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SWAT 4

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
SWAT 4
SWAT 4 cover
Developers
Irrational Games
Publishers
Retail Sierra Entertainment
Retail (Russia) SoftClub
Digital Activision
Engines
Unreal Engine 2
Release dates
Windows April 5, 2005
Reception
Metacritic 85
IGDB 85
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control, Menu-based
Genres Action, FPS, Tactical shooter
Themes Contemporary, North America
Series Police Quest
SWAT 4 on HowLongToBeat
SWAT 4 on IGDB
SWAT 4 guide on StrategyWiki
SWAT 4 on MobyGames
SWAT 4 on Wikipedia
Police Quest
Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel 1987
Police Quest II: The Vengeance 1988
Police Quest III: The Kindred 1991
Police Quest: Open Season 1993
Police Quest: SWAT 1995
Police Quest: SWAT 2 1998
SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle 1999
SWAT 4 2005

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

SWAT 4 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action, FPS and tactical shooter game in the Police Quest series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
SecuROM 5 DRM disc check.[1]
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Gold Edition.
Windows
A demo is available from SierraHelp, ModDB and GameFront.

Version differences

The Gold Edition includes the base game and The Stetchkov Syndicate expansion.

Monetization

Type Notes
Expansion pack The expansion pack includes a new campaign, weapons and items.
One-time game purchase The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
The Stetchkov Syndicate
Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest official patch for the base game is 1.1, and is available from SierraHelp, GameWatcher, GameFront, and Patches-Scrolls.
The expansion did not receive an official patch, but there is a fix for the Polish localization specifically.
The GOG.com release is already patched to version 1.1, and includes the expansion pack.

Skip intro videos

Launch the game with -nointro parameter[citation needed]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Content\System\Swat4.ini[Note 1]
<path-to-game>\ContentExpansion\System\Swat4X.ini[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Content\System\Campaign.ini[Note 1]
<path-to-game>\ContentExpansion\System\Campaign.ini[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy

Video

Video settings.
Video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Disable intros to fix flickering.
Ultra-widescreen
See Widescreen resolution for Vert- scaling.[2]
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
85°, Vert-. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See Anisotropic filtering (AF).
Anti-aliasing (AA)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
High-fidelity upscaling
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For SWAT 4, see Vertical sync (Vsync). For The Stetchkov Syndicate, the option is available in the options menu.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
No frame rate or refresh rate cap.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

Use SWAT: Elite Force
Edit INI files[3]
  1. Open the configuration file with a text editor (make sure the game has been launched at least once)
  2. Set the following values according to the desired resolution:
WindowedViewportX=
WindowedViewportY=
FullscreenViewportX=
FullscreenViewportY=
MenuViewportX=
MenuViewportY=


Notes

Widescreen resolutions can cause text chat to have hidden/invisible text. See Text is not displayed properly in widescreen resolutions.
Screen resolution may reset on launch. See Screen resolution resets on launch.
Intro videos remain in 4:3 resolution, to fix this Skip intro videos.

Field of view (FOV)

Use SWAT: Elite Force
Edit INI file[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open SWATPawn.ini (make the game has been launched at least once).
  3. Go to class [SwatGame.SwatPawn].
  4. In this section adjust line FirstPersonFOV=.
  5. Change from 85.0 to the desired value.

Notes

Not recommended to edit as this will cause sensitivity issues when using gadgets like the optiwand.
Only affects weapon viewmodel.
Editing SWATPawn.ini may not allow people to join your server.

Windowed

Edit Swat4.ini file[citation needed]
  1. Open the configuration file with a text editor (make sure the game has been launched at least once).
  2. Find Suppress=WindowedMode and comment it (put a ; at the beginning of the line).
  3. It is now possible to toggle between fullscreen and windowed mode with Alt+ Enter.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Edit INI file[citation needed]
  1. Open Swat4.ini at the Configuration file(s) location with a text editor (make sure the game has been launched at least once).
  2. Go to class [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice].
  3. In this section, adjust line LevelOfAnisotropy=1 (maximum is 16).

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Use SWAT: Elite Force
Edit INI file
  1. Open Swat4.ini within Configuration file(s) location with a text editor (make sure the game has been launched at least once).
  2. Go to class [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice].
  3. In this section, find UseVSync=False which can be set to true to enable Vsync.

Input

Mouse acceleration

Use SWAT: Elite Force
Edit User.ini
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open User.ini (make sure the game has been launched at least once).
  3. Add the following lines at the bottom:
[Engine.PlayerInput]
bInvertMouse=False
MouseSmoothingMode=0
MouseSmoothingStrength=0.000000
MouseSensitivity=1.00000
MouseSamplingTime=0.001
MouseAccelThreshold=0.000000
DoubleClickTime=0.200000
[Engine.PlayerInput] entries are created upon inverting mouse Y-axis.

