Overview
Detailed in this guide are the steps I took to make SWAT 3 run on Windows 10. These tweaks should also work on Windows 7 and 8. Not only will the game run properly afterwards, but you will have access to HD resolution and improved textures.EDIT 04/25/21 – “BEWARE THE TROLL”A new guide has been ♥♥♥♥ out by some guy accusing me of making false claims in my guide (even though mine has received many favorites and several awards over the years). He claims his motivation for making his guide is because I claim that the Last Resort mod is required to play SWAT 3 on Windows 10. Apparently he didn’t even read my Introduction before making that accusation. My original Introduction that’s been up since the creation of this guide:”NOTE: The “Last Resort” mod technically isn’t *needed* to run SWAT 3 on modern Windows. However, it’s highly recommended purely based on the fact that it will upgrade many of the textures and enable higher resolutions. Plus, the mod will install a handy launcher that you can use to setup the game and enable other mods. If you prefer not to install “Last Resort”, favoring to run the vanilla game, start at the section entitled “Replace the movie files”.”He then goes on to say that I’m making false claims about how Windows 10 handles playing the .avi movie files. Little does he know that I got that information from my own research from tips already available at the time of writing this guide (tested and verified by myself at the time…remember, this was 2017). His “logic” for accusing me of these alleged false claims is that Windows 10 won’t have a compatibility issue playing .avi files if you have a certain codec pack installed (if you don’t have it, he tells you how to install it, but fails to mention any details about the installer or where he obtained it). But wait….right above that he says he’s going to tell you how to run vanilla SWAT 3 without installing anything extra. Not only are my claims accurate, he contradicts himself and lies at the very start of his guide.Do yourself a favor and ignore this clown. He clearly only wants attention and for his guide to be in the spotlight, lying and defaming others to justify the creation of his content. I made my guide not to try and discredit an already existing guide, but because there weren’t many at the time; I honestly just wanted to help people. This guide, while not perfect (and can naturally get out of date, as all guides do), has become popular simply because it’s helpful, no gimmicks required. If you notice something that’s out of date, kindly leave a note in the comments and I’ll update the guide accordingly. Don’t be “this guy”: [G3NSVRV] https://steamcommunity.com/id/G3NSVRVhttps://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2460560867
Introduction
If you’re reading this guide then you’ve most likely experienced crashes and performance issues preventing you from running SWAT 3 properly. Judging by the review page, that’s quite a few of you. Anyone running a Windows version newer than Vista will undoubtedly encounter huge problems. Never fear though, because not only are there fixes for these issues, but the game will look better than it ever has. In the following sections are the steps I took to make my personal copy of SWAT 3 playable on my Windows 10 machine.
NOTE: The “Last Resort” mod technically isn’t *needed* to run SWAT 3 on modern Windows. However, it’s highly recommended purely based on the fact that it will upgrade many of the textures and enable higher resolutions. Plus, the mod will install a handy launcher that you can use to setup the game and enable other mods. If you prefer not to install “Last Resort”, favoring to run the vanilla game, start at the section entitled “Replace the movie files”.
Install the “Last Resort” mod
What will this mod do?
- Make the 2D menus run also in 1024×768, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1920×1080 (instead of just 800×600). NOTE: I had issues with anything over 800 x 600. More on that later.
- Make Swat 3 run the actual 3D part of the game at any chosen resolution
- Make the game use textures of a maximum size of 1024×1024 (instead of 256×256 pixels)
- Make new menu and chat lobby graphics for larger screen resolutions
- Upgrade low resolution textures in Swat 3 on all maps
To install this mod, simply download and run the installer. Follow the on screen prompts and point the installer to your SWAT 3 Steam game directory when prompted. Before running the installer however, run the “vanilla” game at least once so that the proper .cfg files are created.
NOTE: In you’re using Windows 8 or 10, you will want to set the Last Resort Launcher to run in Windows 7 Compatibility mode, otherwise you may not be able to select resolutions above 800 x 600. There is an option at the end of the Last Resort installation to do so. Alternatively, you can right click “Last_Resort.exe”, click on Properties, go to the Compatibility tab, and select “Run this program in Compatibility Mode for Windows 7” (see screenshot below).
After you have installed “Last Resort” there are two tabs you will want use to modify display settings, which are “3D Game Settings” and “2D Menu Settings”. In the 3D Game Settings menu, select the resolution that you want the game to run at (your native resolution). In the 2D Menu Settings tab I highly recommend that you choose 800 x 600. Otherwise, all menus (beside the main menu) will be very tiny and in the top-left of your screen. 800 x 600 will make sure that the menus take up your entire screen (plus, they are much easier to read). Your in-game resolution will not be effected; it will be whatever you choose on the 3D tab. Once you have configured these tabs select “Save & Quit” because there are more steps required before running the game. See screenshots below for examples.
3D Game Settings Tab:
2D Menu Settings Tab:
This file is too big to upload to Virus Total for verification, so if you prefer, you can download the same file from it’s source:
[link]Replace the movie files
If you attempt to launch SWAT 3 without first replacing the movie files you’ll most likely encounter the “DirectX DDERR_GENERIC” crash, preventing you from successfully launching the game.
The cause of this is the movies in SWAT 3 are encoded in a video format that is no longer supported by Windows; SWAT 3’s movies cause the game to crash. Although the videos are in .AVI format they are encoded with a codec (Indeo Video codec) that Microsoft no longer supports in newer operating systems.
The solution is to replace all of the movies with versions that are encoded with the popular Xvid codec.
To replace the movie files simply download and UNZIP them into your SWAT 3 Steam directory (the directory that the SWAT 3 game files were installed).
You will be asked if you want to overwrite the original files. Say ‘yes’.
You may also need the Xvid codec (https://www.xvid.com/download/). You most likely already have it installed if you have been able to watch a movie or television show that you downloaded from the internet.
Install and configure “dgVoodoo”
Before I installed dgVoodoo my game was unplayable. The main menu was cut off, only showing the top left portion preventing me selecting anything. I’ve read that others have had to install dgVoodoo to fix low framerates in-game.
DgVoodoo is a legacy DirectX and 3DFX Glide wrapper program. The purpose of this software is to translate or wrap function calls to old, legacy graphics API (application programming interface) functions into calls to the much more modern Direct3D 11. In other words, it makes old games using Direct Draw and DirectX 8 technology playable on new systems. DgVoodoo can be used with any older game and has made many games playable for me that were previously completely unplayable.
After you download and UNZIP dgVoodoo, copy the three dlls file from the “MS” folder into your SWAT 3 Steam directory. Launch the dgVoodooCpl.exe and under “Config folder / Running instance” browse to your SWAT 3 Steam directory. On each of the 3 tabs (General, Glide, and DirectX) configure them per the screenshots below. Once completed, click on “Apply” and then “OK” to exit dgVoodoo.
General Tab:
Glide Tab:
DirectX Tab:
Conclusion
I sincerely hope this guide has helped get you back into and playing this classic tactical shooter again. They don’t make games like SWAT 3 anymore, so it’s of high importance that it works on newer systems. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please leave them in the comment section below.