EDIT: This suggestion is no longer recommended by me

The best solution I still say is replace Swat 3's movies with re-encoded versions.

_____

More information about Swat 3's crash can be found on my website:
https://www.swat3lastresort.info/index.php/swat-3-video-directx-fix

My solution was to add '-nointro' after the game path in the shortcut so it's:

'<gamePath>' -nointro

This also fixed a separate issue with the game booting in a cropped window mode.

Still buggy as hell tho on Win10. Equipment status "wheel" missing icons, door camera breaks and shows through the map. Shame.

The -nointro is just a temporary work around and isn't a fix.

Several missions trigger movies that will crash your game still if you can't properly play the movies. Sewers, Whitman Airport are some that trigger movies upon failure/success.

As for your visual glitches I highly recommend using dgVoodoo 2 to fix several issues playing legacy games on Windows 10 machines.

Its not just about registering the indeo codec jim.

The system absolutely cannot have any third party codecs installed. Things like LAVFilters, FFDShow and their ilk override indeo and screw up the merit system that Windows 8 and 10 no longer allow user modification of.

If you register indeo but still have LAVFilters installed, the game will simply crash with the exact same error.


If you are needing codecs, i would recommend using a media player that simply includes them, I personally use SMplayer and Winamp, VLC is an option also.

Okay thanks but the top post doesn't mention installing additional codecs.

I know that jim, but people tend to already have some kind of codecs is the point i was making.

For example

A person follows my new directions, finds the game still won't work and its because they
had LAVFilters installed without telling you or me or anyone else about it (and thus the game won't
run)

thats the reason i mentioned it, to account for people who might already have lavfilters before
coming here for help and never mentioned it to you, those codecs will override indeo even if its
enabled and prevent it from working properly and we cannot account for how people setup their
computers.

ah okay, thanks. . I will need to add a note on my website about this. I need to further make changes to the "fix" page anyways when I get time.

A new update on this topic.

I did some experimenting and I am reaching the conclusion that registering the "ir50_32.dll" file is not the way to go.

I still think replacement movies with a different codec is still the best way.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/microsoft-security-advisory-vulnerabilities-in-the-indeo-codec-could-allow-remote-code-execution-december-8-2009-680127c6-f4fd-e533-b641-6ab3a25fb4f4

I also tried the replacement movies on a Windows 10 machine that gave "DDERR_GENERIC" error and swapping the movies out for XVID version fixed it.

i've never had that work on any of the 5 machines i run, but to each their own.

It works on all 5 of mine and none of them have the .dll registered as you manually have done.

Making this suggestion is fine but we need to include the security warning so people know what they are getting themselves into. Let them make the decision.

On one my machines I tried running a renamed swat.exe and it suddenly started giving the usual Direct X error (which it doesn't when the file is "swat.exe"). It appears that Windows 10 applies a shim to the game to get it to work with the original movies. I copied over the XVID movies and the renamed file worked once again.

I checked the Windows registry and there were no compatibilty settings in play.

* People need to confirm that their machine can switch to 640x480. Swat 3's movies are that size and the game switches to that resolution. I had problem on one of my laptops until I enabled more resolutions in the driver.

* Using the -nointro flag (so people can get to the main menu) people need to confirm if they can run the education videos from the mission screen. The education videos are in the "offending" codec but if they still don't play we can probably rule out the 640x480 as the problem.

I still lean to several different reasons causing this issue. No one generic fix for every person that has this issue.

I was just wrestling with the video crash and dgvoodoo and I'd like to report the solution that worked for me as an avid LAV user.

I noticed that LAV was causing an incompatibility no matter if xvid or Indeo 5, but I 100% didn't want to uninstall LAV from my system, so I instead got Codec Tweak Tool 6.5.5 (would post link but no links allowed on this forum).
I used the option in Codec and Filter Management --> ACM/VFW (x86) --> Indeo 5 to enable the Indeo 5 codec on my W10 installation. Then I chose Codec and Filter Management --> Preferred splitters --> .AVI and I changed the .AVI handling from from LAV Splitter to Microsoft. This made the game bootable, but I still had an issue where the game traveled in the middle of my two monitors after every video.
Finally I trawled through and tested dgvoodoo versions until I found 2.54, which is the newest version that doesn't whitescreen the game on AMD. These combined, I now appear to have a playable version of Swat 3 with working menus, videos and the actual game part as well.

