Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Developers
	Ubisoft Montreal
macOS (OS X)	i5works
Publishers
	Ubisoft
OS X	Aspyr Media
Engines
	Unreal Engine 2
Release dates
Windows	February 19, 2003
macOS (OS X)	September 29, 2004
Reception
Metacritic	91
IGDB	85
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Stealth
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary, Asia, North America
Series	Splinter Cell

Splinter Cell
Subseries of Tom Clancy
Splinter Cell	2003
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow	2004
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory	2005
Splinter Cell: Double Agent	2006
Splinter Cell: Conviction	2010
Splinter Cell: Blacklist	2013

Warnings

The Mac OS X version of this game does not work on Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) or later due to the removal of support for PowerPC apps.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a singleplayer third-person action and stealth game in the Splinter Cell series.

It is based on the technically superior Xbox version and, as a result of this, the PlayStation 2 exclusive mission Nuclear Power Plant is missing. The depth of field effect that appears when using night goggles on the Xbox version is also missing.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc 2 DRM
Epic Games Store
GamersGate
GOG.com
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam
Ubisoft Store		Included with Ubisoft+

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

A faithful and higher quality icon is available on SteamGridDB.

A demo is available here. It includes parts from Police Station and Kalinatek missions.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Bonus missions	Added in the latest patch. Not included in the steam release.

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.3 is the latest version. Older patches are available here. If a "403 Forbidden" message appears, try again.

Digital distribution versions are already patched.

Skip intro videos

Instructions
Go to <path-to-game>\Videos. Delete or rename Logos.bik and videointro.bik.

Improved Loading Screens

Adds new loading screens for bonus missions that fit much better with the rest of the game and flesh out the story.

Restores the correct loading screens displayed between Kalinatek and Chinese Embassy from the leaked Xbox prototype.

It only works when the game language is set to English.

Spell Check

Fixes some typos from the English version of the game.

Texture Shader Fixes

Disables problematic texture shaders that render incorrectly on PC at certain angles, improving visual quality.
Affected levels include Defense Ministry and CIA HQ.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\system\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/13560/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Save\<user-id>
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/13560/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud
Ubisoft Connect

Video

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor			See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen			See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD			See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Toggle with Alt+↵ Enter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See Anti-aliasing (AA).
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Capped at 200 FPS. Above 60 FPS, some physics of "softbody" materials like curtains are broken. If it exceeds 140 FPS, pathfinding is broken.

Widescreen resolution

Use ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix

Download the ZIP file here. Copy the system folder to the game directory. Notes FOV is automatically adjusted according to the resolution. Removes stretched HUD and moves HUD elements to the edge of the screen. Cutscenes are no longer in fullscreen. But they are played in 640x480 unscaled. The ending of the game is stretched. When running the game, a prompt message may request to download dgVoodoo 2 for fixing some rendering issues.

Field of view (FOV)

Edit SplinterCellUser.ini

Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open SplinterCellUser.ini. Find the [Engine.PlayerController] section. There you'll find the following lines: DesiredFOV=75.0 DefaultFOV=75.0 Notes For Hor+ gameplay, a new profile must be created after this solution was applied. Otherwise, previously created profiles will continue to use the old FOV settings. Using this method or the ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix will be too wide.

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Override AA settings[citation needed]
Download and run Nvidia Profile Inspector. Search and select the game profile. Locate the Antialiasing section. Set Antialiasing - Behavior Flags to None. Set Antialiasing - Mode to Override. Set Antialiasing - Setting to the desired AA (e.g. Multisampling). Click Apply changes. Notes This works for both Nvidia and AMD GPUs.

Force MSAA using dgVoodoo 2

Read the instructions below to properly setup dgVoodoo 2 for this game. Run dgVoodooCpl.exe and click on the DirectX tab. Set Antialiasing (MSAA) to 2x, 4x or 8x. Notes When using ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix, the included <path-to-game>\system\dgVoodoo.conf file overrides the global dgVoodoo settings. Delete or rename that file to apply global settings, or edit the file through dgVoodooCpl.exe. Water will be rendered incorrectly in few places (sea in the Oil Refinery level and water in two gardens in the last two levels of the main campaign).

