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Final Fantasy IX PC/Mobile |OT| How did the source code survive?

I imagine it's possible to just write an auto-clicker. No need for timing anything since the exclamation point isn't available to be clicked until it appears, so it shouldn't jam up the jumping.
 

Corpekata

Banned
Steam controller is pretty nice for this, letting you map things like the Speed up to unused buttons rather than having to pause, hit R1, unnpause each time you want to toggle it on and off.
 
I imagine it's possible to just write an auto-clicker. No need for timing anything since the exclamation point isn't available to be clicked until it appears, so it shouldn't jam up the jumping.

You are right. I wrote an auto clicker, set it to every 5 ms and i flew passed 1000. Not as fun as trying to figure out the jump interval timing but oh well.
 
I wouldn't call it definitive, that's what I would say for a version of a game that is undoubtedly and universally better than its other versions in every conceivable way. Like say RE4's Steam release after it's all been fixed up (and more especially after RE4 HD mod is fully released...).

But besides the few niggles, it is does seem like it is the best version. The only areas it needs work or is worse than the original version are:

-no true analog control (omni-directional or tilt-degree sensitive), only digital control, feels much more natural in motion in the original game
-gray bars on sides/top without custom resolution
-font is a little too "regular", that is probably an easy element to mod compared to most though
-scaling filter is actually not bad, not perfect, but not bad for most scenes
-menus imported from the mobile version are a bit strange e.g. the character naming screens, feels out of place in a desktop version of the game
-battle interface is a little too large as well and covers some of the characters which is kind of lol, I assume you can click on the menu items

I do love to trash Squeenix these days, but they aren't giving me too much to work with here, for once. I think really the only one that actually bothers me is the non-analog movement, really a step backwards for no reason, oh well.

The details on the 3D models are fantastic, and the FMVs are particularly glorious, probably the two by far best features of this version.

If anyone is on the fence I'd personally recommend a buy. Even I'm surprised I'm saying that. It's fun replaying this again.

One area I haven't seen yet is the world map, which ran about 15 fps on the PS1 version IIRC. I would like to see how it is in this version, I'm not far away from that point... quite early on really. Wonder if it is 30 or 60 fps.

The field areas in towns seem to be up to 60 fps while battle sequences are 30 fps limited it seems, at least the 3D elements seem like that.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
HOLY SHIT, where did they find those high res FF9 FMV cutscenes at!?

Your telling me they lost the source code for KH1 but still had FF9 up in a server somewhere?
 

cwistofu

Member
One area I haven't seen yet is the world map, which ran about 15 fps on the PS1 version IIRC. I would like to see how it is in this version, I'm not far away from that point... quite early on really. Wonder if it is 30 or 60 fps.

The field areas in towns seem to be up to 60 fps while battle sequences are 30 fps limited it seems, at least the 3D elements seem like that.

Steam's FPS counter tells me 15fps in the world map, which is a bummer, but not the end of the world. My biggest annoyance is the lack of true analog--I find myself struggling to control Zidane as the orientation for "up" switches between screens very often.

Still, super happy with this port overall. The bumped up character models bring so much more detail and character to the world that it's like playing the game for the first time all over again.
 

KiraXD

Member
Finally a game i can run @4k with my raedon 260x lol. Actually other than the backgrounds, 4k looks pretty great.
 
Steam's FPS counter tells me 15fps in the world map, which is a bummer, but not the end of the world. My biggest annoyance is the lack of true analog--I find myself struggling to control Zidane as the orientation for "up" switches between screens very often.

Still, super happy with this port overall. The bumped up character models bring so much more detail and character to the world that it's like playing the game for the first time all over again.

Ah that's a little disappointing. Not any step back at least.

And yea that's my issue with the analog too. Typically the digital controls follow the linear patterns of the areas more, it doesn't translate to the stick well at all.... lol. I guess that's why analog was so touted at the time of PS1 days, it felt so much cleaner and smoother to control the characters on the field.

Also forgot to mention: I'm surprised the battle swirl is not complete shit. It looks like they reworked it, but it looks good.

