I'm looking to come back to running this game, however if possible, I'd appreciate a bit of clarification.

Since I've been gone, FF8 on PC introduced an FPS rule for the non Windows 7 category.

Is Rivatuner's FPS counter acceptable? I've never had to concern myself with this before, so feel it's better to ask. (I've included a picture of how it displays. Sorry picture partially crops it)

2. Quick audio question. When replacing the original audio files with the approved ps1 files, is it normal for some sound effects to seem to persist a little longer?(I noticed with Martine's staff car and maybe Deling buses)

3. If applicable, is it permissible to submit to more than one category? For example Any% but also no manips, if none were done.

Thank you for anyone's time in reading. Any answers are greatly appreciated.

Hey there, welcome back to FF8!

1/ The rules are specifically Steam FPS counter or better. So as long as it's always visible and accurate it's fine by us. Steam FPS counter is just easiest for most people as you can activate it natively within Steam without any extra software.

2/ I have heard some people having strange slow downs or speed ups but I haven't noticed any specific things like those. Perhaps just try replace the files again and also ensure you didn't previously have Roses and Wine mod or similar installed. A clean install is safest.

3/ As long a the run is within the ruleset for the board it's allowable. It's not a done practice to submit one single run to multiple boards though, even though technically allowable.

Hope that answers your questions. Feel free to join the FF8 discord as it's a far more immediate way to get help/advice and resources.

Thank you for getting back to me. I appreciate the clarification.

Glad my FPS counter should be okay. I tried steam's, but despite turning them off, was still getting the odd overlay pop up. So decided to go with something else.

I looked at a few vods, and did see a bit of what I was typing on, so perhaps I'm overthinking the audio thing. I'll think about trying a fresh install though.

I'll also keep that in mind with regards to submissions. Wanted to ask and be sure.

Also make sure you read the rules for no manips category. It goes quite a bit further than a casual ff8 runner might think. You for example have to get the Caraway mansion code from the tomb of the unknown king and cannot do the hard reset / pole counting to get the code.

In the moment, I was trying to think of a secondary example other than any% for something I could possibly submit to. That's good to know though.

I didn't think of that. I'm guessing that also applies to end game hard reset as well then. My mind was still thinking of the old ruleset, where you can do hard resets for those bits of the game.