"Terminated As Error Occurred In FINAL FANTASY XI. Failed To Recognize Hardware TnL."

Heyyy, heard this is a common ffxi problem, thought ffxiah could help me out. I'm getting this error when trying to run ffxi on my PC. Fairly certain it's because I don't have the required video card - what I'm looking for is someone who can help me get around buying a new one.

Other (multiple) forums found via a google search indicate that the program called 3D-Analyze is the way to go. http://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/tools/3d_analyze/download/

I've only found anecdotal evidence that this works, and different settings work for different people, but if there is like a common trick that can be used, any input would be appreciate from people on this forum who are using 3D-Analyze.

This is the only guide that I know of and seems to be pretty reliable based on comments from people on the Windower forums. Fairly old, though, so not sure if that will have any effect or relevancy on the matter. D:

http://wiki.windower.net/guides/using_software_tnl

Sadly this is a "Textures and Lighting" problem with your video card, there might be ways around it but the game will not run anywhere near good.

I have sadly been down this road only once but you can pick up a cheap replacement video card for any computer no matter how old on www.newegg.com. Guaranteed 3 day shipping.

It's really your best bet, but best of luck whichever you choose to do.

I had this issue when I was trying to play FFXI on my laptop. The laptop was new and I ended up getting one with pci express. It happened because I was using the intel video chipset and I'd suspect if your using an onboard card. Any decent midrange ati or nvidia card should do ok. I'd suggest ati because the drivers seem more stable but nvidia is better quality but a little buggier for my taste.

3DAnalyze should work fine to bypass PoL Hardware TnL check. Not using it for FF XI, but used it before for other 3D applications, and it worked well.

And as people said above, 3DA is just a workaround, FF XI won't run smoothly on a low-end integrated graphic chipset.

This.

Pretty much what you can expect if you DO get FFXI to run is low FPS, around 10-15... and that's after you disable weather effects, shadows, and every conceivable effect setting to make it somewhat playable.

It's really not letting you play for your own benefit lol. Like i mentioned above just snag yourself a 30-40$ video card. You won't be disappointed.

Same problem on wife's laptop & supposedly intel had a a solution for the problem but we cant find out since Dell hasn't released their version of the update and we can't update through the intel site cuz of the Manufacturer.
Also, since it's a laptop you're kinda stuck with what you got. No upgrading VC's =(

Thanks for the info all. Caiyuo your link was super-helpful but I followed it to the best of my ability and still things aren't working out. I figure the problem lies in my crummy old video card not being good enough to even support even the workaround that would have resulted in ffxi running at 10 FPS, lol.