[fix inside] Unskippable Intro / cut scenes - instant hate

[rubregg]

What's it with today's cut scene fests? If I want a movie, I'll buy a movie.
Ok, some people like cut scenes and that's perfectly fine. But for those who don't, why-on-earth can't we skip them?

An unskippable minute-long intro is such a blow against replayability. Each time you start a new game, you have to watch it all again, and if it's for the 15th time.... Why, oh why??

EDIT:
Ok, since my topic title probably sounds too aggressive, let me elaborate a little. There is living proof that what I'm asking can very well be done. Serious Sam 3 has intro tablets and an intro movie, but you can just click and you go straight to the menu. Cut scenes are there, but short and most of all, skippable. ALL of them. Another example would be Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. One intro scene, skippable, and the rest of the story, the atmosphere, the looming threat and all that is delivered without any cut scenes at all.

On the other hand, games like Rage, Max Payne 3, Dead Space force you to watch minute-long intros - each time you start a new game. In Dead Space I had to fiddle with my graphics options a lot (shabby console ports are another topic though). Ok, so I have to fiddle, fine...ish, but the game won't even do an auto-save after the opening movie (and of course, no quicksave). So I start the game, watch the movie, stop the game to tweak some options, restart the game and have to watch it all again. After which I find out, more option tweaking has to be done. Same over, again I have to watch all of that intro. It just gets very very boring after the 2nd time.

Side-note: even in the actual movies they have understood that basically no one's interested in excessive credits; most big productions these days even omit any opening credits and move the major credits to the end of the film. Many game producers however seem to be going in the opposite direction.

These are my reasons for hating unskippable movies/cut scenes intros.

Let people who like them have them. But pah-lease let those who don't skip them.

EDIT:
added tag to topic title

[Mr. Falcon]

yes ofcourse this happens alot, but you answered your own question already, why? your examples rage, max payne 3, dead space are all games made for console, then ported to pc, even if pc version was released at the same time. its well documented its true too, but you can also notice it directly ingame with unskipable intros (hallmark of consoles), weapons menus with 4 weapons selections (made for d-pad selection), very limited graphics settings, abundance of qte's, 60 fov, unoptimised choppy performance even on new high end rigs while consoles run same game better, etc etc etc

i could add much more examples for that, say recently, far cry 3, dishonored, assasins creed 3, dark souls, you name it. but ofcourse stalker, serious sam, are pc games so yea. i dont know, id suggest if you really want to, usually you can make -nomovies commands in exes or delete videos, at least for intros, coudl probably be done for starting campaign movie too, but requires even more messing around to figure out than just wathing those vids again i suppose.

well its kinda sad, i mean usualy these things, devs could very easily just edit it very fast and save us lots of trouble, but opt not to. i mean for rage, unskipable movies are least of its port problems, low res close textures that plague the game, but they never released high ones for dl (clearly they could fit them on discs for consoles), patches that didnt patch anything but infact locked cvars, possibly worst launch of a game with texture pop-in problems, like they never even tested it on pc.

well i dont know, im still glad at least games are on pc for us to play, but these usual annoyances with multiplatform games why is it so hard to fix them. anyway ejnoy the game, its really not a bad one, but it certainly isnt best game id ever put out, couldve reached the heights but settled for mediorcity.

[BONKERS]

While I agree they should be skipable. I LOVE THEM.

Hate me if you will.

[rubregg]

@iknowFiRE
Thanks for your in-depth reply. I left the Pandora's Box of shabby console ports closed on purpose - so much can be (and has been) said about that topic, and of course you're absolutely right with your observations.

@BONKERS
Of course I don't hate you, why would I? You love cut scenes and that's fine. I don't and I'd like to skip them, that's all I'm saying.

As for Max Payne 3, you can actually skip *some* of the cut scenes, so the skipping mechanics has been built in. The fact that you can't skip the intro (with the credits - that's why I mentioned movie credits) is a deliberate design choice. They even have the nerve to blatantly lie to me when they tell me "still loading" when I press the skip button, when clearly nothing is being loaded but some stupid credits are forced onto me. It's stuff like that that pisses me off.

