FFEdit problems on Win XP

[DrMike2000]

Hey guys

Ive been trying to get the FF tools running on a WinXP computer to show some people at work how they worked, and havent had a whole lot of luck so far. This is for the original Freedom Force, not FFvTTR btw...

I've:
- installed FF
- unzipped the .ff files onto disc
- installed the FF 1.3 patch, I still had this lying around
- installed Character Tool from Irrational's site
- unzipped the Character Tool Update from Irrational's site
- installed FFEdit

I can run FFEdit, but it often hangs leaving the Missions Tab, and trying to edit a level in the windowed game editor always crashes pretty much straightaway. Some levels will load in the missions tab, others always crash, anmd editing object properties manually (eg Position) nearly always crashes.

I've tried it on an older computer and had the same results, so I doubt its graphics card/driver related. The game itself also runs perfectly on both computers.

This is the first time Ive tried using these tools in years - does this ring a bell with anyone? Any suggestions as to what to try next?

[wickerman]

I hate to say it Dr Mike, but I have tried running ffedit1 on Xp pro and Xp home on 2 different computers and level edit crashed on both.  Some people seem to have success with it, some don't.

It is really to bad because now I can't mod FF1 at all without reinstalling win2000.

I tried every compatibility mode for level edit and nothing worked.

Hopefully someone else figured out something I couldn't   

[DrMike2000]

Compatibility modes - havent tried that yet.

So none of these problems occur on FFvTTR?
I could probably use that instead for demo purposes, I guess.

[wickerman]

I've never had a problem with xp sp2 with FFVTTR.

Its a shame about FF1 - I like the look and feel of it much more than FFVTTR...

[rmt]

I couldn't agree more with Wickerman about the look and feel, so mcuh that I have a PC that faithfully refuses to go to SP2 for fear it will harm my beloved  .  It is possible that I am just clinging to the old wives' tales that SP2 destroys all known civilization, but I have to wonder if perhaps that would make a difference.  I have had absolutely no problem with FFedit on XP SP1.

Wish I could help more.  I will be playing with FFedit a lot in the next few weeks.  Maybe I'll see something different but it certainly sounds like you did everything right (in fact, I think 1.3 was maybe intended to fix the SP1/2 issues, though I can't remember for certain).

Dr. Mike, is it true that FFX only allows 999 built-in characters (because it sees the first hero file as 1000 when assigning the complex attribute)?  I was looking for a way to change that as I need about 4000 built-ins if possible. 

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Yeah, the same sp2 problems that crashed the main game cause the editor fits to, but have never been fixed.

Normally, when someone mentions this, we just say they are out of luck.

[wickerman]

i actually have a computer with win 2000 on it, but migrating everything over seems like a bit of chore - has anyone tried any 3rd part emulators?

[GogglesPizanno]

I had pretty good luck using VirtualPC with Win 2K (this was a while ago) . I installed it and ran a VM just for some of the modding stuff I was doing as I didn't want to clutter up my system with all kinds of software and utilities. Now I never ran the game itself, but I was able to get FFEdit running for some small edits and what not. It might be worth the download and install to try it out. Worse case you wasted a little time and HD space. If it does work, make an archive of the VM imaage and you have an auto backup of windows with FFEditing capabilities.

VirtualPC is free from Microsoft -- even though it pops up with a warning if you are using XP home edition, it still works. Its just the Home edition isn't supported officially by MS tech support.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=04d26402-3199-48a3-afa2-2dc0b40a73b6&displaylang=en

[DrMike2000]

Compatibility modes seem to have stabilised the editor, even though the visual leveledit programme doesnt run still.

This is cool, as I can probably get by with just the textbox editors for my nefarious purposes.

Thanks heaps for the help.

[GogglesPizanno]

This is cool, as I can probably get by with just the textbox editors for my nefarious purposes.

Dont Tease Us.....

[DrMike2000]

We're discussing the future direction of some editing tools at work. (I program games for a living).

I thought I'd demo how FFEdit worked - simple and robust enough to allow me, a non-designer, to start slinging levels and game data together without having to use MAX or anything complicated like that.

That's all. Nothing more nefarious than that