Newsgroup: it.comp.hardware.video-3d
Titolo: OT LUNGO LEGGETE QUESTO DALLA EA

Ho scritto alla ea per sapere quando sarà messa on-line una patch per
giocare a FF8(italiano) con una G-force, e guardate come mi hanno
risposto.......
Hello,
Enclosed below is an automated troubleshooting response consisting of
all of the most common problems we have seen with this title. We have
found that these steps will help to resolve 80-90% of our customer's
difficulties. Please see if your difficulty is described below and make
sure to try all corresponding troubleshooting steps.
I. FOR ALL ERROR MESSAGES, CRASHES OR LOCKUPS
a. Checking and updating DirectX drivers.
b. I am getting an "insert CD" error message.
c. When I start the game or run the Config program I get an openGL32.dll
error.
d. Crashes after battle.
II. VIDEO CARD ISSUES
a. I am getting strange lines across the screen with my GeForce Card.
b. I am getting scrambled graphics with any other card.
c. Why can't I go over 640x480 screen resolution?
d. How do I change the size and resolution of the in-game text?
e. Why does my video card fail 8-bit paletted textures?
III. SOUND RELATED ISSUES.
a. Random crashes
b. How do I use the Yamaha Synthesizer on the game CD?
c. How do I use the MIDI Synthesizer on my sound card?
d. The sound stutters in between scenes
e. I hear music but no sound effects
V. CONTROLLER ISSUES
VI. GAMEPLAY ISSUES
            a.   Why are my cards disappearing?
VII. IF YOUR ISSUE IS NOT LISTED
_________________________________________________________________
I. FOR ALL ERROR MESSAGES OR LOCKUPS
a. CHECKING AND UPDATING DIRECTX DRIVERS
Making sure your display (video) and audio drivers are certified by
DirectX
1. Right click on your C drive in MY COMPUTER and select FIND...
2. Type dxdiag.exe in the NAMED field and click FIND NOW.
3. Double click on the file it finds.
4. Click on the Sound tab.
    The sound card driver version will be listed on the line
"version:.." in the format x.xx.xx.xxxx
5. Click on the Display (1&2) tab.
    The video card driver version will be listed on the line
"version:.." in the format x.xx.xx.xxxx
2. For the game to run properly, both the sound card and video card
driver should list "Certified: Yes".
* Please review the information below regarding DirectX driver
certification.
3. In some cases, video drivers may have problems changing to the game's
resolution settings.
a. With your right mouse button, click anywhere on your Windows Desktop
that is not on an Icon and select PROPERTIES.
b. With your left mouse button, click on SETTINGS.
c. Make sure that Desktop Area is set to 640X480 and the Color Palette
is set to 256 colors.
* Some of our newer games may require an 800x600 Desktop Area and
thousands of colors.
d. Try to run game.
* If this recommendation solves your problem, try checking with the
manufacturer of you video card for a driver update.
4.    Please make sure there is at least 60-100 megabytes of hard drive
space on the drive that the game is installed on.  Windows requires this
space for a virtual memory swap file.
5. In some cases, programs running in the background within Windows95
will cause games to lock or crash.  The best solution would be to
shutdown all non-essential programs.
a. Press and hold the CTRL key then ALT the DELETE (Close Program Menu
Appears).
b. With your left mouse button, highlight an item (except Explorer) and
left click on ENDTASK. (Close Program menu will disappear).
* Don't Endtask "Explorer" because this will shutdown Windows.
c. Repeat this procedure until "Explorer" is the only item left in
menu.
* All items will be restored after restarting Windows.
d. Try to run game.
* Most likely only one or two items in the closed program menu caused a
problem. Once game is running normally, try to determine which item(s)
caused the problem and before running game, end task the appropriate
item(s).
6. When running DirectX games, some video driver's acceleration features
may conflict with Windows Acceleration features.  This may be resolved
by turning down Hardware Acceleration.
a. Right click on the MY COMPUTER icon.
b. Left click on PROPERTIES.
c. Left click on PERFORMANCE.
d. Left click on GRAPHICS.
e. Left click on the Hardware Acceleration bar and bring it down to ¼
or
NONE.
