Intensely Annoying Load Screens

[Scarbo]

I don't recall ever playing a game that you couldn't ESCAPE out of the annoying load screens when starting it up. Congratulations to 2K, which has lost no opportunity to make one of the greatest games of all time also one of the most irritating. Astounding as it may seem to the Rhodes Scholars at 2K, I don't need to see copyright warnings in six languages every time I start the game, nor do I need constant reminders of just how cool Nvidia is. I searched through a couple of days of posts and can find nothing on this. Is there a way to get past these ridiculous screens?

[AJ Rimmer]

you get my vote...always hated the long start screens.and hitting the esc/space/enter jkeys with no result feels like being forced fed ads.

nobody reads them,they dont make us rush out and buy an nvidia card and they certainly dont need to remind us who made the game.

though i do like the ones that are nice to watch,when they have had effort put into them.

[Kyorisu]

Find and delete the related .bik files or replace them with 0 byte files.

2KG_logo_720P.bik is one I think.

[Electrobolt]

I searched through a couple of days of posts and can find nothing on this. Is there a way to get past these ridiculous screens?

Alternatively, add:

-nointro

to the target on your Bioshock shortcut. That will launch the game straight to the menu.

[Ex0n]

someone make this thread a sticky please :p

[AJ Rimmer]

faith in forum membership goes up 20 points...thanks guys n gals.

click...play

thats the way i like it

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rosettahome/clap.gif

[SliderFury]

Alternatively, add:

-nointro

to the target on your Bioshock shortcut. That will launch the game straight to the menu.

What, are you serious, that works? It's the simple? Would it work with any game, or...?

[MediaThrall]

What, are you serious, that works? It's the simple? Would it work with any game, or...?

No - command arguments are specific to each game. Studios usually each have their own arguments they like to use, so you may find that a keyword in a game may be used by several other games that developer has created.

[SliderFury]

No - command arguments are specific to each game. Studios usually each have their own arguments they like to use, so you may find that a keyword in a game may be used by several other games that developer has created.

But it works with this game!? Sweet! :D (thanks btw)

[AJ Rimmer]

Find and delete the related .bik files or replace them with 0 byte files.

2KG_logo_720P.bik is one I think.

any idea what the others are ?

[MediaThrall]

Yuppers seems to work.

Note though that it's fairly common in next-gen games to use these intro videos as a cover-up while the game is loading and initializing data from the disc and/or harddrive. Some games don't allow you to skip their intros because they need that time to load data. So you can essentially either watch their video or look at a blank screen that appears as if it's non-responsive. The developers make the aesthetic and obvious choice. That choice, however, doesn't cater too well to planning for the future - when systems will be able to load data and initialize it faster. You'd still have to watch their intro videos even if you can load the game in half a second. So command arguments are very handy :)

So if you use this for BioShock you may see hitching before it loads the main menu as it's loading data. I'm not sure - it loads pretty quickly on my system.

RE: Thread-starter: It's pretty poor behavior, in my opinion, to just blast a game on the publisher's forum because you find the intro videos annoying when you have no understanding as to why things are the way they are. To assume that such-and-such feature was just put in without any thought to the end-user is ignorance. They're not doing it to annoy you - there's nothing to gain from aggravating you. A great deal of work and thought goes into just these sorts of issues.

And, all in all, load screens are a really miniscule part of the game. It's sort of silly for it to have such a drastic influence on your opinion of the game.

[UNATCOII]

What, are you serious, that works? It's the simple? Would it work with any game, or...?

Renaming .bik videos (or renaming the file directory) is a common work around to the beginning intros.

Saves about 3 minutes of load time alone.

[UNATCOII]

RE: Thread-starter: It's pretty poor behavior, in my opinion, to just blast a game on the publisher's forum because you find the intro videos annoying when you have no understanding as to why things are the way they are. To assume that such-and-such feature was just put in without any thought to the end-user is ignorance. They're not doing it to annoy you - there's nothing to gain from aggravating you. A great deal of work and thought goes into just these sorts of issues.

And, all in all, load screens are a really miniscule part of the game. It's sort of silly for it to have such a drastic influence on your opinion of the game.

How much are you being paid to state such trash?

I've seen fanbois in my day, but this forum has w-a-y too many that are so peachy, even of intro ads. :rolleyes:

[dekarguy]

Its only the copyright screen and nVidia logo that aren't skippable, the rest of the intro logos are.

Odds are, since nVidia put a lot of funding in this game, their part of the contract was that their "Meant to be played" logo was not skippable. You can't really say no to the people helping pay the bills when its a minor inconvinience to players

[Jetau]

The '-nointro' at the end of the shortcut works perfectly, but it has to go after the quotes in the Target. Thanks to Electrobolt for this. :)

[Xiayohen]

I did the same thing for the BF2 loading screens.

Any .bik file you come across can be treated as .backup. That way it's just an empty file it'll come across when loading Bioshock.

