Found this info on Nvidia's GeForce 3 page: http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce3.html

Shadow Buffers
Part of the nfiniteFX II and nfiniteFX Engines, shadow buffers enable self-shadowing for characters and objects, and soften the edges of shadows for realistic effects, adding depth to scenes and highlighting spatial relationships between objects.

And following the link provides more information:

NVIDIA's GeForce4 Ti Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are changing the face of lighting techniques for PC graphics by being the […]
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NVIDIA's GeForce4 Ti Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are changing the face of lighting techniques for PC graphics by being the first to bring hardware acceleration for realistic shadows to consumer PCs. NVIDIA shadow buffer technology closes the gap between PC gaming and cinematic-style special effects for realistic, real-time shadows.
Until now, lighting techniques for real-time computer graphics were missing a key element: realistic shadows. Artists and photographers have always known the power of lighting and shadows. In fact, black-and-white film is still used for artistic photography because of the powerful effects that lighting and shadows, even without color, have on people. These same effects can be used to captivate users and draw them into real-time graphics environments.

The NVIDIA shadow buffer technique utilized by the GeForce3 Ti processors involves creating a map of which objects are lighted in a scene. This map is then stored in a shadow buffer so that it can be used later and accessed like a texture through the special shadow buffer hardware located in the GeForce3 Ti texture engine. This technique is faster and more hardware efficient.

Notice how the wings on the spacecraft cast a shadow on other parts of the craft. This technique is called self shadowing.

NVIDIA Shadow Mapping Techniques
There are many techniques for rendering shadows, and each of them have their strengths. However, shadow mapping with NVIDIA shadow buffers has a number of key advantages over alternative shadow rendering techniques, including:

Complex Scenes—Shadow mapping works well for arbitrarily complex scenes containing many objects or complex shapes
Soften Shadow Edges—Shadow mapping can soften shadow edges using a proprietary shadow-filtering algorithm
Self Shadow—Objects can "self shadow." Note the wings on the spacecraft cast a shadow on other parts of the craft
Compatible with Multitexture Rendering—Stenciled shadow volumes can force multipass rendering, reducing performance if the application is either fill rate limited or memory bandwidth limited
Until now, shadow buffering was only available on professional rendering equipment, outside of the consumer's reach. With the addition of shadow buffer technology to the NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti GPUs, PC graphics get closer to replicating a real-world visual experience, closing the gap between PC gaming and cinematic-style special effects.

My first walk-through with commentary 😊

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell PC Walkthrough: Part 7: Chinese Embassy 1 (GeForce4 Shadow Buffers): http://youtu.be/Wsnf-waFssg

not sure if this has been asked before, but Im wondering, do any of the other early Splinter Cell games have issues working on more modern hardware (or anything that isn't a GF3-FX for that matter)?

Darkman wrote:

not sure if this has been asked before, but Im wondering, do any of the other early Splinter Cell games have issues working on more modern hardware (or anything that isn't a GF3-FX for that matter)?

I'm sure I mentioned it: Pandora Tomorrow. The readme only mentions support up to the FX 5900, but the box of the DVD version also mentions the GF6, 7 and 8. But I believe that's a huge mistake 😊

and thats been known to cause issues? are they severe?.

Im actually dual booting XP and 7 on my modern machine (with a Radeon 6870 , with a PCIE X-fi Titanium), to solve at least some of the compatibility issues, so im just wondering

The issues are worse than with Splinter Cell. There is no shadow projector more, so the game will have sections with spotlights not working and will make it borderline unplayable. People say this is the reason the game isn't available on GOG.com or Steam yet.

But I haven't done any testing myself yet, so take all this with reservations. I will look at it once I've completed my Splinter Cell walkthrough and that can still take a while.

Just like in Splinter Cell you will need to find the sections with bugs, document it all, create save games...

so even if you had, say , a Radeon 9800 or an X800 the game would still be problematic? thats very odd and rather dumb of Ubisoft if its the case.

Ive actually seen the PC version of PT in a 2nd hand shop a little while ago , might go tomorrow to pick it up since I'm interested in seeing how bad these issues are on XP with the modern hardware.

its also useful I have the game on the Xbox, but there is something about playing the game at 1600X1200 and a decent frame rate...

Nice, you can compare directly with the XBox version for missing lights and shadows.

