Swat 4 Tweak Guide

37 posts / 0 new
Last post
MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago
Swat 4 Tweak Guide

Swat 4 is awesome game, great tactics, decent graphics and experience, but it's highly unoptimized.

I've been able to tweak few games to run to their maximum even on my older test pcs. I did the same with Swat 4, so here's a guide to help you optimize your copy of Swat 4 for best experience and even smoother gameplay.

Before we start, BACKUP ALL DATA THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO EDIT.

We will edit files in \SWAT4\ContentExpansion\ and \SWAT4\Content\ folders.

Keybinds.

Many players wonder and ask "what's that text thing you do?" "how to get that custom text? etc. What we talk about is Swat 4 keybinds.

Keybinds are supported in many MP games and they are useful when voice chat is not available or you simply need to say something on a quick.

To add keybinds to your Swat 4 TSS go to \SWAT4\ContentExpansion\System and find user.ini file then open it up.

Here, you will see lots of key configurations for your keys under [Engine.Input]

Scroll down to add custom keybinds to unused keys. You can add keybinds for both teamchat and global chat by specifying the needed command. Say will drop a keybind for global chat while TeamSay will drop it only for your team (blue or red)

You can literally add keybinds to any key.

Here are few examples that I made and use:

Left=TeamSay [C=FFFFFF][B]WITHIN 9 - 12 O'CLOCK RANGE / ON THE LEFT.
Up=TeamSay [C=FFFFFF][B]AT 12 O'CLOCK / STRAIGHT AHEAD
Right=TeamSay [C=FFFFFF][B]WITHIN 12 - 3 O'CLOCK RANGE / ON THE RIGHT
Down=TeamSay [C=FF9900][B]CONTACT IS ON THE MOVE

NumPad0=TeamSay [C=FFFFFF][B]IGNORE LAST MESSAGE
NumPad1=TeamSay [C=00FF00][B]I'M READY
NumPad2=TeamSay [C=FF0000][B]SUSPECT(S) SPOTTED
NumPad3=TeamSay [C=00FF00][B]CIVILIAN(S) SPOTTED
NumPad4=TeamSay [C=FFFFFF][B]DEPLOYING FLASHBANG
NumPad5=TeamSay [C=00CCFF][B]DEPLOYING GAS
NumPad6=TeamSay [C=FF9900][B]DEPLOYING STINGER
NumPad7=TeamSay [C=FF0000][B]RUNNER
NumPad8=TeamSay [C=0033FF][B]COVER ME
NumPad9=TeamSay [C=FF0000][B]NEED BACKUP, NOW!

Those are just few basic examples. As you can see, I set mine to be dropped in team chat. To make them work, you will need to make EXACTLY same changes in [SwatGui.SwatInputReset] found in same user.ini file.

Keybinds also support any console command. That being said you can attach any console command to your keys and even combine few actions for one key.

Here are few examples that I made and use:

P=ToggleFlashlight | OnRelease ToggleFlashlight
C=ToggleCrouching 0
i=Say [C=FFFFFF][B]Wait, FLUSHING CACHE. | flush | OnRelease Say [C=00FF00][B]Flushing complete, READY.

As you can see. P key will act as flashlight toggle, that you can use in game to either broadcast flashlight signals or pin-point an event silently. C will toggle crouch and help you manage your stances better. i will flush your filecache (we will discuss about this one later) on hold (make sure you hold it until done) and notify others when you are done flushing your cache, also, it will be broadcast in global chat.

There are many possibilities, be creative, and if you find unusual yet very useful ones, post them in comments for others to see.

Here are few color samples.

FF0000 - Red
00CCFF - Aqua Blue
FF9900 - Orage
00FF00 - Green
0033FF - Dark Blue
FFFFFF - White

To apply changes, save the user.ini file, to apply changes for each expansion/mod, you will have to edit each user.ini file separately.

Console commands (Credit: AST|

You can open the console simply by pressing a special key which is usually the key left to "1", like "^" or "~". All console commands are case-insensitive.

