Windower And Background Resolution

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Windower and background resolution
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 Alexander.Chaosbringer
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By Alexander.Chaosbringer 2011-04-30 23:03:43
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Hello, I bought a new laptop to play FF 11 on and its the first time i go from ps2 to pc. I cant get the graphics on the game to look good. I can change the resolution on it, but the game still looks blocky as hell. I read the following link:
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Graphics

But this seems like something i would mess up. If i download the windower program will it help me with the background resolution? Were i can make it look as sharp as the pictures on that link under Background resolutions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You
 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-04-30 23:04:40
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If you use windower gui elevated or with uac off you can use it to change those settings.

This thread
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 Alexander.Chaosbringer
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By Alexander.Chaosbringer 2011-04-30 23:07:31
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I am going home from work and i am going to install windower. When you mean uac, you mean? sorry i am going to ask a few questions when i install this. I was playing ff11 on my laptop earlier today and i was like ugly graphics. ill install it and post again if i cant get it to look good. Thanks for your response Eugene.
 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-04-30 23:17:40
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User account control. People recommend turning it off to aid in system compatibility if you don't know how it works. I it on as another layer of protection in windows. You can access the settings by typing User account control into the windows 7 search box at the bottom of the start menu, or by going to control panel, system and security, and clicking change user account control settings under action center.

Alternatively you can right click on windower gui, click properties, click compatibility tab, and then under Privilege level check run this program as administrator. then click apply and ok.

This will elevate the control windower gui has over other programs on your computer, ie ffxi, and allow it to change the registry settings for you. This will allow you to use windower gui to change the registry entries without turning UAC off.

You'll still need the wiki guide for appropriate numbers, but at least you're not mucking about in the registry this way.
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 Alexander.Chaosbringer
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By Alexander.Chaosbringer 2011-04-30 23:43:04
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Do you recommend any settings for me to input to make the graphics good? i got an asus gaming laptop, with windows 7.
 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-04-30 23:45:09
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The background resolution will be the biggest thing. I don't know what the cap is recommend by windwer, but you can try turning it all the way up, seeing how much you lag, and turning it down appropriately if need be.
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 Bismarck.Eburo
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By Bismarck.Eburo 2011-04-30 23:50:44
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Actually, if you use "Play Final Fantasy XI (Windower GUI)" from the Programs menu, you'll get a little box with settings. Check the "Advanced" box.

So, for "Overlay Resolution" (Window Size and determines menu resolution), say your screen was 1600x1200, or you wanted to play in that size window, type 1600 as X and 1200 as Y.

Then, down in the Advanced box, which is white... There's where you'll make a difference with your actual graphics. Set that to 1600x1200 if you'd like. However, there will still be very unnoticeable jagged edge on most models. You can fix this with oversampling, which is essentially putting 2 pixels worth of color data into one pixel, therefore blending them and making them appear smoother (and not have jagged edges)

So, to oversample your graphics in FFXI, use 3200x2400 as your "Background" in the Advanced section of the Windower GUI. This is double your X and Y values for the "Overlay Resolution".

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Before you do all this, I recommend going to your FFXI Configuration App, and turning on Mip Mapping (or Registry Edit to the value of "4" for super mip mapping), and all of the textures to "Uncompressed"
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 Alexander.Chaosbringer
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By Alexander.Chaosbringer 2011-04-30 23:50:49
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Ok ill try it when i get home in an hour.
Thanks a bunch for the info. If i have any more questions ill post.
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 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-04-30 23:52:24
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Bismarck.Eburo said:
Actually, if you use "Play Final Fantasy XI (Windower GUI)" from the Programs menu, you'll get a little box with settings. Check the "Advanced" box.

So, for "Overlay Resolution" (Window Size and determines menu resolution), say your screen was 1600x1200, or you wanted to play in that size window, type 1600 as X and 1200 as Y.

Then, down in the Advanced box, which is white... There's where you'll make a difference with your actual graphics. Set that to 1600x1200 if you'd like. However, there will still be very unnoticeable jagged edge on most models. You can fix this with oversampling, which is essentially putting 2 pixels worth of color data into one pixel, therefore blending them and making them appear smoother (and not have jagged edges)

So, to oversample your graphics in FFXI, use 3200x2400 as your "Background" in the Advanced section of the Windower GUI.

pretty much what I just said, except I'm 90% sure that your background resolution has to be consistent.
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 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-04-30 23:55:11
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I guess not, the guide is suggesting otherwise.
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 Shiva.Flionheart
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By Shiva.Flionheart 2011-04-30 23:55:21
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There's a limit to background resolution without it lagging the game out though, be aware.