I hate the FF7 PC one, looks like garbage compared to the FF7 original.
 

OmegaDL50

Member
Grah. I was doing the Zidane and Blank mock battle and confused Xbox 360 / PC "X" button for the Playstation "X" button and hit the wrong one, got to do this stupid play thing all over now to get the best reward.
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
Grah. I was doing the Zidane and Blank mock battle and confused Xbox 360 / PC "X" button for the Playstation "X" button and hit the wrong one, got to do this stupid play thing all over now to get the best reward.

Can't you just keep doing the sword fight? (X messed me up too)

I ended up getting 100 on the second try and got 10,000 Gil and the moonstone.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Seeing that opening cutscene in truly glorious high resolution.. <3

IKR? So jealous of PC guys ATM..and i hear 4k on a 260x? damn, it must be optimized super well.

I wonder if it could get 8k at the highest end cards
 
Lack of true analog movement is definitely killing me. :/

I've just been playing it with the d-pad for this reason. I did send SE an e-mail requesting a patch, which I am confident will go ignored. I think it's the first time I've written an e-mail with a feature suggestion.
 

Yokai

Member
Has there been any strides in content modding for this game? I haven't been able to find a good discussion on this anywhere online, most searches resulted in people either talking about mods or talking about the PS1 iso mods.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
The field areas in towns seem to be up to 60 fps while battle sequences are 30 fps limited it seems, at least the 3D elements seem like that.

Just for accuracy's sake, there's no way the battles outside of HUD/UI elements are 30fps. Game has not changed from the original low-framerate PSX version in this regard.
 

AgeEighty

Member
I wouldn't call it definitive, that's what I would say for a version of a game that is undoubtedly and universally better than its other versions in every conceivable way.

That seems a bit rigid of a definition to me. I mean, I'd call Okami HD the definitive version of that game, even though it lacks the gorgeous end credits track that's in the PS2 original. But it's better in every other way.

FFIX, meanwhile, I would say is also better than the PSX original in nearly every way.

HOLY SHIT, where did they find those high res FF9 FMV cutscenes at!?

Your telling me they lost the source code for KH1 but still had FF9 up in a server somewhere?

My understanding is that the FMVs for FFIX were subcontracted out to an independent animation studio. If so, they must have had better archiving practices in place than Squaresoft did.

Has there been any strides in content modding for this game? I haven't been able to find a good discussion on this anywhere online, most searches resulted in people either talking about mods or talking about the PS1 iso mods.

The game only came out 2 days ago; it's a bit early for that. I'm hoping someone gets to work on a texture pack soon; I was disappointed to see that no texture upgrades were made to the world map.

Just for accuracy's sake, there's no way the battles outside of HUD/UI elements are 30fps. Game has not changed from the original low-framerate PSX version in this regard.

They're not 30 fps, but I do think they are at least higher than the original. I've played through the PSX version probably half a dozen times, and I definitely recall the animation being a bit choppier.
 

Magnus

Member
Steam controller is pretty nice for this, letting you map things like the Speed up to unused buttons rather than having to pause, hit R1, unnpause each time you want to toggle it on and off.

Do you need to have that controller for mapping buttons for this game? Please tell me I can map the speed up with a dual shock 4.
 

AgeEighty

Member
Chances of a port to PS4, akin to FFVII?

No way for anyone to really know that. But even if it's going to happen at some point, I wouldn't hold out for it happening soon. They still haven't even announced a port for FFVIII, and that's been on Steam for 2 years already.
 

Rootbeer

Banned

It's very interesting but super unnecessary in the PC version! Since spam clicking the balloon works, no matter how fast the jump rope is going.

Back when this game originally released, I burned a ton of time working on the jump rope game. No, I was never able to get to 1000... lol. I could get to around 500 though.

Well, I'm older now, and I just don't have time for that kind of struggle. So if you're like me, get yourself an auto clicker, set it to around 8ms between clicks (I tried 12 but it was too slow once you get past 300, barely), and get yourself to 1000 pretty easily. Yay! I think insane challenges like this are times where these sorts of cheats have some merit.
 
