Old School Voodoo Question? 8-bit palettized textures?

[Golgatha]

I know that I played Final Fantasy VII with much better quality graphics using an 8MB Voodoo II back in the day. I assume Final Fantasy VIII would benefit from such a card as well. I was just wondering if the Voodoo 4/5 series supported 8-bit palettized textures like the Voodoo 2 and 3 series?

Also, if the Voodoo 4 series does support this feature; anyone want to trade a Voodoo 4 32MB card for my GeForce 2 GTS 32MB AGP card?

 

[Fox5]

The voodoo4/5 cards do indeed support this. However, FF7 was a quick port from Glide to Direct3d at the last minute, I think FF8 had more mainstream card support.

I think you should try and hold out for a Voodoo5 though, Voodoo 4s aren't that fast. (maybe 10%-20% faster than a Voodoo 3) Check eBay I guess. Plus you get to use high quality AA for old games and emulation.

Also, there was a Riva TNT patch for FF7 that may have fixed the palettized texture issue. In addition, there are unofficial patches for it now that enable 1280x960 as a resolution and that replace the in-game models with the higher polygon battle models.

 

[Leper Messiah]

Vodoo 6000 FTW? Saw some benchies on one at 183 MHz, it did quite well vs. a GF2 Ultra.

 

[Chriz]

Any idea where to get those unofficial patches? Getting FF7 to run correctly on XP with a modern video card is kind of a pain. I know both Nvidia and ATI cards never really supported 8 bit palletized textures, but correct me if i'm wrong but I think somewhere down the line Nvidia started adding this feature to their cards, which is one reason I'm looking to get an Nvidia card (I have an ATI atm).

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: Chriz
Any idea where to get those unofficial patches? Getting FF7 to run correctly on XP with a modern video card is kind of a pain. I know both Nvidia and ATI cards never really supported 8 bit palletized textures, but correct me if i'm wrong but I think somewhere down the line Nvidia started adding this feature to their cards, which is one reason I'm looking to get an Nvidia card (I have an ATI atm).

The Riva TNT patch is an official patch, though it may be hard to find now. I think it works on nvidia and ati cards. The unofficial patches I'm not sure where to get, I saw them on a message forum; I don't think they have an official site.

 

[cubby1223]

ATi cards never were supported in FF7, there's a custom patch, but still has many graphic problems.

The game is fully supported on nVidia hardware & I've played it in full 3D mode on my 6600GT. There's a custom v1.02 patch out there, plus an additional "chocobo patch" for Windows XP. There is another custom patch that's called like FF7 XP Patch, but it's crap, don't use it. An as always, save early & save often.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: Chriz
Any idea where to get those unofficial patches?

Here

After ff7 installation, put the ff7.exe & ff7config.exe files in the program directory, replacing the existing files. Then run the chocobo patch file.

 

[videoclone]

i did play it with a TNT2 back in the day... ^_^ worked fine for me

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Fox5
The voodoo4/5 cards do indeed support this. However, FF7 was a quick port from Glide to Direct3d at the last minute, I think FF8 had more mainstream card support.

I think you should try and hold out for a Voodoo5 though, Voodoo 4s aren't that fast. (maybe 10%-20% faster than a Voodoo 3) Check eBay I guess. Plus you get to use high quality AA for old games and emulation.

Also, there was a Riva TNT patch for FF7 that may have fixed the palettized texture issue. In addition, there are unofficial patches for it now that enable 1280x960 as a resolution and that replace the in-game models with the higher polygon battle models.

Heck, a Voodoo 2 8MB was fast enough back in the day with my PII 400. I think an Athlon 800Mhz with a Voodoo 4 would be more than sufficient. Glad someone posted a FF7 patch out there though.