I don't know what level this is, but I found people talking about a "TV station level" that has search lights. And apparently they are missing on newer cards.

I know exactly what level that is I will get the game , and try and get screenshots from that level (Ive finished the game on the Xbox, and Im sure I can get some saves for the PC somewhere) , although since my capture device broke down , the Xbox screenshots might have be taken with a camera.....

it will be quite odd if the game doesn't work , most games Ive tried on XP work better than they did on Win7, and EAX actually works properly.
the one exception is Deus Ex Invisible War which has issues, but that game was messed up when it was released , and its mediocre , so no big loss 😜

That's awesome, someone else looking into these magnificent games 😀

I have two version of Pandora Tomorrow, one that came on 4 CDs and another one on a single DVD.

well . I went ahead and got the Pandora Tomorrow , its actually the multi CD version (very odd where every CD is in its own sleeve), and had a go at that particular level both on the PC and the Xbox.
the result is that yes , there are some severe problems with the lighting.

I did take a few screenshots from both versions, for the PC I simply used FRAPS , the Xbox was more difficult since i had to use a camera, so the pictures are quite blurry (doesn't help that the game is as dark as it is) , but it will do the trick
again , I used a modern PC with a Radeon 6870 running WinXP SP3 , with the latest XP drivers from AMD , and the game was patched to the latest version, the game was running at 1600X1200 with the settings set to high.

note the floor on both versions

this alleyway has a light that swings back and forth in the Xbox version , its missing on the PC

this next area is in front of a fence which casues light to shine on the nearby floor, its missing entirely on the PC, so one has no idea why the light meter is so high

this last picture shows an entrance to a sewer, with a light shining on to it, again its missing on the PC

other things I found just in this level

1) the lights the guards use while looking for you (the ones attached to their helmets) are red on the PC , but are normal light on the Xbox

2) most of the spotlights were inedeed missing on the PC , with only one actually working (meaning I was detected pretty damn quickly

3) there is a guy stuck in a wall 😜

I tried some of the first level , as well as some of the Jerusalem level , the first level seems to have less issues, while the Jerusalem level has many of the problems in this Jakarta TV station level.

still can't believe the game acted like this even on contemporary ATI cards at the time like the 9800 or X800 , that's pretty unacceptable for a game made in 2004

That's awesome work!

Clearly the issues are far worse in this game compared to Splinter Cell. In that one you could see the search lights and no lights are missing.

But at the pace I'm going it will be a while until I can check out this one more. Who knows what driver bugs there are and if the FX series works flawless this time around.

Im actually wondering how well the game will function with a GF6/7 , you never know how it might react.

if it actually sort of works it might be a decent solution , I can't really justify building a dedicated XP machine just for this game, but it might be possible to use a PCIE GF6/7 in this machine along with the modern card (ie , when it uses XP , it will use the older card)

I'd like to know how a 6600GT handles the game..

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte … t_review,9.html

F2bnp wrote:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte … t_review,9.html

We force Projector mode in high detail on all graphics cards.

Most reviewers actually mention this. I believe Nvidia and/or Ubisoft must have briefed them all 😀

In this mode the game works on all graphics card, but doesn't look as nice.

Regarding Pandora Tomorrow, the readme file only mentions cards up to FX5900 but the box does list GF6/7 and 8.

Now the best I can do is test on an AGP 6600GT.

For PCIe there are PCIe version of FX cards. But I think they are quite rare and harder to find.

would be interesting if you could test that 6600, if it does work , then it should also work on something like a 6800, which would make the game very playable at a decent resolution (especially if it manages to work in a newer machine where CPU bottlenecks aren't an issue.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Regarding Pandora Tomorrow, the readme file only mentions cards up to FX5900 but the box does list GF6/7 and 8.

You may have a newer release perhaps, so the box reflects that. The game was released in March 2004 and the 6800GT launched in April 2004.

F2bnp wrote:

You may have a newer release perhaps, so the box reflects that. The game was released in March 2004 and the 6800GT launched in April 2004.

Yes it's the DVD version which mentions these newer cards. But everything I found online so far points to the GeForce 6 series having issues with this game.

But it will all be revealed 😀 With time 😊

well, the box I got mentions the Radeon 9800 as a recommended card, but apparently the game has issues with that too.