* In certain instances video drivers may not function properly at lower
settings thus making the computer boot into Safe Mode.  If this occurs,
bring it up a notch at a time until all functionality is restored.
f. Try to run game.
* If this recommendation solves your problem, try checking with the
manufacturer of you video card for a driver update.
7. Please follow the below suggestions to ensure that your CD-ROM
settings are correct.  This will ensure that your CD-ROM drive set for
optimal performance.
a. Press and hold the ALT key and double left click on MY COMPUTER.
b. Click on PERFORMANCE.
c. Click on FILE SYSTEM then CDROM.
d. Make sure that Supplemental Cache Size is set to LARGE and Optimize
Access Pattern is set to Quad speed or higher.
* If these settings are already correct, try lowering the Supplemental
Cache Size.
e. Try to run game.
DirectX Driver Certification Summary
Certified: Yes
The driver has been tested and approved by Microsoft and should work
with all DirectX applications.  Usually if the driver is certified, the
problem isn't linked to that piece of hardware. Still it is always a
good idea to have the most current drivers available for your hardware
to ensure future compatibility with all applications.
Blank with no driver version listed:
The performance and stability of the driver is basically unknown. It is
recommended to check with the hardware manufacture for any updated
drivers that may be available. Most likely, drivers that appear this way
will not work properly at all.
Blank with driver version listed:
The driver has DirectX support, but was not included with the DirectX.
These drivers may function properly; however, there may be some
difficulties. It is recommended to check with your hardware manufacturer
for any updated drivers that may be available. Always try running the
game before obtaining new driver.
Certified: No
The driver has not been tested by Microsoft Hardware Quality Labs.
Although this driver may function correctly, it is highly recommended to
check with your hardware, manufacture for updated drivers that may be
available. You can check this by either phoning the manufacturer or
looking for new drivers on their WEB site.
b. I AM GETTING AN "INSERT CD" ERROR MESSAGE
If you are getting an "Insert CD.." error message, you may have a second
CDROM, a DVD or a CD Recorder as an additional CDROM. If this is the
case, I suggest uninstalling the game, using the games uninstall
feature. Then delete the folder where the game was installed. Reinstall
the game using the first CDROM device. For example: If you have a CDROM
on drive letter E: and a DVD drive on letter F, Install the game from
drive E.
When you play the game, play the game with the CD in the same drive
Letter from which it was installed. Also, you may want to try inserting
a music CD in the other CD/DVD/CDR drive(s).
If this does not work, try enabling Sync Data Transfer for your CDROM
drive.
-Right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
-Click on Device Manager.
-Double-click on CDROM.
-Double-click on the drive the game is running from.
-Click on Settings.
-Check the box that says Sync Data Transfer.
-Apply the changes, close the window, and restart your computer.
c. I'M GETTING AN OPENGL32.DLL ERROR MESSAGE
The error message that you are seeing is the result of not having any
OpenGL drivers installed on your system. OpenGL is an alternative
interface for graphics acceleration, and has free and wide support.
Win95 does not have native openGL support. Voodoo cards (among others)
do not have native openGL support. Therefore systems with this
combination do not have the opengl32.dll library installed.
Go to 
http://www.opengl.org/Downloads/Downloads.html
. The first item on
this page is a link to the ftp site where you can find the installer for
opengl. If you have a Voodoo card, this will not necessarily add openGL
support for your card. It will, however, allow the game to run with no
errors.
d. GAME CRASHES AFTER BATTLE
If you have DirectX 7.0 installed on your system and are running the
Yamaha Synthesizer as your DirectMusic Port, the game may crash when it
attempts to play the victory music after a winning battle. To fix this,
simply run the FF8Config program from the Start Menu, and click on
Sound. Change the DirectMusic port from its current setting to Microsoft
synthesizer, and click on OK.
_______________________________________________________________
II. VIDEO CARD ISSUES
a. I'M GETTING WHITE LINES WITH MY GEFORCE.
