Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow *issues*

[bigz]

I'm in the process of reviewing a batch of X800PROs, and I've stumbled across more than one issue in Splinter Cell...

I've managed to resolve the issues with ATI based cards, but after these issues (with Anti-Aliasing forced in the driver control panel)... I decided to check out what was going on with NVIDIA drivers in the game too, as I was informed that the problem was an game issue, and not a driver issue on ATI's part.

the character who you are, Fisher, "glows" when you've got Anti-Aliasing enabled... with AA set to application controlled, the issue goes away:

http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/gecubeIQ/splintercell-ati-cat46-apppref.png - Application Preference
http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/gecubeIQ/splintercell-ati-cat46b.png - 4xAA 8xAF
the same is the case with Catalyst 4.5 too:
http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/gecubeIQ/splintercell-ati-cat45.png - 4xAA 8xAF

I can confirm that 0xAA 16xAF looks similar to the first image (i.e. no glowing model), but unfortunately I don't have a screengrab of that to hand.

Anyway... the issue that I've tripped over now is infact with NVIDIA's drivers, where AA/AF don't seem to work. I'm using ForceWare 56.72 which are working AA/AF in any other game that I run - this issue seems to be a SplinterCell-only issue...

onto some IQ shots... there's a bit of a grabbing error, with the difference in lighting, focus particularly around the chest of draws and the window frame. To me, 0xAA 0xAF looks the same as 0xAA 8xAF, 2xAA 8xAF and also 4xAA 8xAF... concluding that AA and AF are simply not working.

http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/nvidiaIQ/nvidia5672-0xAA8xAF.png
http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/nvidiaIQ/nvidia5672-2xAA8xAF.png
http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/nvidiaIQ/nvidia5672-4xAA8xAF.png
http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/nvidiaIQ/nvidia5672-0xAA0xAF.png

However, an interesting point to add here, the frame rate is higher (by around 15FPS) with AA/AF disabled, yet there is no visible difference in image quality as you will see from the images.

If anyone could shed some light on this, that'd be awesome... I've sat baffled over problems with this game as a whole since Thursday evening. :|

Thanks

 

[AlphaWolf]

Splinter Cell doesn't support AA. I believe Dany Lepage explains why in the developers forum on this site.

 

[bigz]

Splinter Cell doesn't support AA. I believe Dany LePage explains why in the developers forum on this site.

I understand that the game doesn't support AA, but why is AF not working on the NVIDIA card, when it does work on the ATI based boards?

16xAF looks like 16xAF, and looks considerably different to 0xAF (or Application Preference) on ATI boards.

My original *issue* was with Anti-Aliasing on ATI based cards, but after long discussions with ATI regarding the matter, I was informed that the game doesn't support Anti-Aliasing. So, I disabled AA, and that fixed the glowing model issue. As I was told by ATI, the Anti-Aliasing issue is game related, not driver related... I was told that NVIDIA cards should behave the same.

Off I went to investigate... I then find that neither AA/AF are working (with any noticable differences in IQ) with ForceWare 56.72... that's where I'm at now

 

[Pete]

OT (and please don't take offense at my blunteness), but this really doesn't belong in 3D Tech. 3D Boards and Drivers seems like the most obvious forum for this.

Speaking of a driver issue, did you check if AF worked with another Forceware version?

 

[bigz]

OT (and please don't take offense at my blunteness), but this really doesn't belong in 3D Tech. 3D Boards and Drivers seems like the most obvious forum for this.

Yes, you're right... It's possibly posted it in the wrong forum :|

The original issue with ATI was a technology/game issue, and not a driver issue, however the NVIDIA side of things is a driver issue. I don't take offense by any means It's late, I'm tired, and I more than likely posted in the wrong forum... at least I posted it on the forum that I meant, and not on some other site that probably wouldn't be able to shed light on this.

Speaking of a driver issue, did you check if AF worked with another Forceware version?

I've got 53.03 here... as far as I am aware (please correct me if I am wrong), 53.03 and 56.72 are the two latest official forceware releases. I understand there is something new coming out in the very near future though.

http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/nvidiaIQ/nvidia5303-0xAA0xAF.png
http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/nvidiaIQ/nvidia5303-0xAA8xAF.png
http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/nvidiaIQ/nvidia5303-2xAA8xAF.png
http://bit-tech.net/images/bigz/nvidiaIQ/nvidia5303-4xAA8xAF.png

I was under the impression that AA didn't work in Splinter Cell :? :?