abortgame - Ends the current round.
flush - Flush all caches. Regenerates all lighting, 3D hardware textures, etc. Can be useful to reduce lag or to clear texture corruption due to 3D hardware driver bugs.
handsdown - Hides your weapon and hand from the 1st person view.
get - Gets the default value for a variable in a class. eg get swatgame.serversettings maxplayers
open - Opens a local map. Can be useful to open custom maps in Single Player. eg open sp-u273
reconnect - Reconnect to the current/previous server.
sad - Login as admin with specified password.
say - Broadcast a message to other players in the game.
set - Sets the specified property of the specified class with the specified value. eg set swatgame.serversettings maxplayers 5
set input - Set up keybinds in-game. It automatically writes to the User.ini file. eg set input u say hello
setres WxHxD - Set the resolution and color depth. eg setres 1024x768x32
shot - Take a screenshot and save it in the System directory with a consecutive name like Shot0001.bmp.
startgame - Makes all players ready.
stat all - Shows all stats.
stat fps - Shows frame time in milliseconds.
stat game - Shows game stats.
stat hardware - Shows interesting hardware stats.
stat render - Shows stats about rendering. Note especially the Staticmesh/Triangles count.
stat net - Shows network performance statistics including ping, packet loss, bytes/second.
stat none - Turns off the display of any stats.
teamsay - Broadcast a message to your teammates.
quit/exit - Exit the game.

Executable commands (Via shortcuts) (Credit: AST|

To use command line parameters, right click on the shortcut that you usually use to start Swat 4 or TSS, choose properties, and add the commands you would like to have to the target field, right after the path to the executable, e.g.

"C:\Program Files\Sierra\SWAT 4\ContentExpansion\System\Swat4X.exe" -nointro -windowed

-log - Runs with the log window initially visible. The log file can always be found from SWAT 4\Content(Expansion)\System\Swat4(X).log
-nointro - Skip the intro movies and ads (very convenient).
-windowed - The game starts in windowed mode.

Game cache, or caching size.

This one is also associated with the above mentioned flushing. It's basically amount of RAM memory allocated for the game to use and load objects, thus reducing stutter and lag.

Cache settings depend on amount of ram you have installed, by default, cache value is set to 32 mb.

Go to \SWAT4\ContentExpansion\System and open Swat4X.ini file.

Under [Engine.GameEngine] you can find CacheSizeMegs=32

Change this to a value that will best fit ram amount available from the list bellow.

For 256 MB of RAM, use CacheSizeMegs=32
For 512 MB of RAM, use CacheSizeMegs=64
For 1024 MB of RAM, use CacheSizeMegs=128 or 256
For more than 1024 MB of RAM, use CacheSizeMegs=256 to 350 or even 400

:idea: A small update on this one. If you try values of 2, 4 or 6 you may actually get a 50%+ performance boost, specially if you have newer version of RAM installed (DDR3+ preferred) This in addition speeds up loading times.

Please note that increasing this value will also slow down your level loading time since game engine will now load more data.

To apply changes, save the edited file.

TIP: Alt tabbing is known to flush graphic card RAM cache (that is not flushed with flush command) what this means is that if you Alt Tab your game, your graphic card will dump all cache it loaded from your RAM memory, to prevent this from happening simply don't Alt Tab too often as it will re-load objects all over and over. However, if you experience unusual lag and flushing cache doesn't help, Alt tabbing will actually resolve this and even fix sound bug (muted sound) if you ever encounter it.

Advanced audio.

Swat 4 supports some features that are not used in-game, but they are accessible once you edit them. Some of them are EAX and 3D sound.

By default, Swat 4 uses stereo output. You can change this by going to \SWAT4\ContentExpansion\System opening Swat4x.ini and editing few parameters under [ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem]

UseEAX=True
Use3DSound=True

Once you edit these to true, EAX will add effects such as pitch, some cheap echo and enhance volume control, however, using of 3D sound is known to cause trouble so I don't recommend it as it's buggy. If you are to tweak anything related to this, EAX is ok.

The above mentioned tweaks are few most known and well tested ones. However, there are a lot more for you to try out, but at your very own risk.

Level voice intro.

When you play online and a level loads up, a dispatch will by default announce location and entry. This is unnecessary as it will slow you down. If you haven't tweaked this go to \SWAT4\Content\Sounds\ScriptedVO and either backup, delete or rename every Load_dis labeled file for each level. This will disable the level voice intro.

Many other tweaks.

Tweaks for Swat4x.ini and Swat4.ini:

[Engine.Engine]

Language=int (allows you to use symbols in chat and your nickname)
SpeechLanguage=int (allows you to use symbols in chat)

[Engine.GameEngine]

CacheSizeMegs=XXX (where XXX is numeric value, increases amount of ram used for level loadup to reduce stutter and lag)
UseSound=True (if you are short on processing power and RAM memory, turning this to False will disable sound completely and save you resources)

[WinDrv.WindowsClient]

