Windows 8 tom-f***ery

Okay so I kinda sorta had windower working before the Aug Update, and now It crashes when I try and load the game. I get all the way to the "Play FFXI" screen but as it transitions to the "don't forget your family and friends" shit (you know the screen right before the select character screen) BOOM! it crashes,. I have tried to disable secure boot and the works.... here is my dump file:
http://www.megafileu.../crash-dmp.html

The crash dump didn't reveal anything, however, it's probably a plugin. Can you please try logging in with all of your plugins and addons disabled. If that works, enable them each one by one until you figure out which one is crashing.

That was with them all turned off :x

Just for kicks, I uninstalled widower, and re-installed a fresh copy, 0 plug-ins downloaded, and it is still crashing.
I am trying to make a new dump file... but the program is not behaving like the walk-through says it should.

It is coming up with the same error every time:

Windows 8 hates everyone and everything.  My advice is go back to Windows 7, you won't be missing out on anything except the frustration.

But Windows 8 is the futcharrrrrrr!

Or, as I tell it, it puts the FU in future. 

What folder is XI installed in, and what folder is your Windower installed in?  I found my WIn8 is a hell of a lot fussier about the locations of things, due to permissions.  Don't put it on your root (C:) drive.  Instead, stick it in your user folder, such as Documents or the plain old desktop.  I have mine in my Dropbox so I keep all my settings across all my computers. 

Windower is in the Programfiles x86 >.>
I just jumped from XP to windows 8 ... so I am assuming that is the root directory for 8 lol
I work with 7 at work... and am seriously thinking about getting a good windows 7 pro for this laptop... wiping it clean and starting with that, because honestly.. .. the core FFXI stuff just doesn't cut it for me anymore... I needs muh windower... esp spellcast XD

Did you wipe the drive and do a fresh install, or do an upgrade from XP? Or is this an OEM installation on a new PC? Upgrades can cause all sorts of problems, so I usually avoid them and start fresh.

Now FFXI loads without windower right? Not that its a file in FFXI itself that has an issue.

Windows 8 hates everyone and everything.  My advice is go back to Windows 7, you won't be missing out on anything except the frustration.

Windows 8 from a technical standpoint is actually leaps and bounds better, every where I've seen. But it sucks from a UI/UX standpoint for sure in a lot of ways.

The problem is most developers aren't updating their programs for Windows 8. Windower is, at least... so you have that going for you. I don't know if SE is though, so maybe that's working against us

Touch screen FFXI on Windows 8? That could be neat SE. =p

Btw those who are on windows 8.. do what I do.. Install Classic Shell, restores a start menu and makes your life feel like windows 7 again, only faster.

Did you wipe the drive and do a fresh install, or do an upgrade from XP? Or is this an OEM installation on a new PC? Upgrades can cause all sorts of problems, so I usually avoid them and start fresh.

This is a OEM installation on a new laptop; no upgrade.
 

Now FFXI loads without windower right? Not that its a file in FFXI itself that has an issue.

FFXI Will load by itself no problem at all.
Every now and than my graphics card driver likes to change itself which makes it so I have to go back and change it back to the the one that supports FFXI, it is kind of crazy that way. :/ but from what I read about FFXI and windows 8 it is a common issue (using an older "out of date" driver for the graphics card).

Also, I should point out that every time I try and start widower I have to return to FFXI Config and reset all my config info to run FFXI again "normally" it changes everything back to defaults. :x

So that issue still isnt addressed in windower 4? The issue was you can edit your registry files, make the nice edits.. then you load windower and it redoes the reg edit with all the stuff it has set. Issue was, windower 4 didnt have all the graphics options to set! Still would love some fix on that.. or an option "do not change registry"

That isn't an issue, which is why it wasn't addressed, or planned to be. All relevant options are configurable, except for different x and y sampling resolution, instead there's just a common sampling multiplier for both of them. That might be amended at some point to allow certain different values for x and y sampling, although there's no timeline for that, mainly because it's not very import and other more serious issues are taking up our time instead.

As we said before, if you can find anything relevant that would benefit from being configurable, we can add it to the launcher. Otherwise there are no plans to change it.

Hello, I have been un successful in getting windower to work since I bought a new computer which has Windows 8. I have no issues logging into FFXi via the regular POL startup, however, once I try it with windower it crashes right after I click "Play" during the transition between POL and FFXI. A white screen pops up momentarily then it says " An unknown error has caused Playonline viewer to stop working ect.." I have tried to start it with an without plugins. I attempted to make a dump file but not sure if I up loaded it correctly. Please help!!! And thanks in advance!

This issue has been reported, although currently there is no known fix for it. It seems it's a Windows 8 related issue. There have been known issues with Windows 8 on certain systems, although there doesn't appear to be an universal solution for them.

That isn't an issue, which is why it wasn't addressed, or planned to be. All relevant options are configurable, except for different x and y sampling resolution, instead there's just a common sampling multiplier for both of them. That might be amended at some point to allow certain different values for x and y sampling, although there's no timeline for that, mainly because it's not very import and other more serious issues are taking up our time instead.

 

As we said before, if you can find anything relevant that would benefit from being configurable, we can add it to the launcher. Otherwise there are no plans to change it.

Hell ya we want that sampling thing adjusted lol. Otherwise we have to edit the registry after the windower loads pol. Like I said, simple fix would just be an option check box to be "do not edit registry values" let everyone tweak the way they want and just load up windower with their own registry file.

Not sure if you understood me correctly. What I was saying that everything is already adjustable, except for separate x and y sampling values. For example, if you want double sampling for x and triple sampling for y, that doesn't work right now. Everything that preverses the ratio is already configurable.

As is everything else that's worth editing. If you can think of another thing, just mention it and we'll add it (like I said, separate x/y sampling is planned already).

Ok which is the way to undersample or oversample? The way its described here.

http://wiki.ffxiclop...ound_Resolution

Or is that the thing you are saying is planned?

Reason I ask is, cause on some devices I need the under sample, to make things work better (say on a netbook) and other times, I want things looking nice.

But Ya, would you say all the options on that page are included in windower now? =)

Undersampling and oversampling are supported. You can either set the switch for supersampling to On for double sampling or Off for normal sampling (i.e. background resolution matching overlay resolution). If you want to undersample or use anything between 1 and 2, you can adjust your settings.xml file and enter any floating point number there (for example, 1.41). That will set the background resolution to 1.41 times the overlay resolution (window size). If you want to undersample, simply enter a number below 1.

But Ya, would you say all the options on that page are included in windower now? =)

Every graphical option that affects the game in any noticeable way (known to us) is configurable and has been for months. A few things were added late, but that was still months ago. Like I said, if you think we overlooked something just mention it and we will enable it. There's no plan to add an option to not override registry entries, because that shouldn't be necessary. If you think it is, tell us why and we will adjust it accordingly. Ideally everything graphics-related should be configurable through Windower.