After the game was released, it became apparent that there was a serious
compatibility issue with the Nvidia GeForce chipset. This includes the
Creative Labs Annihilator, the Elsa Erazor III, and the Guillemont 3D
Prophet, as well as a few others. If the game is run in hardware render,
there will be a number of horizontal discolored lines that appear in the
backgrounds of each of the scenes. The only way to eliminate these lines
without affecting the performance of the GeForce card itself is to run
the game in Software Render. However, we have determined that
performance in Software Render on a GeForce is also extremely slow, and
given the power of the card, this is not an acceptable solution.
Both Squaresoft and Nvidia are aware of the issues that the
GeForce experiences with FF8, and a permanent solution is currently
being developed. When this solution is finished, it will be made
available on our website. We apologize for any inconvenience this may
have caused.
b. I AM GETTING LINES OR SCRAMBLED GRAPHICS WITH ANY OTHER CARD
For video cards other than the GeForce, these issues generally either
relate to the capability of the card in relation to the requirements of
the game, or the date of the drivers that are being used to run the
video card. Make sure that your video card can handle a 3D accelerated
mode if this mode is selected. A few particular cards, including the
SiS530 and the ATI Rage Pro, are only partial 3D accelerators, and even
with the latest drivers may not be able to run the game in Direct3D
mode. In either case, go to the website of your video card manufacturer
to download and install the latest driver for your card. If you are
unsure of which card you have installed in your system, you can find
this out from your computer.
-Right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
-Click on Device Manager.
-Double-click on Display Adapters.
This should give you the brand name and model of your video card. If you
have an add-on 3D accelerator, this will be located in the Device
Manager under Sound, Video, and Game Controllers.
If changing these settings does not resolve the issue, your card may
only have the capability to run the game in Software Render. You can
change this in the FF8Config program located in your Start Menu.
c. MY SCREEN RESOLUTION WILL NOT GO HIGHER THAN 640x480
The game does not run in any resolution other than 640x480. You only
have an option to choose between full screen and quarter screen; this
can be selected in the FF8Config program accessible from the Start menu.
d. HOW DO I CHANGE THE RESOLUTION OF THE GAME TEXT?
You can switch to High-Res text by going into the FF8Config program in
the Start      menu, and clicking on the Graphics tab. In the
Performance Options box at the bottom of the window there will be a "Use
High-Res Fonts" option. This will increase the resolution of the fonts,
but will not change their size on screen. (Note that this option
requires a video card with at least 8MB of RAM).
e. WHY DOES MY VIDEO CARD FAIL 8-BIT PALETTED TEXTURES?
The PSX uses 8-bit textures with their own palettes, because it is based
on aging 8-bit architecture. When the game was translated to the PC, the
textures were kept in this format. Many of the newer, more advanced
video cards do not support these older texture formats, and have to
translate them into 16 or 32-bit format. Some popular cards such as the
3dfx voodoo cards still use 8-bit textures, however. Most older D3D
cards do as well. The only effect that this has on the game is that the
menu backgrounds and other smooth gradients may seem a little rough,
because the video card must transform the set palette to its own color
depth, and the colors may skew slightly in the process. It does not have
any effect on the overall performance of the game. Keep in mind that
certain cards such as the GeForce actually have hardware support for
these textures, but this feature has not yet been enabled in the driver.
III. SOUND RELATED ISSUES
a. RANDOM SOUND RELATED CRASHES
Make sure to have the latest software driver for your sound card. To
update your soundcard driver, visit the website of the manufacturer and
download and install the most recent windows 95/98 driver available for
your sound card, or just contact the manufacturer directly. Download and
install them. If you're unsure how to install them, remember the
directory they got unzipped to and and read the readme.txt file for
proper installation instructions or contact the manufacturer for
assistance.
b. HOW DO I USE THE YAMAHA SOFTWARE ON THE GAME CD?
