Splinter Cell 3 Chaos Demo

[HardWareBoss]

Anyone get this demo to work? All I can get him to do is walk around. And whistle.

 

[pauldh]

That's better than me. My first download wouldn't extract. Getting it from another mirror now.



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[HardWareBoss]

Let me know if you can play it. With all the hype one would think a 600MB demo would work.

 

[pauldh]

It took forever to get the demo in last night from the second mirror. So I didn't get around to trying it. I will tonight though.



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[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Same here, the one I grabbed from the German site wouldn't install after the half-way point, redundancy error.

So has nayone check with ATI DX9 hardware what options are available in the quality settings? PS2.0?


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[pauldh]

OK, the second download worked. It still pops up two error messages at the end of the install, on both systems I have tried, but it doesn't effect the install. Could be deleting temp install files or something.

Anyway, On the GF6800U system, options are PS 1.1 and PS 3.0. But on the 9800 pro system, the only option is PS 1.1. :frown: Not sure if this will be the same on the retail game, but it is the case on the demo anyway.



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[pauldh]

I hated it at first, but am starting to like it after exiting and studying the controls a little. Anyway, once you are tired of running around the beach, face away from the water and head up the rocks. I never played Splinter cell and enjoyed a couple things here like picking up objects and... Anyway, don't want to be a spoiler. keep playing.

That playing view is hard though at first, but hopefully I'll get used to it. Graphics do look good so far.





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[pauldh]

OK Grape, another update. I was testing it on both systems, side by side using full version of Fraps.

IS7, P4 2.6C @ 2.6GHz, 9800 pro 128MB 256-bit, 1.0GB PC4000
K8N Neo2p, A64 3000+ @ 2.2GHz, BFG 6800U OC, 1.0GB PC4000


Lowest framerates I have seen by far are right on the opening beach scene. So I was comparing the opening scene before moving the mouse at all. Set to 1024x768 with med shadow detail, the 9800 pro system sat from 29 fps to 31 fps as the waves and fog move. Going in the caves and the framerates are much much higher-40's and 50's. I had the GF6800U system at 1280x1024 high shadow quality without using fraps. I exited, started up fraps, go back in, and it was sitting at around 14 fps!!! I changed it to 1024x768 medium with PS3.0, and it sat at 26-27 fps. So the P4 2.6C 9800 pro was scoring 3-4 fps higher. I then went in and looked at the PS3.0 shader options, and see that HDR rendering is on by default. Disabling HDR raised it 10 fps so it sat at 36-37 fps. I then exited and set it to PS 1.1, - all options the same as the 9800 pro, and the 6800U system now sat at 46-47 fps in that first scene.

Now remember this is the absolute worst area of the game by far, but I also know I could compare the same image as long as I didn't move. I did a bunch of screenshots with fps visible too, but would have to shrink them a bunch for uploadit.org.


Basically, the 6800U using PS3.0 default with HDR rendering on, performed slower than the 9800 pro with PS1.1 on a slower system. I'm not so sure that this PS3.0 HDR path is worth that much unless a driver fix does something. Again, it would seem that HDR is going to eliminate resolutions above 1024x768, as well as limiting AA/AF possibilities.

Anyway, thought i'd pass these findings on.


Short version: (1024x768, opening scene without moving mouse)
GF6800U PS3.0 with HDR 26-27 fps
GF6800U PS3.0 without HDR 36-37 fps
GF6800U PS1.1 46-47 fps
Radeon 9800 pro PS1.1 29-31 fps

And remember, the 9800 pro was on a P4 2.6C stock speeds, the 6800U is an OC version and on a much faster 2.2GHz OC'ed Winchester. Either this game is very demanding, my 6693 drivers aren't cutting it in this demo, PS3.0 with HDR is going to be crippling, the demo needs optimizing, or a combination of all/some of these.


Edit:
I plan on using fraps to bench 60 seconds of gameplay on both systems. If so I'll post back high/low/average framerates on both systems. I wonder what the 6800U would do at 1280x1024 max everything, and 4X/8X. That is my preferred settings I hoped to use as much as possible when I bought this new card. Maybe eliminating HDR, I'll have a shot, but I doubt it.



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<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Pauldh on 02/24/05 05:29 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[HardWareBoss]

You havn't tried the 67.66 drivers yet?

 

[pauldh]

No I have just stuck to the latest officials so far but will definately switch to some betas at sometime. So far, no issues with these.

One thing that bugs me with NV is the 42 million betas released for each official driver. I mean, Nov 4, 2004 is getting quite old isn't it?



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[pauldh]

did you try this demo again? Is very different from the games I have played before, but it's fun.



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[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Haven't had the time to download again, just to busy at home and work.

Thanks for the tests, just the kind of info I was looking for.

The effects shown on 3Dcenter looked to be better on the PS3.0 path, but it did look like those between PS1.1 and PS2.0 like I said before, so if this is all for the HDR flaring, I don't know if I'm completely sold. Seems like the perfect game for this stuff, but maybe the nV50(G70?) or R520 are really the cards for using FP-HDR.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[HardWareBoss]

Played around with it last night. What did you use to read those bar codes?

 

[pauldh]

I took some screenies with PS3.0 with and without HDR, as well as PS1.1. I have not yet studied the images for differences. I do notice the extra brightness from lights in HDR while playing, but need to study it some more.

Honestly, I am surprised just how well the 9800 pro did against the 6800U performance-wise. On the 6800U, I may end up playing at 1280x1024 without HDR instead of 1024x768 with HDR.



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[pauldh]

Space bar does most of the interacting.



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