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Reply 100 of 188, by daniel_u

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Well, i dont know much about game programming or debugging, but i believe the GPU/card itself is the key here. It's the only variable in the equation.

Can it be that the card(7950gx2) does things differently even if is calling same API/functions.?

This might be the answer because as we can see swapping cards fixes the problem and if we look at the PS3 HD edition things are the same,the game renders the same as the PC(card above 7 series). It could be something unique to the card.

Also I 'am wondering if a workround it's possible.? A hack or something. I doubt that many people will really care how you solved the issue. Doing the hack might reveal new insght into the problem.
Just some thoughts. 😀

Cheers.

Reply 101 of 188, by SpooferJahk

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Komat, you are a god for this, seriously I never thought the first two Splinter Cell games would get love for fixing but it seems that you are the answer for making these games work properly again. Once you finish fixing Pandora Tomorrow and hopefully try to fix the first game, we will now have the definitive versions of the Splinter Cell trilogy playable on PC with all the bells and whistles. Keep up the good work!

Reply 102 of 188, by Komat

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daniel_u wrote:

This might be the answer because as we can see swapping cards fixes the problem and if we look at the PS3 HD edition things are the same,the game renders the same as the PC(card above 7 series). It could be something unique to the card.

The thing is that PS3 GPU is based on G70 so its feature set and capabilities should be (I programmed only for X360 so I do not know the PS3 details) similar to G71 used by GX7950. On the other hand PS3 uses entirely different OS, HW architecture and graphics API than the PC version and yet many glitches are exactly the same as on the PC which suggests that the problem is likely in the game code.

Also I 'am wondering if a workround it's possible.? A hack or something. I doubt that many people will really care how you solved the issue. Doing the hack might reveal new insght into the problem.

Without knowing what the problem is, you do not know what to work around in the first place. I suspected several things however nothing did help so far. For example I suspected that there might be some problem with lower range of color interpolators however when I changed the vertex shaders to clamp the values, it did not have visible effect.

Reply 103 of 188, by daniel_u

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The PS3 version is a port of the PC game at least this is what they say. And the beams in PS3 HD doesnt seem to have problems. At least i cant see them but they seem to look different. Cant really tell from you tube videos.

I will post the other bugs per level so that wrapper can be as complete and best as possible . In time you'll figure it out, how to get rid of the artifacts. Looking at the wrapper it does a very good job already. I really appreciate your work.

Other thoughts:
I' am also thinking , it will help if i test the game on a win XP machine with recent driver, GPU and wrapper? It's the wrapper compatible with Win XP?
Also what about DirectX versions? Does it make sense to install/use other versions of DirectX? From what i know this is a DX 8.1, no?
I' am thinking of installing a fresh copy of Win XP with SP2 with nvidia drivers and mobo drivers, no updates and DX 8.1.

Reply 104 of 188, by daniel_u

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So here is the detailed bug report, compared to an 7950Gx2 card + win xp. I recorded a special walkthrough and compare it live while playing the game with the wrapper, version 0.05.
It''s long so it's a good ideea to go get a coffee or something.
As always there is no rush Komat, in case you are tired of hunting down that issue you are working on.😀

I'll try to be as detailed as possible. The feedback has also some obervations that might be of help.
Here goes:

Level1:
Bugs:
1. At start Sam's shadows is seen after the first set of pillars, if i can say it like this, till you make right continuing to the ladder.On 7950gx2 it dissapears.
Also the area in the picture has extra light and artefacts. See pic here: http://imgur.com/3Xt8OyL
2.Artifact near the ladder - extra light that dissapears when approaching it .See pic here: http://imgur.com/Kgqzo0o
3. More shadows,(go down in the water) on the wood and land, near the pipe for hanging. See light indicator on Sam. Also while on the ledge if moving the mouse a certain way the extra light disappears.
See pics here:
http://imgur.com/AuQv81c
http://imgur.com/rv76dtq
http://imgur.com/notQp8Q
4.In part 2, at the beginning ,right after you climbed the ladder, look in front of you on the furthest wall. There are some extra shadows there. See pic here: http://imgur.com/QqOuLHN
5.There is a haze effect near the fire, at the entrance in the embassy, in second part, It is seen best only on 640x480. the higher the resolution the less effect can be seen.
lyWFOaP.png
6. Extra shadow and light near the fire in the embassy. See pic here. http://imgur.com/Luocadn
7. Beams have red color near the first tower light you must switch off.

Obs:
1.In the first part near the first enemy in the level, if you move camera certain way, the shadows on the ground start to disappear. Also with 7950gx2. EDIT: I played with GF 4 Ti and it seems that it's game bug.XBOX also.

Level2:
Bugs:
1.In the room with the bomb which you must defuse, beams are bearly visible. On gx2 card the beams are more visible.

