Will FFXI run on my video card?

[drg889]

Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family (Intel(R) Calistoga Graphics Controller)

It meets all the minimum requirements, but im not sure if it will run with this damn video card, since almost nothing works with it.

Sorry, i'm not computer-knowledgable at all.

Thanks.

[Shuemue]

It should do, but it sure won't be amazing.

[_chuchu]

Do you get an error saying, "Terminated as error occurred in FINAL FANTASY XI. Failed to recognize hardware TnL. Please check that this computer has the required specs to run Final Fantasy XI.(-1)?" If it doesn't run, you can use 3DAnalyze. 3DA is a TnL emulator. The version I have is 1.64 from this url: http://www.s0nicfreak.net/ffxitnl . Runs ok on my laptop, wish I had looked into this solution sooner on google, and I eventually did and found it on 1 of many forums. I have a Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller. I checked out Dell's support info for it, and it's not desgined to run ffxi at all, but 3da does the trick. The only thing is that in laggy areas, or where there is a crowd (like hnm camps,) graphics become crappy and I have tried just about every solution I could find for me. I'd rather play on my laptop with crappy graphics personally, but it's a sacrifice sometimes for the graphics from my ps2. Obviously, use at your own risk, I have been doing fine the past two years with it, ran a virus scan then and it was clean. I tried a later version from http://www.tommti-systems.de/start.html but it wouldn't work on my laptop (version 2.36 or later), so give the one at tommti a shot see if it works for you as they are the developers. You probably will get told to buy a new graphics card when you really don't need to. I didn't even bother trying after calling up Dell and asking them if I could upgrade and them telling me no, so I was stuck with finding a solution. This a a very common problem with the Dell Intel chipset family, so if you can avoid buying an intel graphics driver, do it!

Edit: Also, if you wan't to run ffxi alone without windower, then you can simply do that, but to use windower you have to Run 3da, then you put launcher.exe as the PRE-exe AND the EXE from the windower folder. dll files are picked up automatically so dont worry about it.. I only know of being able to do this on version 1.64
Here are some sources:
[[removed]]

[liami]

I have the 945 chipset on my dell laptop, runs fine in XP apart from the occasional bsod (wish i hadn't cheaped out on it now)
Running @ 1280*800, 1024*1024 overlay resolution, have to turn off shadows and weather effects otherwise it gets really choppy with ppl around, other than that works fine with windower.
Worst thing is i tried looking around the bios to try and give the chip more virtual RAM, looks like the chip is hardset at 8MB of memory. Really hope i was seeing things when i saw that

Runs like total and utter dog shit on vista tho windower or no, i get a max of 7FPS anywhere there's more than your moogle to load.

[Zigma]

I have the 945 chipset on my dell laptop, runs fine in XP apart from the occasional bsod (wish i hadn't cheaped out on it now)
Running @ 1280*800, 1024*1024 overlay resolution, have to turn off shadows and weather effects otherwise it gets really choppy with ppl around, other than that works fine with windower.
Worst thing is i tried looking around the bios to try and give the chip more virtual RAM, looks like the chip is hardset at 8MB of memory. Really hope i was seeing things when i saw that

Runs like total and utter dog shit on vista tho windower or no, i get a max of 7FPS anywhere there's more than your moogle to load.

I have the 945 as well on my laptop. You should be able to increase it. Mine is at 128 shared.

[liami]

i'll take another look when i get home
have you ever had any luck running it on vista without the game being really really choppy?

[Zigma]

i'll take another look when i get home
have you ever had any luck running it on vista without the game being really really choppy?

Hell no, I don't put vista on that machine. XP onry. The 945 chipset blows for vista.

[Norellicus]

i'll take another look when i get home
have you ever had any luck running it on vista without the game being really really choppy?

Hell no, I don't put vista on that machine. XP onry. The 945 chipset blows for vista.

I think that would be better said that vista blows on the 945 chipset; but that could even be further simplified with just "vista blows" and we'd still be talking truth.

[liami]

Guess i was beating a dead horse hoping that'd work on vista.
Glad i dual booted xp. However i went back into the BIOS and it does indeed say 8MB of Video Memory, with not visible option of changing it, Dell's own brand of bios seems pretty crappy with only a couple of configurable options like turning bluetooth on/off.

[_chuchu]

Guess i was beating a dead horse hoping that'd work on vista.
Glad i dual booted xp. However i went back into the BIOS and it does indeed say 8MB of Video Memory, with not visible option of changing it, Dell's own brand of bios seems pretty crappy with only a couple of configurable options like turning bluetooth on/off.