If you have a giant resolution don't always go double.
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 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-04-30 23:56:01
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Shiva.Flionheart said:
There's a limit to background resolution without it lagging the game out though, be aware.

If you have a giant resolution don't always go double.
+1

In any event you'll want to find an equilibrium between form and function. You don't necessarily have to oversample to get decent looking game, especially if the oversampling is causing you to lag.
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 Bismarck.Eburo
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By Bismarck.Eburo 2011-04-30 23:57:38
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Cerberus.Eugene said:
Bismarck.Eburo said:
Actually, if you use "Play Final Fantasy XI (Windower GUI)" from the Programs menu, you'll get a little box with settings. Check the "Advanced" box.

So, for "Overlay Resolution" (Window Size and determines menu resolution), say your screen was 1600x1200, or you wanted to play in that size window, type 1600 as X and 1200 as Y.

Then, down in the Advanced box, which is white... There's where you'll make a difference with your actual graphics. Set that to 1600x1200 if you'd like. However, there will still be very unnoticeable jagged edge on most models. You can fix this with oversampling, which is essentially putting 2 pixels worth of color data into one pixel, therefore blending them and making them appear smoother (and not have jagged edges)

So, to oversample your graphics in FFXI, use 3200x2400 as your "Background" in the Advanced section of the Windower GUI.

pretty much what I just said, except I'm 90% sure that your background resolution has to be consistent.

Nope, I've even played with only 1.5x oversampling and it worked well. Just have to have a pretty good video card for it to display in consistent 28+ FPS. Really unless you're playing on a large (24"+) monitor, the difference after going above 1.5x oversampling seems beyond human perception.

Also the point of my post was to somewhat simplify the process, instead of having him run through the registry.
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 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-04-30 23:58:30
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Yes, I had already directed him away from the registry and to windower gui.
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 Bismarck.Eburo
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By Bismarck.Eburo 2011-05-01 00:06:22
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Cerberus.Eugene said:
Shiva.Flionheart said:
There's a limit to background resolution without it lagging the game out though, be aware.

If you have a giant resolution don't always go double.
+1

In any event you'll want to find an equilibrium between form and function. You don't necessarily have to oversample to get decent looking game, especially if the oversampling is causing you to lag.

I agree to this, the reason I eventually resorted back to native window size, is because Veridical Confluxes make my game run at about 5 FPS when oversampled... Same with the crag Gate crystals.
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 Alexander.Chaosbringer
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By Alexander.Chaosbringer 2011-05-01 00:26:48
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Actually, if you use "Play Final Fantasy XI (Windower GUI)" from the Programs menu, you'll get a little box with settings. Check the "Advanced" box.

This part here, is this part of windower, or is it part of the ff11 game? I think i seen that box as part of the actual game, just not sure.
 Bismarck.Eburo
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By Bismarck.Eburo 2011-05-01 00:30:53
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Alexander.Chaosbringer said:
Actually, if you use "Play Final Fantasy XI (Windower GUI)" from the Programs menu, you'll get a little box with settings. Check the "Advanced" box.

This part here, is this part of windower, or is it part of the ff11 game? I think i seen that box as part of the actual game, just not sure.

It's part of Windower, when you start up FFXI it should show that box before PlayOnline actually starts.
 Alexander.Chaosbringer
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By Alexander.Chaosbringer 2011-05-01 01:17:04
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When I download windower all I get is a notepad that opens up and says the following

#windowed console key
Console-key= insert
#playonlineviewer language
Language= English
#final fantasy xi window resolution
x=800
Y=600

When I change
Those to 1600x 1200 game looks good, lower Juno loads slow haha, but I never get a windowed box to pop up when I open play online viewer. Also I bought my game from steam, read somewhere it can be a problem with windowed. Any help would be useful
 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-05-01 01:19:20
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the x and y you are changing are the ones that change the window size, not the background resolution. 1600x1200 is a window size that may or may not reflect how big you want it on your monitor. you may want someting smaller or larger depending on the size of your monitor

When you install windower it should install two shortcuts. One to direct start windower, one to start windower gui. you need to start windower gui.
 Bismarck.Eburo
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By Bismarck.Eburo 2011-05-01 01:27:13
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Alexander.Chaosbringer said:
When I download windower all I get is a notepad that opens up and says the following

#windowed console key
Console-key= insert
#playonlineviewer language
Language= English
#final fantasy xi window resolution
x=800
Y=600

When I change
Those to 1600x 1200 game looks good, lower Juno loads slow haha, but I never get a windowed box to pop up when I open play online viewer. Also I bought my game from steam, read somewhere it can be a problem with windowed. Any help would be useful

You actually have to select "Play FFXI (Windower GUI)" from your Programs menu.

