SWAT 3: Tactical Game of the Year Edition – How to Run Vanilla Swat3 on Windows10

False Claims

Second, this person makes this false claim:

Originally posted by N̅i̅g̅h̅t̅b̅r̅e̅e̅d̅:

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.

If you have installed “K-Lite Codec Pack” with everything, it shouldn’t be a problem. If you don’t have it please install it, this will help you also to watch another videos on your computer without problems like mkv, mp4 and other video formats that kids like nowadays; my recommendation is to choose the option “A lot of Stuffs” which by default install everything, and you can choose between install with or without player (media player classic). I’m not sure if should work without “K-Lite Codec Pack”, but is totally worth to install it on any windows computer for user usage.

The Main Config (Swat3.exe properties)

So… To the config:

1. Open “Steam”
2. Right Click on “Swat3”
3. Click “Properties”
4. Press “Browse Files”
   
5. Locate “Swat3.exe” and press right click on it
6. Press properties
7. Press the “Compatibility” tab
8. Select the following:
   • “Run this program on compatibility mode for” = “Windows 7”
   • “Run in 640 x 480 screen resolution”
   • “Disable full-screen optimisations”

Suggested Config (DPI scale on)

Now, the following configuration must be done for anyone that has DPI escalation, which most of us uses by default (even without notice or configure it). If you don’t know what this is, go and click the “Start Menu” button, then open “Settings” > “System” > “Display”, and check if on “Scale and Layout” you have anything different than 100% on “Change the size of text, apps and other items”, if you do you probably have DPI escalation turned on by the amount of percentage escalation that shows.

If you have it, on the properties of the “Swat3.exe” app again continuing the same place that we were last time:

1. Click on “Change high DPI settings”
2. On “High DPI scaling override”, select “Override high DPI scaling behaviour. Scaling performed by” = “Application”

Save everything.

Main Config Part 2 (Swat.cfg)

Now, on the same folder where the “Swat3” was installed (that was previously opened by the step [4]), locate and open the file “Swat.cfg” with your favourite text editor.

(The Line number is only to show you where the text is located on the file, don’t type “Line n” please)

Modify the following line:

By:

Be ensure that this resolution is enabled on the same file below:

You can use any of those resolutions, but avoid “640 x 480” since Windows 10 is not capable to run that resolution natively unless you use the option “enable 640 x 480 resolution” from the step [8.2]

Congrats!, you can now play the game

And that’s all, open Swat 3 from Steam and everything should work normally, even the videos. You can change the game resolution once you are in the game, to apply the resolution you have to select your desired resolution then restart the game.

My Specs (for reference)

I tested this configuration on my laptop that has the following components:

• Windows 10 Home build 1909
• Steam Latest
• SWAT3 GOTY
• CPU = i7 8750h
• GPU(apu) = Intel UHD Graphics 630
• GPU(dedicated) = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile
• Generic Realtek soundcard that every computer has nowadays (Realtek High Definition Audio Modded Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi MB5)
• No antivirus because ♥♥♥♥ it. If you have it, consider make an exception on your antivirus for swat3, for the lulz

Another Setting that may be worth to check if you have more than one GPU

If you have any issues with your integrated graphics, you can change which app do you want to use which card on:

“Start Menu” > “Settings” > “System” > “Display” > “Graphic settings”

Press “Browse”, locate and choose “Swat3.exe”, then press it from the list below when you add it, and press “Options”, and choose your favarite Graphics Card.

Thanks!

If you have any thoughts, any issues with your system, please let me know on the comments, I will be really happy to discuss it , help you, and add it if something needs to be add.

Hope you enjoy the Guide about SWAT 3: Tactical Game of the Year Edition – How to Run Vanilla Swat3 on Windows10, if you think we should add extra information or forget something, please let us know via comment below, and we will do our best to fix or update as soon as possible!