No way for anyone to really know that. But even if it's going to happen at some point, I wouldn't hold out for it happening soon. They still haven't even announced a port for FFVIII, and that's been on Steam for 2 years already.

It's a matter of effort vs reward. I think a PS4 port of FF9 is probable because it's easy to deploy a Unity game to other platforms. FF7 and FF8 are more difficult, except the former is massively popular and helps promote an upcoming remake.
 

AgeEighty

Member
It's a matter of effort vs reward. I think a PS4 port of FF9 is probable because it's easy to deploy a Unity game to other platforms. FF7 and FF8 are more difficult, except the former is massively popular and helps promote an upcoming remake.

Hope you're right; I personally give less than a shit about a FFVIII port. But the fact that PS4 wasn't announced alongside PC and mobile (or at any point since) to me means there's probably at least some kind of factor standing in the way. Could be they're just waiting to see how it performs before putting forward the additional investment.
 

Ludens

Banned
Any help for Master Abilities not working?
Since I'm doing a no random encounters run it could be very helpful.
Already verified the cache, I'm downloading the game again.
 

Corpekata

Banned
Do you need to have that controller for mapping buttons for this game? Please tell me I can map the speed up with a dual shock 4.

You could do it on DS4 by mapping F1 to the touchpad in DS4windows. It allows normal remapping (like switching A and B) in game, but nothing more complicated than that.
 

KainXVIII

Member
I wouldn't call it definitive, that's what I would say for a version of a game that is undoubtedly and universally better than its other versions in every conceivable way. Like say RE4's Steam release after it's all been fixed up (and more especially after RE4 HD mod is fully released...).

But besides the few niggles, it is does seem like it is the best version. The only areas it needs work or is worse than the original version are:

-no true analog control (omni-directional or tilt-degree sensitive), only digital control, feels much more natural in motion in the original game
-gray bars on sides/top without custom resolution
-font is a little too "regular", that is probably an easy element to mod compared to most though
-scaling filter is actually not bad, not perfect, but not bad for most scenes
-menus imported from the mobile version are a bit strange e.g. the character naming screens, feels out of place in a desktop version of the game
-battle interface is a little too large as well and covers some of the characters which is kind of lol, I assume you can click on the menu items

I do love to trash Squeenix these days, but they aren't giving me too much to work with here, for once. I think really the only one that actually bothers me is the non-analog movement, really a step backwards for no reason, oh well.

The details on the 3D models are fantastic, and the FMVs are particularly glorious, probably the two by far best features of this version.

If anyone is on the fence I'd personally recommend a buy. Even I'm surprised I'm saying that. It's fun replaying this again.

One area I haven't seen yet is the world map, which ran about 15 fps on the PS1 version IIRC. I would like to see how it is in this version, I'm not far away from that point... quite early on really. Wonder if it is 30 or 60 fps.

The field areas in towns seem to be up to 60 fps while battle sequences are 30 fps limited it seems, at least the 3D elements seem like that.

Interesting, thanks.
What about shitstorm on steam forums about "inferior" audio quality?
http://steamcommunity.com/app/377840/discussions/0/361787186420618685/
 
Just got Freya. Didn't notice until this moment that the portraits were new and not just high resolution versions of the old ones. Freya is staring at me from a much different angle than before.
 

Parsnip

Member
Interesting, thanks.
What about shitstorm on steam forums about "inferior" audio quality?
http://steamcommunity.com/app/377840/discussions/0/361787186420618685/

I haven't looked into it at all, but my completely uneducated guess is that people who think they remember how PSX version sounded are actually remembering how it sounds when played from the soundtrack album, not how the actual PSX sounded.

Falk is a soundguy, he said the music is true to the psx version. I have no reason to doubt him.
 
Just got Freya. Didn't notice until this moment that the portraits were new and not just high resolution versions of the old ones. Freya is staring at me from a much different angle than before.

Yeah, I realized it when I saw Garnet's portrait.
She looks like she has some grey hair highlights.
 

