How to disable Loading Screen download on launch

[PwnHammer40K]

This was a very annoying situation on Windows too. I guess they want to make sure we see the latest ads and offers every time we want to play the game, but it's unnecessarily slow especially when the launcher insists on downloading the loading screens for ALL the languages.

Anyway, here's how to disable it on Mac OS X:

• Select the Dungeons & Dragons icon in your Applications folder,
  
  
• Control-click or Right-click and choose Show Package Contents.
  
  
• From inside the app package, navigate to Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/
  
  
• and select the DownloadFilesList.xml file in there and make a backup copy of it, just in case.
  
  
• Edit DownloadFilesList.xml to the following:
  

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <FileList>
  </FileList>

• Save it then Get Info on that file (⌘I) and check Locked to make it read-only.
  
  
• Enjoy your new instant Launcher.
  

You may need to uncheck Locked before a game update to let it download any new splash screens.

TL;DR: Edit the /Applications/DNDLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/DownloadFilesList.xml to have a blank <FileList> element then Lock that file to make it read-only. (at least I think "DNDLauncher.app" was the original name before I renamed it.)

[Pwesiela]

Now, how do you do it for a PC so I can keep my custom load screens?

[Carpone]

Awesome, thank you very much!

[GentlemanAndAScholar]

This was a very annoying situation on Windows too. I guess they want to make sure we see the latest ads and offers every time we want to play the game, but it's unnecessarily slow especially when the launcher insists on downloading the loading screens for ALL the languages.

Anyway, here's how to disable it on Mac OS X:

• Select the Dungeons & Dragons icon in your Applications folder,
  
  
• Control-click or Right-click and choose Show Package Contents.
  
  
• From inside the app package, navigate to Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/
  
  
• and select the DownloadFilesList.xml file in there and make a backup copy of it, just in case.
  
  
• Edit DownloadFilesList.xml to the following:
  

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <FileList>
  </FileList>

• Save it then Get Info on that file (⌘I) and check Locked to make it read-only.
  
  
• Enjoy your new instant Launcher.
  

You may need to uncheck Locked before a game update to let it download any new splash screens.

TL;DR: Edit the /Applications/DNDLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/DownloadFilesList.xml to have a blank <FileList> element then Lock that file to make it read-only. (at least I think "DNDLauncher.app" was the original name before I renamed it.)

Funny, I was literally about to post this info. I found it last night by trial and error. That's such an annoying feature. Sheesh.

[mjayg]

Great tip, thank you!

[Valamar]

For what it's worth...

The Cause of the multiple updates is "simple."

The Mac Client (both for DDO and LOTRO) was written by people who have no knowledge of OSX.

If you look at the contents of the file described above: DownloadFilesList.xml, you will quickly realize that the <FileName> being searched for are all in Windows format...
" raw\en\logo\lotro_ad_pregame.jpg"

Note the back-slashes "\" in the file names, so naturally, they can never be found under OSX.
While the back-slash is not an illegal character in an OSX file name, it has a completely different meaning to OSX than it has to any version of windows.

Compare the "FileName" parameter to the <DownloadUrl> parameter on the next line -- THAT filename is in correct format for OSX or any non-Windows operating system.

That being said, an alternative fix, which will cause only the UPDATED files to be downloaded, is to edit that file changing all "\" to "/", rather than deleting the contents as in the above suggestion.

Both techniques work to stop the downloading of all 30 screens on every launch, but this technique does allow the changed screens to be updated.

Note that both DDO and LOTRO use the same MacClient. The difference is in the Plist files.
(I'm a Founder/Lifetimer with both DDO and LOTRO, but play LOTRO most of the time.)

[~Kaytis]

That's a great tip Valamar. It really speeds up the launching sequence and still gets the new screens when they change. Here are some commands you can type into /Applications/Utilities/Terminal to correct the file, and to lock it to stop future updates from undoing the corrections:

dlFilesList=/Applications/DNDLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/DownloadFilesList.xml
sed -i.bak 's;\\;/;g' ${dlFilesList}
chflags uchg ${dlFilesList}

To unlock the file you can do this:

dlFilesList=/Applications/DNDLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/DownloadFilesList.xml
chflags nouchg ${dlFilesList}

[Myranna]

Seems safe to remove the sections that apply to the language not being used as well, there's really no reason you'd need that at all. Just keep the languages that WOULD be used on the computer

[Doop]

Thanks for this; really speed up initial load times.