Obs:
Beams through walls(near the 2 guards) at the begining of the level when near by train passes near you.(also on 7950gx2 +Xp)
When opening the door at the location the beams go wild(also on 7950gx2 +Xp) See pic here :http://imgur.com/WcbMg1e

Level3:
Bugs:
1.Extra Shadow in the location of the guard on the ceiling. See pic http://imgur.com/Adba0ez
2.When listening to Soth conversation from inside the booth , there are no white beems.
3.At the end of the train(front actually) the light near the control cabin can bearly be seen. No beams also.

Level4:
Bugs
1.Beams not rendered corectly and some are barely visible.(there is to many to post here all of them. also some of them beahve like this on 7950gx 2)
2.Extra light after getting the rifle when walking the corridor when a woman walks by you. See here: http://imgur.com/DU6Ut7F . I believe that nvidia drivers have some bugs because i tested this again with another driver and the same area has extra stuff and behaviour. With the first driver there was only an extra light now with another version there is another area that is lit and also these extra lights appear when you approch them.

The first pic is with the new light , closest one.
http://imgur.com/8C6zNeW

Second is how it should be.
http://imgur.com/S9gAxev

3.Right after the bug above on one side pf the wall,opposite the way you come, there is an extra shadow. See pic here: http://imgur.com/sHE4jSz
4.At the end of the walkway on the church if moving the mouse in certain way, the wall becomes lit . See here :http://imgur.com/tdJwBI5

Obs:
1. At one moment you can avoid some guards by going through a room where a man sleeps. There is a light there, near his head that if you move the mouse a certain way it dissapears.
See pic here: http://imgur.com/epZvVAA
2.When talking to Dalia at the beginning of the level the light is all yellow.

Level5:
Bugs:
1.At the end of the first part just before sliding the pipe, look at the lights in front of you. You'll see some odd artifacts on the lights while climbing the ladder.(7950gx 2 also)
2.At one moment you are asked to listen to the code Sodano gives to his men.In the house near you ,go to the first floor, there is a light with green end in one of the rooms(just like at begining of the level in Jerusalem where the light is red at the end)
3. Just in the beginning of part 2 there is a house that has a shadow under. If you get close to it, it starts to show other shadows. See pics here:
Corect one :http://imgur.com/0DknGGw
Wrong one: http://imgur.com/8EMnz5W

4.After Sodano gives the code check the ray near the path where you can climb to the first floor(alternative path). Beam is like rainbow not white.(maybe a pic here will be better)

Obs:
In the beginning of the 3rd part there is a fan that has behind it a green light(very nice). Go down near the 3 boiling pots and look at it. The beams sholud be a little longer and more intesive.
In the cocaine room, shut all lights and head towards the light that is found at opposite way you came. The best example of pattern and form bug. There are no beams It's like a star trek shield.

Level6:
Bug:
1.There are 2 routes here;
Take the left one you are supposed to go through a house. Heading towards it you can see shadow and light on the ground.
In the original there are none on the ground just on wood. See pic here :http://imgur.com/3sOLHBX
Also, with certain mouse movements the shadows will be gone.
Obs:
When going down the second hatch in the submarine shadow on hatch does not display corectly. It's just a skeleton or something.(7950gx 2 also +xp).
If you walk by a fire and move the camera so that the fire is between sam and you, you'll see some artifacts.(general problem , wrapper and 7950gx2. AA bug i think.There is one entry in a nvidia driver fixes)

Level7:(Very tough level filled with bugs)
Bugs:
1.Middle Rain problem.
Right from the start , drop from the ledge to the ground there.
Staying right there if you move the view slowly upwards you'll see that the at one point it doesnt rain any more. No more rain drops on the character. At one point you'll start to see rain drops but they fall only till the middle of the screen.
This is similar to the reflection problem from the first level with water(looking at it from a certain angle ).
See here 'middle rain': http://imgur.com/WlEHB1L and here no rain at all : http://imgur.com/qwbixJ6

2.Light problem in the garden, The light on the wall shouldnt be there. See pic here: http://imgur.com/l5ijnWU
It should look like this(see far behind): http://imgur.com/6mJXViX
3.Water in sewer is not transparent.Sam has it feet cut off.😀
4.Beam near tv, inside tv station, just near the elevators have no corect form.
Buttons glow dissapears(near elevators can be observed better), when moving mouse.(never managed to catch the bug in pic)
See pic here with both :http://imgur.com/uE5fzz5
5. Inside elevators beams are barely visible.

Obs:

Lights on the scene inside tv station display improperly. Also some artifacts on the curtain(behind it).See pic here: http://imgur.com/SwEm3pz.
You can see that the cone of light has other elements in it and also the effect on curtain is the same. On the ps3 HD edition you cant see the cone of light but has a correct effect on the curtain. See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utxYI206DyA at 12.53
(god i would love to see this handled)
Look here for the beauty of the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCDXzSAAi0Y&i … 81492B4E3946DA1 starting at 08:17
I tested with a few cards(6800GT and 4400Ti) and various drivers and the lights on the scene are the same. At least is consistent. Ugly.
Maybe you can alter the light sources in this scene to look normal.

