Fixing Kotor, Common Problems and Easy Fixes

It's 2015 now and it's kinda sad that I have to write this guide, that there's no really good gathering of all of the common fixes to make this game run. Luckily though, I noted every fix I had to use, from various steam guides and youtube videos, and then I noticed that the game ran great, like it already should *cough cough* gaben get on this *cough cough.* Anyway, in this guide you will see all the easy fixes I went through to make this game run like it should, none of these ideas were originally mine, but I hope I save you the time and frustration I went through to make this game run by putting all the problems and fixes I used in one place.

List of Problems and Fixes

These fixes are the hardest fixes we will make, but anyone with the slightest computer experience, and careful reading, could easily do these.

Problem: 'Movies' Crash the game

Note: "Movies" is only referring to the lucas arts and bioware logos that play when you start the game. It DOES NOT disable movies within the game itself, so you won't be missing any cutscenes or game content. EDIT: Disabling movies DOES in fact disable cutscenes for Windows 8 and possibly Windows 10 users. It is not known to disable cutscenes in Windows 7 or Windows XP users.

Fix: Disable movies. Oddly enough this gets rid of the crashing on launch issue that many, many people have. In fact, its probably the most common issue. Here's how we do it:

ADVANCED STEAM USERS: For steam users who have done this kind of thing before, go to your local disk, program files 86, Steam, Steam apps, common, swkotor, then open the file named "swconfi.exe" Immediately below will just be an explanation to new steam users on how to do this exact thing.

NEW STEAM USERS: Click the start button (the one with the windows logo on it on the bottom left of your screen) and click "computer." From there, click on "local disk" (the thing with the bar on it, displaying memory) and find and open the folder named "Program filesx86." In program filesx86, find the folder labled "steam" and open it. In "Steam" find the folder named "steamapps" and open it. In "steamapps" find the folder labeled "common" and open it (you're almost there!!) In "common" find the folder named "swkotor" and open in. Congrats, you're in the final folder.

Now that you're in the folder named "swkotor" find the executive application (files with .exe after it) called "swconfig.exe" Open this application, and it should bring up a small box with some options in it.

First, on the top right corner of the box there should be an option called "Enable Hardware Mouse." Check this box.

Next on the bottom right, there should be another box labeled "Disable Movies" check this box.
NOTE: I REPEAT: THIS DOES NOT DISABLE THE IN-GAME CUTSCENES. CHECKING THIS BOX WILL NOT MAKE YOU MISS ANY OF THE GAME'S CONTENT.

Your box's options should like like this:


REMEMBER TO CLICK APPLY AT THE BOTTOM RIGHT OF THE BOX TO SAVE YOUR SETTINGS!!!!


Congratulations, that was by far the hardest fix in this entire guide, and you accomplished it!!! Everything past this point is going to be way easier.

There's only two more out of game fixes, but they're all done through standard steam options so no more of that digging for files crap. Even I hate that, and I'm writing a whole guide on it.




Problem: The reason this game doesn't run well is because of Steam (A.K.A. certain steam settings cause this game to crash.) In two steps we will fix all problems that stem from the pc port of this game.

Step 1:

Fix: Make this game think its not on Steam (much easier than it sounds.)

Open Steam, and go to Kotor in your library.

Right Click kotor and go down to propreties. In propreties there should be an update tab, click on it. Make sure your update settings are set to "Update Automatically" (You won't be getting any updates, this game is over 12 years old now and lucas arts is out of buisness and bioware is far beyond done with anything this game has been. Anyway, for whatever reason disabling or telling the game to update only when you allow it crashes the game almost every time you try to play it, so stick with the auto update option.)

Step 2:

Fix: Disable Steam Overlay (if you're thinking wtf why does that help, you're not alone but this got rid of crashing while I was playing so just roll with the punches.)

Go back to the propreities that you were just at, find steam overlay in-game and uncheck it. (Note that the tab which allows you to disable steam overlay in games changes its place in the often, if you can't find it just ask me in the comments below and I'll add it too the guide.) But for now, there aren't many tabs to look through so it should be easy enough to find.

Congrats!! You're 3/4 ths through this tutorial, and the rest of this is as easy as it gets (all in-game stuff!)

Start the game and go to options. Once in options, make sure "Frame Buffer" and "Soft Shadows" are both unbubbled.
Edit: For whatever reason, toggling frame buffer in-game can get rid of a whole multitude of little bugs for Windows 7, 8, and 10 users.

Edit: Frame buffer effects do not show up in game for Windows 7, 8, or 10 users, regardless of whether they are turned "on" in the settings or not.
However turning frame buffer settings to "off" is known to get rid of a lot of random crashing.

Note: Windows XP users have reported playing the game with the frame buffer effects ON, and the frame buffer effects actually DID show up in game. [Credit to Speedj2 for this information.]

Next, max your anti aliasing and antiscoptic filtering. For whatever reason, this game runs best at max settings, and since it's 12 years old I really hope that everyone can run this game at max.


THAT'S IT!!!! YOU FIXED KOTOR!!!!! FINALLY IN 2015, 12 YEARS AFTER THE GAME'S RELEASE CAN YOU FINALLY ACTUALLY PLAY THE GAME!!!! HORRAYYYY!!!!!

If you have any questions on any of my fixes or I didn't explain how I did something, go ahead and ask and I'll get back to them as soon as I can. KOTOR is truly an amazing game, possibly the best ever made, and I think everyone should be able to play it without the constant bugs it comes with in the Steam version. Thank you for reading my guide and enjoy playing the game!!!

[ButterFree]

Anyone have the issue where some combat(s) the MC attacks don't show damage or (miss), but still show the animation for attacks? I'm running a build with flurry, and have no issue hitting organic opponents but the droids seem to be completely immune to lightsabers lol...

[kingjames_1979]

I'm having an issue where i open the game but when i try to start it after making a character, it crashes.

[mastamorientes]

OH MY GOD YOU ARE A EFFING LEGEND. I've tried for years now playing this game again and I was unable to! No fixes worked, until yours!

[₭Σ₴ł₵]

Still holds out to this date. The fix works. You're a legend, thanks.

[Dr Girlfriend]

its 2015 now

[thereef20011]

i cannot get past the character creation

[dolphieleader]

Is there a fix to not being able to change the resolution when I open up swconfig.exe also I'm on windows 11

[Morning Wood]

Sorry, I'm very late to the party on this one, but for anyone who does see this

If you have an issue where your Character won't move at all, even after combat. I found the turning on vsync worked for me

Hopefully this helps someone

[krtimothy1]

This is BS that Steam let me buy a game that doesn't work without doing such scripted inputs. What a waste of time and money for what is a great game.

[Peanut2015]

I logged in just to say, ty this all worked!!!