FFX Control Centre and Steam

[BentonGrey]

Howdy folks.  I've got pretty much all my FF stuff working on my laptop these days, but I need to brand my mods.  I can't get my Control Centre to find my FF directory.  I've got Steam installed on my laptop, and I just copied over my FF folder from my desktop, which had the default path. CC is still showing that default path, and I can't change it.  Anyone know how I can fix this?

[Cyber Burn]

This is kind of out of my knowledge base, but have you tried using Alex's Mod Tools? They should work better than the Irrational versions.

[BentonGrey]

Hey CB, thanks for the response.  I installed Alex's Tools, but they don't seem to have done anything to the FFX CC.  I've reinstalled FFX3, and the CC still has the same settings.  I deleted and reinstalled again, and it still isn't updating to reflect the Steam installation.

[BentonGrey]

Well folks, here is an update:  I was basically stymied in my modding until I could work this out, as without branding via the CC, nothing works right in a mod.  I've yet to solve the problem, but I've developed a rather clumsy work-around, which I'll share for the interest of posterity.  I created an FFvTTR folder in the default directory, plopped my mod folder and copied basic FF files into that folder.  Then, I run the CC and drop the mod folder back into the original directory.  I can't make any customizations because the CC doesn't display all of the options, just giving me blank customization boxes that have no content.  Still, it allows me to brand the characters, so I can use them.  I can then make customizations by hand.

If anyone can figure out any better solution, please let me know, as this adds an extra step every time I need to add characters.

[spydermann93]

Is your new computer Windows 7 or 8? If so, the installation might be messing up if you have User Account Control enabled.

Disabling it will prevent some of the installation files being redirected to your VirtualStore folder, which is probably what's messing up your Control Centre application.

If you don't know how to turn off User Account Control, if you go to the "Help and Support" menu* and type "Disable User Account Control", there should be a result called "How do I change the behavior of User Account Control by using the slider?"

That will detail you on how to turn off UAC.

*In Windows 7, you can find "Help and Support" by clicking on the start menu. In Windows 8, if you move your mouse to the side of the screen and click on the Search button, you can type "Disable User Account control" there and it should take you to a slider where you can modify the level of control (move the slider to the bottom).

[hoss20]

Which version of FFX are you using and is it working correctly? The Control Centre should display the directory where FFX and/or Freedom Force is installed. I have installed the Control Centre on Windows XP and Windows 7 without the issue that you are having and each of these versions of Windows has a different Program Files directory (I am using 64-bit Windows 7, so my install directory for Freedom Force is Program Files (x86)).

You mention that you have the Steam version on your laptop. This would definitely cause the initial issue you had as the original directory was for your PC (which I assume was an installation from the CD). Any Steam installation will have a different directory with the Freedom Force folder being buried within at least 2 or 3 additional folders inside the Steam folder.

Adding onto what Spydermann has mentioned, the User Account Control really causes issues with programs and files that have been copied over from other machines, even if you are the Administrator of both machines. I remember copying over all of my meshes and skins from my old laptop and finding that changes I made to skins on my new laptop were not saving. Even when I initially clicked on my Freedom Force game folder and edited the permissions, they wouldn't save. I then Googled about what was going on and found out about the User Account Control and the VirtualStore folder. What you may need to do is try to reinstall FFX, and the Control Centre along with it, using Run as Administrator on the exe file.

[BentonGrey]

No luck gents.  My UAC was already set to the lowest setting, and reinstalling FFX with 'run as admin' didn't do the trick.  Any other ideas?

[spydermann93]

Quick question:

Is it working for FFX3 itself, but not your mod?

Could you, perhaps, have a different version of FFX3 installed than the version that your mod uses?

I don't know if that would actually affect the Control Centre's performance, but I think it's worth asking.