Saints Row: The Third

This page is for the original 2011 version. For the remastered version released in 2020, see Saints Row: The Third Remastered.

Saints Row: The Third

Developers
	Volition
Linux	Virtual Programming
Publishers
	THQ
	Deep Silver
Engines
	CTG
Release dates
Windows	November 15, 2011
Linux	April 14, 2016
Reception
Metacritic	84
IGDB	85
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Shooter, Open world
Vehicles	Automobile, Flight, Helicopter, Naval/watercraft
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Contemporary, Comedy, Sci-fi
Series	Saints Row

Saints Row
Saints Row 2	2009
Saints Row: The Third	2011
Saints Row IV	2013
Saints Row: Gat out of Hell	2015
Saints Row: The Third Remastered	2020
Saints Row	2022

Key points

The My Steelport service was shut down on January 31, 2018 taking with it all community-created characters. Players wanting to share custom characters need to make use of a community-made local server emulator for Windows.

General information

Official manual

Saints Row Wiki

Saints Row Mods forums

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
		The Full Package also available.
GOG.com		The Full Package only
Green Man Gaming		The Full Package also available.
Humble Store		Standard edition is DRM-free. The Full Package also available.
Origin
Steam		The Full Package also available.

Version differences

The Full Package does not include the following DLC: Bloodsucker Pack, Unlockable Pack. These are available separately or as part of the Ultimate Franchise Pack.

The GOG.com version handles DLC differently from the other versions and is only compatible with other GOG copies in multiplayer.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Season Pass	Includes Genkibowl VII, Gangstas in Space, and The Trouble with Clones. Part of The Full Package
Unlockable Pack	Unlocks already available game content.
Bloodsucker Pack	Part of the Tricks and Treats Pack
Explosive Combat Pack	Part of the Saints Purple Ops Pack Part of The Full Package
FUNTIME! Pack	Part of the Maximum Pleasure Pack Part of The Full Package
Gangstas in Space	Part of The Full Package
Genki Girl Pack	Part of The Full Package
Genkibowl VII	Part of The Full Package
Horror Pack	Part of the Tricks and Treats Pack Part of The Full Package
Invincible Pack	Part of the Maximum Pleasure Pack Part of The Full Package
Money Shot Pack	Part of the Maximum Pleasure Pack Part of The Full Package
Nyte Blayde Pack	Part of The Full Package
Penthouse Pack	Part of The Full Package
Shark Attack Pack	Part of the Maximum Pleasure Pack Part of The Full Package
Special Ops Vehicle Pack	Part of the Saints Purple Ops Pack Part of The Full Package
Steelport Gangs Pack	Part of the Saints Purple Ops Pack Part of The Full Package
The Trouble with Clones	Part of The Full Package
Warrior Pack	Part of the Saints Purple Ops Pack Part of The Full Package
Witches & Wieners Pack	Part of the Tricks and Treats Pack Part of The Full Package
Z Style Pack	Part of The Full Package

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Instructions
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open display.ini. Add SkipIntroVideo = true in the file.

Delete/rename video files[citation needed]
Go to Videos in the installation folder. Delete or rename logo_amd_hd.bik and logo_thq_and_voli_hd.bik.

Skip game launcher

Change filenames[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game> Rename game_launcher.exe to something else (e.g. game_launcher_disabled.exe) Rename SaintsRowTheThird.exe (for DirectX 9) or SaintsRowTheThird_DX11.exe (for DirectX 11) to game_launcher.exe

Mods

Gentlemen of Steelport

Things To Do In Steelport combines all the best mods from the Saints Row modding community. Includes "Launcher with Advanced Options".

Launcher With Advanced Graphics Options

Windows-only advanced launcher.

Launcher with a nice GUI front end for display settings editing.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\display.ini
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/vpltd/SaintsRow3/

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Saints Row The Third\
Steam	<Steam-folder>/userdata/<user-id>/55230/remote/

23 manual save slots + 1 autosave slot are available.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud		Approx. 100 MB available and cross-platform.

Video

Graphics settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Use SR3 FOV Editor
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Use Launcher with Advanced Graphic Options.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		2x, 4x and 8x MSAA
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Triple buffered.
60 FPS		Cutscenes are capped at 30 FPS; see Frame rate (FPS) to fix.
120+ FPS		Due to a poorly implemented 120 FPS cap, the frame rate can behave erratically in some cases. See Frame rate (FPS).
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Frame rate (FPS)

Cutscenes are capped at 30 FPS, and some physics elements are capped at 60 FPS; use Cheat Engine below to fix.

In fullscreen mode, the game may switch to a 60 Hz refresh rate on startup; see Game uses incorrect refresh rate to fix.