The Yamaha software that is included with the game can only be used by
players that already own a copy of the Yamaha Software Synthesizer
S-YXG50/70/100. The software included with FFVIII is an upgrade that can
only be installed on a system that already has the Yamaha Software
Synthesizer installed. This upgrade allows for increased quality sound
and music within the game, which has been optimized for use with the
Yamaha MIDI synthesizer. Details on this software can be found in the
Readme.TXT file located in the Final Fantasy VIII directory on your hard
drive
c. HOW DO I USE THE MIDI SYNTHESIZER ON MY SOUND CARD?
The only synthesizers that are supported by FFVIII are the Microsoft
Synth and the Yamaha S-YXG50/70/100. This is because each of these two
is a software synth, and supports the DLS feature, which was necessary
for the translation of the game. Currently no hardware MIDI devices
support DLS in the Win98 environment, so these were not supported by
FFVIII. The fact that your card's MIDI device does not show up is no
indication of anything not functioning properly on the card's part.
d. THE SOUND STUTTERS AND THE GAME PAUSES IN BETWEEN SCENES
This issue is related to data transfer conflicts as the game loads a new
scene. Resolving this is issue is simple. Try adjusting the DMA setting
for your hard drive. This will allow the drive direct access to memory,
bipassing the CPU and improving the frame rate.
Right click My Computer and select Properties--> Device manager--> Disk
Drives
-Click on Properties for the hard drive the game is on
-Select the Settings tab
-Check DMA box--> Click OK
Next, double-click on CDROM
-Click on Properties for the CDROM drive the game uses
-Select the Settings tab
-Check DMA box--> Click OK
If you do not have a DMA option, either: you are running Windows 95;
your drive does not support DMA; or you are running in MSDOS
Compatibility Mode. In each case, you may want to contact the
manufacturer of your computer to request assistance in deactivating any
MSDOS drivers for your drives, and to make sure that you have the latest
drivers for all the devices on your Motherboard.
e. I HEAR MUSIC BUT NO SOUND EFFECTS
FFVIII requires the Audio Compression component of Windows to be
installed on your system in order for you to be able to hear sound
effects in the game. The best way to check this is to open up your
Add/Remove Programs control panel, and click on the Windows Setup tab.
Double-click on Multimedia, and make sure that the Audio Compression box
is checked. If it is not, check it and Apply the changes. You may need
your Windows Install CD to install the component. If the box is checked,
uncheck it, and Apply the changes, then restart your computer and
recheck the box. Again, you may need your Windows Install CD.
III. CONTROLLER ISSUES
All Windows 95 games will require your joystick to be setup and
calibrated
in the Windows 95 Control Panel to function properly with the game.
To calibrate your controller in the Windows 95 Control Panel:
1. Double-click on the Computer icon.
2. Then double-click on the Control Panel icon.
3. Next, double-click on the Joystick icon (this will be called "Gaming
Devices" if you have installed a Microsoft joystick, and the procedure
will
be slightly different.)
4. Make sure that the proper joystick is selected. The "2 axis, 2 or 4
button joystick" driver is usually a good choicer if your joystick is
not
listed.
5. Click on the calibrate button and follow the steps given by the
control panel VERY CAREFULLY. If you miss a step, or press Enter instead
of
pressing a joystick button, your joystick will not work properly and you
will have to recalibrate.
6. Test your calibration by clicking on the test button. You should see
the calibration cursor appear exactly in the center when you let go of
your
joystick, and the button indicators should light up when you press a
joystick button.
If your joystick will not calibrate properly, please check with your
joystick manufacturer or system vendor for information on how to correct
the problem.
Gravis Gamepad Pro issues
1. Make sure that you have installed the software that came with the
joystick and that you are using the most current version of that
software.
Software updates for the Gamepad Pro can be found at 
www.gravis.com
.
2. Make sure that the switch on the bottom of the joystick is set to
"Grip" if the gamepad is configured and calibrated as a Gravis Grip in
the
windows Control Panel. If it is set to the "One Player" position, make
sure
that the gamepad is configured and calibrated as a Gravis Gamepad in the
windows Control Panel.