[Dimwhit1]

For what it's worth...

The Cause of the multiple updates is "simple."

The Mac Client (both for DDO and LOTRO) was written by people who have no knowledge of OSX.

If you look at the contents of the file described above: DownloadFilesList.xml, you will quickly realize that the <FileName> being searched for are all in Windows format...
" raw\en\logo\lotro_ad_pregame.jpg"

Note the back-slashes "\" in the file names, so naturally, they can never be found under OSX.
While the back-slash is not an illegal character in an OSX file name, it has a completely different meaning to OSX than it has to any version of windows.

Compare the "FileName" parameter to the <DownloadUrl> parameter on the next line -- THAT filename is in correct format for OSX or any non-Windows operating system.

That being said, an alternative fix, which will cause only the UPDATED files to be downloaded, is to edit that file changing all "\" to "/", rather than deleting the contents as in the above suggestion.

Both techniques work to stop the downloading of all 30 screens on every launch, but this technique does allow the changed screens to be updated.

Note that both DDO and LOTRO use the same MacClient. The difference is in the Plist files.
(I'm a Founder/Lifetimer with both DDO and LOTRO, but play LOTRO most of the time.)

You, sir, are a saint. And my favorite person of the day. Thanks!

[oberon131313]

If you have the new Mac client that uses the DDO Installer (the one that doesn't actually install 'Dungeons and Dragons Online' into your Applications folder), you'll need to go instead to /Users/Shared/Happycloud/Cache/DNDLauncher.app/Contents/Resources

[Skyrunner]

with the last update (U23) the luncher is downloading again all that ****, but the donwload-list file is unchanged, still a blank list, anyone got this problem?

[murphy30]

The reason this happens is that the devs are using a file called DownloadFilesList.txt that lies in the game's directory to check version of splash screens against their current version.
The problem is that they wrote the paths all wrong. They are using relative paths: "raw\en....."
I'm a programmer and there are 2 things wrong here:
you should never use "\" in paths strings. always use "/". that cause it to be cross platform.
secondly, the dev forgot to add one more "\" at the beginning of the strings. so when they search they search for (for example):
"c:\games\ddo" <--- game's directory
"raw\en...." <--- relative path
which when you concat them turns to: "c:\games\ddoraw\en"... which doesn't exist.
This explanation, I hope, will make the devs finally fix that bug. In the meantime, for all your players out there do the following:
go to that file i mentioned, delete all the files (including the corresponding opening <file> and enclosing </file> tags) for all languages you dont care for. leave the language you care for and add a "\" at the beginning of each file right before the word "raw" (if you are on mac add a "/" and not a "\").
save
right click on the file and mark "read-only".
from now on ddo cannot touch that file and it will always make sure your relevant splash screens are up to date without annoying you each time you start the launcher.

devs, it's easy to fix, plz do.

[Tylaric]

I downloaded the play as you install version which changes the paths a bit..

For me the path to the file was:

Users/Shared/Happycloud/Cache/Dungeons and Dragons Online.app (right click, show package contents)

Then

Contents/Resources/Dungeons and Dragons Online.app (right click, show package contents)

Then

Contents/Resources/DownloadFilesList.xml (edit as posted above)

Confirmed working great - U20 / Mac OSX 10.9

[Grecan]

In the meantime, for all your players out there do the following:
go to that file i mentioned, delete all the files (including the corresponding opening <file> and enclosing </file> tags) for all languages you dont care for. leave the language you care for and add a "\" at the beginning of each file right before the word "raw" (if you are on mac add a "/" and not a "\").
save
right click on the file and mark "read-only".
from now on ddo cannot touch that file and it will always make sure your relevant splash screens are up to date without annoying you each time you start the launcher.

