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I'm posting this as a new thread, since the search feature here at hard forums has been disabled. I would have preferred to search for prior questions about this problem, but seeing as I can't. Anyway, I'm simply curious if anyone has had these problems, and if they did, were they able to circumvent them (either with a driver update or by falling back to an older driver version). When playing Splinter Cell (v1.2b) with the latest drivers, 53.03, I noticed several problems.
First, if you use Shadow Buffer mode (NV2x and NV3x only), none of the shadows seem to work except on some of the major light sources (i.e. the sun, or a large overhead light). You get the pre-rendered shadows, but dynamic shadows just don't show up. If you use Shadow Projection mode (ATI, Matrox, S3, NV1x, etc.), some of the dynamic shadows show up, albeit at a very low resolution with jagged edges (projection mode supports a max shadow map of 512x512, while buffer mode supports up to 2048x1024), but not all shadows appear. In projection mode, shadows often don't get fully projected. The most notable situations are where light is glowing through cracks in the wood ceiling of the training level...the cracks should cast some light the floor, but it doesn't...you just see the volumetric lighting from the ceiling, and no lighting on the floor. I've compared the xbox version of the game (xbox version uses shadow buffer mode) with the PC version, to figure out where shadows should and shouldn't be for reference purposes.
I have tried the game with a Ti 4200 128Mb card, a Ti 4400 64mb card, and a brand new GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card, and the problem is the same on all three. So I know its not a GeForce FX specific problem (I tried an ATI Raedon 9600 XT first, but the 5900 is so much faster, and the price difference wasn't enough for me to stick with the 9600 XT. The 9600 XT had some of the same shadow issues, since it can only use projection mode, which is inferior to the shadow buffer mode, it seems...performance using projection mode is also poor on the 9600 XT when you get near any kind of volumetric light). I downgraded the drivers on the Ti's to 29.42 or something around there, and everything works fine (you can even enable AA/AF if you wish...some levels seem to work with it on, but most have the light-through-walls problem). Does anyone know if there is a driver version for the GeForce FX that will work without shadow problems? www.guru3d.com has plenty, but they are all between 10 and 20 megs, and to try downloading them all on a dialup connection will take me months.
I greatly appreciate any tips.
First, if you use Shadow Buffer mode (NV2x and NV3x only), none of the shadows seem to work except on some of the major light sources (i.e. the sun, or a large overhead light). You get the pre-rendered shadows, but dynamic shadows just don't show up. If you use Shadow Projection mode (ATI, Matrox, S3, NV1x, etc.), some of the dynamic shadows show up, albeit at a very low resolution with jagged edges (projection mode supports a max shadow map of 512x512, while buffer mode supports up to 2048x1024), but not all shadows appear. In projection mode, shadows often don't get fully projected. The most notable situations are where light is glowing through cracks in the wood ceiling of the training level...the cracks should cast some light the floor, but it doesn't...you just see the volumetric lighting from the ceiling, and no lighting on the floor. I've compared the xbox version of the game (xbox version uses shadow buffer mode) with the PC version, to figure out where shadows should and shouldn't be for reference purposes.
I have tried the game with a Ti 4200 128Mb card, a Ti 4400 64mb card, and a brand new GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card, and the problem is the same on all three. So I know its not a GeForce FX specific problem (I tried an ATI Raedon 9600 XT first, but the 5900 is so much faster, and the price difference wasn't enough for me to stick with the 9600 XT. The 9600 XT had some of the same shadow issues, since it can only use projection mode, which is inferior to the shadow buffer mode, it seems...performance using projection mode is also poor on the 9600 XT when you get near any kind of volumetric light). I downgraded the drivers on the Ti's to 29.42 or something around there, and everything works fine (you can even enable AA/AF if you wish...some levels seem to work with it on, but most have the light-through-walls problem). Does anyone know if there is a driver version for the GeForce FX that will work without shadow problems? www.guru3d.com has plenty, but they are all between 10 and 20 megs, and to try downloading them all on a dialup connection will take me months.
I greatly appreciate any tips.