Any way to disable the startup videos?

[VoidEngineer]

Nobody wants to see unskippable ads for Amazon, etc every time they start the game. The startup time is already ridiculously long as it is. Anyone found which files to whack to turn these off?

[InsomniWack]

Been looking for an answer to this too.

[VoidEngineer]

I can't believe we still have to deal with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like this in 2022. It makes me want to uninstall games when they pull this crap.

[Ironwu]

Originally posted by Skjarl:

Nobody wants to see unskippable ads for Amazon, etc every time they start the game. The startup time is already ridiculously long as it is. Anyone found which files to whack to turn these off?

Compared to the total startup time, these vids are very short. I just go get some drinks and snacks and such until it hits the select screen. :)

[Grug]

Maybe someone can dig into the executable and see if there are startup commands you can use to skip videos, like many Unreal Engine games have.

[Soul]

Originally posted by Ironwu:

Originally posted by Skjarl:

Nobody wants to see unskippable ads for Amazon, etc every time they start the game. The startup time is already ridiculously long as it is. Anyone found which files to whack to turn these off?

Compared to the total startup time, these vids are very short. I just go get some drinks and snacks and such until it hits the select screen. :)

if it was that short i wouldn't need freakin **drinks and snacks**

[TastyJo]

You can delete some files in the steam directory, I think

[VoidEngineer]

Originally posted by Grug:

Maybe someone can dig into the executable and see if there are startup commands you can use to skip videos, like many Unreal Engine games have.

I extracted all the strings from lostark.exe and launch_game.exe but found nothing that appears to be related to intro movies. If they stuck it in there, it's obfuscated in some way. Most likely they didn't add it because apparently people will put up with any level of ♥♥♥♥ from game developers these days.

[Ironwu]

Originally posted by SoulOfMod:

Originally posted by Ironwu:

Compared to the total startup time, these vids are very short. I just go get some drinks and snacks and such until it hits the select screen. :)

if it was that short i wouldn't need freakin **drinks and snacks**

Perhaps you missed the pertinent part: "...Compared to the TOTAL startup time...". I am not getting up just to miss the promo vids, I am getting up to miss the whole long startup time.

[VoidEngineer]

I got it! Nuke these two files:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Lost
Ark\EFGame\Movies\SGintro_USA.English.ipk

and

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Lost Ark\EFGame\Movies\SGintro_USA_Warning.English.ipk

It will jump straight to the ocean scene where you pick a region and login. If you're not in the US, you will need to delete your region's version of these files (French, Spanish, etc). The startup time on this game is already nuts so any edge helps.
For those that are curious, I fired up Resource Monitor, tagged lostark.exe, checked what it opened file handles to, then made an educated guess on which ones mattered.

[Shino]

Will steam download the files again next time it patches?

[VoidEngineer]

Originally posted by Shino:

Will steam download the files again next time it patches?

It might. But probably not. Doing a validation on your game install will definitely replace them though. If it becomes a problem, just adjust the file level ACL to deny access to anyone and Steam should no longer be able to mess with them + the game launcher won't be able to read them.

[TastyJo]

Originally posted by Skjarl:

I got it! Nuke these two files:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Lost
Ark\EFGame\Movies\SGintro_USA.English.ipk

and

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Lost Ark\EFGame\Movies\SGintro_USA_Warning.English.ipk

It will jump straight to the ocean scene where you pick a region and login. If you're not in the US, you will need to delete your region's version of these files (French, Spanish, etc). The startup time on this game is already nuts so any edge helps.
For those that are curious, I fired up Resource Monitor, tagged lostark.exe, checked what it opened file handles to, then made an educated guess on which ones mattered.

I used resource monitor and the other sysinternal tools when I worked in IT. People thought I was an IT wizard. Everyone wanted me to solve their problems but didn't want to learn themselves.

[Shino]

I deleted

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Lost
Ark\EFGame\Movies\SGintro_USA.English.ipk

and

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Lost Ark\EFGame\Movies\SGintro_USA_Warning.English.ipk

the game started faster but with a weird side effect . The escape key stopped working on any menu in the game. When I put the files back the escape key works again.

[Ejsstiil]

Yea can confirm that :(

[ins]

Depressing to see files for every language on planet earth have their own movie.
Whatever happened to selective downloads....
No wonder the amazon forest is burning.