WindowedViewportX=1024 (windowed mode resolution)
WindowedViewportY=768 (windowed mode resolution)
FullscreenViewportX=1024 (fullscreen mode resolution)
FullscreenViewportY=768 (fullscreen mode resolution)
UseJoystick=False (joystick setting, disable to save resources)
NoLighting=False (set to False to enable lightning in game to True to disable and save resources)
MinDesiredFrameRate=35.000000 (set to values higher than 35 if you have a powerful PC)
Decals=True (set to False to disable decals such as wall cracks, blood stains and other temporary decals, this will in return save you some memory and reduce lag)
NoDynamicLights=False (Set to True to disable dynamic animated lights, this can drastically improve frame rate but decrease gaming quality)
TextureDetailInterface=Normal (UI texture detail, Low, Normal, High)
TextureDetailTerrain=Normal (Terrain texture detail, Low, Normal, High)
TextureDetailWeaponSkin=Normal (Weapons texture detail, Low, Normal, High)
TextureDetailPlayerSkin=Normal (Players and AI skin texture detail, Low, Normal, High)
TextureDetailWorld=Normal (World texture detail, Low, Normal, High)
TextureDetailRenderMap=Normal (Texture density detail, Low, Normal, High)
TextureDetailLightmap=Normal (Bumpmap and light texture detail, Low, Normal, High)
NoFractalAnim=False (Set to True to disable fracturing animations such as broken bottle or wood)
ScaleHUDX=0.0 (If you are using high resolution to run the game, but want bigger UI, use this setting to scale your HUD)

[Engine.Player]

ConfiguredInternetSpeed=2600 (what is your internet speed? This setting should be used to optimize your ping, although values used are unknown whether they are bytes, KBs or MBs, default setting is 2600)
ConfiguredLanSpeed=20000 (same as for internet, except this is for LAN)

[ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem]

UseEAX=False (Set to True to enable EAX)
Use3DSound=False (Set to True to enable 3D sound, I don't recommend this)
Channels=64 (This setting helps if you have older PC, set 32 or even 16 to increase fps but decrease audio experience, channeels values are to determine amount of sound clips loaded and played at same time)
StreamingSoundFudgeFactor=0.375000 (determines radius of sounds loaded/heard, I don't recommend tweaking this setting as it may cause errors)
DisablePitch=False (Set to true to disable voice pitching)
LowQualitySound=False (Set to True to use lower sound quality and get more fps)
VolumeModifier=0.000000 (Use this if your sound is too low even if you set everything to high, but beware, higher values MAY DAMAGE YOUR SPEAKERS, HEARING AND EVEN CAUSE COMPLETE HARDWARE FAILURE)

[IpDrv.TcpNetDriver]

AllowDownloads=False (Setting this to True should in theory enable auto-downloader that is built in game so that you can view other players skins and download maps you don't have)

[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]

UseTripleBuffering=True (Use Tripple Buffer if your graphic card supports this so that you can load textures faster)
DesiredRefreshRate=75 (Set refresh rate, 75 is minimum recommended as anything bellow will strain your eyes)
Use16bit=False (Set this to True to use 16bit output which should in theory increase fps but decrease quality)
Use16bitTextures=False (Set this to True to use 16bit output which should in theory increase fps but decrease quality)
UseVSync=False (Disable VSync to gain more frames or enable to get smoother gameplay on high-end systems)
LevelOfAnisotropy=4 (Level of detail for textures by distance where 2 is lowest and 16 highest, increasing this value will decrease fps but increase quality)
TesselationFactor=1.0 (The so called tesselation or object smoothing, set to 0 to disable it and gain huge fps boost or increase value to get smoother object detailing)

[Engine.GameInfo]

bLowGore=True (Set to True to get more frames but decrease blood puff quality, this setting nearly doesn't affect quality but does increase fps)
bVeryLowGore=False (Same, except that this setting increases fps even more and slightly decreases quality)

[Engine.LevelInfo]

PhysicsDetailLevel=PDL_Medium (By default, this is set to High, set it to Medium to decrease physics computation for more fps but less precise physics or to Low for maximum fps gain, this setting increases fps drastically, and if it's possible, server hosts should try it out in their server ini in order to increase ping for all players and bring more accurate experience, though beware this is not tested)

[Engine.RenderConfig]

DisableBspBumpDynamicSpecular=true (Should in theory enable bump effect on all objects if set to false)
WorldDetail=Medium (World detail, Low, Medium, High, UltraHigh(untested) )
TextureDetail=Low (Overall texture detail, Low, Medium, High, UltraHigh(untested) )
UseRealtimeMirrors=True (Mirroring detail, ie render reflections in realtime or not, True or False )
Allow20Shaders=True (Pixel Shader 2.0 setting)
FluidSurfaceDetail=High (Water detail, Low, Medium, High, UltraHigh(untested) )
DynamicShadowDetail=High (Shadow detail for motion objects, Low, Medium, High, UltraHigh(untested) )
GlowEffectDetail=High (Glow detail, Low, Medium, High, UltraHigh(untested) )
BumpmapDetail=Medium (Bump reflection detail, Low (to disable), Medium, High, UltraHigh(untested) )

