FFXI PC Tools - Configuration and Higher Resolution!

[fat_pat_87]

A friend linked me to this site that has downloadable tools for the PC version of FFXI. One of the utilities handles your ingame configurations and macros. It can also open up higher resolutions such as 1280x1024, 1600x1200, and even up to 2048x1536 provided your hardware can even handle that.

Another utility is a clock/calander system that displays data such as Vanadiel Days and Lunar Cycles (important for guilds)
VanaHand
http://www.at.wakwak.com/~beatnic/touroku3.htm
The download is 3mb - VanaHand.zip

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL AT YOUR OWN RISK! I do not have enough info yet on how it works, or how to configure. If you do not know Japanese, I highly suggest you do not try to install this application. As I translate the menus, I may post a guide on how to use it, unless another brave soul wants to. I also do not know how this will effect your existing files. My friend has installed it and gotton his resolution up to 1900x1200. Do NOT PM me on how to use this as I am figuring it out myself. DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL AT YOUR OWN RISK! I will not be responsible if you fug up your installation.

is there an English Version of this

[Pebbles]

is there an English Version of this

Not really - but POLUtils also contains a macro editor and a configuration (resolution) editor.

Vanahand can edit some configuration bits & pieces that POLUtils can't (yet) - I'd certainly appreciate a translation of each of vanahand's tabs - that'd help me match the functionality.

[MDSgt]

Setting the background resolution higher and getting rid of the jagged edges sounds nice, but what's the point when the textures still look like crap from being stretched out to that size?

[Renvales]

Hello to everyone on the site. I hate for my first post to be a cry for help, but I have been browsing the site for a while now, and there seems to be very knowledgable people registered, so...

Here is my question, lol.

(I apologize in advance if this post is in the wrong thread)

From my knowledge of my own system (its a custom built), I should have no problems running FFXI at peak settings and experience no issues with it. However as I am playing the game, I experience major slowdown when I am fighting and/or in heavily populated areas. This occurs even if I take my settings almost all the way down. I suspected it might be a memory issue, so I upped my RAM to 2 gigs, but still no luck. I do not think it is my video card, since the game looks beautiful, it just lags at the most unopportune times. Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Specs:

BOARD:
(Intel® Desktop Board D101GGC)

microATX
Support for an Intel® Pentium® D Processor in an LGA775 socket with an 800 MHz system bus
Support for an Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor in an LGA775 socket with an 800 or 533 MHz system bus
Support for an Intel® Celeron® D Processor in an LGA775 socket with a 533 MHz system bus
Two DDR SDRAM Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) sockets
Support for DDR 400 MHz and DDR 333 MHz DIMMs
Support for up to 2 GB of system memory
ATI* Radeon* Xpress 200 Chipset
AwardBIOS* for Intel resident in the 4 Mbit FWH
SMSC* SCH5017 Legacy I/O controller for hardware management, diskette drive, serial, parallel, and PS/2 ports
High Definition Audio subsystem using the Realtek* ALC861 audio codec
Integrated ATI* Radeon* X300 based graphics
10/100 Mbits/sec LAN subsystem using the Realtek* 8101L LAN adapter device


PROCESSOR:
(Intel Corporation / Intel® Boxed Celeron® D Processor 351 (3.2GHz)

Intel® Technology
Execute Disable Bit; Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel EM64T)
Celeron® D Processor 351
3.2GHz
90 nm Process Technology
64-Bit Technology
Socket 775
533MHz Frontside Bus
256KB Level 2 Cache
Intel® designed thermal solution (Fan, Heatsink, Clip Assembly)


VIDEO CARD:
(PNY Technologies / GeForce 7300 GT 256MB PCI-E x16 Video Card)
OpenGL ICD, Direct Draw, DirectVideo, Direct3D, DirectX
DirectX 9.0
nVidia GeForce 7300 GT Graphics Processor
256-Bit
350MHz Core Clock Speed
Dual 400MHz RAMDACs
256MB DDR2 Video Memory
333MHz Clock, 667MHz Effective
128-Bit
10.66GB per second
8 Pixel Pipelines (8 Pixel Shader Processors)
NVIDIA CineFX 4.0 Engine; NVIDIA Intellisample 4.0 Technology; Full Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 Support; True High Dynamic-Range (HDR) Rendering Support; NVIDIA nView Multi-Display Technology; Advanced Adaptive De-Interlacing
TV Video Output
NVIDIA TV Encoder (NTSC, HDTV)
(1) VGA 15-pin Port; (1) Digital Video Interface (DVI) Connector; (1) Video Out Port (Composite, Component, S-Video)
6-pin PCI-E Power Connector
Microsoft Windows 2000, XP
PCI Express x16 Interface
300 Watt Power Supply


And once again, I have two gigs or RAM on my mobo.

Could this also be a server problem? I denied the fact that it could be, because I was at a LAN party at one time, and the other guys I was playing with experienced no slowdown whatsoever. They were never more than a couple steps away from my character either so... ><

And help at all would be greatly appreciated, sorry for the long first post.

[Gentoo]

I know awhile back that SE confirmed a slow-down with certain nVidia cards. The culprit was BuMP Mapping. Have you tried disabling that in the FFXI config tool?

[Renvales]

I have indeed. I have played both with it on and off, and the performance is similar. In that respect, I just left it on because the graphical difference can be seen. I am just frustrated lol, because I have been dropped out of many parties because of lag. -_- Thank you though for your reply. Any further suggesions are welcome indeed.

[zoo007]

You might try different video drivers. Like newer or older version and see if Square recommends a specific version. Also you could try Omega Drivers as he rebuilds them for performance.

Custom drivers:
http://www.omegadrivers.net

Also are you using high speed internet or dial up?

[zoo007]

After looking at your specs again I would check your Bios and disable that on board video card if you haven't already. Having the on board video enabled and running another video card (nvida etc) will cause issues (performance and other). Same goes for sound and lan if you are using other cards....many times they fight over the same resources.

Also make sure you don't have radeon drivers/software loaded for the on board video card as that would also cause problems with your Nvida software.

[Cecilisimo]

I noticed that with the expansion patch, new resolutions were supported in game. But since I have a widescreen monitor, when I run the game @ 1280x768, the in game graphics look stretched but the text boxes are okay. Anyone else with this problem?

Yeah i did, i have a 15.4" widescreen laptop myself.

If you got to the registy as posted above, but this time look at 001 and 002
this is the "foreground" resolution. Edit these keys by right clicking and change the values (cant remember in XP, but if you're using Vista there is a radio button saying "Decimal"

My laptop res wont go any higher than 1280X800 so thats what i use, and for the "Background" (003 & 004) use the values stated above. Im currently using 800 & 800 hex which puts the decimal to 2048X2048 and everything looks fine, great in fact.

Those resolutions run fine on the card thats in there (Radeon mobility x700) so i believe they should run on anything to radeon 9600/9800. Not sure about GForce though cus ive never had one.

[Jorginus]

When you open this program, it asks you to point to a folder. Where specifically in the FFXI folder do you need to point towards?

And does someone at least know the steps to configuring the game's resolution to your preference, along with any other things that will basically look the game nicer? That's the only thing I want to configure.

[hachiichi]

wow it looks much better now >_<