Won Replacement Test Server - August 13, 2017
As discussed in the forum we now have a NeuWon test server up. What is NeuWon you may ask? It is a replacement for the old Won Network so that we can play Swat 3 on the internet again without the need of programs like Hamachi.
It is still a work in progress and the server will be down from time to time. Ben, the creator of NeuWon, visits the forum once a week when his schedule allows and we are slowly working on improving the experience.
Presently I am working on updating the Last Resort mod so that it natively supports NeuWon (the goal is that as soon as you install the next version you will be able to use it). For now it is recommended people turn off the Last Resort mod with the toggle switch at the top right BEFORE installing and using any NeuWon files.
To update the Last Resort mod I have had to go back to my original files and re-create work that I did about 15 years ago (and promptly forgot about) since Swat 3 only supported LAN multiplayer from when the official servers were taken offline. First I will work on getting 1920x1080 menus updated and working for NeuWon and then later the other resolutions.
Write comment (0 Comments)Mobile Friendly (sort of) - June 18, 2017
Lately I have worked on making the website look a little better but also making it mobile friendly (responsive to different sized phones and tablets). The free template I chose for the site wasn't responsive in any way. It is better now but it is far from perfect. Consider it a work in progress.
The TV show that I have started worked on is fully rigged now and we start shooting on Monday. I am sure we will be tweaking the lighting all week but hopefully things will slow down enough for me to have some energy by the time I get home. Maybe I will even have time to actually work on the mod itself.
The recent shutdown of the OpenIV mod tool in the GTA5 community scares the crap out of me. Lawyers don't care about gaming communities. Hopefully Activision's lawyers won't come knocking here and if they do hopefully they will see that it is a benefit to the sales of Swat series on GOG.com and Steam.
Write comment (0 Comments)
Quick update - May 15, 2017
Finally the "Latest Forum Posts" module is back on the right hand side. It took them 6 months to release a new version with the bug fixes. I like to think I had a hand in that since I went to their forums and begged and pleaded and shamed the developer, lol.
The Mod Database still hasn't authorised the version of the Last Resort mod that I released on April 25th. This is extremely odd of them since normally they approve the files in a day or two. I sent them an email so hopefully I will have an answer why it is so massively delayed. Thankfully Tactical Ape is always there for our hosting needs.
I took a kids TV show to work on for the next few months. It is easy work and the studio is near where I live so the commute is fast. The actual content of the show is horrible but it is a pay cheque. The hours won't be ridiculously long like some shows so I will actually have a summer instead of always being at work. More time to game and maybe even work on the mod, lol.
Write comment (1 Comment)
Swat 3 on Steam - April 26, 2017
While I was busy with real life work, Swat 3 was quietly released on Steam. I bought a copy of the game (even though I still have my retail CD and the GOG.com version) to see what was different. Some people reported issues installing the Last Resort mod with the Steam version. The easiest way to troubleshoot it was to buy a copy on Steam.
The good news is that it is identical to the GOG.com version (game executables are identical so I assume it is also DRM free) and is fully compatible with The Last Resort mod. You can even run the game without Steam running in the background.
The bad news is that there is a bug with the installer for the Last Resort mod that needs to be fixed. This bug would only occur if you had two versions of Swat 3 installed on the same computer. I have already uploaded the new version to the Mod Database (just waiting for it to be approved) and then I will send it to our friends at Tactical Ape for hosting.
You only need to download this new version of the mod if you wanted to have multiple copies of the game installed (ie both GOG.com and Steam at same time).
I updated this website today to the latest version of Joomla and also updated what version of PHP the server uses. Please let me know if you see any funny business.
Write comment (0 Comments)
Version 0.7.3 fix released - February 20, 2017
A bug was found in the Last Resort Launcher that would only affect a very tiny amount of people.
Version 0.7.3 fixes a bug in which the available screen resolutions weren't being detected by the launcher if a person had a screen refresh rate below 49 hz. You do not need to re-download the mod unless you had this problem.
Technically it wasn't a bug but really a poor design choice. I never expected anyone to use such a low refresh rate.
Thanks to bossman16 for troubleshooting this with me, and to Tactical Ape for hosting the file for us.
Note: The launcher isn't using Visual Studio 2015 code yet. That is still a work in progress that is a long time away from being released.
Write comment (1 Comment)Work in progress - February 13, 2017
As mentioned a few days ago I am presently trying to update the Last Resort launcher into Visual Studio 2015 from ancient Visual Basic 6. Quite a bit has changed in the language so I am having to relearn how to do things. A lot of old legacy commands are still supported in the language but I am trying to embrace all the newer more powerful commands. Below is a screenshot of the very rough new version. The real meat of the program isn't done yet but the basics of the user interface are there.
I am now using a built in tab control to get the 5 different tabs that the launcher uses. There is a limitation with it that has forced me to change the look of the launcher. I have been forced to lighten the background and the graphics since the extreme contrast of my old dark background was too much. The new tab control does not give a lot of options to customize the look unfortunately. There is a way to gain control of the look of the tab control but it was far too much effort and wouldn't have been as elegant in execution.
click image to enlarge