The game crashes at any point where a video is supposed to play
How do I fix this
The xvid videos didn't fix it either

Have you tried installing the 32-bit version of the CCCP codec pack that some people have success with?

If you just want to get the game running (but is not a permanent proper fix) is use the -nointro flag in the startup shortcut.

In that case how do you bypass the videos that play before you can start a mission?
It just crashes if I try to start one

CCCP hasn't been updated since moses brought it down off mt sinai, FFDShow ate it's breakfast, and then LAVFilters came along and took FFDShow's lunch money, by the time the 2000s ended codec packs were seen as a bad bad thing, messy and prone to malfunction, so now you got an outdated game relying on an outdated codec pack so you can try to play on a brand new operating system that gets regular large-scale updates. (and btw neither the XviD files or CCCP fixes the problem for me)

The best thing to do is to make a patcher of some sort that can disable all cutscenes in the game, without source code its the best that can be done. (I noticed entries for all of the avi files when you use a hex editor on swat3.exe so perhaps you can do something with it jim?)

Sorry for the extremely late reply. Haven't been back to these forums in a while.

For me the best method was to use the re-encoded videos that I released done with a different codec (the popular XVID codec). Some people still have problems with the videos even after replacing them.

I have 3 desktops plus 2 laptops and unfortunately none of them have had this issue so that I could properly troubleshoot it. No doubt it is some weird Windows permissions error like the Swat 2 movie file issues.

Xvid fix has never worked for me, ever, doesn't matter where the game is installed

My 1998 gold copy of half-life still works (and it has the same "sierra.avi" file swat 3 uses too), the only thing that happens is if you do not have the correct codec you'll hear audio but no image of the cutscene (but this never crashes the game), what is happening in swat 3 is a fair bit more complicated than that im afraid.

I take it you installed the XVID codec? If a XVID codec movie will play on your computer with basic Windows Media Player then it should work in Swat 3 also. Swat 3's movies were encoded with a codec that modern versions of Windows don't support. Changing the codec of the movies should fix the problem. If it doesn't that means there is a second problem going on.

I know some people, like yourself, still report that it won't work. This suggests to me that there is a problem somewhat like what I had with Swat 2's movies. I did extensive trouble shooting with Swat 2's movie crashes and discovered it was a strange permission bug with Windows.

I wonder if the exact same fix would also work with Swat 3? Unfortunately I never had a system that I could test this theory on.

The file that I had to change the permissions on was
"C:\Windows\SysWOW64\dplayx.dll"

You can read more here if interested:

https://www.swat3lastresort.info/index.php/swat-2-startup-crash-fix

Edit: I just did a test on my fairly new Windows 10 laptop that didn't have much installed. I installed the Galaxy Client from GOG.com and installed Swat 3. It played perfectly without any extra help. I also checked that file "dplayx.dll" and it already had full permissions in Windows like described on the link above.

Another suggestion someone posted on the Steam forums is this:


Right click on swat exe> properties>Compatibility> Check the box >run this program in caompatibility mode for> select Windows 2000> check the box run as admin> click ok>Start the game.

Not confirmed this works. I don't have a system that has the problem to test it on. Would love to hear feedback on the 2 methods described here and the post above.

I finally fixed the cutscene issues, for those who need to know how heres what i did:

Ran this command "regsvr32 %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\ir50_32.dll"

and also rather than install more codecs, i removed all third party codecs, specifically LAV filters, once i did these two things the cutscenes in game began working again.

Windows 10 has the indeo codecs however they are disabled out of the box for security reasons.

Considering the codec is very old I wonder what risk would be to activate it?

Information about this file:

ir50_32.dll

Process name: Intel Indeo video 5.02
Application using this process: Indeo video

Bumping this old thread to say this worked for me! I had to uninstall LAV filters too, once I did that, the game stopped crashing and now the videos are playing. Others fixes, such as installing Xvid codecs or use converted videos didn't work.

Now I wonder if you still need to run the regsvr command or if it's just the LAV filters causing the conflict with the game. Nevertheless, thank you.

Custom codecs are completely outdated with Windows 8 and 10, even in Windows 7 they started to take backseat.

Slippery Jim's own page for fixing swat 3 is really outdated and doesn't really apply to windows 10 at all, his instructions would in fact make the issue worse on Windows 10 (while fixing it on Windows XP).

Swat 2 and 3 instantly came back to life when i removed my lavfilters and since i use SMPlayer and Winamp i had no need for them anymore anyways.

Re-encoding the videos won't work because its a matter of the game trying to call up an incorrect codec (its wanting indeo but lav is interferring with it's request)

It'd sure be nice if the source code for Swat 3 was released, it'd be really nice to see a new build of it.

Huh? Please explain which page you speak of and why? The only thing I could imagine you are talking about is the suggestion to try the codec pack?

Many people have reported success with this with Windows 10. This suggestion came from the community. I personally would only use this if everything else fails.

With windows 10 x64, the codec situation is drastically different from Windows XP or even Windows 7, any third party video decoder will interfere with legacy software (which is why my problem resolved itself by merely removing the lav filters).

So the first part of your instructions tries to circumvent the problem by re-encoding the videos, but that won't work because in Windows 10 x64, Swat 3 will _always_ try to use the indeo codec, xvid or not, and when it cannot find that exact codec (which in this case the LAV codec was preventing it from doing so), you get a dxerr message.

The second part of your instructions advises the user to install a nearly 14 year old codec pack that was last popular when Windows XP was still receiving updates, which will all but guarantee that swat 3's cutscenes will never work in windows 10 x64.

The correct way to play Swat 2 and Swat 3 in Windows 10 (x64) is to have no third party codecs and to be sure the built in indeo codecs are enabled/registered, the game works exactly as intended.

The only way Swat 3 will ever be able to use a new codec will be when someone cares enough to campaign for the sourcecode (which i'd hurry before the particular person who has possession of it dies of old age).

edit: i have no idea what would happen if your instructions were used on a 32bit build of windows, so im not claiming your instructions are invalid for _all_ versions of windows, just 64bit Windows 10, it may very well work fine on 32bit windows 10 but i don't know anyone who uses a 32bit OS now.