Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

puddy007 · Post by **puddy007** » 27 Mar 2004, 07:13

Anybody know if this is supported out of box?

Wogg · Post by **Wogg** » 27 Mar 2004, 08:49

It does not list widescreen resolutions on my system. I tried changing the FullscreenViewportX and Y values in the INI file, just like how you would in the original Splinter Cell and other Unreal-engine games, but it wouldnt accept a widescreen resolution. Anyone know the trick to this?

I could probably make an exe hack, but there must be an easier/better way to do it, since every other Unreal game can do it.

Alkaline · Post by **Alkaline** » 28 Mar 2004, 00:53

It uses unreal 2 engine, just use change the values just like how splinter cell 1 did.

jasonm · Post by **jasonm** » 28 Mar 2004, 18:54

I too couldn't get this to run in widescreen (1776x1000) by editing the ini's. Anyone have a definitive answer on this? If it is an ini edit, which ones specifically? (there are a few)

dripgoss · Post by **dripgoss** » 30 Mar 2004, 04:27

I tried to edit X and Y in pandora.ini also. It won't take my 1680x1050 WSXGA+....

MaxC · Post by **MaxC** » 30 Mar 2004, 17:04

Does it revert to the original default resolution? If so, try making the ini file read only. If not, then you have to edit the resolution elsewhere.

Islanti · Post by **Islanti** » 30 Mar 2004, 18:49

Does it revert to the original default resolution? If so, try making the ini file read only. If not, then you have to edit the resolution elsewhere.

Yeah, it defaults back to 640x480. I've tried marking the files read-only, but it ignores the set resolution and goes to 640x480 anyway. Seems like UbiSoft is trying to force the game to a "known" resolution. This was probably a game design decision... I notice the FOV is also very small (70, as I recall).

dripgoss · Post by **dripgoss** » 02 Apr 2004, 06:00

I noticed there are ini files all over this install... Which ini file should be edited?

Edit: I changed all X and Y values acordingly and messed around with all FOV settings. Still looks very jaggie. I can't tell if it's my computer (although the game runs fine) or if it's the display being scaled... I haven't done much gaming on this machine, but some games look great (like XIII) and some games still look like I'm using a 16MB Voodoo card...

dripgoss · Post by **dripgoss** » 05 Apr 2004, 03:12

I've read elsewhere where you can set UT engine games to run in a window. How can I do that so at least if I can't make it widescreen, I can at least play the game unstretched?

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 05 Apr 2004, 19:23

I've read elsewhere where you can set UT engine games to run in a window. How can I do that so at least if I can't make it widescreen, I can at least play the game unstretched?

I wonder if it would work if you set it to a (screen res) sized window? That's what you have to do in Hitman 2.

Shouldn't there be a tickbox option in the menu of the game to run it windowed? Other than that, I think there is an line in the .ini saying something like "Window=0" simply change the "0" to a "1".

dripgoss · Post by **dripgoss** » 05 Apr 2004, 21:16

Thanks again for the info Shifter!

I'll check for "window" in the ini. From what I can tell, SCPT uses multiple ini's for various things and loading from various directories. It's set up a little different than the original SC proly because of the multiplayer.

I was able to do the custom monitor driver trick with powerstrip and then untick the "Stretch Display" (?) from the Radeon display properties tab. At least it's playable (even if extremely small) now at 1024x768 and not stretched...

OT: I can finally get BFV to work @ 1400x1050 with grafx on low and only have to deal with black bars on the sides! That's a big improvement over BF1942's stretch-fest...

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 06 Apr 2004, 15:45

Thanks again for the info Shifter!

I just hope it works. I haven't got SC:PT, and I don't really have the time (or the money) to buy it right now... :wink:

MaxC · Post by **MaxC** » 06 Apr 2004, 21:16

Also, most Ureal based games have two lines in the ini that have:

WindowedViewportX
WindowedViewportY

This lets you change the windowed resolution. I can't believe that the old game can accept custom resolutions but the new on cannot!...and I hear you cannot even force AA which is why you see all the jagged edges! :evil:

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 07 Apr 2004, 12:50

I can't believe that the old game can accept custom resolutions but the new on cannot!...and I hear you cannot even force AA which is why you see all the jagged edges! :evil:

Kinda makes you wonder exactly what they're doing, doesn't it? I would have thought with the increasing popularity of widescreen that developers would have started to bend over backwards to include decent widescreen support. Some have, but most of the big names still cling to their 4:3. :lol:

wolrahnaes · Post by **wolrahnaes** » 21 Apr 2004, 00:44

Hey dripgoss, I have the same laptop. Nice machine, isn't it? I have the 3.06 desktop P4 though.