Mouse sensitivity

Edit User.ini[citation needed]
  1. Set in-game sensitivity slider to 1.00
  2. Calculate your sensitivity for UT2004 on mouse-sensitivity.com
  3. Edit User.ini with a text editor:
[Engine.Input]
MouseX=Count bXAxis | Axis aMouseX Speed=2.0
MouseY=Count bYAxis | Axis aMouseY Speed=2.0

[Engine.PlayerInput]
MouseSensitivity=1.00000
[Engine.PlayerInput] entries are created upon inverting mouse Y-axis.

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Up to 7.0 output. See Surround sound.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
DirectSound3D[4]
Royalty free audio

Surround sound

Using OpenAL Soft[citation needed]
  1. In the <path-to-game>\System folder, rename DefOpenAL32.dll to DefOpenAL32.bak
  2. Download OpenAL Soft and copy soft_oal.dll (bin\Win32) into the same folder.
  3. Rename soft_oal.dll to DefOpenAL32.dll.
Using OpenAL Soft causes most voice clips to not play.
Using Directsound 3D restoration software[citation needed]
The game uses OpenAL by default with a DirectSound 3D output ("Generic Hardware" output).
Do not delete or replace DefOpenAL32.dll when using this method, using a more recent openal32.dll will crash the game.
  1. Use creative alchemy or similar DirectSound3D restoration software.
  2. Open the configuration file with a text editor (make sure the game has been launched at least once).
  3. In this section set Use3DSound to True.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Separate US and UK releases, affected by different patch executables.
Traditional Chinese
Retail only.
Czech
Retail only.
French
Retail only for base game. Patch for digital release here.
French
Fan translation for The Stetchkov Syndicate, download.
German
Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Hungarian
Retail only.
Italian
Retail only.
Japanese
Retail only.
Polish
Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation, download.
Russian
Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Spanish
Retail only for base game. Patch for digital release here.
Spanish
Fan translation for the Stetchkov Syndicate, download.

Changing language

Edit INI file[citation needed]
  1. Open Swat4.ini (Swat4X.ini for The Stetchkov Syndicate) with a text editor (make sure the game has been launched at least once).
  2. Set Language= and SpeechLanguage= to the country code corresponding to the desired language (refer to this alpha 3 code list.
  3. Save and close.
Language changes subtitle and interface language, whilst SpeechLanguage changes the voice language and works only in The Stetchkov Syndicate.
Does not work for most recent version/GOG version.[dubious – discuss]

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Notes
Local play
Co-op, Versus
Use Nucleus-Coop Unofficial mod.
LAN play
Co-op
Online play
Co-op
The official GameSpy service has been shut down; see GameSpy Alternative.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Dedicated server software included in the installation folder.[5]
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
UDP 10480-10483
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

GameSpy alternative

Due to the GameSpy server shutting down, it is highly recommended to use one of the alternatives.
Use SWAT 4 Stats Master Server Patch.
  1. For the base game, back up <path-to-game>\Content\System\Engine.dll and replace wit with this patched file.
  2. For The Stetchkov Syndicate and the Gold Edition, back up <path-to-game>\Content\System\Engine.dll and replace it with this patched file.
Use Swat 4 Server Browser Alternative[6]
Hosting a server
  1. Open <path-to-game>\Content\System\SwatGUIState.ini.
  2. Set bLAN=False and save the file.
  3. Open <path-to-game>\ContentExpansion\System\SwatGUIState.ini.
  4. Set bLAN=False.
  5. Set bUseStatTracking=False and save the file.
  6. Open <path-to-game>\Content\System\Swat4DedicatedServer.ini (run Swat4DedicatedServer.exe first if the file is not found).
  7. Under the section [Engine.GameEngine], make sure the line ServerActors=IpDrv.MasterServerUplink is present.
  8. Open <path-to-game>\ContentExpansion\System\Swat4XDedicatedServer.ini (run Swat4XDedicatedServer.exe first if the file is not found).
  9. Under the section [Engine.GameEngine], make sure the line ServerActors=IpDrv.MasterServerUplink is present.
  10. Disable any mods (or reconfigure their listen ports) that may clash with the port range 10481-10483 (or join port +1 - join port +3 if your server has a non default join port). Such mods may include AMMod.AMServerQuery, GS1, and GS2.
  11. If the server is listed at Game Tracker, change the query port to 10481 (or join port +1 if your server has a non-default join port)

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D
User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues unresolved

Player character gets stuck in map elements

Occurs at high frame rates as object hitboxes become enlarged.
At high frame rates (above 150 fps), the player character can more easily get stuck on map elements.

Issues fixed

Screens flickering (multi-monitor setup)

Screens flickering[citation needed]
Some users with multiple monitors have issues with their screens flickering.