I run windows XP. At first my BIOS set this at 1MB >_> then I changed it to 8MB. I also just went into my registry and experimented a bit based on this info I found from alla that by far has proven most useful for people that use the Intel chipset family, run a similar gfx card to three posters in here including myself, have to use 3da to run ffxi at all, or have shitty graphics, etc. There was a post on alla about regediting and Koga linked it viewtopic.php?f=31&t=26314. I'll quote it here, and if applicable, I'm hoping this could become stickied for people that share our dilemma because no one should be forced to buy something they don't really need if they just wanna play this game:

BEFORE ATTEMPTING THE FOLLOWING BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY AND/OR CREATE A RESTORE POINT.

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?f ... 2216382834

This is something I wrote months ago, and never shared it. I figure it might be useful to somebody here. So, here it is.

==========================================
FFXI REGISTRY DETAILS

Registry keys can be changed without exiting PlayOnline Viewer.

Types:
H - DWORD (2 Hexadecimal words, meaning 4 places of hex allowing 0000-FFFF or decimal 0 - 65,536; assuming unsignedness)
B - Binary (1=yes/on, 0=no/off)
S - String

Name Type Default Description
0000 H 0

MIP Mapping (0=disabled, 1=enabled) Further raises blur textures more times - no noticeable differences after 6 or so.

0001 H 640

Display mode width (X)[/pre]
Config queries DirectX for possible modes

0002 H 480

Display mode height (Y)
Config queries DirectX for possible modes


0003 H 512

3D width (X)
Config program gives choice between 256, 512, 1024 and sets equal to key 0004.
Maximum is 2048, minimum is 1

0004 H 512

3D height (Y)
Config program gives choice between 256, 512, 1024 and sets equal to key 0003.
Maximum is 2048, minimum is 1

0007 H 1

Sound: 0=Disabled, 1=Enabled

0011 H 1

Environmental Animation: 0=Off, 1=Normal, 2=Smooth
Further raises do not enhance animation quality.

0017 H 0

Bump mapping: 0=Disabled, 1=Enabled
Further raises do not enhance bump mapping quality.

0018 H 1

Texture compression: 0=High, 1=Low, 2=Uncompressed
Other values are apparently ignored and the engine defaults back to 2.

0019 H 1

Map compression: 0=Compressed, 1=Uncompressed
Other values are apparently ignored and the engine defaults back to 1.

0020 H 1

***FUNCTION UNKNOWN - does not appear to affect main menu screens

0021 H 0

Enable hardware mouse cursor: 1=Yes, 0=No

0022 H 1

Show opening movie: 1=Yes, 0=No

0023 H 0

Simplified character creation visuals: 1=Yes, 0=No

0024 H 0

***FUNCTION UNKNOWN - does not appear to affect main menu screen

0028 H 0

Gamma Base: 0x3f800000 = 1.0, 0 = 0.0, 0xbf800000 = -1.0

0029 H 12

Maximum sounds: Config pgm allows 12-20

0030 H 0

***FUNCTION UNKNOWN - does not appear to affect main menu screen

0031 H 0x3bc49ba6

***FUNCTION UNKNOWN - does not appear to affect main menu screen

bFirst B 00

***FUNCTION UNKNOWN - does not appear to affect main menu screen

padmode000 S 0,0,0,0

Enable Gamepad, Force Feedback, Slider, Hat Switches

padsin000 S ?

Button-function association.
Values are base-0 while button numbers are base-1 in config program, so convert appropriately

padsin000 places/buttons:
1. Toggle Auto-Run
2. Macro Palette A (Ctrl)
3. Change View
4. Macro Palette B (Alt)
5. Heal / Lock Target
6. Cancel
7. Main Menu
8. Select/Confirm
9. Active Window / Window Options
10. Hide Menus
11. Operate menus with movement controls
12. Operate camera with movement controls
13. PlayOnline
14-25. Function unknown ???
26. Screenshot

=========================

Hex Table
Hex-to-Decimal table for display modes:
128 = 80
160 = A0
224 = E0
240 = F0
256 = 100
320 = 140
360 = 168
384 = 180
400 = 190
450 = 1C2
480 = 1E0
512 = 200
524 = 20C
576 = 240
640 = 280
720 = 2D0
768 = 300
800 = 320
864 = 360
960 = 3C0
1024= 400
1080= 438
1152= 480
1200= 4B0
1280= 500
1344= 540
1392= 570
1440= 5A0
1536= 600
1600= 640
1792= 700
1800= 708
1856= 740
1920= 780
2048= 800

Other Hex Conversions
The Windows Calculator does this type of conversion. It always has, since Windows 3.1 to the best of my recollection. Click View-Scientific to put it into Scientific mode, then select "Dec", enter a number, and click "Hex" to see its hexadecimal equivalent.

