| Jul. 9th, 2007 @ 01:35 am The Guide to Awesome Gameplay |
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Ever since I shared my screenshots from FFXI, people have been asking me how my graphics looks so good and where to get the timers and other modifications. Judging from the number of people who asked me about it, I figured I should make a guide for everyone else to help maximize our abilities as a linkshell.
Firstly, I found these methods from the Windower forums. Anything posted in there is generally accepted by the Windower community.
Secondly, I should mention that results will vary from computer to computer. The graphics might still look crappy due to a crappy computer. For comparison, I should mention the specs of my computer:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2 GHz
Memory: OCZ PC-3200 DDR400 1GB (512MB x 2) Premier Dual Channel
Video Card: BFG GeForce 6600GT OC 128MB AGP
Monitor #1: Acer AL1916W 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor
Monitor #2: IBM ThinkVision 15" LCD Monitor
A little outdated in my opinion lol, but still a decent computer to play FFXI, FRAPS, and multitask. I get about 20-25 FPS in Whitegate or an overcamped King Behemoth.
Now on to the first mod!
#1: Skinning and Icons
Tired of the crappy window skins and icons SE provides? Head on over to Brandson's Livejournal and download FFXI UI. FFXI UI replaces the DAT files in your game to enhance the look and feel of the game. For example, do you find it annoying that the Regen and Refresh icons look strikingly similar? With the replacements, Refresh will be distinguishable from Regen.
Before you do anything, backup the following files safely by doing the following:
1. Open the folder C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI\ROM
2. Open the folder named "0".
3. Simply copy and paste the file called "14.DAT" into itself so that it makes a new file called "Copy of 14.DAT".
4. For the following files, make sure you only backup the two files that correspond to your game's version.
ROM\0\12.DAT status icons (JP)
ROM\91\15.DAT user interface (JP)
-or-
ROM\119\51.DAT user interface (NA)
ROM\119\57.DAT status icons (NA)
-or-
ROM\176\75.DAT user interface (German)
ROM\176\107.DAT status icons (German)
-or-
ROM\178\14.DAT user interface (French)
ROM\178\46.DAT status icons (French)
After downloading "ffxi-ui-0.11a.zip", extract the file into a folder.
For NA users: Open the extracted folder and open ROM. Then copy 51.DAT and 57.DAT into C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI\ROM\119. It will ask you to overwrite the existing files in these folders, but the originals should be backed up already, so it will be alright to do so.
For other users: Do the same as above, but instead go into the folder corresponding to your client, ie. 0 and 91 for JP, 176 for German, and 178 for French.
Next, in the extracted folder, choose from the JPEG files which skin you would like to use and then rename the DAT file corresponding to the JPEG you chose to 14.DAT. Next, copy the newly renamed file into C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI\ROM\0. It will ask you to overwrite the existing file again.
And that should do it. Once you log in the game, make sure the Window Type in Config is 1. If the game crashes, let me know.
#2: Recast
Wouldn't it be great to see your job ability or spell recasts? Check out ZeroCast. Download and extract the zip file into a folder. Before running it, you must modify the settings for it to work. Open ZeroCast.INI with Notepad. Near the top of the file, after the lines beginning with //, find the following lines:
@ARRAY_START,55DF60
@ARRAY_SHIFT,1F08,-
and replace them with:
@ARRAY_START,5613E0
@ARRAY_SHIFT,1F10,-
There are two ways to display the timers. By default, the program will display the timers on a black, movable box, and an overlayed gray box in the game. Personally, I keep the movable box on my other monitor, and use the overlay with a transparent background so that only the text is displayed.
If you read the top of ZeroCast.ini, you will see the parameters for the settings so that you can customize it however you like.
#3: Graphics
Tired of crappy looking graphics? Try out MogToolz. This program modifies the registry settings in your game, such as the resolution. You can use the program to find the optimal settings to run the game in. Note that the following instructions should work for Windows XP users, and some Windows Vista users.
Download the program and extract the file into a folder, then simply execute the program. Once it loads, find the entry called "Game Executable". Click Browse, and locate where Launcher.exe is in your Windower folder. Next, click on the Configuration tab. For general settings, the screen resolution should be whatever your Windower's resolution is set to. If you have a computer as good or better than mine, I would recommend a BG Resolution of 1600 X 1600 or higher. Environmental Animation is set to smooth, Texture Compression is set to Off, Map Compression is set to On. Bump Mapping is unchecked and MipMapping is set to 6. Once you are satisfied with the settings, click Save Settings and then head back to the General tab and click Activate and you are done. Click Launch and Windower should launch.
The effect should be noticeable. There should be less "shimmering" and less jagged edges.
That's all for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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