I managed to configure Worldcraft to work with SWAT 3, however upon compiling the map (the sample map provided with the game), it seems to work fine and all, but once SWAT 3 loads up, it gives me a message "Error opening Strings.dat" and the game crashes.

Sadly couldn't find anything on Google specifically relating to this error message in conjunction with Worldcraft. Anyone know how to fix this, perhaps some old school SWAT modders and mappers?

Thanks!

Thanks for making a new map. I always love seeing new creations.

Just stepping back and looking at basics first. Did you copy and paste the sample map to the Swat 3 MISSIONS folder before trying to build it? It is also recommended that you change the READ ONLY setting of all the files.

Any chance you can take screenshots of your Worldcraft configuration screens?

Also please take a screenshot of the build menu settings. That screen can be tough to properly configure.

If you have the Last Resort mod activated while trying to make maps I recommend that you turn it off with the toggle switch at the top right of the Last Resort Launcher and then "Save and Quit". Using the mod while making maps just confuses the heck out of Swat 3.

Slippery_Jim nice to see you still active, I remember how huge the modding scene was back in the day! Great work on The Last Resort too, glad to see you're still updating it to this day. Are the other members still active, such as FurryCat , Don_T_Shoot and Palmero?

I did copy and paste the sample files from the Worldcraft folder to the SWAT 3 folder (following your helpful tutorial on your site I'd like to add), just tried changing the files to not read only, still didn't work. Used a fresh installation of SWAT 3 without your Last Resort mod, still didn't work. If I remember correctly, I had this same problem all those years ago when the modding scene was still active, so it's definately something on my end which sadly completely killed my passion for making maps for SWAT 3.

If I enter the game, start a random missing and type "single sample" it loads the map fine (actually pretty happy now because I never tried it before) and it's fully playable. Of course, I'd prefer it if I could test the map using the run button as it's not as tedious.

Sadly no. I still enjoy working on it part time since I am too lazy to learn how to mod newer games and this game allows me to do the things I like doing (ie: photoshop, visual basic, etc). Ah, again I can' take credit. That part came from Sierra's Mod HQ. I just updated it. I hope to flesh it out with a lot of old tutorials that many members of the community wrote. Ahh okay. That suggests to me that there is a problem with the settings in your BUILD menu. That part was always tricky to troubleshoot. When I have more free time later tonight I hope to post more about that.

The Last Resort Launcher is great for testing maps like this by the way. On the OTHER SETTINGS tab of the Launcher you can enter into the Command Line section "-map nameofyourmission -noai" and when you launch Swat 3 it will skip everything and run your mission directly. Since there is a bug with Swat 3 when you don't have AI active (you can't go dynamic to speed up) I have a speed mod activated to make testing and examining the map faster.

Speed up mod for map testing: http://www.swat3lastresort.info/index.php/downloads/category/3-swat3-map-making-tools

Argh. Seems like there's much, much more to making maps for SWAT 3 than I initially thought... Didn't realise you had to build maps step by step, i.e, compiling geometry and materials seperately in WC, going into SWAT 3 and building lightmaps and AI paths in engine... Not sure if it's even worth the hassle of making a map in this engine. Give me the days of Half Life where I'd just place a 4x4 room, player_start, a light, compile it all at once in WC and can play it straight away haha!

Got another technical issue, to do with textures this time. What I'm seeing in WC is alot different to the final result inside SWAT 3. Uploaded some screenshots: 1 is of how the 3D viewport is in WC, the other is ingame. Textures are all messed up.

Been spending the last 2/3 hours or so scratching my head trying to figure everything out for myself. Bleary eyed and 3am, I need to admit defeat and gives this a go another day. In the mean time I'll probaly sketch out a few floor plans for future projects.

Seems like an absolute headache making maps for SWAT 3. If I ever get past all these issues I'll finally be able to foufill my childhood dreams of making maps for this game, been wanting to do it since 2001!

Lol, it isn't terribly difficult once you learn the quirks.

> compiling geometry and materials seperately in WC

Well, you only need to build the materials at the very end when you are ready to make your last release build. It is only for the bullet hits and foot step sounds.

> building lightmaps and AI paths in engine

Again really you can ignore most of that until you are ready to work on lighting and AI paths near the end. Even though I always tell myself I should wait to work on lighting once I have completed the geometry I never do, lol.

As for your problem it has been a while since I opened up Worldcraft but I remember this being a common issue that was easily fixed. I vaguely recall it has to do with bit colour depth of the textures in the folder in comparison to the .WAD file. Let me setup Worldcraft and refresh my memory....

Before I forget, I want to see if we can solve your strings.dat error when you build.

I think the problem may be related to the fact that you have a space character in the path to your game.

In the RUN (F9) menu look at the second line (the $bsp_exe line):

Here are the parameters you probably have...
-texpath D:\SWAT 3\Missions\sample\mission\textures $bspdir\$file

Try placing the path in quotes like this:

-texpath "D:\SWAT 3\Missions\sample\mission\textures" $bspdir\$file


The final thing that should be mentioned on the RUN (F9) menu is please confirm you have deleted the parameter -window so that it looks like this:

-primary -SCRIPT DEBUG.CON -script console.con -ptfile $path\$file.lin -map $file

Thanks a bunch! I managed to get it to start the game straight from Worldcraft thanks to your advice.

I still have the problem with the "error loading strings.dat" crap, however that was just with normal compiling (Run Map! without expert options). However, once I choose the Expert options and delete the "-window" like you said, it worked a treat and SWAT 3 loaded the map. I should have seen that a mile away, as before the game was running in a window and complaining it can't run in 16bit colour when I know you can't urn 16bit programs in windowed mode.