Yes, I will give all the games I mentioned another try eventually, because they came recommended by friends of mine whose opinion I value. I guess my approach will be along the lines of: start new game - go grocery shopping/do dishes/or whatnot - start playing.... ;)

[Mr. Falcon]

alright ive tried now, for rage, goto steam library and right click rage and set launch options and add this: +set com_skipIntroVideo 1 this will skip intros and put you right intro enter screen, for campaign intro, simply goto Steam\steamapps\common\RAGE\base\video folder and delete rage_intro.bik file. this will then put you directly into ark when you start campaign. it loads abit btw, trying to find video, black screen for couple sec.

oh yea before i forgot to mention the most annoying port issue, the damned mouse acceleration in menus, which is ofcourse tailored for gamepads, and rage sure has it, add this into launch options too +m_smooth 0 +m_rawinput 1 , it kinda is better i guess. well and +cvaradd g_fov 25 for better fov, if you go above 30, youll see choped off hands :)

damn im still debating whether i should buy scorchers and replay whole game or not, i mean ive watched some playthroughs and they did exactly what i feared when i played game 1 year ago, mysterious locked doors all over the map that give you prompts but cant be accesed and now with dlc suprise suprise, you can enter those areas. i know they said they cut scorchers from the original game and now probably finished and added them back, but its really obvious. at least they didnt add some stupid trials dlc or something, i guess ill wait for price drop. well enjoy the game properly with these fixes

[Atech66]

Ya i like the scenes because it tells you the story and then people complain there is no depth to the game.. but they should be skippable unless there is a reason such as serving as a loading screen etc. i would venture the majority enjoy them. its 30-60 seconds you'll never get back.. 0_o the game runs perfectly for me.. much better than a year ago so i restarted from the beginning and have already noticed alot i missed the first time. controls wise it feels no different than any other shooter basically imo. The dlc is was completely worth it in my book.

[rubregg]

@iknowFiRE
Wow, thank you very much for that detailed information, will try that out for sure. Much much appreciated. :)

@Atech66
I'm certainly not complaining about depth to the game if I skip all cut scenes. I'll possibly even watch them once, "once" being the important word here. On a replay I would not want to watch them again, so having the option is all I'm asking. [And the Stalker example I mentioned shows that you can very well have depth in a game without cut scenes.)

EDIT / UPDATE:
The fixes iknowFiRE provided 2 posts above work. Thanks again, great help!

[[SGDN] Guardian]

I don't like unskippable intros, but RAGE's intro is actually one of my favorites, mostly because the Apophis theme, so I don't have any problem with it in this case. It's giving a good atmosphere at the beginning, plus its not a long one at all.

[Buffalo Bill Cosby]

type -novid in your launch options. Right click on the game, go to properties, then i think its called launch options or something. -high = make game run as high priority. theres stuff for no forced mouse acceleration. It's a steam thing, google the rest and see what you like.

You can copy mine if you like. gtx 570 i5 16 gigs ram.

+cvaradd g_fov 12 +com_skipIntroVideo 1 +image_anisotropy 16 +image_usecompression 0 +g_showplayershadow 1 +m_smooth 1 +mem_phymemblocksizem 3072

[Buffalo Bill Cosby]

+com_skipIntroVideo 1 specifically

[rubregg]

Ah, more cvar tweaks for launch options. Thanks PlayGroundLegend, I will certainly toy around with those.

Side note: I'm not sure, but isn't -novid a Source Engine thing? I haven't tried it here yet, but I have set +com_skipIntroVideo 1 and that one works.

EDIT:
hehe, ^^ both posted at the same time

[PowerHaus930]

Here is a link to a few websites that tell you how to create a custom config file for RAGE. http://www.dsogaming.com/editorial/rage-pc-how-to-adjust-some-graphical-settings/ I used this config as a base and tweaked a few things and the game looks alot better now in my opinion. There are two other websites you may want to check out as well. http://www.gamepur.com/news/5615-rage-pc-version-tips-adjust-graphical-settings.html and http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1255064 I hope this is helpful for some of you!!!