Force SMAA using ReShade

Read the instructions below to properly setup dgVoodoo 2 for this game. Download and install ReShade. Click Select game, then select SplinterCell.exe located in <path-to-game>\system\. Select Direct3D 10/11/12 as the rendering API. Select the preset to install located in the game executable directory. Select effect packages to install or just standard effects. Run the game, press Home to enter the configuration menu, then create a new profile and activate SMAA. Click on the Settings tab, and set Usage Mode to Performance Mode. Click X in the upper right corner to exit the configuration menu. Notes No water rendering issues. Using Night Vision Goggles causes a loss of performance because ReShade tries to anti-alias the grain effect.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Edit SplinterCell.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open SplinterCell.ini. Find the [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] section. At the bottom of the section, after FullScreenVideo=True, add the following line: UseVsync=True Save the changes. Notes It only works in full screen mode.

Input

In-game general control settings.

In-game mouse settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Edit SplinterCellUser.ini
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Edit SplinterCellUser.ini
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Ambient, voice, music and SFX.
Surround sound
Subtitles		In-game subtitles for OPSAT dialogues only. Not available in cutscenes. Except for the Polish version which also adds subtitles to all in-game dialogues.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 3.0 EAX Unified

GOG.com and Uplay releases have broken support for EAX Advanced HD; falling back to EAX 2.0.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French				Not included on GOG.
German				Not included on steam.
Hungarian				Fan translation, download.
Italian				Not included on GOG and steam.
Polish				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Brazilian Portuguese				Retail only – EA Brasil.
Russian				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Spanish				Not included on GOG and steam, download.

Issues unresolved

Sounds stop playing

When quicksaving or entering the menu (OPSAT), some looped sounds such as clock ticking or water running may not be played.

Quick save and quick load the game to reset sounds

Vselka Infiltration - Stuck in the control room

In Vselka Infiltration mission, after using the laptop in the control room, the player can't get out because the doors remain closed.
Since the enemies that are supposed to open them can get stuck in the stairway.

This issue does not occur if you do not quick save during the mission.

Instructions
Use F2 to open the console. Type ghost and press ↵ Enter to activate no clipping mode. Go through the closed doors. Type walk and press ↵ Enter to deactivate no clipping mode.

Issues fixed

Broken shadows

Shadow comparison.

Relying on a now-obsolete feature of Nvidia GPUs, the default "buffer" shadows are broken on modern hardware.
This impacts gameplay, as many light sources (e.g. searchlights) become invisible but can still trigger alarms.

Force projector shadows

The game, when tweaked, supports projection shadows which work on modern hardware.

Run the game with -shadowmode=projector command line argument

Edit SplinterCell.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open SplinterCell.ini. Find the [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] section. Uncomment the line ;ForceShadowMode=0 by deleting the semicolon.

Use dgVoodoo 2 with default buffer shadows

Use dgVoodoo 2

Download dgVoodoo 2. Extract the contents to the game directory. Run dgVoodooCpl.exe and click on the DirectX tab. Set Videocard to GeForce4 Ti 4800 in the drop-down menu. Set VRAM to 256 MB in the drop-down menu. Click Apply and OK. Copy D3D8.dll from dgVoodoo2\MS\x86 to <path-to-game>\system. Notes Requires dgVoodoo 2 v2.53 or later. Newer versions of dgVoodoo 2 break compatibility with this method. It is recommended to use a version equal to or slightly higher than the one mentioned above.

Official patch won't install (Retail)

When trying to install the official patches, an error message may pop up since the installer cannot find the correct version number.

Instructions (Patch 1.3)
Copy SplinterCell.exe from the DVD Patch 1 folder to <path-to-game>\system\ and overwrite when prompted. Run setup.exe and now the installation should be successful. Copy SplinterCell.exe from the DVD Patch 2 folder to <path-to-game>\system\ and overwrite when prompted.