It's also taught me a few things, like you have to use normal compiling to create the SCN file, expert mode is just to further refine the map, or at least supposed to.

I also checked out the JackHammer editor after researching on your site, looks really nice and runs much better than WC. Tried to compile a map, it tells me it's built the SCN file, yet I can't find it anywhere. Maybe I can create a map in JackHammer, then use WC to export it to SWAT 3, although I been reading your comments saying all the textures become misalligned. It would be an absolute nightmare if I made a map in JackHammer, only to send it to WC and have every single texture messed up.

Anyway cheers for the help! Just need to iron out that annoying texture problem and I'll be alright after that, I was fairly adept at WC back in the day, making maps in Half Life and Counter Strike for me and my friends during LAN parties. How I miss those days.

EDIT: Silly me, I forgot to add the quotation markers like you mentioned: -texpath "D:\SWAT 3\Missions\sample\mission\textures" $bspdir\$file. Textures loading perfectly now as seen in WC. No more pulling my hair out.

Thanks alot Slippery_Jim! How did you know that all that was needed to fix the small texture problem was adding quotation marks in the command path?

Ya, always run EXPERT mode when building in Worldcraft. That is another thing I should have in a tutorial but never got around to doing yet. I had wondered last night if I should mention it but forgot to.

Another tip is in the second line you don't need the -buildmat until the final stages of your map building. This is when you are ready to assign materials to the texture surfaces. Of course it does make it easier if you keep on top of this during your whole build but usually I just wait until the end to deal with it.


Remember there is also a slightly newer version of Worldcraft called Hammer that fixes a few bugs:

http://www.swat3lastresort.info/index.php/lastresort-forum/map-construction/14-get-latest-worldcraft-version


As for Jackhammer I can't recall much about my experiments with it. I don't remember having a .SCN file going missing after a build. I remember having that problem sometimes with Worldcraft but usually what that meant was that it built the .SCN file in the main Swat 3 folder instead of the proper mission folder. I can't recall issues with Jackhammer either way (other than what is posted in the forums on my site). I didn't. I guessed it might cause an issue somehow but I wasn't sure if it was textures or your strings.dat error.

Ah yea I forgot to mention I started using Hammer 3.5 Beta (again after researching on your site), which did solve some crashing I had with the vanilla WC version while compiling, so thanks for mentioning it here and on your site.

As for JackHammer, I compiled the map and it told me it built the SCN file, yet I couldn't find it anywhere, game directory and the JackHammer installation folder. Not a big issue since I can just make a map in JackHammer and export to WC. I haven't even explored JackHammer yet so let's see.

The strings.dat error is still there, but to be frank all I need to do is do a normal compile and untick the play game button or whatever, then I just compile it in expert mode and the game will launch, so it's no longer an issue.

Hopefully I can figure out all the other bits like mission sounds, triggers (still need to code the missionsounds.dat, missionsprites.dat etc). Will be a while before I can make anything decent, with having a full time job and also whether I still have the passion for map making.

Thanks again Slippery_Jim, it's great to know you're still trying to keep SWAT 3 alive after all these years.

That statement confuses me. You should always be using the expert mode (this is what Sierra recommended). It sounds like you are saying you get the strings.dat error only on the normal mode anyway.

Yea I only get that error message on normal mode. Doesn't occur in expert mode.

WC doesn't create the SCN file in expert mode. I have to first use normal mode to create the SCN file, then use expert mode to do all the other bits and bobs. Unless of course, I did something wrong...

Ya in expert mode it should. I suspect a setting is still wrong on your RUN menu. Also perhaps try running Worldcraft with admin privileges (Windows is a finicky mistress).

I will try to make a short page this weekend for a tutorial on the RUN menu.

Okay here is the tutorial:

http://www.swat3lastresort.info/index.php/tutorials/98-tutorials-run

The screenshots are from the Worldcraft that ships with the game. The beta update of Worldcraft known as Hammer has a slightly different layout of the RUN menu.

The key is choose EXPERT MODE and the FULL BUILD script from the drop down menu. Modify the 2 lines as described in the tutorial.

I can't get Worldcraft to build the SCN file at all, seems to work fine if I manually run the commands in a CMD window with the "map.exe" if I look at Process Window it just has.

"* Could not execute the command:
"D:\SWAT 3\game\Tools\Worldcraft\map.exe" -texpath "D:\SWAT 3\game\Missions\sample\mission\textures" "D:\SWAT 3\game\Missions\sample"
* Windows gave the error message:
"Access is denied.""

Even after manually building the sample.scn the game doesn't find it O.o man setting up SWAT 3 Worldcraft is a nightmare...

I wonder if having no space in the filepath solves the issue but I'm way too lazy to reinstall the game just to change "SWAT 3" to "SWAT3" >.< also I think it would prefer the "C:\" drive?

Ah Well, didn't plan on building a map anyway was just curious if I could get the sample map built/running.

Edit:
Ok... I moved the Sample map out of the Tools/Worldcraft folder and put it into Missions since Last Resort forums suggest that, didn't change anything.

Running
map.exe -v -texpath "D:\SWAT 3\game\Missions\sample\mission\textures" "D:\SWAT 3\game\Missions\sample\mission\sample.map"

From the Worldcraft DIR via CMD builds the .SCN and can run it in SWAT no problems, such a hassle >.< and that .map file is only built when you try run via Worldcraft? or I guess you could manually export, wonder if could make it part of a CMD Prompt so don't even need to hit build within Worldcraft could just run a .BAT file to get over all the hassle.

Problem building with CMD line is the map.exe doesn't want to stay open so you can't catch any errors, I don't know how you would pause it.