequence where the last boss dies.

Weird... my pc version of FF8 never did that.

Arche: Well, I can only judge from my experience, and I only got that effect (like, 'half-assed motion-blur'?) to work with DX6.1. Using a Voodoo 2. TEH KING!!!!1
Either way, the motion-blur unconditionally shoves a big stick in the cogs in my system. I'd say going through downgrading DirectX is a lot more pain than it's worth, though. Sure, a part of the final battle will hardly look at all, and when It's Done the problem strikes back. Eden and Invincible Moon are also affected, but I wouldn't call that a very big deal...