furrycat's guide to SWAT3 command line arguments

This guide covers the various command line options you can pass to SWAT3 when starting the game. Some are very useful, some are almost useless and some are just plain bizarre. Have fun.

Using command line options

To pass extra arguments to your SWAT3 executable, find the shortcut you use to start the game, right-click on it and choose Properties. To add a particular option, enter it after swat.exe in the command box. For example, to start the game with the -nointro flag, you would edit the command field to read C:\games\swat3\swat.exe -nointro.

A quicker way to test out your options, rather than editing the shortcut each time, is to open up a DOS box, go into your SWAT directory and launch the game with whatever arguments you want. For example:

swat -nointro

Available options

Here are the options you can pass to the game, correct for the 1.7 patch. I've highlighted the most important ones in red. You'll probably want to use these most, if not all, of the time.

• -console
  Setting this argument allows you to pull down the SWAT console in-game. The default key to the console is ˜ and since there are only two ways to change this key, one of which being from the console, there's a good chance that it will work for you. For information on the fun you can have with the console, see my console guide.

• -noads
  Disables those annoying banner ads in the multiplayer lobbies. If you like this, check out Slippery Jim's WON No Banner mod from his website.

• -nointro
  Skips the introductory video at the start of the game. Some people actually have to use this because their system is incapable of playing the movie!

• -script <filename>
  Attempts to run the console script filename. See the console guide for more details.

• -handsup
  Permanently show your weapon in first person view, like in Half-Life and other games. Same as typing handsup on the console.

• -modem [limit]
  Optimise internet game for a modem connection by limiting the number of displayed decals. Default value for limit is 100. Higher number means fewer decals and hence better performance.

• -paintball
  Puts SWAT into paintball mode. This works even in co-ops. Bullets won't be able to penetrate glass and will fire globs of paint that go splat, just like in a paintball deathmatch. Note that if you host a multiplayer game with -paintball selected your teammates will neither see the paint nor hear the splat sounds. However, you (and they) can convert a game that's in progress to a paintball game by typing paintball on the console.

• -window
  Starts SWAT in an 800x600 window on the centre of your desktop. For this to work, you must have your desktop set to 16-bit colour and be running at at least 800x600.

• -hirestex
  Forces use of high resolution textures in-game.

• -lowrestex
  Forces use of low resolution textures in-game.

• -nomirrors
  Do not display mirror effects.

• -primary
  Forces DirectX rendering with the primary display adaptor.

• -software
  Forces software rendering and turns off DirectX.

• -fullscreen
  Puts the game into fullscreen mode. Pointless, really.

• -wonunreliable
  According to my memory of a post made by Sierra developer Dave Sanderman to the SWAT3 forums, this makes the game distrust the WON servers and so send more data over the network. This would have the effect of reducing the risk of dropping from the game at the expense of causing lag because of the extra traffic. Apparently all players in the game must have the flag set for it to be of any use.

• -udpreliable
  Again, I'm going from my memory of Dave's post. I believe that when this flag is set, SWAT sends less data over the network, thus reducing lag but increasing the risk of dropping from the game. Like with -wonunreliable, all players must have the udpreliable flag set. You can toggle this from the console with UDPReliable On and UDPReliable Off.

• -nosysmsg
  Turns off system messages in the lobbies. Like typing /sys in the chatrooms.

• -map <mapname>
  Skips the menu screens and starts up a single player game on the map called mapname. The name is taken from the zip file the map is stored in so to play Martin Brenner's house, for example, you would use -map missiona.

• -host <mapname>
  Like -map but start a multiplayer game. If you use this you will be taken to a different multiplayer lobby from the ones you are used to in LAN and internet games. I have not yet found out how to join such a game from another client.

• -join
  The -join flag exists but I haven't got it to work. Presumably it is/was supposed to allow you to join a game that someone made with -host.

• -deathmatch
  Makes your new game a deathmatch against AIs.

• -noai
  Starts your new game without any AIs.

• -blmaps
  Build lightmaps. Worldcraft needs this.

• -ptfile <filename>
  Load the specified pointfile. No doubt this is useful for mappers.

Broken

The following options don't appear to work.

• -resolution <resolution>
  Sets the game resolution to resolution. For example: -resolution 1024x768

• -officername <nick>
  Sets your officer's name to nick.

• -skinname <name>
  Sets your skin to name. This must be the skin name as given in Ops. For example: -skinname "SWAT Raider"

• -camoname <name>
  Sets your uniform's camo for multiplayer games to name. Use the name from Ops. For example: -camoname Woodland.

• -primarygun <name>
  Sets your primary weapon to name. For example: -primarygun AK74

• -secondary <name>
  Sets your secondary weapon to name. For example: -secondary "Glock 21"

Unknown flags

As for the following flags, I know about them but haven't figured out what they do.

• -editprompts
• -monolmaps
• -lineskip
• -verifyanims
• -nomultitex
• -seed <number>

Feedback

Send any comments to swat3@furrycat.net.