Bypass the launcher?

[ascagnel]

Is there any way to bypass the launcher in Steam, specifically for playing in Big Picture mode? It sucks to be able to use a controller for everything but one click.

[kamikaze7100]

+1

[nanokelvin]

Bump

[ShawnMcCool]

Very big +1

[ascagnel]

The launcher is controller enabled -- just hit A on an Xbox controller to start the game.

[Dowlphwin]

That thing still is annoying (among many other things about this game). I start the launcher, then click launch game, then a notification icon appears in my Windows task bar, then a splash screen that takes a few seconds, then I have to click through intro videos (just renaming the files still requires clicks to continue), and if you manually run the game using witcher2.exe, that one runs the launcher anyway.

[XeeB]

Use "Desktop Configuration" in Big Picture Mode, it could emulate controller as mouse & keyboard.

If you know how to config BPM, it allow you to go full controller support on all partial support games.

[RampasBRZ]

Bit late to the party here, but thought I could help anyone still looking for a solution.

I solved it by replacing Launcher.exe with a symbolic link to bin\witcher2.exe

How to make symbolic links on windows 10? mklink (or use a GUI tool). Google it, it's not difficult. Here's a guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

[mainmachine]

引用自 RampasBRZ：

Bit late to the party here, but thought I could help anyone still looking for a solution.

I solved it by replacing Launcher.exe with a symbolic link to bin\witcher2.exe

How to make symbolic links on windows 10? mklink (or use a GUI tool). Google it, it's not difficult. Here's a guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

Sadly this doesn't seem to work for me, although I have the added complexity that I'm running this under Proton on Linux.

[Thrawn]

引用自 RampasBRZ：

Bit late to the party here, but thought I could help anyone still looking for a solution.

I solved it by replacing Launcher.exe with a symbolic link to bin\witcher2.exe

How to make symbolic links on windows 10? mklink (or use a GUI tool). Google it, it's not difficult. Here's a guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

Thanks for this. Worked perfectly. For those who don't know how to do this, quick way is to

1) right click game in Steam and hit manage->browse local files. Ctrl+C the directory path that you are in.
2) Rename launcher.exe to whatever you want; launcher.bak or whatever.
3) launch cmd.exe as an administrator. You'll be put into C:\windows\system32, so if the directory path from step 1 is a different drive letter, type the letter: i.e. D:\ and you'll be put into that drive.
4) type in cd (then right click here to paste in the path from step 1 or however you like to paste stuff into a cmd window)
5) type mklink launcher.exe .\bin\witcher2.exe and press enter
6) look in the "the witcher 2" folder - you should see a new launcher.exe file that is type ".symlink"

double click that and you should see Witcher 2 start directly!

And also, of course, when you launch it from steam, it should now use that new launcher.exe fake symlink file, and go straight into the game.

[JackBBJ]

引用自 Thrawn：

引用自 RampasBRZ：

Bit late to the party here, but thought I could help anyone still looking for a solution.

I solved it by replacing Launcher.exe with a symbolic link to bin\witcher2.exe

How to make symbolic links on windows 10? mklink (or use a GUI tool). Google it, it's not difficult. Here's a guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

Thanks for this. Worked perfectly. For those who don't know how to do this, quick way is to

1) right click game in Steam and hit manage->browse local files. Ctrl+C the directory path that you are in.
2) Rename launcher.exe to whatever you want; launcher.bak or whatever.
3) launch cmd.exe as an administrator. You'll be put into C:\windows\system32, so if the directory path from step 1 is a different drive letter, type the letter: i.e. D:\ and you'll be put into that drive.
4) type in cd (then right click here to paste in the path from step 1 or however you like to paste stuff into a cmd window)
5) type mklink launcher.exe .\bin\witcher2.exe and press enter
6) look in the "the witcher 2" folder - you should see a new launcher.exe file that is type ".symlink"

double click that and you should see Witcher 2 start directly!

And also, of course, when you launch it from steam, it should now use that new launcher.exe fake symlink file, and go straight into the game.

Works perfectly and greatly appreciated! Thanks Rampas for the solution and thanks Thrawn for making it easy mode.

[Lordimbroke]

引用自 XeeB：

Use "Desktop Configuration" in Big Picture Mode, it could emulate controller as mouse & keyboard.

If you know how to config BPM, it allow you to go full controller support on all partial support games.

tysm friend! 3 years later this comment helped me

[Smiling Jack]

引用自 Thrawn：

引用自 RampasBRZ：

Bit late to the party here, but thought I could help anyone still looking for a solution.

I solved it by replacing Launcher.exe with a symbolic link to bin\witcher2.exe

How to make symbolic links on windows 10? mklink (or use a GUI tool). Google it, it's not difficult. Here's a guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

Thanks for this. Worked perfectly. For those who don't know how to do this, quick way is to

1) right click game in Steam and hit manage->browse local files. Ctrl+C the directory path that you are in.
2) Rename launcher.exe to whatever you want; launcher.bak or whatever.
3) launch cmd.exe as an administrator. You'll be put into C:\windows\system32, so if the directory path from step 1 is a different drive letter, type the letter: i.e. D:\ and you'll be put into that drive.
4) type in cd (then right click here to paste in the path from step 1 or however you like to paste stuff into a cmd window)
5) type mklink launcher.exe .\bin\witcher2.exe and press enter
6) look in the "the witcher 2" folder - you should see a new launcher.exe file that is type ".symlink"

double click that and you should see Witcher 2 start directly!

And also, of course, when you launch it from steam, it should now use that new launcher.exe fake symlink file, and go straight into the game.

This should be pinned as correct solution. Many thanks for all who found out about this trick. It works flawlessly even when launching from Steam Big Picture mode

[charlinho]

If using Linux, just add this as the initialization options:

eval $( echo "%command%" | sed "s/\/Launcher.exe'.*/\/bin\/witcher2.exe'/" )