Skip intro

[idbirch]

Anyone know if there's a way to skip the intro screens/logos/video? Browsing the local files it seems everything is locked away in big DAT files so no easy fix there. Are there any switches we can use as launch options maybe?

[ToAsT]

Dont skip the cutscenes

[idbirch]

Guess I should have known better than to post a technical question on the Steam forums. What was I thinking?

[ToAsT]

You wern't. The cutscenes are what make a great lego game, that's where the comedy is.

[idbirch]

Read the title of the thread again. Then read your reply. Then read the title again. Now concentrate really hard and try again. I'll give you a hint because I'm fairly sure these prompts won't be enough for you: I'm not asking about cutscenes. If I wanted to ask about cutscenes, you can safely assume I'd use the word 'cutscene' at least once.

[Melphiz]

If you want to skip it, just click LMB when the intro is active.
If you want to get it not played/shown at all, you'd need to mess around with QuickBMS if that even works for this game (might needs an update)
http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm
http://aluigi.altervista.org/bms/ttgames.bms

[Clever Caviar]

Originally posted by ParkYongLee:

If you want to skip it, just click LMB when the intro is active.
If you want to get it not played/shown at all, you'd need to mess around with QuickBMS if that even works for this game (might needs an update)
http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm
http://aluigi.altervista.org/bms/ttgames.bms

second this. You'll need to experiment with rebuilding the .DAT files without the intro videos. Good luck.

I'm sure I remember a LEGO game that released with unskippable intros and then the ability to skip was added in later. Was it the last one, LEGO Marvel Avengers?

[idbirch]

Great, thank you guys for actually reading and understanding the question. I've grabbed QuickBMS and the script and am currently unpacking the first DAT. From the filenames, I can see it's reading the structure properly. I'll post back later or maybe tomorrow and let you know if it works.

[idbirch]

Well I found the control files for the cut scenes in GAME2.DAT. There are .txt files in GAME2.DAT/CUT/LOADINGSCREEN and GAME2.DAT/CUT/IDENT detailing how cutscenes should run, each with a cutscene_start and cutscene_end. I removed everything inbetween these for the TT intro and rebult the DAT but that just spazzed out completely.

Might try some more tomorrow but not knowing how the TT internals for cutscenes work and rebuilding a DAT taking several minutes each time, I'm not confident.

[Clever Caviar]

Originally posted by idbirch:

Well I found the control files for the cut scenes in GAME2.DAT. There are .txt files in GAME2.DAT/CUT/LOADINGSCREEN and GAME2.DAT/CUT/IDENT detailing how cutscenes should run, each with a cutscene_start and cutscene_end. I removed everything inbetween these for the TT intro and rebult the DAT but that just spazzed out completely.

Might try some more tomorrow but not knowing how the TT internals for cutscenes work and rebuilding a DAT taking several minutes each time, I'm not confident.

try replacing the video files in the .DATs with identically named, yet zero sized (or near to) equivalent files.

You might have issues if the TT Games engine is expecting certain file types, or files with a certain header.

[Zeikar]

Originally posted by Clever Caviar:

Originally posted by idbirch:

Well I found the control files for the cut scenes in GAME2.DAT. There are .txt files in GAME2.DAT/CUT/LOADINGSCREEN and GAME2.DAT/CUT/IDENT detailing how cutscenes should run, each with a cutscene_start and cutscene_end. I removed everything inbetween these for the TT intro and rebult the DAT but that just spazzed out completely.

Might try some more tomorrow but not knowing how the TT internals for cutscenes work and rebuilding a DAT taking several minutes each time, I'm not confident.

try replacing the video files in the .DATs with identically named, yet zero sized (or near to) equivalent files.

You might have issues if the TT Games engine is expecting certain file types, or files with a certain header.

you don't need the DAT files or the HDR files or _DISC_ if you extract everything to the folders, it will read the game data from the folders provided you just delete the DAT, HDR, and DISC files

[Melphiz]

Don't delete the DAT, HDR and DISC files if you don't want to download the whole game when there's an update. Steam will not accept the folders.

[Zeikar]

Originally posted by ParkYongLee:

Don't delete the DAT, HDR and DISC files if you don't want to download the whole game when there's an update. Steam will not accept the folders.

okay, you can move them out of the game folder and then play the game with all the extracted folders, no need to repack and any changes to text files can be made easily, this is how the Lego Batman 2 mod to have the console DLC works, you don't have to delete those files, but to use the extracted content they can't be in the same folder. So really making any such modifications should be after the last update (DLC pack) is released, it just seems like a lot of work to repack the dat files just to save a few seconds on loading time, you can skip at some point

[Melphiz]

Is it even possible? Won't the total path length of some files too large for windows to handle if you have it installed under e.g. D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\LEGO STAR WARS The Force Awakens
For example:
D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\LEGO STAR WARS The Force Awakens\GAME\CHARS\SMALL\SHAREDANIMS\MECHANICS_SMALL\ABILITY_FIGHT_COMBO_GOON_STAFF_GENERIC_SMALL\ABILITY_FIGHT_COMBO_GOON_STAFF_SMALL_AS\ABILITY_FIGHT_COMBO_GOON_STAFF_GENERIC_SMALL_DEF_DX11.AN4
this file cannot be created with QuickBMS, so one would have to move the game first.

[Melphiz]

Or, wait. Creating mklink /J junctions can be the solution, no need for moving the whole game, just creating junctions for the new folders.

[Zeikar]

I haven't had any problems with the LEGO games I've tested, but I haven't tested this one yet, I just feel extracting all the dat files just to save a few seconds of load at start isn't worth it, now if there was a reason to mod something else, then yeah maybe you would, but I have Lego Batman 2 and Lego Batman 3 completely extracted, LB2 for the console DLC mod and more, only added 2 characters to LB3, though you can also have fun changing people's powers and run speed etc, I remember on Lego Star Wars complete saga giving Qui Gon Jinn a purple saber and making him run super fast and jump high for the fun of it, it's just a simple text file edit for the character