3. Make sure that with any Windows 95 game, you are "testing" the
gamepad in the windows Control Panel every time before playing a game.
4. Make sure that the "Keyboard Emulation" option is turned off in the
Grip Utility. The Grip Utility is located on the Taskbar at the bottom
right
hand side of your Windows 95 desktop (left-click on "GRIP").
5. Frequently reset the calibration in the Advanced Options of the Grip
Utility.
Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad issues
There have been a few instances where our native Windows95 games do not
respond correctly with the Microsoft Sidewinder gamepad(s). Here are a
few
general tips that may help the gamepad(s) to work correctly:
1. Make sure that software provided with the Microsoft Sidewinder
gamepad is installed in Windows 95.
2. No calibration is necessary with this gamepad, but there is a "TEST"
option in the "Gaming Devices" control panel. Make sure that all buttons
function and the directional pad responds to all directions.
3. Make sure that you are TESTING the gamepad prior to running the game
every time.
4. Make sure that under "Gaming Devices" in the Control Panel the
Status lists "OK" and device type is Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad.
5. On the gamepad make sure that the green light is on. Pressing the
"Mode" button located on the face of the gamepad does this.
6. The gamepad may not function properly if any other joystick is
plugged in, other than another Microsoft gamepad.
7. Our games may have problems with the Gaming Device Profiler in some
cases this may need to be unloaded. This can be unloaded by
right-clicking
on the Gaming Device Profiler icon on the Task bar and then select
Unload".
The Profiler will reload next time Windows95 is started.
In addition, Microsoft has released updated drivers for the Sidewinder
Gamepad (version 1.5). Use the following link to download the new
software
at
http://www.microsoft.com/products/hardware/sidewinder/download/default.h
tm.
(NOTE: This
link was last checked as active on 10/9/97).
_______________________________________________________________
VI. GAMEPLAY ISSUES
a. WHY ARE MY CARDS DISAPPEARING?
The disappearing cards issue that you are experiencing is one that we
are tracking. It has been seen by a handful of customers so far, but
seems to be limited to only the Gayla, Red Bat, and Bitebug cards. I
would recommend that you continue to play the game. If you lose any more
than those three card types, please let us know.
In the meantime, we will be forwarding all the information that we have
to Squaresoft to come up with a permantent solution. Thank you for your
patience.
_______________________________________________________________
VI. IF YOUR ISSUE IS NOT LISTED
If your issue is not listed or this troubleshooting doesn't help to
resolve
your difficulty, simply reply to this message (please don't change the
subject line) and a product support technician will be responding within
48 hours, Monday-Friday.  Also include a brief summary of your status
in your reply. As well as the following information:
Attach to your response the report that is compiled by the DirectX
Diagnostic Tool. DirectX handles all of your game-related devices, and
this tool can create a report that gives us information on their status.
To do this:
1.  Go to Start>Find>Files & Folders.
2.  In the "Named" box, type the following: dxdiag.exe
3.  Then make sure the "Look In" box is pointed to your (C:\) drive.
4.  Click "Find Now".
5.  After the file has been found, double click on it to run the
application.
6.  Click the "Save All Information" button on the first screen of the
application.
7.  Then on top of the "Save As" box that pops up, click the arrow just
to
the right of the "Save In" box, and select Desktop, then click Save.
8.  Finally, attach the dxdiag.txt file that is saved to your desktop to
your reply.
If you can't find dxdiag then you don't have directX6 installed.  Go to
www.microsoft.com/directX
 to download the latest version of directX and
install it.
If you require immediate assistance, you may reach our phone department
at
(650) 628 - 8468
 between 8:30 AM - 11:45 AM and 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Pacific
Standard time, or fax us at 
(650) 628 5999
.
Electronic Arts
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                          (o o)
    +---------oOOO---(  )-------------------+
 
ba...@tiscalinet.it
     +----------------------oOOO----------+
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                      ooO Ooo

Non è una novità, anche altre aziende rispondono con una FAQ alla e-mail.
P.S.
Non postare 23K di roba inutile sul NG.
    Ciao
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