Remove multiple FPS Caps[citation needed]

This process must be performed each time the game is launched to take effect. Download and run Cheat Engine. Go to the main menu. Set Executable, Writable and CopyOnWrite to Don't Care and memory scan option to SaintsRowTheThird_DX11.exe. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.00833333 as a float in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.03333333 as a float in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.01666666 as a float in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.00833333 as a double in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.03333333 as a double in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values. Disable the Fast Scan option and search for the value 0.01666666 as a double in rounded (extreme) mode. Select all values. Set the all the values to (1/FPS), see below for example: 0.00694444 for 144 FPS (floats). 0.00277777 for 360 FPS (floats). 0.00256410 for 390 FPS (floats). 0.0069444444444444 for 144 FPS (doubles). 0.0027777777777777 for 360 FPS (doubles). 0.0025641025641026 for 390 FPS (doubles). Notes A few contextual 30 FPS animation caps in cutscene to gameplay transition cannot be removed with this method without crashing and they will appear as if they're heavily stuttering at higher rates; especially if output frame rate is not divisible by 30. Heavily recommend using the in-game triple buffered v-sync for improved frame pacing due to the implementation of FPS caps, at the cost of slightly increased input latency for lower frame rate values.

Input

Input settings.

Key rebinding. All the categories (top) and first section of general (bottom).

Controller settings.

Controller buttons, first section.

With Steam version if DirectInput controller is present, Steam wraps inputs from it instead of XInput controller, making XInput controller unusable. Game crashes when disconnecting controller unlike with XInput controller which is hotpluggable.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Weapon Store menus cannot be entirely navigated with a keyboard.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		XInput only.
Full controller support		Entering Cheat Codes and (now defunct) Community Login prompt requires keyboard input.
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Additional information
Button prompts		For DualShock controllers use DualShock Button Prompts mod.
Controller hotplugging		Steam version with DirectInput controller crashes when disconnecting the controller.
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Rapidly changes button prompts, see this for a patch to lock controller glyphs.

Remove aim assist

Add mod file that removes aim assist[citation needed]
Download this file Place it in the same folder as the game executable.

Audio

General settings.

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Auto configures up to 5.1 output
Subtitles		Option in gameplay settings. Some cutscenes of "Gangstas in Space" and "The Trouble with Clones" DLCs are not subtitled.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Option in gameplay settings.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation, Download.
Russian
Spanish
Japanese				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Korean				Retail only.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2	Co-op, Versus Use Nucleus Co-op.
LAN play		2	Co-op, Versus
Online play		2	Co-op, Versus Only in the Steam version

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		2D Officially supported game. Note:Game is on official list, but not yet confirmed to be 3D to PCGW.

Issues fixed

Game uses incorrect refresh rate

The DirectX 11 version may default to the lowest supported refresh rate, ignoring the setting in the configuration file.

Override refresh rate set by game
Download the latest release of 3Dmigoto (3Dmigoto-XX.zip). Go into the 3Dmigoto archive, and go into x32\. Copy the contents to the installation folder. Open d3dx.ini found in the installation folder. Change hunting=1 to hunting=0. Change ;refresh_rate=60 to desired hertz (e.g. refresh_rate=120 sans the ;).

Bad Performance / Stuttering / Lag

This issue mostly affects AMD/ATI graphics cards, but these tweaks may alleviate performance issues regardless of brand.

Various solutions
Disable VSync. Disable SLI or Crossfire if necessary. Disable a secondary monitor in multi-monitor configurations may also help, especially when in fullscreen with DirectX 10/11.[citation needed] See Steam CEG protected games crash or freeze the system (AMD Bulldozer CPU)

No Sound

Possible solutions[citation needed]
Turn off Hardware Sound Acceleration in DXDIAG (RUN > DXDIAG > SOUND > DirectX Features). Lower your Sample Rate Conversion Quality (or turn off Hardware Acceleration) through Sounds & Audio Devices in the Control Panel (Volume > Speaker Settings > Advanced > Performance) If a 7.1 or 5.1 speaker configuration is being used, set it to 2.1 in Windows Audio Options.

Controller not working

A controller may fail to function or work intermittently, most noticeably on the map screen.

Possible solutions[citation needed]
Plug in the controller before launching the game. Remove any other devices plugged into USB ports before playing. Should the controller become disconnected mid-game, restart the game with the controller plugged in. Notes This game only supports XInput controllers; use x360ce for other controllers.

Flickering Red Dots

Control panel fix[citation needed]

This is an issue that may occur with Nvidia graphics cards. For non-Nvidia graphics cards, please refer to the equivalent 3D control panel. Open your Nvidia control panel and navigate to Manage 3D settings Under the Program Settings tab, select Saints Row from the list of programs (You may need to add it, in which case select Saintsrowthethird_dx11.exe). Change Anisotropic Filtering and Antialiasing to Application Controlled. You may also need to turn off Antialiasing Transparency, Gamma Correction, and Texture Filtering as well.