Thanks, i fixed it this way

I'm a programmer and there are 2 things wrong here:
you should never use "\" in paths strings. always use "/". that cause it to be cross platform.
secondly, the dev forgot to add one more "\" at the beginning of the strings. so when they search they search for (for example):
"c:\games\ddo" <--- game's directory
"raw\en...." <--- relative path
which when you concat them turns to: "c:\games\ddoraw\en"... which doesn't exist.
This explanation, I hope, will make the devs finally fix that bug.

devs, it's easy to fix, plz do.

I think this is really a tiny bug, but i wonder why they don't fix it, and, maybe most importantly, why they made those mistakes in the first place...

[jwelch]

The reason this happens is that the devs are using a file called DownloadFilesList.txt that lies in the game's directory to check version of splash screens against their current version.
The problem is that they wrote the paths all wrong. They are using relative paths: "raw\en....."
I'm a programmer and there are 2 things wrong here:
you should never use "\" in paths strings. always use "/". that cause it to be cross platform.
secondly, the dev forgot to add one more "\" at the beginning of the strings. so when they search they search for (for example):
"c:\games\ddo" <--- game's directory
"raw\en...." <--- relative path
which when you concat them turns to: "c:\games\ddoraw\en"... which doesn't exist.
This explanation, I hope, will make the devs finally fix that bug. In the meantime, for all your players out there do the following:
go to that file i mentioned, delete all the files (including the corresponding opening <file> and enclosing </file> tags) for all languages you dont care for. leave the language you care for and add a "\" at the beginning of each file right before the word "raw" (if you are on mac add a "/" and not a "\").
save
right click on the file and mark "read-only".
from now on ddo cannot touch that file and it will always make sure your relevant splash screens are up to date without annoying you each time you start the launcher.

devs, it's easy to fix, plz do.

I would really recommend not sticking a "/" in front of raw on a mac, because then you're technically telling the client to look for a directory named "raw" at the root of your boot drive. Simply changing the "\" to "/" takes care of things rather well.

[HawkFest]

I would really recommend not sticking a "/" in front of raw on a mac, because then you're technically telling the client to look for a directory named "raw" at the root of your boot drive. Simply changing the "\" to "/" takes care of things rather well.

Same thing on a PC : "\" at the beginning means to start from the root of the current partition. There are two ways to start from the current directory : either without anything, either begin with ".\" (the dot means current directory in a tree, while two dots would mean the parent directory). To make sure, verify that the shortcut's parameter "Starts in" has the correct path as the root of these, but it shouldn't be required.

Anyways, I've emptied DownloadFilesList.xml but it doesn't work (still loading), and I can't fins that txt file that is mentioned above

[OnkelAIA]

This was a very annoying situation on Windows too. I guess they want to make sure we see the latest ads and offers every time we want to play the game, but it's unnecessarily slow especially when the launcher insists on downloading the loading screens for ALL the languages.

Anyway, here's how to disable it on Mac OS X:

• Select the Dungeons & Dragons icon in your Applications folder,
  
  
• Control-click or Right-click and choose Show Package Contents.
  
  
• From inside the app package, navigate to Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/
  
  
• and select the DownloadFilesList.xml file in there and make a backup copy of it, just in case.
  
  
• Edit DownloadFilesList.xml to the following:
  

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <FileList>
  </FileList>

• Save it then Get Info on that file (?I) and check Locked to make it read-only.
  
  
• Enjoy your new instant Launcher.
  

You may need to uncheck Locked before a game update to let it download any new splash screens.

TL;DR: Edit the /Applications/DNDLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/DownloadFilesList.xml to have a blank <FileList> element then Lock that file to make it read-only. (at least I think "DNDLauncher.app" was the original name before I renamed it.)

So...

I installed DDO recently through Steam. WHen starting the game, I had to click yes on 2 seperate installations... one for steam, and one for Visual C Redist. And then there is the loadingscreens.

I notice this is mostly on Mac and that I am on a windows machine, but I cannot find any DownloadFilesList.xml in my game folders, OR the user folders. I do however find a UserPreference.ini mentioning the files. IF anyone could pop up the path for the windows client I'll be a happy camper