Splinter Cell: Double Agent Screenshots With High Detail Shaders On vs Off?

[Drayvn]

Originally posted by: josh6079
Sorry Nightmare, I'll get some more screens up soon. I've been using xtknights screenshot capture utility and trying to make good save points for easy screenshot comparisons. Not to mention the game is still buggy with a lot of things and making too many changes to the display settings can be problematic. It just takes a little longer to do multiple comparisons with different settings, but I'm working on it. PM me for details if you need more info.

With your screenshot comparison, it looks like those boxes at the top of the screenshot disappear for some reason!?!?!?

Did you get it with the right light as i think there are search lights in that area and you might not have gotten it when the search light was in the same place?

 

[Nightmare225]

It looks like the same place because the ground textures are in the same exact position. Maybe shaders also add objects?

 

[josh6079]

Okay, here's a few comparative shots I have so far. Shots were taken using xtknight's GSS utility (very handy by the way) and uploaded to imageshack without resizing.

1680x1050 | Max In-game settings (HDR+4xAA) | 16xHQAF | CAT. A.I. - Standard (Low) | Vsync+Triple Buffering OFF | JPEG format

Set 1:

High Detail Shader - On
High Detail Shader - Off

Set 2:

High Detail Shader - On
High Detail Shader - Off

Set 3:

High Detail Shader - On
High Detail Shader - Off

Set 4:

High Detail Shader - On
High Detail Shader - Off

Set 5:

High Detail Shader - On
High Detail Shader - Off

Set 6:

High Detail Shader - On
High Detail Shader - Off

Set 7:

High Detail Shader - On
High Detail Shader - Off

Set 8:

High Detail Shader - On
High Detail Shader - Off

Set 9:

High Detail Shader - On
High Detail Shader - Off

Set 10:

High Detail Shader - On
High Detail Shader - Off

I'll get some more up as soon as I can. Right now I gotta start getting ready for parties. Happy New Year!

 

[Nightmare225]

Wow, that's really depressing.

Let's see some more ASAP!

Happy new Year!

EDIT: I can't believe so many environmental objects were removed... :Q

 

[thilanliyan]

Wow those screens are really nice with the high detail shaders. CRAP!!! G80 and I can't use the power to see all that.

 

[Drayvn]

High Detail Shaders DO ADD OBJECTS!!!!

Damn thats wierd....

 

[CP5670]

Huge difference there. It looks like HDR is not used at all without the high detail shaders. I'm not sure whether it's a good or bad thing that I have a "lowly" X1900 for this game.

 

[Nightmare225]

indeed, it looks like a incompletely different game.

 

[Nightmare225]

I can confirm that SCA High detail shaders now work with the 97.92 driver patch. Gonna try HDR+AA soon.

 

[Nightmare225]

HDR+AA now work via this method, thilian29 and all other G80 owners.

Given By Cookie Monster, who got it from Romul on the Guru3D forum.
ok,guys!!!
you can run double agent with AA+HDR at the same time.
AND you dont need nhacer.what you need is:
1.install the new driver
2.start the game
3.in options turn off HDR and turn on AA to teh level you wish
4.exit the game
5.open splintercell4.ini and change the HDR line to True
6.close the ini file and right click on it.go to properties and turn on
"read only"
7.play the game with AA+HDR.when you start the game dont afraid of the
artifact you will see at the very begining.it will be over in 3 secs and you will never see it again.
OMG,it looks amazing with 1680x1050,AA+HDR

Thanks to Romul from Guru3D.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225
HDR+AA now work via this method, thilian29 and all other G80 owners.

Given By Cookie Monster, who got it from Romul on the Guru3D forum.
ok,guys!!!

Thank you VERY MUCH Nightmare & Cookie Monster. Gotta give it a go. WIll try and post some screens later.

EDIT: Damn I tried it but no luck. High Detail shaders is fine but when I try the method given above, those masive artifacts I get don't go away no matter what I do.

EDIT2: Okay tried again and this time it worked. AA seems to be on, but everything is so dark. Earlier when I tried with just high detail shaders and HDR on, things were actually fairly bright in one of the Kinshasa levels. Now the same level is so dark.

EDIT3: I THOUGHT it was working, but it doesn't.

 

[josh6079]

1.install the new driver
2.start the game
3.in options turn off HDR and turn on AA to teh level you wish
4.exit the game
5.open splintercell4.ini and change the HDR line to True
6.close the ini file and right click on it.go to properties and turn on
"read only"
7.play the game with AA+HDR.when you start the game dont afraid of the
artifact you will see at the very begining.it will be over in 3 secs and you will never see it again.
OMG,it looks amazing with 1680x1050,AA+HDR

Is it still only limited to 2x and 4x AA from the in-game menu? I've tried to force AA from the CCC but it doesn't work, even if it is a mode the game allows (e.g. 2x or 4x)

On the same ini file (I've played with it a bit and you really have to in order to get 1680x1050) there is a line where you can control the AA and AF. Has anyone been successful at forcing a higher AA than what the in-game menu allows?