Disable the other monitors by doing one of the following:

  • Unplug the monitor's cable that is connected to the graphics card (unplugging the power cable is not enough) and start the game.
  • Press Win+P to bring up the display switch dialog, and disable any additional monitor.
  • On Windows 7 and up, run the game with the -nointro parameter, after having run the game at least once before, and with any additional monitor disabled.[7]
  • Launch the game windowed (see Windowed and Widescreen resolution), then once on the main menu press Alt+ Enter to return to fullscreen.

Player doesn't move in online co-op

Make sure a sound card driver is installed[citation needed]

Text is not displayed properly in widescreen resolutions

Change text language to english[citation needed]

See Changing text language.

Screen resolution resets on launch

Edit INI files[8]
  • Base game:
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open SwatGUIState.ini.
  3. Add or adjust the following lines according to the resolution:
ScreenResolutionChoices=800x600
ScreenResolutionChoices=1024x576
ScreenResolutionChoices=1024x768
ScreenResolutionChoices=1280x720
ScreenResolutionChoices=1280x1024
ScreenResolutionChoices=1366x768
ScreenResolutionChoices=1600x1200
ScreenResolutionChoices=1440x1080
ScreenResolutionChoices=1920x1080
ScreenResolutionChoices=2560x1440
ScreenResolutionChoices=3840x2160
  • The Stetchkov Syndicate:
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open SwatGame.int.
  3. Add or adjust the following line according to the resolution:
ScreenResolutionChoices=("800x600","1024x576","1024x768","1280x720","1280x1024","1366x768","1600x1200","1440x1080","1920x1080","2560x1440","3840x2160")
Can cause text chat to have hidden/invisible text. See Text is not displayed properly in widescreen resolutions.

"Insufficient onboard video memory" error message

Occurs with GPUs with over 4 GB of VRAM. This is a false positive that doesn't prevent one from playing and can be safely skipped.
Edit executables with a hex editor[9]
  1. With a hex editor (e.g. HxD), edit SWAT4.exe in <path-to-game>\Content\System.
  2. Search for bytes 0F 85 5C 01 and replace them with 90 E9 5C 01.
  3. For The Stetchkov Syndicate expansion, repeat with SWAT4X.exe in <path-to-game>\ContentExpansion\System.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 8.1, 9.0c
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Multiplayer GameSpy GameSpy services are offline. See GameSpy Alternative

Editor

The official editor is available here.

Modifications

The following mods require the The Stetchkov Syndicate expansion to work.

SWAT: Elite Force First Responders

Continuation of SWAT: Elite Force. Adds further content, improvements, gameplay mechanics and much more.

SWAT: Elite Force

A total overhaul mod that improves SWAT 4 experience by adding cut content, better AI, more equipment, multiplayer features, general bugfixes, QOL improvements and much more.
Allows both the original and The Stetchkov Syndicate campaign to be played as one.
Can be played online (See GameSpy alternative).
Spanish translation available here.
Install SWAT: Elite Force[10]
  1. Download and extract the folder SEF of SWAT: Elite Force into <path-to-game>.
  2. Launch the mod using <path-to-game>\SEF\LaunchSEF.bat or use <path-to-game>\SEF\Extras\LaunchSEF.exe to create a shortcut with an icon.

Notes

User should extract the SEF folder itself and not its content. See this article on how to install the mod properly and update it if needed.
To change the mod's language, see Changing text language and Changing speech language. SEF's configuration file is Swat4X.ini in SEF\System.

SSF Realism

A mod that provides realistic gameplay while adding gameplay improvements for SWAT 4 single player and co-op.
Replaces the original campaign with a new custom campaign featuring levels inspired by SWAT 3.
Can be played online (See GameSpy Alternative).

SAS

Adds Special Air Service (SAS) themed gameplay and provides a more realistic gameplay.
Adds bugfixes and QOL improvements.
Limited online support due to the current version of the mod (v1.1).

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98 SE
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz
Intel Celeron 1.2 GHz
AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 2 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce2
ATI Radeon 8500
32 MB (Nvidia), 64 MB (ATI) of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectX 8.1 compatible
Nvidia GeForce2 MX200 and MX400 cards are not supported by the game.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

  1. SecuROM™ Support Website - SWAT 4 - last accessed on 9 June 2023
  2. SWAT 4 - PC Ultra Quality (3440x1440) - last accessed on 2019-08-18
  3. Widescreen Gaming Forum, SWAT 4 article - last accessed on May 2023
  4. SWAT 4 with 3D spatial sound 🎧 (OpenAL Soft HRTF audio) - last accessed on 9 June 2023
  5. Team Element - Forums :: SWAT4 - last accessed on May 2023
  6. SWAT 4 Multiplayer Tutorial - Mod DB - last accessed on May 2023
  7. GAZCHAP - SWAT4 Dual Monitor Fix - last accessed on May 2023
  8. moddb, SWAT 4 Widescreen Mod (Gold Edition) - last accessed on May 2023
  9. Troubleshooting - SWAT 4 Wiki - last accessed on May 15, 2023
  10. How to install SWAT: Elite Forces - Mod DB - last accessed on May 2023