[Jaredu]

Hey everyone! This is my first post here, but I'm sure you'll know me soon enough.

Right, so I buy the Collector's Edition and I'm all happy and whatnot, I get home, apparently install it on top of the beta, and the game crashes. After 5 uninstalls/reinstalls, downloading the european version and STILL having the same issue; I decided to start tinkering. SO, I'm going to post my findings thus-far.

I'm running the NA version of the game, but this tweak uses a couple files from the EU version, which; to my understanding should be exactly the same.

Before my modification, I get the following:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ffxivboot.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4c355192
Fault Module Name: ffxivboot.exe
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4c355192
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000ae848
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

As shown on the forums, this seems to be happening to a lot of people. I tried Emailing SE and have still received no response.

My personal specs are an intel Q6600 quad core with 8gb ram, an nvidia 9800GTX 512MB (latest beta driver), 700w power supply; 1.5 terabyte HDD, and windows 7 64-bit ultimate. I am not running the game in compatibility mode.

SO.

Down to the modifications.

The game uses two files, game.ver and boot.ver. First off, you're going to need to copy these to your desktop to make backups, just in case something goes wrong. (reinstalling takes way too long)

Next, open up notepad twice (2 windows), and click and drag the boot.ver and game.ver into your open notepads.

It should read "2010.07.10.0000" if you've done a fresh install.

Simply change 7.10 to 9.23 on both files and click save. It should read 2010.9.23.0000.

I've tried it with 9.23, and 9.24, and it still seems to work.

Next, try double-clicking ffxivboot.exe. If all goes well, it will say "unable to find C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV\ffxivlogin.exe"

That being said, I've uploaded the file for convenience. :) http://www.jaredu.co.../ffxivlogin.exe (yay for no wait times!)

Next step: Download the login file and copy it to the FINAL FANTASY XIV folder. (Note: This file is from the European version, but if my guess is right; it's the same)

After that, double-clicking the ffxivboot.exe will launch directly to the Login screen magically. (Jared casts LoginScreen! Player Logs in!)

However, after logging in there's ooooonnnnee more problem. There's no ffxivgame.exe! For convenience, I've uploaded it here: http://www.jaredu.co...P/ffxivgame.exe (again, euro version) Woo!

Go ahead and copy/paste it to the FINAL FANTASY XIV directory, and you're good to go. (for the most part)

Now you have Final Fantasy XIV working with no ffxivboot.exe error; it starts the login screen, and the gameboots.

This is the part where I'm stuck/continuing, but I'll go ahead and explain what I'm doing next so that you guys can experiment and see where to go next.

When running full-screen mode, alt-tabbing out gives an "cannot find direct-x device" error; so I'm assuming there's an issue with the patching. In reality, we didn't really 'update' the game, we're simply making it think we did. Logically, the next step will be to download the patch files, and copy/paste them into the folders they need to be in.

If someone could screenshot a currently updated folder for all the patches for a working copy of the game for me, that would be fantastic. However, I'll be experimenting and updating this thread as I find solutions.

Let me know your suggestions; I'll keep you updated!

Any Additional help would be appreciated, so let me know your findings as well and I'll update this thread. If we get it working, please take time to post replies to those posting on other forums on google with the same issue. Thanks!

=============
Update 0.0.1:
Currently torrenting patch 9.19, application in progress.
Update 0.0.2:
Downloaded and installed Patches 9.18, 9.19, 9.23, game.ver&boot.ver modified to reflect version 9.23, Current issue: Black screen on game start. Correction in-progress.

This post has been edited by Jaredu: 24 September 2010 - 10:04 PM