100K gil to anyone if...

ziphor

/snoopydance
Adventurer
Joined
Jun 30, 2004
Messages
811
...if you can fix my problem!

wtf.jpg



ok, see how its grid-like? its also EXTREMELY slow! when i press enter, there like a 3-10sec delay on my key stroke.

It's been like this for about a month and a half.. and i delt with it... but i just cant stand it anymore!

how it got this way:
i wanted to see if i could increase FPS or somehow make gameplay smoother...stupid me calls SE to see their suggestions(copied from my flame post back in october but cleaned up):
first guy: give specs > tells me to DL a catalyst driver update > i DL it, turns out the TSR CANNOT READ, i have a MOBILITY radeon...as in LAPTOP, not stationary desktop... so that TSR gave me a link to a desktop update, which screws my comp up alot.

second guy: tries to find me a LAPTOP fix for this, but sadly, is unable to find one, tells me to call HP when their support hours is up. > i goto HP.com, find a fix > i DL & install... nothing is working and mess around to get it back to the setting before all this happpens.... FFXI still plays slow/grid-like

The installs i DL'ed: (in order)
wxp-w2k-catalyst-8-111-050222a-021277c.exe
SP30791.exe
SP27935.exe
cat-uninstaller.exe

My system Specs:
OS: Microsoft windows XP professional(5.1, build 2600)
Processor: Mobile intel pentium 4 - cpu 2.8GHz, ~2.8GHz
510 MB ram
page: 456MB used, 793MB available
DX ver. 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Mobility Radeon 9200 (ORIGINAL ver):6.14.0010.6396 (Ver i DLed):6.14.0010.6436 - approx. total mem:64MB - Chip type:Mobility Radeon 9200 AGP (0x5C61)

So, if anyone can fix this, ill give them 100,000 gil >_>;
 
Yep, pretty much sounds like a Driver/DirectX issue (Seems like most problems with this game are -.-).

Just a quick note: Last I checked FFXI was capped at 30 fps, and will go no higher whether or not you change drivers, have a super awesome system, etc. This could have changed, but seeing as how little SE has done in improving the look of the game or how well it runs I kinda doubt it.
 
9.0c is the latest, and when you say "if i WAS right" does that mean you know your not right before i go and search to find any updates or anyhting? because remember, POL viewer was fine before with my current driver ver.
 
Definitely a Dx problem, it's happened to me a few times after reinstalling.
 
I had this happen to me before, when updating my video card driver.
Had to roll back to a previous version to fix it.
 
Says theres no DX problems, did the tests and were successful... grah whats doing this!
 
I'm getting the same exact problem.

Then.. when I try to install any driver I get:
error.jpg


I use the disc that came with the video card to install it and it says it installs sucessfully yet FFXI still looks the same as the picture in the first post.

I have a Nvidia G-Force FX5200.

EDIT: The error says 'The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate and drivers that are compatable with your current hardware. Setup will now exit.'
 
touge - are the rest of your graphics being displayed right, or just ffxi? because for me just POL is F*ed up.
 
ziphor said:
touge - are the rest of your graphics being displayed right, or just ffxi? because for me just POL is F*ed up.

I haven't gotten into FFXI because I uninstalled it months and months ago so it still need to be updated. But everything works fine on my PC, except that when I use the scroll wheel on my mouse for browsing the net it gets chopped off for a second then shows up correctly. But that hasn't been a big issue for me I still can browse fine.
I also noticed that when I go to the 'FINAL FANTASY XI Config' none of the tabs show up like they normal should. So its just pretty much an empty box.

Tomorrow I'm gonna try updating it with POL all choppy once I get home.
 
anyone think a "File Check" from inside POL could do anything? i heard its risky though...it makes your comp crash sometimes or something?
 
I did a filecheck on my POL a while ago didnt do anything but find my edited music :P.
 
I'v seen PoL go realy slow and look like that, when I alt-tab and lose full window, PoL loads like that, but is fine after I close PoL or log out of FF.
 
Have you actually run DXDiag to check there are no problems? Also, check that your shortcut isn't starting up POL with some sort of compatibility options (load the executable directly if you want, it's C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\pol.exe).

If neither of those options work, try reinstalling PlayOnline, you should be able to do so without touching your FFXI installation.

Oh, and now that I think about it, does this problem occur when you run other programs that use transparency? Test something like Winamp (Right click => Window Settings => Opacity) and see if you get the same problem or not.
 
Last edited:
yes, i actually did a DXDiag to check DX files, no problems found.
Tried straight from the folder, not shortcut, still the same.


before i uninstall PlayOnline (which i tried once before and got the same problem) what other programs may have this issue to make sure its just not POL? (i dont use winamp, or should i DL it to test for this problem?)
 
POL/FFXI never supports the latest version of video card drivers. The development team are working on updating the client system to support more driver versions but, alas, it has been taking forever.

I myself have the latest version of DirectX but it is not always that that is the cause of problem. Much of the time it is your core driver version. I have also always used the driver version that came with the video card (out of box) which is very old but works fantastic for FFXI. The only down side to using the old version driver is that it does not compliment newer games with more advanced rendering engines. Then again, I only play FFXI so there isn't any point.

Here is a link to the supported driver versions for POL/FFXI as announced by SE.

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/news/sdetail5599.html?story=5599
 
Also, I would like to add a quick note about frames per second for FFXI. There is no way to increase the frame rate unfortunately as it is locked at a peak value of 30. For the PC, FFXI runs under PS2 emulation via the POL opener. I have heard uncomfirmed information that SE is updating the rendering engine for FFXI together with a lot of the texture maps, for releasing the game onto the Xbox360 platform. Also that SE are recoding a PC-end to the engine so that FFXI would no longer have to run under emulation.

There is a link between traffic lag and framerate lag for PC-FFXI but I cannot understand why. I do speculate that it prevents speed-cheating (referred in some games as "speed hacking" by using latency as a manipulator).

I have quite a high spec video card yet I have noticed (possibley, due to my driver or just the dated FFXI engine) a drop in frame rate with the higher polycount (polygons rendered per second) when more characters are dispalyed such as standing beside Lower Jeuno Auction House in 3rd person mode.

At the end of the day, the FFXI engine, which I beleive is from Unreal Tournament Release 1 is a DirectX 8 renderer and since it is under emulation, your CPU will cap at 99-100% as well as the stress on your graphics adapter. There will be lag and frame chopping.

But then again, I am open to arguement. Some people have great systems these days and get no lag at all. If so, I wish I had your system.
 
Find an old version of your video driver, and install it. When it says "Wait up, this driver is older than your current one, are you sure?" click yes. And god I hate TSR drivers, how often do I need to change my setting that you feel the need to put that damn icon in my taskbar?
 
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