Inputting Decimal into DWords in Regedit
On XP Pro, and maybe others, you can input decimal values into the Edit dialog by selecting the Decimal radio button.

Common Resolutions
Using those values, you can easily come up with the values for the following common display modes and background resolutions: 256x256, 320x240, 400x300, 512x512, 512x384, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1024x1024, 1152x864, 1280x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1792x1344, 1800x1440, 1920x1080 (1080i HDTV), 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2048x1536, and 2048x2048.

Note: Make sure your video card and monitor can handle a display mode before setting it.

Aspect Ratios and You
CRT monitors and regular televisions should use a ratio of 4:3 for the horizontal:vertical display resolution. If you have an HDTV or a wide display, check the specifications of your display to see what works best for it. Don't try something funky if it's not right for your display, because your graphics, text and UI will be skewed. Square intended for squares to be squares, no pun intended.

If you have a 16x9 display, try 640x360, 800x450, 1024x576, or 1280x720. Or, take the desired width, multiply by 9, and divide by 16 to get the height.

Unsupported Mode = Silent Exit
If an improper 3D height or width is set, FFXI will appear to enter full-screen mode briefly and quit back to PlayOnline without an error message.

1x1 Possible!
Yes, it is possible to have a 1x1 background resolution. Why you'd want to do this (or really, anything below 256x256) is beyond me, since you only get a solid block of color.

Graphics Enhancement via MIP Mapping
A lot of people really like the way FFXI looks when MIP mapping (key 0000) is set to 4. Give it a try. Distant textures will be lower resolution and blurred more, reducing the need for anisotropic texture filtering and thus allowing you to speed up your game by tweaking your graphics card's settings. It also (IMO) improves the appearance of distant textures, and eliminates the horrendous flickering. If you like the effect but think it's a bit too strong, downgrade to 3 or even 2. The flickering will be present at 2, and barely noticeable at 3.

Note: You may need more than 64MB of graphics memory to do this.

Bump Mapping: Good or Evil?
I prefer to leave bump mapping off, since I get a nice realistic afterglow after sunset and that nice look before sunrise, and the sunup/sundown lighting change isn't as abrupt and distracting. I haven't really noticed much of a difference otherwise. Your mileage may vary. This supposedly impacts performance somehow, but my system is a bit too fast to measure its impact reliably.

Performance Improvement
Set your background resolution (0003 and 0004) the same as your display resolution (0001 and 0002). The performance improvement might be noticeable.

Also, see the above point on MIP Mapping. Increase the level of MIP Mapping and lower your graphics card's texture filtering quality and amount to get better performance.

Turning off bump mapping may improve performance as well.

Fake Antialiasing
You can set a higher resolution for your background than the display mode. Doing this will force your graphics card to downsample the image, which will do a weighted average on nearby pixels thus blurring pixels whose neighbors are not the same color. In layman's terms: You'll get simple antialiasing by setting your background resolution (0003 and 0004) higher than your display resolution (0001 and 0002).

Differential Resolution
This is the technical term for having a different resolution on your menus and your background. For example, 400x300 background and 800x600 display mode. Don't do this. Your eyes and head will get really irritated.

============================

That's all for now, folks. Like it? Got suggestions? Good! This took a LOT of work to format and update for the forum, since it was all tabbed nicely with set stops and all that.

Basically what you do is find the ffxi version you run in the registry and go to Computer>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>PLAYONLINEUS>SQUAREENIX>FINALFANTASYXI. The known value ranges are explained above so only try out the ones you know and sorta experiment a little.

0011 H 2
Environmental Animation: 0=Off, 1=Normal, 2=Smooth
Further raises do not enhance animation quality.

0017 H 1
Bump mapping: 0=Disabled, 1=Enabled
Further raises do not enhance bump mapping quality.

I set 0011 to 2 and 0017 to 1 and I can see all animations, cures, and THE GODDAMN SKY in FFXI with weather effects on and it didn't look like a hexagonal dome . I can bog down everything else and still see the minimal things I wanna see as a mage... decent animations. This made me want to nuke puddings all morning for the hell of it. They used to light up, but now I see the spark that is Thunder IV.

Edit: Also note that bump mapping can lag you too, so use with caution. And you may also go into your launcher_gui.exe file on windower to change some of these settings.

[Reality]

ffxi runs pretty terrible on my laptop, it has the uh.. intel gma 3100

;/