(For everyone who has TnL problems (such as many Intel chipsets, and in my case a first-generation ATI Radeon)

POL -will- tell you if it has TnL problems. (Error: Cannot recognize Hardware TnL) if you don't get this notice, please don't use 3DA, since you either have a video card which is too old to make 3DA a usable fix-all, or a video card which has the TnL hardware built in (which also makes 3DA useless).

How to get 3DAnalyzer
You need a specific version of 3DAnalyzer, which allows you to set a setting which the newer versions seem to have “conveniently” deleted.

[FinalDoom] Quoted and taken from Sim12471:

A site that has many versions of 3da is available here. Again, the newest versions won't work. The 1.6.8 version apparently works just as well as 1.6.4 (maybe better). Check the “Emulate HW TnL Caps” AND the “force SW TnL” checkboxes.

Try a few times with each version, because it has come to fruition for some people, only after repeated tries. Sim12471 reports that the latest version that has the options necessary to get FF to work is 2.26. It has quite a bit more options, but it has one small problem. FF will work (maybe when the prior versions dont, I don't have confirmation. Gimme please :P ), but all the overlays associated with windower don't show up. This means you won't be able to see plugins or the console, but you will be able to minimize and alt tab, or enter commands into the console, even though you can't see it. We need someone to figure out what options will make the overlays show up, if anything will. Thanks and good luck to everyone. [/FinalDoom]

Rei: I never had issues with the older versions myself.

Newer versions without the Pre-EXE option won't work past POL.

Once you have it installed, load up 3DA and set these 3 settings. You need:

–Pre-EXE set to Launcher.exe (Windower executable) or POL.EXE (for no windower at all) –EXE set to the same as Pre-EXE. –DLL-Path set to the FFXI main directory (not the POL directory) Select any .ddl file in this directory to tell 3DA to use this directory.

3DA will try to change these settings as you make them (to make the clickfest easier i suppose), change them to what they need to be.

You also need to set one check mark to make TnL work. See the image below to see how it should look. (the “Emulate HW TnL Caps” check box)

[FinalDoom] If you check the option that says force SW TnL, it may work when it wouldn't with just the one above. I expect it would take a bit more processing power from one part of your computer or another though. Try it with just the one check as in the picture first. [/FinalDoom]

You can make a batch file (.bat file) which will allow you to automate this process (detailed later in this post).

see in the .bat file section for how to run the FFXI configuration tool.

You can also run 3DA via a batch file, which 3DA is capable of generating for you. (if you make it via 3DA, you'll probably have to edit it and change the path names to the DOS-compatible shorthand [i.e. C:\Program Files\ → C:\Progra~1\], which is only 8 letters long per directory or file name).

My current one-line batch file is as follows, replace drive letters/paths with appropriate information. Also note that for directories/file-names with spaces, i'm using the DOS-compatible version of the name, so that 3DA will launch and execute properly.

This is only an example.

D:\Progra~1\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\3da\3DAnalyze.exe /EXE=D:\Progra~1\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\Windower-3.21\Launcher.exe /EXE2=D:\Progra~1\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\Windower-3.21\Launcher.exe /DLL=D:\Progra~1\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINALF~1 

(you can also run the FFXI config tool the same way, change the EXE2 and EXE to the …/Final_Fantasy_XI/ToolsUS/Final_Fantasy_XI_Config.exe file)

Miscellany – please read

1. Make sure you have TnL emulation enabled.
2. in my experience, POL -does- run without the pre-exe option being used, but FFXI -does not- utilize 3DA at all this way.
3. the batch file isn't necessary, it's only a convenience to keep from clicking several dozen times to just run it. menus are a pain.
4. if you're getting odd results, then it's possible your video card doesn't support DX8.1 (the minimum for FFXI) very well at all.
5. try bypassing Windower if you have problems with your video card. 3DA doesn't have bugs (i think), and will only solve problems if you use it. To do this, set both EXE and Pre-EXE (EXE2) to POL.exe
6. some people have mentioned that they've had problems with the hardware cursor. To fix this (not a guaranteed fix), disable the hardware cursor in the FFXI config.exe file that comes with FFXI.
7. If all else fails, please try different drivers. For example, i got new drivers for my ATI Radeon PCI card, and now i don't even have to use 3DA. Other people use a nVidia card (you need downgraded drivers to use FFXI at all on those). Still others use specialty chipsets (like a mobile Intel chipset), which have buggy drivers that the newer versions of the drivers might fix.
8. if your computer has no video card driver installed (Standard VGA Driver = no driver), then you also need to get new drivers.

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I hope this helps everyone :)