Stuttering during gameplay

Force CPU affinity to one core[citation needed]

EAX support not detected

Edit SplinterCellUser.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open SplinterCellUser.ini. Find the [Engine.EPCGameOptions] section. Change the following lines as noted: EAX=false to EAX=true EAX_Capable=false to EAX_Capable=true Sound3DAcc=false to Sound3DAcc=true Save the changes. Notes EAX is automatically disabled if the audio settings menu is opened. The process has to be repeated then.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created profile. Requires DGVoodoo2 v2.55.4. See profile introdution. Profile may not work with the latest wrapper. In case of issues, please report to the vorpx forum.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8.1
Shader Model support	1.4

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Dolby Digital, DirectSound
Cutscenes	Bink Video

HD Textures from the PS3 version

Instructions
Download the archive here. Open the archive and copy the Textures folder to the game directory by overwriting the existing files. Notes Mostly faithful to the original textures, except in the Abattoir level which looks much cleaner. Ads have been removed. Cause certain shadows not to render properly through alpha textures.

Cutscenes from the PS2 version

Instructions[citation needed]
Download the archive here. Open the archive and copy the Videos folder to the game directory by overwriting the existing files. Notes PlayStation 2 cutscenes are pre-rendered and story is slightly altered in that version. They are only in English.

Thermal vision in every level

The game allows to use thermal vision after the fourth mission. This mod makes it available from the beginning of the game.

Instructions[citation needed]
Download the archive here. Copy the contents to <path-to-game>\maps.

Loading screens for bonus levels from the Xbox version

The Xbox version of the game had different loading screens for bonus levels.

Instructions[citation needed]
Download the archive here. Copy the contents to <path-to-game>\system.

Improved graphics

It is possible to improve the graphics by editing INI files.

Instructions[citation needed]

Go to the game directory, then open SplinterCell.ini and edit as shown below: [WinDrv.WindowsClient] TextureDetail=High SkinDetail=High Brightness=0.500000 Contrast=0.500000 Gamma=1.000000 MipFactor=1.000000 UseJoystick=True CaptureMouse=True StartupFullscreen=True ScreenFlashes=True NoLighting=False DeadZoneXYZ=True DeadZoneRUV=False InvertVertical=False ScaleXYZ=1.000000 ScaleRUV=1.000000 MinDesiredFrameRate=10.000000 Decals=True NoDynamicLights=False SkinDetail=High TextureDetail=High NoFractalAnim=False Decals=True [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] Translucency=True VolumetricLighting=True ShinySurfaces=True HighDetailActors=True UsePrecaching=True UseMipmapping=True UseTrilinear=True UseMultitexture=True UsePageFlipping=True UseFullscreen=False UseGammaCorrection=True DetailTextures=True UseTripleBuffering=True UsePrecache=True Use32BitTextures=True HardwareSkinning=False AdapterNumber=-1 ReduceMouseLag=False UseTripleBuffering=True ; ForceShadowMode flag : 0==projector, 1==buffer, unspecified==auto-detect ForceShadowMode=1 EmulateGF2Mode=0 FullScreenVideo=True UseVsync=True Go to the game directory, then open SplinterCellUser.ini and edit as shown below: [Engine.EPCGameOptions] AnimatedGeometry=True ShadowLevel=2 LightMapsLevel=2 TextureLevel=2 Resolution=1920x1080 AmbiantVolume=99 VoicesVolume=99 MusicVolume=99 AudioVirt=2 Sound3DAcc=true EAX=True InvertMouse=False FireEquipGun=False MouseSensitivity=50 ShadowResolution=2 EnableFadeOut=0 FadeOutNearPlane=1000 FadeOutFarPlane=1250 SFXVolume=99 Brightness=50 Gamma=50 EffectsQuality=3 FadeOut=0 VidMem=2 GraphicsCaps=0 EAX_Capable=true AntiAliasing=2 Save the changes and set both files as read-only in the properties.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98SE 7, 10, 11 (Steam)	ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 800 MHz AMD Athlon 800 MHz	Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.5 GB	2.1 GB
Video card (GPU)	32 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible	64 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 8.1 compatible

Supported ATI chipsets: Radeon 7500, 8500, 9000, 9500, 9700.

Supported Nvidia chipsets: GeForce 256, GeForce2 Ti/Ultra/Pro/GTS/MX400/MX, GeForce3 series, GeForce4 series.

The Matrox Parhelia is also supported.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.2.8
Processor (CPU)	PowerPC 74xx PowerPC G4
System memory (RAM)	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Other	2x DVD-ROM drive