Game Patches for Vista??

[Guest]

Can anyone shed some light on this??
I have just bought Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Double Agent and have
installed in on my 32bit Vista laptop hoping the chances of it working would
be good. (I know its an XP Game and has its requirements, but i thought i'd
give it a go on my Vista laptop first before installing it onto my standard
PC which has XP) It installed it without a fuss, opened the game up nicely
(graphics looking fantastic) and once in a new game, began the training as
part of begining a new mission/game. Things were looking good at this stage
untill it began loading up a movie clip, the screen flickered between frames
showing the loading circle and background picture and then the screen went
black and I could hear the game playing the movie clip but i did not see
anything. I wasnt able to get out of the game other than the o'l
CTRL+ALT+DEL Task Manager manoeuvre.

I then took the disk out, put it back in and it loaded up the AutoRun menu
which i then clicked on the "Play Splinter Cell..etc." option. But it didnt
allow me to go into the game this second time. (at this stage i was
thinking, "maybe i need to tune the graphics in the game down a bit")

The laptop has:
- NVIDIA GeForce Go 7700 graphics card
- Intel Centrino Duo Core 2 Duo processor
- Windows Vista
(let me know if you need more specs)

Now when i turn it on, a window pops up and is saying:
This driver is blocked due to compatability issues.
Driver: StarForce Protection
Publisher: StarForce
The installed StarForce Protection driver is not compatible with the version
of windows and will be disabled. Applications that require this driver will
not function properly without a patch.


My questions are:
Was this StarForce Protection driver installed with the game?
and
Am i able to get such a patch to run Splinter Cell again?

Many thanks
Cat

 

[Lee Phillips]

Hi Cat,

1) Yes the Starforce driver is installed automatically with Splinter Cell.

2) The version that comes on the disc isn't compatible with Vista.

3) I seem to recall the original release of Double Agent being very
buggy so the original crash may be something to do with that.

Here's (hopefully) the solution.....

Update the game to version 1.02 by downloading the latest patch at...
http://patches.ubi.com/splinter_cell_double_agent/splinter_cell_double_agent_1_02.exe

Now update the Starforce driver to a Vista compatible version.....
http://www.star-force.com/protection.phtml?c=83&id=957&searchstring=drivers

Set the game to run as an administrator (right-click on the
desktop/start menu shortcut and click on the Compatibility tab).

Try the game again.

Good Luck!
Lee.

 

[RiverDog]

Interesting Lee. I have to say, I run SCDA under Vista Ultimate 64 with no
problems provided that I've updated to Version 1.2 of the game and I have
the latest Nvidia drivers as well as all the compatibility updates
recommended by Nvidia. I've never needed, or understood that I would need,
to update the Starforce drivers. However, "whatever works" I guess. So i
would recommend the Vista and the video driver updates to be added into your
suggestion.

Regards

RiverDog

 

[Lee Phillips]

I may be completely wrong on this but....
I think that may be something to do with having the 64bit version of
Vista and the way Starforce works.

I've got Vista 64bit too and am currently playing Bioshock (which uses
Starforce). However, I can find no Starforce 'infection' anywhere on the
pc. Maybe because of 64 bit Vista's driver-signing it somehow gets
around it (no idea why it lets the game work though).

The reason I mentioned the update in the first place was because I tried
to install another game that uses Starforce (Dreamfall) on a friends
Vista 32bit system and it had all sorts of problems. As soon as the
Starforce update was installed, everything was fine.

Another thought....... Splinter CellA came out around the same time as
the Vista update for Starforce was released. I wonder if there's two
diffent versions of the DVD floating around?

Lee.

 

[RiverDog]

Could be Lee or maybe it was updated when you installed Bioshock. Maybe that
is where I got the update too? Anyway, they play just fine on our systems!

All the best

RiverDog

 

[RiverDog]

Could be Lee or maybe it was updated when you installed Bioshock. Maybe that
is where I got the update too? Anyway, they play just fine on our systems!

All the best

RiverDog

 

[Bret Butcher]

Interesting Lee. I have to say, I run SCDA under Vista Ultimate 64 with
no problems provided that I've updated to Version 1.2 of the game and I
have the latest Nvidia drivers as well as all the compatibility updates
recommended by Nvidia. I've never needed, or understood that I would
need, to update the Starforce drivers. However, "whatever works" I
guess. So i would recommend the Vista and the video driver updates to be
added into your suggestion.

Regards

RiverDog

Question for those running splinter cell double agent and bioshock
on vista x64. I can install and play both these games but found that
SCDA is fixed with a monitor refresh rate of 60hz. Bioshock in directx9
runs at desktop resolution of 85 but in dx10 runs at 60. Both games
use the unreal engine so setting DesiredRefreshRate=85 should change
the refresh rate to 85hz. I'm running a Nvidia 8800 gtx (x2). Are you
capped at 60hz for your monitor refresh rate?

 

[RiverDog]

Question for those running splinter cell double agent and bioshock
on vista x64. I can install and play both these games but found that
SCDA is fixed with a monitor refresh rate of 60hz. Bioshock in directx9
runs at desktop resolution of 85 but in dx10 runs at 60. Both games
use the unreal engine so setting DesiredRefreshRate=85 should change
the refresh rate to 85hz. I'm running a Nvidia 8800 gtx (x2). Are you
capped at 60hz for your monitor refresh rate?

Bret, I never worry about it. I use the native refresh rate of my Dell 30" -
HC, which is 60hz. In fact, I understand that my approach ensures the best
image. Also, I'm not sure I could change it even if I wanted to! lol When I
had a CRT computer display I used to set it's refresh rate at 85 to ensure
that I did not experience fatigue. I understand that 60hz refresh rate for
LCD monitors is all you need to avoid fatigue and so far it seems to work.
Do you have a CRT display?

Regards,

RiverDog

 

[Bret Butcher]

Bret, I never worry about it. I use the native refresh rate of my Dell
30" - HC, which is 60hz. In fact, I understand that my approach ensures
the best image. Also, I'm not sure I could change it even if I wanted
to! lol When I had a CRT computer display I used to set it's refresh
rate at 85 to ensure that I did not experience fatigue. I understand
that 60hz refresh rate for LCD monitors is all you need to avoid fatigue
and so far it seems to work. Do you have a CRT display?

Regards,

RiverDog

Yeah. Guess it's time to start looking around for a nice LCD monitor.
I've stuck with my CRT because up until a while ago LCD's just didn't
seem up to par for gaming (ghosting, poor blacks etc). I'm seeing 5
and 2ms LCD's so maybe it's time. Thanks!