User.ini (beside above mentioned keybind tweaks)

[Engine.HUD]

HudMode=0 (Set to 1 to disable)
Crosshair=0 (Set to 1 to disable)

Sound/Video optimization (codec):

To even further enhance the experience and gain more FPS, if you have K-Lite Codec Pack installed (which I highly recommend) go to Start>All Apps>K-Lite Codec Pack>Configuration, and from there on, ffdshow for both Audio and Video. In both Audio and Video ffdshow settings you can find 2 lists, one for excluding and one for including of executables that the ffdshow codecs will work with, if you add Swat 4 to allowed/included list for both audio and video you will notice a small but welcome performance boost in game specially in situations when there is lots of shooting going on. You may also apply this audio/video tweak to many games, it will gain more FPS and possibly solve audio jitter/stuttering in games, it's up to you to try it out. Additionally you may want to further tune ffdshow settings but be careful.

Flashlight bug fix (sort off):

In game settings turn the Shader 2.0 off and additionally use the updated version of CacheSizeMegs tweak.

Alternate Voice Chat Overlay (Supports TS3, Mumble, Ventrilo and many other):

If you use voice communication tools like TeamSpeak 3 you are probably familiar with their overlay feature, sadly though they are often buggy, can lag your game or even crash it. Swat 4 supports VoIP by default, however, voice output quality is very bad and many opt to use TS3 or Mumble in Swat 4. So how to get a proper overlay in Swat 4 and see who is talking without lag or issues?

Find your user.ini and find both fields for voip, default is G=VoiceTalk, remove the VoiceTalk for both G= fields, next up, find the key you are using for push-to-talk in TS3, Mumble, etc, and in user.ini add VoiceTalk attached to the key you use for both fields, mine looks like F15=VoiceTalk. If you don't know what is your F key combo, go to Settings>Key Config>Command>Voice chat, select it and click on Change then press the desired voice chat key once, you will see your key name and according FXX numeric like Your Key / FXX, in my case Mouse Button 4 / F15.

Save the user.ini file (repeat procedure for Swat 4, Swat 4 TSS and any mod installed, to find out how to access these files read sections above in this guide)

Next up open your Swat4x.ini and find [ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem] field and set as bellow:

VOIPVolume=0.000000
UseVoIP=True

Save the file, repeat procedure for Swat 4, Swat 4 TSS and any mods installed.

Next up, make user.ini and Swat4x.ini files read only so to prevent them from being restored by the game launch.

Once you do that, open your voice chat tool of choice, if you use its native overlay, in exceptions list add Swat 4 exe file so that the TS3, Mumble, etc overlay is not used with Swat 4 game.

Last but not least, if you are a server host/clan member and voice communication is a mandatory, you should enable VOIP on your server and instruct members on how to manually enable overlay in Swat 4, thus feel free to distribute a link to this guide or simply share Alternate Voice Chat Overlay field of it.

Some useful tips about this overlay. It will not work if there is only 1 player in server, it will change and display tags according to team you are in (Blue or Red) and only for your team, it will not display if Settings>Audio Use VOIP checkbox is ticked off (but the above Swat4x.ini tweak should cover this) This tweak works only with Push-To-Talk.

These are just few tweaks that I have found right-on-the spot. There are many that I didn't discover, if you find useful tweaks, share them in comments and you will be credited.

Last but not least. To make lasting changes of those tweaks, set tweaked files to Read Only, this way game executable won't reset them to default. However, if you change settings in-game, they will not be saved, instead they will be valid for the lasting session (until you exit game) To edit them again, uncheck them as Read Only.

I bear no responsibility for any damage made by use of these tweaks, use them at your own risk.

Also, since MOH 2010 is based on same Unreal Engine used in Swat, I tweaked some settings that make all in-game settings to highest but give decent ~30 FPS even on low end single core PCs. If you want the ini files, send me a pm. I have some tweaks for ArmA2 as well.

I hope this guide helped you. I will try to update it over time so keep checking for updates.

Have fun!

