Updated Mods Guide! "FF8 ULTRA"

[MCINDUS]

I've just put the finishing touches on a few mod updates and then finally got around to creating an installer that gives you ALL current Tonberry mods, add-ons, etc.! If you donate to the FF8 modding community, you will get access to the FULL installation package! You can still go through the old method of downloading each file individually and manually installing them at no cost, but if you want to just have everything with a few clicks of the mouse, and don't want to wait through a bunch of ads, this package is AMAZING! Just go to my Guide and follow the link!

If you don't want to donate, I totally understand - each mod is still available in it's entirety at no cost whatsoever on the qhimm.com forums!

No matter what you choose to do, Thanks! And I'm happy to provide an easy way for people to enjoy the game in a whole new light!

FF8 ULTRA "Lunatic Pandora Mods Pack v1.0
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=391096600

Includes:
Tonberry Enhanced 2.04 - Texture Injector
Project Eden - Field Upscales (Soon to be Project Angelwing)
Battlefield Pack - All Battlefield Texture Upscales/Replacements
Horizon Pack - World Textures, Vehicles, Maps, etc.
Lunar Cry - Enemy Upscales
Hellfire - GF Upscales
Apocalypse - Boss Upscales
Rebirth Flame - Character Replacements (Devina)
SeeD Reborn 3.5 - Text/Icon/Menu Remake
Tripod - Triple Triad Remake

If you use the "Ultra Launcher", you also enable:
UV Patcher
Hard Mode, HP/DMG Cap 'fix', Magic mod

This is designed for the English version, but you can install any language pack 'over' this mod.

Enjoy!

[MCINDUS]

Hey F4lc0n! The mods were available for a few years without an installer, but I was getting so many troubleshooting messages, etc. that I decided to learn how to script an installer and make my personal favorite mods available as an 'easy button'. It is just as easy as it sounds, and any issues you might have are addressed in the troubleshooting section. The only graphical mods this doesn't contain: "Project Angelwing" - we use "Project Eden", and will until Project Angelwing is completed in its entirety (Fated Courage is working really diligently on this), as they are alternatives to the same 'field upscales'. As far as the Character Textures, I include 'Rebirth Flame' but I chose the Devina models. There are alternatives like the pure upscaled characters and the magochocobo originals, but I felt the Devina models were more suited to the rest of the mods. The controller mod is also not included (yet) due to the many different controller configurations that are out there. Other than that, it includes all of the other graphical and 'game improvement' mods that are listed on my 'MCINDUS guide'. The only other thing to note, is that this doesn't include any 'music mod', and in the guide i direct you to the available ones.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

[F4lc0n]

Thanks a lot for the long explanation. Might I suggest you add this information and maybe a screenshot of the installer to your webpage? This would probably help people like me - then I will know what I can expect.
Also as a suggestion - since there are different options, it might be viable to make the installer configureable and have the user chose which mods he wants to install and which not. I know that will increase the filesize of the package, but it still might be nice. I am used to this when installing Skyrim mods for example, then I often have a choice which type of texture I want to install (along with a little preview image).

[chaos8585]

Donate, How and Where?

[MCINDUS]

mcindusmods.pcriot.com for a direct link

[Teal Kraccoon]

Hello, I recently purchased the game and realised it doesn't like everyone's graphics cards due to it needing some outdated features not supported by certain cards, especially on modern systems (I had it refunded) and was wondering if the Ultra launcher would have fixed the issue. I tried googling the issue but all the threads were refering to 7-9 year old software that there was little help to get working especially with the steam release of the game.

[Jordy]

Is there a specific amount needed for us to donate in order to get the package or anything will do?

[MCINDUS]

@Tealybutt -- can you be more specific? I'm not sure what you're referring to, but the game is compatible with almost all systems.

@jordaynium - if you go to mcindusmods.pcriot.com, you can donate there and you'll get a download link! the reccomended donation is 2.99, but you can lower it to 1.99 (or raise it to whatever you want ;) )

[Teal Kraccoon]

Okay, when I had tried to run the unmodded game on a clean install it would get as far as the first ingame text box loading and all the 3D models would warp all over the screen and create after images and black shapes everywhere. I did some research and found it had something to do with some kind of 8-bit graphic thing a lot of modern cards no longer supported.

I heard about people having similar problems years ago and that the solution was to use a 3rd party launcher that injected something into the running of the game to get around this, however I was having little joy getting it working let alone with the steam version since most posts about the software were like 7-9 years old.

I was wondering if the launcher you mentioned here is the modern successor to that 3rd party launcher or if it might change things enough so that it could get around that issue. I am running on a 4 year old laptop running an integrated intel HD graphics card (the GPU is pretty pants), other people have tried getting in touch with square's tech support over similar issues to be told their card is too old or not up to date.

I am quite fond of FF8 and was excited to try out the mods but with the game not wanting to work I suppose I will have to get it when I get a different system.

[MCINDUS]

Actually, the 8bit render to texture issue was fixed by Aali years ago when he made the opengl driver. Now, for the steam version, I'm pretty sure they're using a dx9 version of Aali's driver (lol) - and it works 'out of the box' with modern cards. Problem is, win10 doesn't support dx9 anymore, so if you have win10, you'll have to download the June2010 directx9c files (not using the web installer) and everything will run fine!
My mods only 'enhance' the experience, aside from Maki's UV fix and RaW (the music mod), because in my opinion, they actually fix the issues that have always existed on PC (seams on the world map, crappy music). The UV fix is included with my mod pack (or you can patch the .exe if you follow the link to the UV fix in my guide - which i actually recommend.) but RaW is not. I also 'fix' the button icons issue - but that mod is separate, since there are so many different types of controllers and setups out there.
Mainly, Lunatic Pandora is a huge graphical overhaul. Menu/Text/Icons, World, Field Backgrounds, Enemies, Characters, Bosses, GFs, Triple Triad, etc.

in short, you can run it. If you're on win10, you might have to jump through a few hoops.
to run the 'old' PC (200) version, you can run it with Aali's driver, but you won't get any mods or fixes.

[Teal Kraccoon]

Well next time it goes on sale I think I will try playing around with dx9 as I think the issue I am getting might be due to improperly installed or messily handled dx9. Thanks for the help though. The laptop runs on windows 7 but so many games with so many versions of things and requirements to fix things might have broke things so I really need to get around to fixing all that.

[Ser Dakota]

I am using your mod guide and looks great however i am getting low FPS. Like menus are at 60, fields 30, and in battle can drop to like 15. I have a 1080ti so seems kinda odd this is happening?

[MCINDUS]

Those are actually the 'locked' framerates of the game. They have to be that way due to how the psx game was ported to PC back in 2000. Same with FF7 if it's any consolation... :/
If you experience any 'stuttering' when the world map is up, that would be the only lag caused by the mods pack -- in order to fix that, you can relocate your /textures folder onto a SSD and then go into FINAL FANTASY VIII/tonberry/prefs.txt and modify the textures folder location filepath in there.

[Mandrake42]

Out of curiosity, does putting these mods on disable achievements? I just found that that is what happened with the FFVII mods.

[MCINDUS]

Not at all - FF7 mods require some funky file reversion, etc. These mods just sit on top of the existing game. You might want to turn off the overlay to prevent glitches, but even though you won't see yourself getting achievements, you get them all - so even turning off the overlay doesn't interfere with any achieves. :)

[Pierdo]

Hey McIndus.

First off I just wanted to say I appreciate the hard work you put into the mods for FF8. It took the game from an eyesore to looking pretty good.

I'm posted mainly to let you know that the mod pack link on your guide isn't working anymore.