Tutorial: Remove Unskippable Ubisoft Videos at startup.

[Ashley]

Step 1:

Open HoMM3:HD folder. (Steam\SteamApps\common\Heroes of Might & Magic III - HD Edition)

Step 2:

Open the data folder.

Step 3:

Open the VIDEO folder.

Step 4:

Locate and Delete/Rename the following three files.

dotemu.ogv

UBISOFT_HD25_3sec.ogv

UBISOFT_HD25_6sec.ogv

Step 5:

Launch the game!

[DO₲E₦(TM)]

Come on... they last like 10 seconds or so. No big deal. Anyway, nice help for those who want to skip those.

[mvon007]

Nice, always the first thing I attempt with Steam games. They last like 10 seconds ... every time I launch any game. That would add up to -days- in the end :). Thank goodness we can do this; console gaming is a PITA by comparison!

[mvon007]

Okay how about stopping it from playing the intro video each launch? Save clicks, save lives! Although it turns out this game is pretty heavy on the clicks - no "recruit everyone I can" button aww. At least they did a reasonable job with touch controls :D

[Illimitus]

This is helpful, thanks!

[Ashley]

Originally posted by mvon007:

Okay how about stopping it from playing the intro video each launch? Save clicks, save lives! Although it turns out this game is pretty heavy on the clicks - no "recruit everyone I can" button aww. At least they did a reasonable job with touch controls :D

All of the videos seem to be in that folder, I didn't want to advise against disabling anything that is actually content related, but I don't see why you couldn't do the exact same thing to any of the other videos you find annoying.

[mvon007]

Yeah that intro movie is a pesky one; I can remove the whole videos folder and it still finds a way to play! Based on a little searching, it seems it was to do with the 1stlaunch parameter not being set correctly in the gog complete version unless running as administrator, but this version has preferences in a .ini file, wherein it is correctly set! Will keep trying.

[Irvinou]

Are you sure you can't skip the videos with Echap?

[mvon007]

I'm not sure what that is - a search suggests an emergency chaplaincy service, which I'm not sure is what you meant :D.

Found the file - /data/LOC/EN/H3Intro.ogv
But if I rename or delete it, the game does the assert fail thing - which is interesting: perhaps what people are experiencing in launch fails with that error is an inability to play the ogg vorbis video files?

What one can do is replace that intro video file with one of the other video files, so that it goes past quicker and less annoyingly, without requiring an extra click ... obsessive huh?

Many of them won't fit the pane it gives, but I've just found that grabbing /data/VIDEO/ProgressBar.ogv, copying it and renaming it, works quite nicely, lasts only a few seconds, and is almost even appropriate, without being annoying. A decent option if we can't stop the intro altogether :).

[Ashley]

Originally posted by mvon007:

What one can do is replace that intro video file with one of the other video files, so that it goes past quicker and less annoyingly, without requiring an extra click ... obsessive huh?

That's a fantastic idea. You could even replace it with a 0.1 second long blank video file.