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

SAS_Fluffy
Captain
Captain
SAS_Fluffy's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 months 3 weeks ago

Very impressive and comprehensive Maven. Sure to help many people. Nice job Smile

SAS_Capt_Fluffy
Captain

"Let's just wing it" -Fluffy on things we should most definitely not wing
 

Flash
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 2 months ago

I need to bind some functions, but i forgot that i have arrows lol Biggrin ... yes maven, it was useful for me Smile

SAS_Master
Regimental Sergeant Major
Regimental Sergeant Major
SAS_Master's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 1 month ago

I agree with Mcfluffles, that is an awesome guide!

It's weird, I remember reading something similar about CacheSizeMegs for some other game I play (name of it escapes me for the moment).

SAS_Master - Regimental Sergeant Major

GCHQ

"He's trusting you to do your job which is to clear that corner! Nothing else!"

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago

I'm glad you find this guide useful. If you have some tips, share and I'll add them up with your credit. Smile

I agree with Mcfluffles, that is an awesome guide!

It's weird, I remember reading something similar about CacheSizeMegs for some other game I play (name of it escapes me for the moment).

True, there are MANY games that run on Unreal Engine game engine and they use same or similar .ini files and settings.

http://www.unrealengine.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine

Swat 4 is using Unreal Engine 2, but like any other Unreal Engine game, it can be ported to 3 or even 4.

EDIT: Updated: Level voice intro tweak added.

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

SAS_Magnum
Veteran
Veteran
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago

Very nice Maven ! Finally someone put those guides together for better view. Smile

SAS_Magnum Lance Corporal SAS 22nd Elite Virtual Regiment.

SAS_Fluffy
Captain
Captain
SAS_Fluffy's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 months 3 weeks ago

I think perhaps this guide should be stickied.

SAS_Capt_Fluffy
Captain

"Let's just wing it" -Fluffy on things we should most definitely not wing
 

SAS_Yogi
Veteran
Veteran
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago

I think I knew a few of these already, but it's nice to have them for reference in case I want to remember lol.

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago

I'm glad the guide is helpful, aim is to make it better over time. So if anyone has any tweaks that are not mentioned, please post them here Smile

Thanks for making this a sticky. I will change thread title as I want everyone to contribute.

I think I knew a few of these already, but it's nice to have them for reference in case I want to remember lol.

So did I and many other regular players, still, there are players who don't know actually and by helping others improve their experience in game we can make Swat 4 community even better over time Blum 3

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

Raptor
Raptor's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 10 months ago

I guess you got all ini tweaks, since you listed the whole ini file above xD

But mb this stuff is also interesting:
- remove the intro at game startup: http://ast.ucoz.org/forum/15-158-1
- remove the dispatcher voice at mission start: http://utf.ucoz.com/forum/21-94-1
- some console commands: http://ast.ucoz.org/forum/15-156-1
(ofc most important: flush Wink )

Sincerely
AST|<<)))|Raptor

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago

Update: Added 2 new tweaks, corrected bunch of typos I made, changed discussion title, changed topic status from a small guide to just guide (it's not that small now :lol:)

If you spot something incorrect, have a suggestion, or a tweak you want listed, please post it here.

I guess you got all ini tweaks, since you listed the whole ini file above xD

But mb this stuff is also interesting:
- remove the intro at game startup: http://ast.ucoz.org/forum/15-158-1
- remove the dispatcher voice at mission start: http://utf.ucoz.com/forum/21-94-1
- some console commands: http://ast.ucoz.org/forum/15-156-1
(ofc most important: flush Wink )

Sincerely
AST|<<)))|Raptor

Thanks for sharing, I added your suggestions and credited you. Biggrin

I did list many ini tweaks while I was testing them on the fly, but there are so many for other files that I haven't listed or tested yet Smile

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

SAS_DUKE
Veteran
Veteran
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 4 months ago

Nice and useful guide there, MAVEN. Thanks Exclaim

If you're up for a challenge...

--> http://www.sasclan.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=10619&highlight=crosshair

DUKE, Germany

"What's the plan?
Track'em, find'em, kill'em!"

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago

Nice and useful guide there, MAVEN. Thanks Exclaim

If you're up for a challenge...

--> http://www.sasclan.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=10619&highlight=crosshair

DUKE, Germany

You're welcome.

And YES, I can do that, actually, I managed to bypass the anticheat for sound files for the still-in-testing mode patch/mod that I want to create (more info http://www.sasclan.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=111739#111739) and this bypass does not alter original game files nor involve any silly methods to apply. The anticheat protection is actually a set of VERY complex codes and methods used in anticheat engine, each file and server settings, and those who developed it are pure geniuses. I wish it was used in more games.

The ones for graphic files may be using the same method, I don't know for sure. But, I won't share the methods I used to bypass this as some cheaters would abuse it greatly.

