Splinter Cell v1.2

[Reverend]

The v1.2 patch for the US version of Splinter Cell is now out. You should visit www.splintercell.com/us to get the patch. It is preferred that, if you had previously installed the v1.1 patch, that you uninstall/re-install the retail version of the game, and then apply this v1.2 patch.

How this is relevant to this site :

- v1.2 introduces benchmarking feature
- Splinter Cell is a DX8.1 game, utilizing pixel programs v1.1 for various effects, including but not limited to, ocean effects and night vision modes. There are no pixel programs v1.4 codepaths for ps_1_4 capable hardware to take advantage of ps_1_4's feature of collapsing multiple ps_1_1 passes into a single pass
- the patch has three benchmarking demos included; B3D recommends ignoring these demos in favour of our own (http://www.beyond3d.com/downloads/splintercelldemo/index.php) which is more video-card-dependent - B3D's demo had its introduction in our Fairway Radeon 9000PRO review (http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/fairway/r9000pro/index.php?p=2)
- B3D's EIC Dave Baumann has determined that Splinter Cell v1.2 would be B3D's "de-facto" Direct3D game benchmark at the moment, supplanting the "hacked" Max Payne

NOTES:
- anti-aliasing will incur a performance penalty and can be used for benchmarking -- however, due to Splinter Cell's "glow" algorithm, it introduces sometimes-unacceptable artifacts (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4595) and hence AA should not be used for image quality analysis/comparisons for multisampling-AA video cards in scenes wher SC's glow algorithm is used. At least, and not until if/when Ubisoft introduces another patch (that would also require the installation of DX9.0a) that overcomes this "limitation"
- settings pertaining to "Shadow Quality" differ when we are talking about 64MB and 128MB video cards -- be careful about this if you are to do comparisons

As usual, please read the v1.2 patch's readme.rtf for very important notes pertaining to benchmarking Splinter Cell v1.2 . It should be noted that one of the bundled demos (1_1_2TbilisiDemo) can appear to be completely unreliable due to issues with AI-lockdown (AI appears to react differently, which should not happen, depending on what I currently suspect to be down to framerate issues) -- again, we encourage the use of B3D's own benchmarking demo.

[Luminescent]

Thanks for the news, Rev. :)

Would informing Open Gl guy about AA the issue help any?

[Reverend]

Nah, as I see it, the priority on solving the AA issue in this game should not fall on IHVs... it should be down to Ubisoft to releasing a patch for this (while requiring installation of DX9.0a). I don't work for Ubisoft so I can't say what their priorities are at the moment (hint : SC2) wrt this AA issue, although many users are apparently complaining about this.

[LeStoffer]

Damn - and I just finished the game!

Anyway, here's the perfect way to get rid of the jaggies from hell: Just shoot out all possible lights and wander about in darkness (which of course is how the game should be played anyway :wink: )!

So I'm with Rev on this one: Get the sequel out ASAP!

[Luminescent]

Me too, I just finished the game, but the performance was already averaging 32-33fps with 16x aniso and no aa (on 9800pro), so aa would probably kill the semi-decent (around 30) framerates, and the game would'nt be as playable.

The ps water looks more noticeable with the patch, more detailed, I think. Framerate/performance also seems to be a bit smoother also (supposedly better videomem usage). Ubi-Soft should come up with an application AA adjustment in the game, so they'll have full control over the algorithm.

Anyways, the game is awesome regardless.

[Reverend]

Damn - and I just finished the game!
I finished the game about 5 times already, each time trying different ways to get past the bad guys.

[Pit_Viper]

Definitely a cool game. The fire effects, light halo/"glow" effect, and the thermal vision effects are things that I've never seen before on 3D hardware. The folks at UbiSoft did a pretty good job (aside from not implementing Depth-of-Field in the PC version).

[Babel-17]

http://www.warp2search.net/

Games: Splinter Cell US updated retail patch v1.2
Posted by NewsFactory on Saturday, April 19 @ 22:02:29 CEST
Ubi Soft has issued a minor update of the US retail version 1.2 patch for Splinter Cell released early this week. Word is the patch "is essentially the same with the addition of a small diagnostic tool that was left out of the first one," and as before this release implements a variety of graphics enhancements and fixes, as well as gameplay tweaks and other bug fixes.

http://www.3dgamers.com/games/splintercell/#filelist

[saf1]

So - how does this game compare between the PC port and the Xbox? I thought I was reading somewhere that the Xbox actually displayed the shadows better?

I reneted the Xbox version and enjoyed it. I was wondering how it would look on the PC (I run a 9500 Pro). I enjoy Raven Shield - looks great. As does Unreal 2 and UT2003.

Just wondering. Thanks for any information. Have a good day.
-saf

[embargiel]

So - how does this game compare between the PC port and the Xbox? I thought I was reading somewhere that the Xbox actually displayed the shadows better?

Unfortunately, if you were using ATI based cards, the shadow would look worse than the Xbox version. Shadow Buffer can't be used in Radeon 8500 and above as it should be. I don't know why, we all know that Shadow Buffer is better than Shadow Projector.

Remember that a GF2 (even an Ultra or a 4MX460) is massively slower than the xbox graphic chip. Shadow Resolution doesn't mean the same on GF3/4Ti as it does on GF2/4MX. It's not using the same algorithm. You just can't run the "xbox version" of Splinter Cell with a GF2. Not even Radeon 9700 owners can because the "xbox/gf3/gf4ti version" is using specific NV hw.

http://forums.ubi.com/messages/message_view.asp?name=pcdemo&id=zzkpk

But the "true" pc version is technically better than the Xbox version (look at the link), you only have to use Nvidia based cards.