Shadow Warrior 3

Shadow Warrior
Shadow Warrior (1997)	1997
Shadow Warrior Classic Redux	2013
Shadow Warrior (2013)	2013
Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior	2013
Shadow Warrior 2	2016
Shadow Warrior 3	2022

Shadow Warrior 3 is a singleplayer first-person action, FPS and shooter game in the Shadow Warrior series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
		Deluxe Edition also available.
GOG.com		Definitive Edition. Deluxe Definitive Edition also available.
Humble Store		Deluxe Edition also available.
Microsoft Store		Definitive Edition. Included with Xbox Game Pass for PC.
Steam		Definitive Edition. Deluxe Definitive Edition also available.

Version differences

The game was upgraded to the Definitive Editon which includes a New Game Plus mode, a Survival Mode, Hero Mode, Chapter Select, and a new Hardcore Difficulty, as well as new weapon skins.

The Deluxe Definitive Edition includes the base game, soundtrack, Dragonblood weapon skin for the SMGs and the Dragontail katana weapon skin.

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete or rename video files
Go to `<path-to-game>\SW3\Content\Movies`. Delete or rename `DEVOLVER_Logo.bk2` and `FWH_Logo.bk2`.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\SW3\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\
Microsoft Store	%LOCALAPPDATA%\SW3\Saved\Config\WinGDK\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1036890/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\SW3\Saved\SaveGames\
Microsoft Store	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\DevolverDigital.ShadowWarrior3Win10_6kzv4j18v0c96\SystemAppData\wgs
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1036890/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Game settings

Video settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Vert-. No proper 21:9 or 32:9 support, thought depending on yiyr aspect ratio, FOV can be adjusted to match the vertical FOV at 16:9. Player weapons rendering remains Vert-.
4K Ultra HD		Resolution Scale slider available between 25% and 100% of set resolution.
Field of view (FOV)		Horizontal FOV-slider available between 80 and 130°
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Scales with Texture Quality setting: Low (x0), Medium (x2) and High (x4).^[3]
Anti-aliasing (AA)		TAA forced on with Low, Medium and High presets.
High-fidelity upscaling		DLSS 2.2, FSR 1.0 DLSS has a sharpness slider available.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		On/Off toggle.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		None, 30 and 60 frame rate limit options available.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the engine page to force native HDR output, or the glossary page for other alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 4 page for more details.

Input

Controller settings

Keyboard and mouse settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Separate Horizontal Camera Speed and Vertical Camera Speed sliders available.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Named Invert Vertical look.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Shadow Warrior, Southpaw, Yin Yang and Ninja controller presets available. Custom allows for custom controller remapping.
Controller sensitivity		Separate Horizontal Camera Speed and Vertical Camera Speed sliders available.
Controller Y-axis inversion		Named Invert Vertical look.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Shadow Warrior controller preset
Southpaw controller preset
Yin Yang controller preset
Ninja controller preset
Custom controller bindings
Keyboard and mouse bindings

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Sepearate volume sliders available for Master, Music, Sound Effects, Dialogs and Cinematics.
Surround sound		7.1 Surround sound supported.^[4]
Subtitles		On/Off toggle. Showing Speaker Name in the subtitles can be toggled on/off. Subtitle size can be adjusted since patch 1.05.^[5]
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish

Issues unresolved

Shader compilation stutter

The game suffers from severe shader compilation related stutters during gameplay, this occurs whenever a new effect is displayed and thus whenever a new shader has to be compiled.^[6]

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11, 12

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX, APEX	PhysX v3.4.0.0, APEX v1.4.0.0
Audio	FMOD
Input	libScePad, XAudio	libScePad v1.0.4.1, adds DualSense support. XAudio v2.9
Cutscenes	Bink Video 2
Multiplayer	GOG Galaxy

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-3470 AMD Phenom II X4 965	Intel Core i7-6950X AMD Ryzen 7 2700
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	31 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 AMD Radeon R7 260X 2 GB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 AMD Radeon RX 5700 8 GB of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Minimum system requirements target 1080p, 30 FPS at Low graphical settings. Recommended system requirements target 1080p, 60FPS at High graphical preset.

Notes

↑ Unreal Engine 4 engine build: 4.26.2.0^[1]^[2]
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1
Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1036890/.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (1036890) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

References

↑ Flying Wild Hog CEO Tells Us What They've Been Up to (Hint: Two Game Reveals Scheduled in 2020) - last accessed on 2020-07-12
"And we are really, really proud that we were able to actually make and develop the engine at the same time we were doing the games. So it was an awesome success for us, but it came at a cost. We needed to have a really big engine team and it was always like you were chasing the rabbit because there was the CryEngine, Unreal Engine, Unity. And we saw that the gap between this huge Epic team making new cool stuff, adding features to their engine, and our 10-people engine team who's trying to keep the base, the gap was getting larger and larger. So a year and a half ago we decided to actually switch to Unreal Engine 4."
↑ Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-02-17
Confirmed by the properties of SW3.exe.
↑ Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-02-17
Always clearly visible. Tested with Universal Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker.
↑ Verified by User:Mastan on 2022-04-28
Tested in 7.1 using Orban Loudness Meter.
↑ Shadow Warrior patch 1.05 New Game+ - Shadow Warrior 3 - Steam - last accessed on 2023-02-17
↑ Shader Stutter - last accessed on 2023-07-03

[3] Unreal Engine 4 engine build: 4.26.2.0^[1]^[2]

[Proton_path_note-4] 2.0 ^2.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1036890/.
Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
The app ID (1036890) may differ in some cases.
Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[3] File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.

[4] Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1036890/.

[5] Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.

[6] The app ID (1036890) may differ in some cases.

[7] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

[8] See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[1] Flying Wild Hog CEO Tells Us What They've Been Up to (Hint: Two Game Reveals Scheduled in 2020) - last accessed on 2020-07-12
"And we are really, really proud that we were able to actually make and develop the engine at the same time we were doing the games. So it was an awesome success for us, but it came at a cost. We needed to have a really big engine team and it was always like you were chasing the rabbit because there was the CryEngine, Unreal Engine, Unity. And we saw that the gap between this huge Epic team making new cool stuff, adding features to their engine, and our 10-people engine team who's trying to keep the base, the gap was getting larger and larger. So a year and a half ago we decided to actually switch to Unreal Engine 4."

[2] Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-02-17
Confirmed by the properties of SW3.exe.

[5] Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-02-17
Always clearly visible. Tested with Universal Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker.

[6] Verified by User:Mastan on 2022-04-28
Tested in 7.1 using Orban Loudness Meter.

[patch105-7] Shadow Warrior patch 1.05 New Game+ - Shadow Warrior 3 - Steam - last accessed on 2023-02-17

[8] Shader Stutter - last accessed on 2023-07-03

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[1]

[2]

Developers

	Flying Wild Hog
Publishers
	Devolver Digital
Engines
	Unreal Engine 4^{[Note 1]}
Release dates
Windows	March 1, 2022
Reception
Metacritic	71
OpenCritic	72
IGDB	56
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS, Shooter
Themes	Asia, Fantasy
Series	Shadow Warrior