[rubregg]

Let me add this very useful launch option:
+set com_allowconsole 1

This allows to access the console ingame, toggle the console with "~" on english keyboards, "ö" on german ones. Console gives easy access to all cvars.

Also I find it very comfortable to bind the "quit" command to a key, for exiting the game without going through the exit menu.

+bind "[key]" "quit" <--- leave out brackets, but use the "" (I put this into a config file, but should work as launch option too)


EDIT:
hahaha, again two posts at roughly the same time. Thanks powerhaus930, these are very helpful indeed.

[Mr. Falcon]

ah yes good graphics tweaks, i got some other i got in these forums 1 year ago, dunno where but i saved them in notepad so cant give credit to creator, but here


+cvaradd r_UseDynamicEnvironment -1
what this does is removes that yellow post-processing effect that tries to simulate sunlight
http://i.imgur.com/9cBqH.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/XzLxE.jpg

+cvaradd vehicle_birdsView 1
makes driving vehicles like gta 1 or deathrally

another one for changing how health is handled
+cvaradd g_playerHealthIncDelay #
+cvaradd g_playerHealthPerSecond #
+cvaradd g_playerHealthRegenDelay #

where # is what you want in seconds i think, for instance making regendelay 9999999999 disables health regen entirely, can only heal with badages then

if you want uber difficulty for nightmare: (dont really recommend this, id go with regen disable myself)
+cvaradd player_difficultyDamageScaleNightmare 3.5
+cvaradd ai_vehicle_difficultyDamageScaleNightmare 4
+cvaradd player_vehicle_difficultyDamageScaleNightmare 3.5
+cvaradd ai_accuracy 2

for movement:
+cvarAdd pm_sprintspeed #
+cvarAdd pm_runspeed #
+cvarAdd pm_walkspeed #
+cvarAdd pm_crouchspeed #
+cvarAdd pm_jumpheight #

for infinite sprint
+cvarAdd pm_sprintMaxTime 99999999

removing pickup ammo highlighting
+cvaradd r_highlightfrequency -0.75

disable headbob
+cvaradd pm_noBob 1

minimap scale to make it further/closer (want bigger when in vehicle)
+cvaradd swf_minimap_scale_foot #
+cvaradd swf_minimap_scale_vehicle #

for mouse in menus:
+cvaradd m_menu_sensitivity -0.1

also for hold crouch instead of default toggle:
+cvaradd pm_crouchToggle -1

so i think thats all i got. but one thing id really want to change is default hold to aim, it would be nice if it were toggle, but i never found a command to do it, seen people say its in the settings, but i dont see it. anyone knows how to do this?

[Mister Torgue Flexington]

Publicado originalmente por iknowFiRE:

alright ive tried now, for rage, goto steam library and right click rage and set launch options and add this: +set com_skipIntroVideo 1 this will skip intros and put you right intro enter screen, for campaign intro, simply goto Steam\steamapps\common\RAGE\base\video folder and delete rage_intro.bik file. this will then put you directly into ark when you start campaign. it loads abit btw, trying to find video, black screen for couple sec.

oh yea before i forgot to mention the most annoying port issue, the damned mouse acceleration in menus, which is ofcourse tailored for gamepads, and rage sure has it, add this into launch options too +m_smooth 0 +m_rawinput 1 , it kinda is better i guess. well and +cvaradd g_fov 25 for better fov, if you go above 30, youll see choped off hands :)

damn im still debating whether i should buy scorchers and replay whole game or not, i mean ive watched some playthroughs and they did exactly what i feared when i played game 1 year ago, mysterious locked doors all over the map that give you prompts but cant be accesed and now with dlc suprise suprise, you can enter those areas. i know they said they cut scorchers from the original game and now probably finished and added them back, but its really obvious. at least they didnt add some stupid trials dlc or something, i guess ill wait for price drop. well enjoy the game properly with these fixes

Damn dude, the Scorchers DLC is only $4.99 and totally worth it. Especially if you're lucky enough to buy a brand-new copy of "Rage" from Amazon or something, and turns out to be the Anarchy Edition (which is what I also have).