Splinter Cell: Double Agent: A Performance Analysis

Introduction

Computer game developers always face a dilemma when creating cutting edge games: do you try to target the lowest common denominator in terms of graphics and performance, or do you try to create a truly next-generation game and hope that the hardware is able to support it at launch? When The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released, we saw the most recent instance of a game that reached beyond the limits of the graphics cards available at launch, and even now 8 months after its release it still is one of the most stressful games available. Part of the problem with pushing too far into next-generation hardware requirements is that developers run the risk of people being disenfranchised with their product, due to poor performance. After all, it doesn't matter how great a game looks if it's basically an unplayable slideshow.

Bethesda was fortunate that they created a game that received enough critical acclaim that many people were willing to live with the low frame rates, or even spend the extra money to get hardware capable of running the game with all of the details turned up. Certainly, the fact that Oblivion is a sequel to a popular franchise helped overcome the performance limitations. Ubisoft is in a somewhat similar situation with their successful line of games in the Splinter Cell series. Recently they released their newest installment of the series, Splinter Cell: Double Agent (SCDA) for the PC, which is essentially a direct port from the Xbox 360 version released several days before. We even see configuration files designed for the 360 included with the PC version.

Splinter Cell: Double agent doesn't break the same type of graphical boundaries that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion did, and unfortunately there seem to be a lot of technical problems with the game. Aspects of the game feel rushed, and even though there is a patch available which addresses some issues (such as anti-aliasing) the game is still rife with bugs and glitches. Luckily though, when working the game itself is very enjoyable and a great addition to the series; we just wish Ubisoft could have waited till they fixed many of the technical issues in the game before they released it (or better yet, address the issues and release the game on schedule in the first place).

One of the major issues we have had during our testing is the exclusion of a usable timedemo feature. Timedemo functionality has been included in previous generations of Splinter Cell, and even the readme file distributed with SCDA makes reference to using its timedemo feature to test the performance of in-game settings. Without the ability to make use of a timedemo, we had to fall back on FRAPS for our performance testing. This does introduce a higher degree of variability to our tests, but our numbers will reflect the performance gamers will see when playing on a system similar to our test configuration. Hopefully Ubisoft will release a patch that exposes the timedemo (and console) features that are inherent in games built around Unreal Engine 2. If they do, we will be there with an update to our testing.

As with our initial Oblivion performance articles, we tackled Splinter Cell: Double Agent's performance tests in multiple parts. We found that the game has a wide range of environments, some of which have higher or lower impacts on performance, so we chose two benchmarks that represent a good balance of CPU and GPU limited scenarios the gamer encounters throughout the different maps. We will also be testing different graphical settings to find out what works the best for the different types of mainstream and high-end graphics cards out there right now.