Perhaps I should check that one out and actually create a set of custom modded crosshairs for people to use so they don't need to modify files themselves and get the anticheat file mismatch error.

I might take a look sometime soon, but I don't promise anything though.

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago

I just found this out today.

I tweaked my Swat4x.ini as bellow

[Engine.LevelInfo]

PhysicsDetailLevel=PDL_Low

And not only did I get performance boost, physics for the body ragdolls looked a lot more realistic.

Today when me and radicalGhost played in Swat 4 TSS SAS PG Children of Taronne map, he shot suspect coming from the stairs near blue entry, the suspect didn't slide down like with default physics settings, he literally rolled down, like that he tumbled down stairs, and once suspects legs hit bottom of the stairs, he slided a bit and ended up in realistic pose and not looking like a doll. Also, when suspects are shot dead they fall to the ground more realistically, like that they have fixed bone axis.

Can someone else test this and post results?

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

SAS_West
Veteran
Veteran
SAS_West's picture
Offline
Last seen: 9 months 5 days ago

I just tweaked a few things using this guide, including setting the PhysicsDetailLevel to Low. Didn't look into the performance change, but visually I felt like it changed somewhat like what you described, very subtle though... or maybe it was just the Placebo effect. Lol

[SAS] VET WEST
SQUADRON SERGEANT MAJOR (RET.)
22nd [SAS] E.V.R. - Who Dares Wins

SAS_Random
Veteran
Veteran
SAS_Random's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 2 days ago

I think it's the placebo effect. They still slide down the stairs and flop around on the ground like fish out of water. If I get even a small boost, I don't care what their death animations are like Smile

SAS_Vet_Random

Lt. Col (Retired)

22nd [SAS] Elite Virtual Regiment

 

 

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago
tweaks

I think it's the placebo effect. They still slide down the stairs and flop around on the ground like fish out of water. If I get even a small boost, I don't care what their death animations are like Smile

I guess the experience varies from individual to individual, probably hardware and driver version difference thingy.

I noticed that, once the SAS mod was launched, Franci and Keller applied some tweaks in the core ini files including the Physics tweak as listed here. The Physics tweak may not change animations much in vanilla S4TSS on regular servers as the servers that host the game don't use the tweak, but if you pay attention closely the SAS mod ragdolls fall much differently due to the pre-defined inis for both clients and servers. I can't say this all is true for everyone, but at leas I noticed some difference. In SAS mod for example suspects fall dead on the spot, while in vanilla they sometimes used to jitter their limbs like crazy and as you described it, as fish LOL. The difference between the physics settings is simply the amount of computation used for the animation, where Low will use less, and High use most computation, that's why the fish-like ragdolls are more likely to happen on High settings. Low doesn't only lower the probability of the fish-like rag dolls, but also saves on performance. I guess, most people won't notice any difference, but, as designer I am obsessed with detail so I can see such things very well.

Unreal Engine is highly customizable, so if someone decided to dig up the physics emulation settings and tune them up we could well see physics that match even the modern games running UE3.

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago
tweak guide

I got bored yesterday and I really wanted to play some old game, a good old game. So I reinstalled Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and boy is it fun to play again!

Not only is it fun, but the game runs very smoothly even on highest settings even on my oldest test system. So I couldn't help but wonder, how did Ubi make it happen? Optimization I guess.

I searched game files, and to my own surprise I found out that the game uses Unreal Engine, FYI Swat 4 uses one as well. I checked the game files, ini settings, everything, and found a small, yet very powerful tweak. I tested it with Swat 4 just some 10 mins ago and it went off flawlessly, giving my game a boost of some 50-60%

So to cut it short, here is the tweak in question (also added in the above guide)

Find your Swat4.ini Swat4X.ini (for mods as well) and find CacheSizeMegs under [Engine.GameEngine] , you may now want to change CacheSizeMegs to 2, 4 or 6 (yes, not some big values) I suggest 4. If you run the game you will notice a performance boost, specially if you have DDR3 or above version of RAM chips installed. Perhaps the Swat 4 devs were right after all that the CacheSizeMegs is just a waste of RAM memory.

To even further enhance the experience and gain more FPS, if you have K-Lite Codec Pack installed (which I highly recommend) go to Start>All Apps>K-Lite Codec Pack>Configuration, and from there on, ffdshow for both Audio and Video. In both Audio and Video ffdshow settings you can find 2 lists, one for excluding and one for including of executables that the ffdshow codecs will work with, if you add Swat 4 to allowed/included list for both audio and video you will notice a small but welcome performance boost in game specially in situations when there is lots of shooting going on. You may also apply this audio/video tweak to many games, it will gain more FPS and possibly solve audio jitter/stuttering in games, it's up to you to try it out. Additionally you may want to further tune ffdshow settings but be careful.