[Scarbo]

RE: Thread-starter: It's pretty poor behavior, in my opinion, to just blast a game on the publisher's forum because you find the intro videos annoying when you have no understanding as to why things are the way they are. To assume that such-and-such feature was just put in without any thought to the end-user is ignorance. They're not doing it to annoy you - there's nothing to gain from aggravating you. A great deal of work and thought goes into just these sorts of issues.

And, all in all, load screens are a really miniscule part of the game. It's sort of silly for it to have such a drastic influence on your opinion of the game.

I was the thread-starter. Let us assume, for the sake of this discussion, that I am not a moron. I will grant you the same privilege, although the temptation to add a sarcastic qualifier is almost overwhelming. I have tried the *-nointro* fix and it works perfectly, so the loading screens were not needed for practical reasons. If I abuse 2K, it is for profoundly correct reasons. If you Google "bioshock" and "rootkit" together you will find 848,000 entries. I believe this qualifies as a big rumble throughout the net, and I am hardly alone in my disdain. It was 2K that had no better sense than to use Securom for the DRM system. Securom is owned by Sony, a business held in deep distrust by most fanboys for appropriate reasons. It was 2K that decided the game could only be activated twice, and then had to back down and change it to five immediately. It was 2K that decided to use a system that was properly, if incorrectly, identified as a rootkit by numerous utilities. It was 2K that made the decision to use DRM that it very difficult to remove once the game is done. I haven't read anything definitive on the subject, but I am far from certain that some clever hacker won't find a way to use the Securom DRM for his own nefarious ends. It was 2K that made the activation system require an internet connection and made it ridiculously counterintuitive. It took me five tries to get it right, and remember that for the sake of this discussion I am not a moron. It was 2K that printed the wrong support phone number in the game booklet. It was Elizabeth X of 2K that continually tried to address these problems in the forums, and continually got it wrong. The Bioshock launch has been a fiasco for all these reasons, and 2K has therefore been subject to condign intense ridicule. You say a great deal of thought by 2K went into the decisions made regarding Bioshock. I submit to you that the evidence strongly suggests otherwise. The game itself is fantastic, and deserved markedly better than it got from 2K.

[Antilogic81]

There are a lot of games that do this...just look at EA for proof of this.

Delete a file, and you're gravy. It's only 30 seconds of your life. You remind me of the german kid who screams and destroys his keyboard because he can't get UT to start fast enough for him.

"OMG My game is ruined because I have to wait less than a minute while I watch an add that is about 2 seconds. I'm so irritated I'm going to waste more time that I could be playing the game and ☺☺☺☺☺ about it on the forums"

Sides, this has been something that has been running rampant on the console field for a long time...you can't just fast forward through running ads that precede the game.

Oh and you can skip the 2k ads by pressing enter or spacebar or esc.

Have a nice day...

[Antilogic81]

Oh I forgot, movies do this too...you're surrounded by it...


And yes I'm getting paid to be a "secret promoter" that defends 2k with my life...I get 401k and full dental to boot.

....Real

[Scarbo]

There are a lot of games that do this...just look at EA for proof of this.

Delete a file, and you're gravy. It's only 30 seconds of your life. You remind me of the german kid who screams and destroys his keyboard because he can't get UT to start fast enough for him.

"OMG My game is ruined because I have to wait less than a minute while I watch an add that is about 2 seconds. I'm so irritated I'm going to waste more time that I could be playing the game and ☺☺☺☺☺ about it on the forums"

Sides, this has been something that has been running rampant on the console field for a long time...you can't just fast forward through running ads that precede the game.

Oh and you can skip the 2k ads by pressing enter or spacebar or esc.

Have a nice day...


While I was willing to give MediaThrall the benefit of the doubt over whether he was a moron or not, I am unable to extend the same privilege to you. I agree that it takes 30 seconds to delete a file, but it could take hours to determine which file needs to be deleted. When you write "sides," is that some idiotic contraction of "besides?" Given your displayed brainpower, I will have to assume so. Allow me to point out that just because something happens in console gaming doesn't mean that it should happen in PC gaming. I further note that, in spite of your assertions otherwise, one may NOT skip these screens by hitting ESCAPE, which was what led to my initial post that you either never read or were unable to comprehend due to your unfortunate lack of intellect. And you have a nice day also.

[Sky_Rail]

For Battle Field games they are as example:
C:\program files\Electronic Arts\Battlefield 2142\mods\bf2142\movies

Change the .bil files to something like .blk and no more annoying intro crap.

[Antilogic81]

2k ads that mention 2k on them can be skipped....you apparently don't understand my supreme intellect...and that is understandable...people fear what they can't understand...so I forgive you.

And so I will emphasize...the 2k ad where it says 2k in red...can be skipped...the 2k boston ad where the record player freezes...can also be skipped...nothing else can be skipped but these can be...obviously 2k knew that people like you would have complained if they had to wait through all of that, and they made theirs able to be skipped over. It's sad that you blame 2k for all of this when their own ads are made thusly.


Please video tape your german kid antics and post it on youtube...

[TheAlmightyTallest]

That's intense

[gunr]

My brain hurts from just reading it all. Simple post, simple fix.