I didn't see a "pandora.ini" file. Mine was "splintercell2.ini". (SC:PT Single Player Demo)

I tried the windowed setting, and it stayed at 1280x1024 anyways. When I changed the user settings, as has been seen by others, it dropped back to 640x480.

BTW, dripgoss: PM me if you have been able to run anything at 840x525. Some games are too much for this thing at 1680x1050, and 840x525 is half of both those dimensions, so it won't look too bad on the fixed resolution LCD.

I tried Halo and it crashed with a DirectX error when forcing this resolution.

dripgoss · Post by **dripgoss** » 21 Apr 2004, 17:41

Hell yeah, R3000T represent!! heh.. It is a nice lappy. I just replaced my 512 ddr333 with 1GB of GeIL Golden Dragon DDR400 and it smokes now. I need to get some benchmarks...

What I did was just searched in the C:Program FilesUbisoftSplinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow directory for *.ini and perused all of them for anything that looked like resolutions. Replaced everything I came across with 1680x1050, set Read Only atrib and as in your case too, it still defaults to 640x480. I wonder if they did this because of the online mode and not wanting cheaters (widescreen isn't cheating, it's an advantage! :))

So so far I can only get 1280x1024 which sucks. I think someone is going to have to come out with an exe hack because I have a feeling Ubi put some logic in the code that says "IF res is set outside 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 or 1280x1024 THEN default to 640x480"...

Wogg? :)

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 21 Apr 2004, 21:25

I tried Halo and it crashed with a DirectX error when forcing this resolution.

Did you have that resolution selectable as a windows res? If not, you need to use PowerStrip to create it in your drivers .inf file. At which point, Halo should run this res happily. :)

I know, a bit OT in this thread, but still. :wink:

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 21 Apr 2004, 21:30

What I did was just searched in the C:Program FilesUbisoftSplinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow directory for *.ini and perused all of them for anything that looked like resolutions. Replaced everything I came across with 1680x1050, set Read Only atrib and as in your case too, it still defaults to 640x480. I wonder if they did this because of the online mode and not wanting cheaters (widescreen isn't cheating, it's an advantage! :))

So so far I can only get 1280x1024 which sucks. I think someone is going to have to come out with an exe hack because I have a feeling Ubi put some logic in the code that says "IF res is set outside 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 or 1280x1024 THEN default to 640x480"...

I wonder...

How do you load the game? Do you use that menu that is fixed at 800x600, or do you go straight to the Single Player or Multiplayer executable? Will the .exe's work without coming from the loader?

Could it be the loader program that's stopping the widescreen res?

Try setting up a link straight to the single player .exe, and write protecting the splintercell2.ini so that it can't be changed.

I'm just guessing, but it might be worth a shot. :)

dripgoss · Post by **dripgoss** » 22 Apr 2004, 06:14

I tried to launch from the separate exe's and still same thing. 640x480...

So then I decided to take one for the team and I did a windiff on the offline and online versions of the various ini files. I found something interesting...

The online SCPT game MIGHT do widescreen (I say MIGHT because with grfx and goodies set to low or off, it looks like crap anyway). But it does in fact fill the whole screen. Now this is with the ATi stretch display mode applet turned off in Display Properties, that's why I don't think it's being stretched. However the offine (aka Single Player) mode still reverts back to the 640x480 when an unrecognized res is inserted.

So I decided to go for broke and copy all of the online ini's to the offline ini's and it royally borked the game (so kids don't try this at home). However, this finding supports the theory that Widescreen is somehow limited by the exe or a condition set in the code somewhere purposefully. Now if we can just find out why they decided to cut widescreen access and thwart it...

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 22 Apr 2004, 12:26

Thanks for trying it out. Pity it didn't work, but then at least we know that they set out to stop Widescreeners. :(

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