Have fun, and feel free to post your results Biggrin

P.S. Forgot to mention. Those with the Flashlight bug/lag will benefit from CacheSizeMegs new tweak as well as Shader 2.0 turned off in game (It's badly coded for the flashlight so it may lag up in some cases on certain textures)

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago
guide

Alternate Voice Chat Overlay (Supports TS3, Mumble, Ventrilo and many other):

If you use voice communication tools like TeamSpeak 3 you are probably familiar with their overlay feature, sadly though they are often buggy, can lag your game or even crash it. Swat 4 supports VoIP by default, however, voice output quality is very bad and many opt to use TS3 or Mumble in Swat 4. So how to get a proper overlay in Swat 4 and see who is talking without lag or issues?

Find your user.ini and find both fields for voip, default is G=VoiceTalk, remove the VoiceTalk for both G= fields, next up, find the key you are using for push-to-talk in TS3, Mumble, etc, and in user.ini add VoiceTalk attached to the key you use for both fields, mine looks like F15=VoiceTalk. If you don't know what is your F key combo, go to Settings>Key Config>Command>Voice chat, select it and click on Change then press the desired voice chat key once, you will see your key name and according FXX numeric like Your Key / FXX, in my case Mouse Button 4 / F15.

Save the user.ini file (repeat procedure for Swat 4, Swat 4 TSS and any mod installed, to find out how to access these files read sections above in this guide)

Next up open your Swat4x.ini and find [ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem] field and set as bellow:

VOIPVolume=0.000000
UseVoIP=True

Save the file, repeat procedure for Swat 4, Swat 4 TSS and any mods installed.

Next up, make user.ini and Swat4x.ini files read only so to prevent them from being restored by the game launch.

Once you do that, open your voice chat tool of choice, if you use its native overlay, in exceptions list add Swat 4 exe file so that the TS3, Mumble, etc overlay is not used with Swat 4 game.

Last but not least, if you are a server host/clan member and voice communication is a mandatory, you should enable VOIP on your server and instruct members on how to manually enable overlay in Swat 4, thus feel free to distribute a link to this guide or simply share Alternate Voice Chat Overlay field of it.

Some useful tips about this overlay. It will not work if there is only 1 player in server, it will change and display tags according to team you are in (Blue or Red) and only for your team, it will not display if Settings>Audio Use VOIP checkbox is ticked off (but the above Swat4x.ini tweak should cover this) This tweak works only with Push-To-Talk.

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

sun_pt
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 11 months ago

Great guide Maven, i have a problem though i am trying to place a message to be shown like "flash ready" when pressing the equip flashbang key but it doesnt work , like this "Key3=CommandOrEquip Row_NumberKeys 3 TeamSay [C=FF9900][B]Flashbang READY! ", what am i doing wrong?. thanks in advance.

SAS_DUKE
Veteran
Veteran
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 4 months ago

Try this here:

3=CommandOrEquip Row_NumberKeys 3 | teamsay [c=FFFF33]Flashbang ready!

It seems you are missing the "|" in front of teamsay.

"What's the plan?
Track'em, find'em, kill'em!"

sun_pt
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 11 months ago

ok thanks for your reply duke

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago
guide

Thanks!

Duke's suggestion should work perfectly.

If you want to make more binds check official Unreal Engine 1 and 2 wikia pages for possible api's (codes to use)

There are many combinations, get creative Blum 3

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

SAS_Walker
Trooper
Trooper
SAS_Walker's picture
Offline
Last seen: 7 months 2 weeks ago

Did you find any method to change crosshairs?

SAS_Walker
22nd [SAS] Elite Virtual Regiment

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago
tweaks

Yes I did.

By default Swat 4 doesn't allow this, however with my sound patch trick I can change all HUD elements and almost any game graphic without being kicked by server.

I wanted to actually create a set of crosshairs I would share, but then decided to do that for and bundle it with the patch I'm trying to make for over a year.

I recently started using BI forums, to share my missions, and also gather some information on weaponry sound design so I hope I get enough of it and resume the patch, thus bring fresh sounds and graphics to Swat 4 finally.

I also read a book, and started testing my audio design skills with newer games (ArmA 2 missions, check Armaholic USMC Sweepers by me, more to come) And I'm glad that so far I can actually design sound effects based just on snippets of information, which is a big go ahead for the S4 patch as well. As soon I'm done with some missions and complete testing, I should be able to resume the sound patch work, design some game graphics (those will be optional) and release it.