Level8:
Bugs
No rays at the bottom of the elevators near the end of the game.

EDIT: Related to the beams, actually there are more problems but i am sure that if one gets fixed all will get fixed.

Last edited by daniel_u on 2015-12-06, 17:05. Edited 36 times in total.

Reply 106 of 188, by PhilsComputerLab

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Great effort, well done.

I'm amazed how you can play all these levels so quickly 😀 It takes me ages to work my way through a level 😊

EDIT: A question regarding sound. On a Windows XP machine with a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium, I'm not getting "decent" surround sound. Has anyone made similar experiences?

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Reply 107 of 188, by daniel_u

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EDIT: A question regarding sound. On a Windows XP machine with a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium, I'm not getting "decent" surround sound. Has anyone made similar experiences?

I have the same card. I assume you have checked EAX in Audio tab in the game. Try playing with EAX slider in Creative control panel.(default drivers) You should be able to hear a difference.

Reply 108 of 188, by PhilsComputerLab

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daniel_u wrote:

EDIT: A question regarding sound. On a Windows XP machine with a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium, I'm not getting "decent" surround sound. Has anyone made similar experiences?

I have the same card. I assume you have checked EAX in Audio tab in the game. Try playing with EAX slider in Creative control panel.(default drivers) You should be able to hear a difference.

I have two tick boxes ticked. One for 3D Audio and one for EAX. I can hear some quiet sound from the rear speakers (First Indonesia level, you can hear some bird / forest sound). But when in a dialogue and you turn around with the mouse, the voices only ever come out from L and R.

Wondering if an Audigy 2 ZS and / or older drivers might work better. Having a hard time finding older XP drivers for X-Fi cards.

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Reply 109 of 188, by daniel_u

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Ialways play with my headphones. Never played with a sound system. Too much noise.😀

Try to see if you have set in XP 5.1 mode. Also try lower quality sound also configurable in XP. Try 16bit, 48000Hz. Try disabling enhancements and reinstall driver with sound system pluged in.

Reply 110 of 188, by PhilsComputerLab

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The thing is, other games work fine with the current setup. A few sounds do come out from the surround sounds. For example if you're caught or if someone fires at you.

Chaos Theory is much better (same machine). Seems to have proper surround through and through 😀

The grass / vegetation in the first Indonesia level seem quite taxing. At 1600 x 1200 with a 7900 GTX there are a few minor slow-downs.

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Reply 111 of 188, by F2bnp

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philscomputerlab wrote:

The grass / vegetation in the first Indonesia level seem quite taxing. At 1600 x 1200 with a 7900 GTX there are a few minor slow-downs.

It is. It totally killed my framerate on a 6800GT. It's probably the most taxing level in the entire game.

I had no issues with an Audigy 2 ZS and latest drivers from Creative.

Reply 112 of 188, by PhilsComputerLab

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Cool, good to know.

I've started playing the game again. Hoping I find some time to capture a few more levels of game play. The last bit of the first Indonesian level is brutal. Got to find a better way to finish it.

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Reply 115 of 188, by daniel_u

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So i've had some free time tonight and after playing some GTA 5 on PC i had an ideea. How does SC:PT looks like on a Xbox.?
So i grab some you tube videos to watch and the first thing that i noticed is that the xbox vesrion does not have beems. I could be mistaken(due to low quality ov videos) but i didnt not see any yet.

So here are my thoughts:
Looking at the videos i saw some resemblance. There was something familiar about the lights from the light sources.

In the PC version if you move the mouse in a certain way you can see two patterns of light. One, let's call it, beam mode other lets call it xbox mode. 😀

Yes, i know what you think. 😀
So the pc version has(how Komat uncovered) has a bug(one of many). The game clearly does not know what pattern to use. Or maybe they wanted to somehow use both in some cases.
That explains why in level 7 inside tv station near the scene with 3 lights, the lights look very odd. The game is mixing the 2 modes. If you watch the newly attached link to the xbox videos, in the post with all bugs i saw, for level 7, you can see how it must look.
You can see the cone of light(on the pc looks like pyramid 🤣), the correctly form on the curtain which it's a circle/elipse(on the pc it looks like a square ,logically), no artefacts on it's back(on the pc some type of grid made from smaller squares). Cool.

Anyway i might be wrong , but this certainly matches with what we know and see. 😀 Just wanted to share my thoughts on this.
Cheers

Reply 116 of 188, by PhilsComputerLab

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With XBox videos on YouTube, they could be on a 360 in emulation mode. Just something to watch out for. But yes, both Spinter Cell games are a bit "weird" on the PC. Even the first one has glitches on certain cards and drivers.

EDIT:

So I finally got around to test Komat's Wrapper and made a short video about it: http://youtu.be/w3GotXdsQrs

I must say I'm very much impressed. The game is now playable and it looks really good. While there might be some things that don't look exactly right, they will likely be minimal. Big thumbs up!

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