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SWAT 3 - LAST RESORT GAME MODIFICATION


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Potential framerate fix (Windows 10)

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3 years 1 week ago #2172 by radioteque
Hey all,

Just wanted to do a quick write up on a solution I found to a problem that was bugging the hell outta me with Swat 3 - and hopefully will help anyone out as well. :)

Running the last resort mod along with DGVoodoo2, I noticed that the game would start out great hitting high framerates (144 fps without the mirror or item menu open), but would eventually slow to a crawl whenever the mouse was moved in large increments (totally bizarre). I noticed another user mention something similar in an earlier thread, and the fix was to roll back DGVoodoo2 versions.

Gave that a shot... No dice. Fiddled with the settings, no dice. Every time the framerate would slow, I'd have to restart my pc. So I played process of elimination - is it last resort? Nope. Even with it off, still got the framerate bugging out. I pulled some of DGVoodoo's DLLs out of the folder and realized that ddraw.dll seemed to be causing the spike.

I'm no graphics whiz but looking back on it now, it seems that there's some kind of cache that isn't properly clearing with that DLL while the PC is running.

What's the damn fix?!

Look no further than narzoul's DDrawCompat . Using the latest experimental build, it totally cleared up the issue with the ddraw.dll. 

TL;DR - if you're have framerate issues with the game and want to hit those super high numbers like me, the following configuration worked wonders:

- DGVoodoo2 2.55.4
- Replace DGVoodoo2's ddraw.dll with narzoul's DDrawCompat ddraw.dll

You'll still get some slowdown with the mirror tool and item menu, but it's much better than the slow deterioration of framerate after 20 minutes.

Cheers - and Jim, great mod man! Been playing for a few years now. Keep it up!

Zack
 

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3 years 1 week ago - 3 years 1 week ago #2174 by DarkSynopsis
Always nice to see a new wrapper that works with the game so people have options, honestly I can't say I've actually spent a significant amount of time playing SWAT over the years to notice FPS issues with dgVoodoo, does it drop below 60? if not I'd probably not notice since don't have high refresh rate.

I did come across DDrawCompat the end of last year but at the time I believe I tested it and it didn't work with SWAT.

Not sure if its worth bringing up the FPS drops over on the forums where dgVoodoo talks happen or not, maybe its something the creator could look into fixing or at least have a reason for it.

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3 years 1 week ago #2175 by Slippery Jim
Hmmm, I guess I was lucky because I never saw the FPS slowdown that you mentioned. I always turned on vsync so my frames were always limited anyways.

I guess I need to do some experimenting.

PS: thanks for the post. New discoveries being shared is always welcomed!
Thanks also for the kind words about the mod.

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3 years 1 week ago - 3 years 1 week ago #2180 by radioteque
@Dark, You're bang on, man - the recent experimental release that he just put out seems to finally work with the game.

Might mention it at some point, good idea.

@Jim, the game runs great at 60, but I'm a bit of a framerate hog and those higher numbers are my lifeline 
You wouldn't happen to take any donations would you? Would love to throw some cashola your way as a thank you.

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3 years 1 week ago - 3 years 1 week ago #2181 by Slippery Jim
Since Haystakk has been hosting this website for over 10 years I put up a paypal button that goes directly to him (at bottom of main page). So far I don't think we have got one donation but that is totaly cool. The mod is far from finished so I understand why people would hesistate ... specially now during the pandemic.

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3 years 1 week ago #2184 by DarkSynopsis
Shame DDrawCompat doesn't seem to have any extra bells and whistles from what I can tell? switching from dgVoodoo means losing features like the scaling modes or even MSAA.

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