In a case the patch will take more time than predicted, I will at least make some crosshairs for use if there is sufficient amount of requests. And in a case I cancel the patch completely I will release the sourcecode to most trusted Swat 4 community members among clans.

So can you wait or do you need new crosshair as soon as possible?

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

SAS_Walker
Trooper
Trooper
SAS_Walker's picture
Offline
Last seen: 7 months 2 weeks ago

Yees, thats actually the only thing that ***** when i play this game. Dont think that a set is needed but would be cool. Just bigger and red colored. I like the crosshair size in the sasmod.

SAS_Walker
22nd [SAS] Elite Virtual Regiment

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago

Bigger as in length or dimmed? Just red?

I will have to patch HUD.utx 1st (patched just sound archives) can take some time (not more than a hour or so but when I have some free time)

Meantime provide some description or crosshair examples so I can design one you want according to it.

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

SAS_Walker
Trooper
Trooper
SAS_Walker's picture
Offline
Last seen: 7 months 2 weeks ago

Bigger was maybe the wrong word. It needs more volume and a much a more visible color that u can see on any background texture, smoke and when the flashlight is on. So red would be my choice. The size of the current crosshair in swat is for 1 of the 4 lines that make the crosshair about 3mm x 0,3mm. The length is ok. The width tho needs to be increased.

SAS_Walker
22nd [SAS] Elite Virtual Regiment

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago
tweaks

So just dimmer then.

Anyway, I just tried to make custom crosshair for testing, was able to design it and all, but ran into a problem. Namely my sound patch doesn't work on graphical archives, so I spent a good hour-two figuring out what's used in the graphical archives, it turns out it's some 10-20 times more complex and encrypted as well. I already figured it out, and let my BSD Linux system run with a special tool, it will take a bit more time than expected, but should be done by tomorrow. After that I should have a file prepared for you to test (the crosshair) if something is wrong I will let you know.

Meantime, one of the tools I used to decrypt it is Crark. It's actually made for password recovery, but I slightly modified it to check S4 archives.

It's one of the best password and decryption tools I come around as of yet, and it's 100% free, unlike 1000 of other paid-ware bs programs.

Since this is a tweaking thread. If you need to recover your passwords from archives on your system try it (I did, works superb!) - http://www.crark.net/

Off to bed now I-m so happy

Update: Patched! Will port tga files and send you a file soon, possibly today

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

MAVEN
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 1 month ago
tweaks

Ok, crosshairs are ready.

But before you download files and start using this, please note, this is not supported and you are using it at your own risk.

It took me hours to patch graphics archives, but finally did it. That being said, I didn't have much time to test them. Although I tested all of them locally, I tested only one with servers.

What's in there?

3 versions, each is same, but uses different patching approach, since graphics archives are pain in the a** to patch I had to find alternatives for just-in-case.

MIPSFREE - Textures (crosshairs) come without mip maps, in some cases this makes them look sharper in-game and prevents pixel distortion because of S4 compression.

S4TSSPatched - Ported, then patched via TSS editor.

S4Patched - Ported then patched via S4 editor.

Please note that this is untested, and thus there is a good chance that it wont work on your system, that's why you have 3 versions, so test one after another, and see what's best for you.

Additionally. I included a sound patch for testing. This is optional. Fluffy already tested this and it works for both him and me, but if you want to provide feedback test the sound archive too and post results.

In any case. Possible errors:

- File mismatch, or file not found - Means that patch was unsuccessful (May happen with v1.0 of S4)

- On game start, a window with specs and data pops and says an error occured, this is a rarity, but if you get it, click on Copy to clipboard button then send me the log file so I can debug.

- If your game launches, and you can see the menu, patch was successful, however, you will have to try local game before you try several servers. If you don't see working crosshairs on a locally hosted game (by you, in LAN mode) then DON'T try to join any servers. I don't know what os you have, but this was decoded on BSD Linux and tested on XP only, so it may happen you get local errors.

Once you give it a try, report back, and if all works as it should, have fun Blum 3

Download link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ne1xygl37t6hng/MiniPatches.7z

Speed, Precision, Experience, Endurance. General System Tweak Guide

SAS_Walker
Trooper
Trooper
SAS_Walker's picture
Offline
Last seen: 7 months 2 weeks ago

Thanks there, its awesome. I tested all 3 in Lan Mode (TSS). MIPFREE and S4TSSPatched do work. I get a general protection fault for the S4Patched tho.

It wont let me join any server with a patched CH (tried all 3 in TSS).

SAS_Walker
22nd [SAS] Elite Virtual Regiment

Pages