DSix

Banned
The question in the OP title is very relevant though... How the hell did the game got made on Unity of all places? Did they really redo everything in C# and Unity components? I really want to know how they managed this.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I haven't looked into it at all, but my completely uneducated guess is that people who think they remember how PSX version sounded are actually remembering how it sounds when played from the soundtrack album, not how the actual PSX sounded.

Falk is a soundguy, he said the music is true to the psx version. I have no reason to doubt him.

Should note that I haven't done any objective A-B listening, and stuff sounds different coming out of an actual PSX all the time in different scenarios just because of how it works (and even in the purely digital domain each emulator churns out noticably different output especially based on how it interpolates)

I meant it in a ballpark way, more of 'yeah this isn't the MIDI disaster that FFVII and FFVIII were because of the prior PC ports'. Heck, I don't even know if the audio in this port is streamed or sequenced (I would assume streamed, since we're discussing compression algorithm/bitrates here) - It is highly possible that it does sound objectively and significantly different when put under a microscope, and the main point of contention in the linked thread is one of audio degradation due to compression, which is a tangential discussion altogether vs how true to the original it is.

I will also contend that for game purposes, compression is inevitable. If people want to mod in higher quality audio from wherever
the soundtrack
they're absolutely welcome to, but inflating an already huge download even further just to satisfy a small percentage of a playerbase is just silly. This is kind of the opposite situation of Titanfall PC having uncompressed audio (purpotedly to save on CPU cycles, which... I still don't 100% buy, but whatevs)

tl;dr, in my professional opinion, the game sounds acceptable for what it is, a port of an old game. Nitpicking about the differences in reverb specific to the Playstation sound chip and why this port doesn't emulate that is really travelling down the road of putting everything PSX up on this ridiculously untouchable pedestal.

edit: All else being equal, you're also definitely right that a soundtrack release sounds way better than what a PSX barfed out, heh.
 

Ludens

Banned
Downloading the game again did not fix the issue I'm having with Master abilities booster, it stopped working and that's it.
Also did the "find all treasures on world map" achievement progress for you?
I found the first treasure with the chocobo but I'm still on 0/24.
 
My understanding is that the FMVs for FFIX were subcontracted out to an independent animation studio. If so, they must have had better archiving practices in place than Squaresoft did.

Massive parts of FF7 & 8's CG were similarly outsourced too, to be fair, but it just seems the archiving of 7 in particular was disastrous. We still don't really know if there's higher res 8 stuff in the archives. It wasn't handed over for the PC port, but Square at the time that was originally made was never very forthcoming, and the version on Steam is of course a port of a port.

I'm quietly hoping the reason we haven't seen 8 for mobile yet is because they're giving it this same treatment as 9, because the other stuff still exists, and they'll either patch the steam release or do a new release alongside that.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
FF7 Steam was never updated with the (really simple) fast forward feature that the PS4 version got.

So yeah.
 
FF7 Steam was never updated with the (really simple) fast forward feature that the PS4 version got.

So yeah.

Yeah, even so -- my hope that the lack of 8 for mobile means they're quietly giving it similar treatment to 9 still stands, if only so that we get an 8 with improved resolution assets etc for iOS and one imagines later PS4. If PC remains fucked it'll be a shame, but I'm just up for more definitive versions of these games. The current 8 PC port is even more neglected than 7, in the respect that it officially still only has the shit midi music. They at least patched that in 7.
 
Interesting, thanks.
What about shitstorm on steam forums about "inferior" audio quality?
http://steamcommunity.com/app/377840/discussions/0/361787186420618685/

They are a bit weak, I forgot to mention it.

I noticed it immediately when I clicked new game (compare to emulator/original, and the new game sound is much more rich).

I'm not sure if the audio player or the audio quality is the problem though.

I am not a sound guy, so I could be wrong, but it just seemed like some of the more complex audio sounds like the new game sound was muffled or lower quality, maybe bitrate limited?

There's also a little bit of an issue with audio starting to play too early, and also the cursor icon sound play too fast when you move + select something at nearly the same time, as if it gets too loud.
 
And yea like someone earlier said, it's not the MIDI travesty of FF7's original release, but it is "weaker."