Fail to Launch / Hangs / Freezes After Intro

Verify game cache to trigger Steam CEG executables update[citation needed]

Possible solutions[citation needed]
Run the game in DirectX 9 mode. If multiple monitors are used, disable one of them. Make sure the main monitor is in main slot. Exit any program that could mess with the game. Run the game in a different, more common resolution.

Game Crashes on Loading Screen After Starting a New Game

Possible solutions[citation needed]
Verify the integrity of the game cache. Start game in DirectX 9 mode and start a new game. After that the game can be switched to DirectX 10/11. Install the game on a native NTFS drive if the game is run... on a Mac with Boot Camp using an HFS+ formatted drive with additional software such as MacDrive

Crashing on Radeon Graphics Cards

On some Radeon cards, the game may fail to automatically configuring graphics settings. If this is the case, the game will also crash when you try to change display settings in-game.

Skip autoconfig[citation needed]
Don't use auto-detect graphics settings in game. Open <path-to-game>\display.ini Change Preset from -1 to a number from 1 to 4 where 1 is ultra low and 4 is ultra high

Seemingly Random Crashes in DirectX 11 Mode

Raise GPU core voltage
The core voltage of the video card could be too low. Raise the core voltage by a little. Notes Warning: Changing settings on your video card may void warranties and can potentially damage the card.

Launcher is blank

Use an alternate launcher[citation needed]

Skip launcher[citation needed]

Move game to an internal hard drive[citation needed]
If you have Steam installed on an External Hard Drive try moving Steam to an internal Hard Drive.

Missing saved games or insufficient space error

Saved games may be missing despite being in the correct folder, and Saints Row claims there's not enough storage space.

Restart Steam[citation needed]

Lag in Co-op through a LAN connection

Sync framerates[citation needed]
This is caused by one player having a much lower frame rate than the other. Modify video settings until the framerates are almost even.

Problems while entering Crib or Saving/Loading

Loading from a saved game and trying to entering a crib gives a black screen and goes back to the desktop. This may also occur when trying to save a game manually and when killing someone after loading.

Change Windows date[citation needed]
There may be a conflict between Steam and SRTT. Change the date of your Windows system to the date of the last saved game.

Game Randomly Crashing During Gameplay

Limit affinity to two cores[citation needed]
Set the affinity of the game to two cores only (max = two physical cores and two related hyper-threading logical cores, if available). Bill's Process Manager is a great tool to manage the affinity (and priority) for games without creating custom scripts or using the task manager each time.

Stuttering caused by My Steelport service shutdown

The game repeatedly attempts to connect the now-defunct My Steelport service, which may cause the game to shutter.

Edit hosts file
Go to %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\etc\. Open hosts with an editor like Notepad. Add the line 127.0.0.1 sr3.hydra.agoragames.com and save the file. Notes This fix will also enable the game to use My Steelport emulator.

LAN not working

The game has trouble binding to the right network adapter if multiple ones are enabled

Disable any (virtual) network adapters not needed for the LAN connection

Force the game to bind to the right adapter using an utility such as ForceBindIP (necessary if using ZeroTier, Hamachi or Radmin)

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9, 11	Backward compatibility for Direct3D 10 and 10.1 GPUs is provided by Direct3D 11
Shader Model support	3, 5

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Audio	Wwise
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	Steamworks	For Steam version.

Mods

Unnofficial Patch

Fixes various bugs while making the game less fantastic.

Launch Options

By using command line parameters you can force the game to use the specified language.

Parameter	Description
-localize_language us	Set language to English
-localize_language de	Set language to German
-localize_language fr	Set language to French
-localize_language es	Set language to Spanish
-localize_language it	Set language to Italian
-localize_language nl	Set language to Dutch
-localize_language pl	Set language to Polish
-localize_language cz	Set language to Czech
-localize_language ru	Set language to Russian
-localize_language jp	Set language to Japanese

System requirements

Windows

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP	7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo AMD Athlon X2	Intel Core i5 AMD Phenom II X4
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	10 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8800 ATI Radeon HD 3800 320 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3.0 support	Nvidia GeForce GTX 400 ATI Radeon HD 5000 1 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible Shader model 4.0 support
Sound (audio device)	DirectX compatible sound card

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	14.04.3, 15.04, 17.1, SteamOS
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-4570T 2.9 GHz AMD Athlon II X2 270 3.8 GHz	Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4 GHz AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	7 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GT 630 AMD Radeon HD 6850 1 GB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 AMD Radeon HD 7950 2 GB of VRAM
Other	MESA drivers and Intel Graphics are not currently supported.