Also, Windower won't hook (it'll just run regular POL) if you have User Account Control on.
 Carbuncle.Shadowwind
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By Carbuncle.Shadowwind 2011-05-01 01:27:39
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I didn't see this mentioned(if it was, forgive me, must be blind tonight.) but also change the background resolution settings to 2048x2048.(max they'll take if I remember correctly.) This will definitely take care of any aliasing. This might cause massive slow down depending on your hardware, but most likely it won't as pretty much any system nowadays can handle ffxi with no problems.
 Alexander.Chaosbringer
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By Alexander.Chaosbringer 2011-05-01 01:27:56
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I have a 15 inch monitor what would be a good x and y?

Also still looking for the windower file...
 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-05-01 01:29:26
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Your monitor size (in inches) doesn't correlate your monitor size in pixel dimensions, those are two different numbers.

1) did you download the most recent windower form windower.net, and
2) try searching windower gui in your start menu
 Alexander.Chaosbringer
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By Alexander.Chaosbringer 2011-05-01 01:30:16
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I launched the windower gui and got a microsoft.net framework erorr box stating the following:

unhandled exception has occured in your application. if you click continue, the application will ignore this error and attemp to continue. if you click quit, the application will close immediately.

Startindex cannot be less than zero.


Any clues?
 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-05-01 01:30:51
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Bismarck.Eburo said:
Alexander.Chaosbringer said:
When I download windower all I get is a notepad that opens up and says the following

#windowed console key
Console-key= insert
#playonlineviewer language
Language= English
#final fantasy xi window resolution
x=800
Y=600

When I change
Those to 1600x 1200 game looks good, lower Juno loads slow haha, but I never get a windowed box to pop up when I open play online viewer. Also I bought my game from steam, read somewhere it can be a problem with windowed. Any help would be useful

You actually have to select "Play FFXI (Windower GUI)" from your Programs menu.

Also, Windower won't hook (it'll just run regular POL) if you have User Account Control on.
not true, if you give windower elevated privileges.
 Carbuncle.Shadowwind
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By Carbuncle.Shadowwind 2011-05-01 01:31:02
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Alexander.Chaosbringer said:
I have a 15 inch monitor what would be a good x and y?

Also still looking for the windower file...

I recommend using the windower gui mode for the changes. This allows you to change both overlay and background resolutions. The overlay can be done with the windower file, but the background resolution is a ffxi specific registry setting so its either use the windower gui, or go dig around in your registry which is probably not the best idea.
 Carbuncle.Shadowwind
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By Carbuncle.Shadowwind 2011-05-01 01:32:54
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Alexander.Chaosbringer said:
I launched the windower gui and got a microsoft.net framework erorr box stating the following:

unhandled exception has occured in your application. if you click continue, the application will ignore this error and attemp to continue. if you click quit, the application will close immediately.

Startindex cannot be less than zero.


Any clues?

Try running windows update. If there's any updates for the .NET framework, that might resolve the issue.
 Cerberus.Eugene
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By Cerberus.Eugene 2011-05-01 01:40:36
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you may have to download the framework, but you should try updating it through windows update first. be careful with windows update though, there have been a few bad patches this release so update at your own risk.

Framework 4

EDIT: linked you to the standalone, original link was to redistributable (also, while this is legitimate Microsoft software, install this at your own risk).
 Alexander.Chaosbringer
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By Alexander.Chaosbringer 2011-05-01 01:48:34
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Yeah i have one update that never completes and my pc always starts with it trying to install and it fails.

I installed the new framework, computer is currently doing updates. hopefully this will help.
 Alexander.Chaosbringer
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By Alexander.Chaosbringer 2011-05-01 01:55:10
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OK, I installed the new framework and i am still getting the same mesage and i even ran updates and nothing. I got the windower from the official site.

Not sure what to do from here.
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