I hope someone can help...

[Cardia]

Yesterday I recieved my copy of FFXI and after several hours of registration and the 10,000 patches I downloaded.. I was finally ready to play. But NO! As FFXI was starting... An error message came up! What does this mean? Can anyone help?

[lili]

Well I don't know japanese, but I do know software, and I see the term Hardware Texture and Lighting in that window. It must mean that your video settings aren't compatable with your video card

Most likely you are running hardware texture and lighting( a rendering option that only the new generation of cards offer[Geforce 2 and up]) and your video card doesn't support it. So if you can disable it you should be okay

I assume you are using the PC version

[Cardia]

Yes, I am using the PC version. But, how would I go about disabling it? Actually, a better question might be how do I find out if I am using one of those video cards?

[lili]

Any recent and upcoming card
Geforce FX, Geforce 4, Radeon 9800

The cards that have been around that support this is slim
Geforce 2 and 3, Radeon 9700

You can check which card you have by
right clicking your desktop> Properties> Settings> Advanced Settings or just Settings

Something to that effect. There check a tab to see if there is a name of a video card. Look under that tab for details about your video card and rendering options
This site has translations for configuration, but I don't know if that will help.

..and I'm sure there is someone out there With the game that could help you with the in game configuration. I believe the game is giving you this error cause there was an option from the game that doesn't work. So it is most likely a game setup thing rather then go to your video card's setting and changing. Hardware T&L is a added processes that the game has the option for.

[Cardia]

What do you suggest if the FFXI configuration window freezes when I click it?

[lili]

Has it always been like this?

If this configuration window is in game(while playing the game) then it is still a configuration problem.

Now if you do access this configuration before you enter the game (Pre game) then you should have no problem, but if so I would think about updating the drivers for you video card

I'm assuming you try and access this config menu in game though, right?

[Cardia]

No, the configuration I'm trying to open is not inside the game.
Are you telling me there is a way to change those settings IN the game? That might work better.

[lili]

:)

Understand its really hard for me to understand the situation fully. Maybe if someone who knew the interface more could help too, but anyway.

If the configuration utility is separate from the game itself then its only the matter of finding that one setting that is related to Hardware Texture and Lighting and disabling it to play.

And when you say the configuration windows freezes when you click it. What do you mean exactly? Try and be super specific.

[Cardia]

Well, the thing is, it doesn't so much freeze as it.. Just doesn't open.
A message pops up saying that an error occured and that Windows had to close the program. It askes me to send an error report or not.

[lili]

Okay.. I would check to see if there are any new drivers for your video card(just to make sure)

Reinstall FFXI. As much of a pain I think it will be. You should do it to clear conflicting/damaged/corupted files. This wont affect your character, because it is on the server with your account.

Also make sure you don't have any active scanning anti-virus programs while trying to run FFXI.

Now I could be wrong with these things, but it sounds like a problem with your system. Not just FFXI. These are some things to consider

[AKosygin]

Well, while we could probably go through each of the troubleshooting steps possible and try and pinpoint the exact problem, it would be difficult and time consuming to do this over a message board.

So here is a recommended blanket solution/troubleshooting steps:

First make sure your video card is a GeForce 3 or better (or some equivilant).
Then make sure you have the latest version of your video drivers, you can always reinstall it to make sure. If you got an nVidia chip video card, then just go to nVidia's website and download their unified video driver.
Then make sure you have DirectX 8.1 or higher, or you can just download the latest DirectX 9.x at the Windows Update Site.
Then if it still doesn't work, you may have to fiddle with the video card settings, though generally that should not be a problem.
Then of course, you want to check to make sure your files are not corrupted. I doubt they are corrupted FF XI files since it works and it is reporting a hardware, not software, error.

Also, if you have Win9x or WinME, you gotta change it to Win2k or WinXP, or the Japanese support will screw it up.

[Cardia]

Well, my video card is called S3 ProSavage DDR. I don't know how good that is, I don't really know that kind of stuff. And, I haven't gotten far enough into the game to MAKE a character.

[Hachima]

Have you ever run the FFXI benchmark program? Your card may not even be supported.

[Hachima]

If that's the card I think it is it is built into your motherboard and uses your computers ram to opperate. It is very slow and most likely won't work. I had to send my videocard back and for a week I had to use my onboard video card and I think it was the same one you have. Some games like Tribes 2 wouldn't even work at all.

For 50 bucks you can get a Geforce2 pro that would probably out perform what you have now.

Also FFXI requires 32 megs video ram at min. Make sure your card is set to use that much. I don't think thats a problem.

System Req says Geforce2+. That means a card that supports Hardware T&L which your card probably doesn't.