TL;DR:
If you want to keep LAV, get Codec Tweak Tool. Enable ACM/VFW (x86) --> Indeo 5. Choose Preferred splitters --> .AVI --> Microsoft. Worried about security with Indeo 5? Just revert it to disabled after playing.
This may well work with the XVID movies as well, just change the splitter in Codec Tweak Tool to avoid the LAV incompatiblity.

Have nowadays a modern desktop gaming PC (late 2019 with Win11), sadly don't know anymore the inner workings of the OS like back in the day with WinXP.

Got the same error prompt when trying to launch the game as described on the FAQ over at the Last Resort mod site (first message in this thread), "~unable to set 640x480" my computer is unable to go lower than 800x600. Downloaded the Last Resort mod in order to force another graphics setting and tried the -nointro flag. Would hear the beginning of a a tune before CTD/exited to desktop. When I added the flag -window (to run in windowed mode as opposed to fullscreen) I'd get past that obstacle but ended up with a prompt that the game needs to run in 16 bit (which my OS/GPU is unable to accomodate).

Despair was taking hold.

Tried then the fixes for bad framerate listed on the Last Resort site and using dgVoodoo I got the game running and not only that but full functionality! The alternative to dgVoodoo, Wine3D, is a by the way a dead link at the time of writing. Personally I downloaded the re-encoded videos.

Would have thanked Slippery_Jim et al in a PM but was unable due to his privacy settings, thus this very public thank you for providing help to get this gem running and not only that but greatly enchanced, graphically and otherwise, via the Last Resort mod! :)

My post is certainly not that helpful but I'd urge anyone who is struggling to get this game working on a modern computer not to give up but rather keep trying. The reward is an intelligent game/simulation that IMHO is far superior to SWAT4 (we´ll have to see how the new Ready or Not game will shape up). A few keybindings may need to be reassigned as the default ones feels rather archaic (movement via arrow keys instead of WASD etc) but on the other hand when the game was released we'd hardly use mouse look by default in games for long (compare the original Quake where one had to enable it manually).

Sorry I haven't seen your post until now. You are very welcome for the help getting your game running. I can't take all the credit though of course because many things that I have learned are from the community.

As for 640x480 have you confirmed that your computer can't switch to that resolution? On one of my laptops 640x480 wasn't listed in the driver but it had no problem displaying the movies once I activated 800x600 in the driver (onboard crappy video chip).

A friendly reminder that the "-nointro" workaround only masks the movie problem since 2 missions trigger a movie if you fail them. If you rename the 2 movies "Plane.avi" and "explosion.avi" to whatever you want (or even delete them) the game will skip over showing them and won't crash.

I am presently working on a fix to upgrade the movies to 800x600 (or possibly even larger). I plan on using AI software to increase the resolution and also convert the movies to a modern format that Windows 8/10/11 would prefer.

If you select FAST VIDEO MEMORY ACCESS tickbox on the DirectX tab that should fix the white screen on the AMD. You should be able to use the latest version with this ticked.

Recently I upgraded to two monitors on this machine and had the exact problem you had with the game moving in between the two monitors. I changed a few of my settings in dgVoodoo that appears to have helped.

On the GENERAL tab of DgVoodoo there is a drop down box that says "Full Screen Output". Instead of keeping it on default I manually selected the first monitor in the drop down. I also made sure "capture mouse" tickbox was selected.

I run the game Full Screen and on the Direct X tab I have "Resolution" set to unforced.

I highly recommend to use the latest version of DgVoodoo if you can because the later versions contain fixes that really help Swat 3 .

Hi,
for everyone who has white textures, Startup crashes and problems on AMD Graphics cards with the new versions of dgvoodoo.

Download the new version of dgvoodoo and copy to swat folder (D3DImm.dll, DDraw.dll, dgVoodoo.conf, dgVoodooCpl).
Download the new version of DXVK and copy to swat folder (d3d11.dll, dxgi.dll).
start dgvoodocpl and select under Output API Direct3D 11

My PC a AMD 2200g with Vega Graphics 8 and Win10, Swat 3 runs fine and in Vulkan.