For those wanting Mod support for this version...

[Halkun]

I am a member of a FF7 modding community that has been picking this game apart and altering it for the last 10 years. There sees to be much confusion on what the Steam version is, getting it to run, and modding it.

I want to help bring these questions and issues to rest.

First there are three "versions' of FF7 for PC.
1) The 1998 version. This is the moddable one
2) The "Square Online Store" version that was released in 2012
3) This version, which I will call the "steam version"

Ok, now. Here is the kicker about all three versions. They are all the same thing!

In 2008, the FF7 mod community noticed that the game used a modular graphics driver. The original driver was OpenGL and was with the PC demo released in 1998. It was changed to DirectX for the 1998 commercial release. A new OpenGL driver was written by the modding community and fixed many problems with the PC port allowing it to run on current machines.

In 2012 Square released the game with their own driver and hacked in cloud saves, achievements and such and such. THE ORIGINAL 1998 GAME EXECUTIBLE IS STILL BEING USED. It's just "wrapped" by the new driver and leads us to believe that Square has lost the original PC source code to the game.

The Steam version is just the 2012 version with a few Steam hooks. That's it

So, if you want to make FF7 moddable, you need to remove Square's graphic driver and replace it with the moddable fan-made one. You will lose cloud saves and achievements, but the original game didn't have them anyway and if you look at the list of achievements, they are things you do in the game as a matter of winning it anyway. You honestly lose nothing.

Anywho, to get the game into a playable state, you follow the instructions here[forums.qhimm.com]. We have instructions for the Steam version.. Also we can have support there if you need it.

Have fun
-The Qhimm community :)

PS I can answer any questions you may have as well. Please post below.

[Ashka]

wow, i didnt even know that! is the original for the PC free?

[w33d3d]

I still have the original PC version boxed and all. I wonder if its worth anything.

[Halkun]

No, the original was sold retail. You have to downgrade the 2012 or the Steam version to the 1998 version and install the fan-driver. Instructions are in the link above.

Qhimm has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to piracy, and we've been that way for the last decade. If you are looking to play the game for free, you are out of luck. In fact, we can detect if you are using a pirated version of FF7 and block the driver and mods from installing.

Oh and I forgot. The actual Qhimm forums can be found here[forums.qhimm.com].

[Frocobo]

Thanks OP! I will be looking into this.

[Ashka]

Originally posted by Halkun:

No, the original was sold retail. You have to downgrade the 2012 or the Steam version to the 1998 version and install the fan-driver. Instructions are in the link above.

Qhimm has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to piracy, and we've been that way for the last decade. If you are looking to play the game for free, you are out of luck. In fact, we can detect if you are using a pirated version of FF7 and block the driver and mods from installing.

Oh and I forgot. The actual Qhimm forums can be found here[forums.qhimm.com].

Great site! It wasn't like I was looking for a free version, but I figured the 98 version would be free by now :P I dident know you could buy this version and then downgrade it. I am so looking forward of playing this nostalgic game, my god this was golden back when i was 9...

[sillyotter]

I been trying to get this to work on my SE copy since August (or whenever it came out on SE site) with Bootleg 3.9 (got 4 last night)..... Gave up back then and when I tried again last night it deleted my entire mod folder and orignal FF7 install folder..... I have no clue what happened.... redownloading the mods now, but torrent speed isnt going over 100 kbs for some reason :/

[sillyotter]

Originally posted by (> Backasin:

Originally posted by Halkun:

No, the original was sold retail. You have to downgrade the 2012 or the Steam version to the 1998 version and install the fan-driver. Instructions are in the link above.

Qhimm has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to piracy, and we've been that way for the last decade. If you are looking to play the game for free, you are out of luck. In fact, we can detect if you are using a pirated version of FF7 and block the driver and mods from installing.

Oh and I forgot. The actual Qhimm forums can be found here[forums.qhimm.com].

Great site! It wasn't like I was looking for a free version, but I figured the 98 version would be free by now :P I dident know you could buy this version and then downgrade it. I am so looking forward of playing this nostalgic game, my god this was golden back when i was 9...

This is essentially the 98 version. Square added achieves and cloud support last year for their re-release and Steam just kinda picked it up also.

[Major Mer]

Nice. I understood the wrapper, but I didn't understand why the mods would lose the ability to use achievements. I am wondering how they could have hacked in the achievement functionality if they lost the source code to the original game... unless the wrapper is scanning memory for flags or something. Anyway, I plan to check out the mod scene for this game once I figure out why I can't render any objects except the characters (and black screen on the main menu)

[Halkun]

That's exactly what's happening. The 1998 executable is "wrapped" by another program that adds the cloud saves and the achievements. The wrapper program then runs the original FF7 executable and watches it. FF7 stores all of it's variables in one spot, called the "savemap" that is saved when you save the game. The achievement system moniters the savemap for changes and then flags them when they hit a particular value.

It's a really dirty hack :)

The "downgrade" removes the wrapper and replaces the driver. That's why you lose the cloud saves and achievements, but gain mods.

[Pragmatik]

So it's impossible to mod the game without downgrading it to 1998 version? If so that's a huge shame...

[sillyotter]

Originally posted by Benomono:

So it's impossible to mod the game without downgrading it to 1998 version? If so that's a huge shame...

Because you lose achievements and cloud saves? Not that big a deal imo.... That is all your are losing as far as I know.

[Halkun]

Yea, I'm looking at the achievements. They are not all that great. Most you get by playing the game normally anyway. "Won a battle"... I mean, really?

Think of it as "upgrading to the 1998 version"

[Drifyt]

if its the same version as squareenix store version its moddable

[Pragmatik]

Originally posted by stevonzo:

Originally posted by Benomono:

So it's impossible to mod the game without downgrading it to 1998 version? If so that's a huge shame...

Because you lose achievements and cloud saves? Not that big a deal imo.... That is all your are losing as far as I know.

That's your opinion, I am very perfectionist myself about achievements and it buggs me hard to have missing ones in the games I play. I can't help but 100% them.

[sillyotter]

Originally posted by Benomono:

Originally posted by stevonzo:

Because you lose achievements and cloud saves? Not that big a deal imo.... That is all your are losing as far as I know.

That's your opinion, I am very perfectionist myself about achievements and it buggs me hard to have missing ones in the games I play. I can't help but 100% them.

Yes, it IS my opinion, hence me saying "imo". So.... play it once regular for your achieves, then mod it. I could personally care less about achieves unless I get REALLY bored and since (like has been said) the achieves are for the most basic things anyways, it really isn't nor will ever be an issue to not be able to unlock them for me. You think it is necessary to get an achieve for using a limit break the first time? Those achieves account for almost 1/4 of all the achieves.