Also, just as a warning, it seems that if you tweak the config file in question and then make changes later in the in-game menu, the settings will be overwritten, even if the file was previously set to "read only". At least, this has been my experience.

It's good to hear that SC - DA ( a TWIMTBP title ) now actually works with nVidia's flagship cards. Perhaps I could send someone a savepoint and do some comparisons? Can anyone post some FPS numbers with their settings? I'm interested if the 8800GTX can run this game smoothly with everything maxed and with Vsync.

 

[Nightmare225]

Sadly, with Vsync, I think we won't be seeing frames too far from that of your still-powerful X1900XT...

 

[josh6079]

What?!

What kind of frames do you get with -

1680x1050 | Max in-game settings (4xAA+config.ini tweaked HDR) | 16xHQAF | Vsnyc (with or without triple buffering)

Surely the extra 256 MB's of VRAM would help with Vsync and/or triple buffering wouldn't it?

 

[thilanliyan]

Okay I tried again and no go. I loaded up the Kinshasa level and those artifacts never go away. It is unplayable since I can't see a damned thing.

With just high detail shaders and HDR on and AF at 16x, there seems to be loads of shimmering(it wasn't like that before with just HDR and no AA or high detail shaders). Hehe, out of the frying pan, into the fire. Why oh why does this game not work properly??

Oh just a heads up...the Splintercell4.ini file is reset every time I think so it's no longer a read-only file after you exit the game.

I also tried getting HDR+AA to work with Rainbow 6: Vegas using the method from NVnews but couldn't get it to work. I really have never had this much trouble with a video card. Why the hell do developers make us jump through hoops to have HDR+AA?? I thought once NVidia cards could do it it wouldn't be a problem.

I'd buy drivers from Chuck if he could get it to work. I hope he got a big raise.

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: thilan29
Okay I tried again and no go. I loaded up the Kinshasa level and those artifacts never go away. It is unplayable since I can't see a damned thing.

With just high detail shaders and HDR on and AF at 16x, there seems to be loads of shimmering(it wasn't like that before with just HDR and no AA or high detail shaders). Hehe, out of the frying pan, into the fire. Why oh why does this game not work properly??

Oh just a heads up...the Splintercell4.ini file is reset every time I think so it's no longer a read-only file after you exit the game.

I also tried getting HDR+AA to work with Rainbow 6: Vegas using the method from NVnews but couldn't get it to work. I really have never had this much trouble with a video card. Why the hell do developers make us jump through hoops to have HDR+AA?? I thought once NVidia cards could do it it wouldn't be a problem.

I'd buy drivers from Chuck if he could get it to work. I hope he got a big raise.

What levels do work? Because I get corruption on the Kinshasa level, but not the Iceland and Okhotsk levels. Those are the only ones I bothered to try so far because they're the best in the game...

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225
What levels do work? Because I get corruption on the Kinshasa level, but not the Iceland and Okhotsk levels. Those are the only ones I bothered to try so far because they're the best in the game...

Just tried and Iceland worked. I get corruption while I'm doing the parachute thing in Okhotsk so I can't see a thing to try and catch the spin so I die. I'll try others later.

 

[Nightmare225]

I plugged it into my Westinghouse LVM-37w3, and it looked drop dead gorgeous, even without AA. Competed right with the 360 version.

 

[ClockerXP]

How depressing. I get nothing but crackling static audio when I try to run this game with all the latest patches and drivers etc. DAMMIT.

 

[Nightmare225]

Well, here's pics of my temporary Westy set-up running SCA at a native 1080 (let's see 360 do that!). IT looks so beautiful (This is without AA, it's not really needed)

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/6056/img0552qn2.jpg

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6738/img0558em2.jpg

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/5871/img0562lt6.jpg

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/6765/img0564xx1.jpg

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/903/img0563ok9.jpg

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3360/img0560eo1.jpg

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1748/img0565ug1.jpg

 

[40sTheme]

^ Very, very nice Nightmare. Wish I had the money to set that kind of thing up.

 

[josh6079]

Ouch, this one needs vsync. Surely the extra amount of memory and memory bandwidth would help with that wouldn't it? Especially since no AA is being applied to the scene.

Could you maybe post some screenshots in-game? Specifically, any level that currently works with HDR+AA w/TrAA.

 

[lopri]

I don't get options for wide screen ratio (1650x1080 or 1920x1200) in the settings. Is that normal or is there a work-around?

 

[Nightmare225]

Workaround: Go to SCDA-Offline directory and modify Splintercell4.ini. Change the following lines like this:

FullscreenViewportX=1680
FullscreenViewportY=1050

Change the values for your resolution.

Make sure your graphics settings are already set before you do this, or the rez will the overwritten.

And yes, Josh, I'll work on getting those screenies ASAP.

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225
Workaround: Go to SCDA-Offline directory and modify Splintercell4.ini. Change the following lines like this:

FullscreenViewportX=1680
FullscreenViewportY=1050

Change the values for your resolution.

Make sure your graphics settings are already set before you do this, or the rez will the overwritten.

And yes, Josh, I'll work on getting those screenies ASAP.

Does that take care of the FOV too?
Isn't there a FOV hack too?