Generally the audio in PS games was quite excellent, but again that was 16 years ago, surely it's not that difficult to reach that quality on PC/digital download....

The PS quality is not even as good as the soundtrack quality either. Maybe it's just the included audio engine that is the problem, or some items are bitrate limited or size limited, I don't know really.

I got to the world map last night just to see how it looked. It felt smoother than the PS version, like 20 fps-ish, but I didn't measure it with any tool. Looked really nice IMO, fog effect was really good too.
 
Why couldn't they make the game run at 60 fps? Is it very demanding?
No it is not about being demanding, it's about whether or not the work is being assigned or contracted to fix, which means someone has to pay for it :(

Changing the framerate of games whose game logic is tied to the framerate (not uncommon for older console games, and even some console games today) makes it difficult to adjust the framerate.

Pretty sure games like Dead Nation (PS4 version is also 30fps because of the game engine, not the difficulty of rendering), Dark Souls, Resident Evil 4, and others were like this. In the last two cases these issues were fixed though for PC..... one through modding, one through official patching.

It might even be scene dependent for a game like FF9, much like in FF7 where field/world map is at much higher fps than battle. FF9 field graphics feel like they are up to 60 fps but again I didn't check with a tool. Most other stuff feels 30 fps or world map at 20-ish.

The framerate is far, far worse in the FF7 PC release where the in-battle menu runs at 15 fps.... that one is a real travesty that affects gameplay...... and is objectively worse than the PS version in this regard.

There is a mod for the FF7 PC version but it also affects the aesthetic of the battles and I can't remember if it interpolates all the animations or not.
 
Why couldn't they make the game run at 60 fps? Is it very demanding?

In the combat, at least, some of the ATB timing logic is timed to the actual FPS, so they'd have to overhaul everything to get it at a constant 60. This is why in Fast Forward mode it can run at like 90fps (or whatever it is) at ease, but it stays in the mid-20s during combat at regular speed. The only way they can increase the FPS, it seems, is to increase the speed of everything in the game. Same is true of 7 and 8.

This is also why you'll notice that in the field this version of the game runs at a way higher FPS than battles.
 

loganclaws

Plane Escape Torment
In the combat, at least, some of the ATB timing logic is timed to the actual FPS, so they'd have to overhaul everything to get it at a constant 60. This is why in Fast Forward mode it can run at like 90fps (or whatever it is) at ease, but it stays in the mid-20s during combat at regular speed. The only way they can increase the FPS, it seems, is to increase the speed of everything in the game. Same is true of 7 and 8.

This is also why you'll notice that in the field this version of the game runs at a way higher FPS than battles.

That really sucks, I played the game partially on psx but didn't get very far and remember the game having very bad fps, was hoping to play it on my compaq presario at 60 fps without all the slowdowns.
 
That really sucks, I played the game partially on psx but didn't get very far and remember the game having very bad fps, was hoping to play it on my compaq presario at 60 fps without all the slowdowns.

It doesn't feel like slowdowns at all if that's what you're asking. It's not as bad as the FF7 PC port of 15 fps battles, not nearly.

Unless you can't handle anything lower than 60 fps which would be strange.

It's very playable and smooth on PC really.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
About the music: I went back and did some objective listening tests and empirical testing - The music, or some part thereof (possibly e.g. the samples used in resynthesizing them, or whatever) files in this port actually are sampled at 16kHz, or were downsampled to 16kHz without proper brickwall filtering at some point regardless of what the assets are. This is what's causing the scratchy, tinny sound people are hearing due to aliasing over Nyquist.

As in, I'm re-assessing my opinion, and now it's that the music in this port is actually (needlessly) inferior. Gonna open a support ticket and contact a couple of people I know to see what's up and/or if it can be fixed.

DtatGNJ.png


FFT of Steam version music in Alexandria - notice the spikes just before 8kHz, which mirrors itself after 8kHz. That's aliasing at work at a badly sampled 16kHz (more reading & nerdery here)

2fcj7mu.png


Exact same part of the same music off a YT video of the original.

edit: FFT = fast fourier transform, not Tactics lol
 
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