How to disable Loading Screen download on launch

[Myranna]

Just fyi for those that don't know: there's a python launcher you could try (don't know if it would work with macs, but I think it would) and I still use an old bash script myself.

Thread here:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...m-command-line

I haven't tried it, but it should work. bash and python come standard with OS X. I used to help test OpenRPG on OS X, which is entirely built in Python. Got to be a pain when the versions of Python and wxPython didn't play right though.

The pathing will definitely NOT be the same as Windows though, guess I should try it and find out what needs to be changed.

[Myranna]

I haven't tried it, but it should work. bash and python come standard with OS X. I used to help test OpenRPG on OS X, which is entirely built in Python. Got to be a pain when the versions of Python and wxPython didn't play right though.

The pathing will definitely NOT be the same as Windows though, guess I should try it and find out what needs to be changed.

After some testing, the script really doesn't work on OS X. The directory structure on Windows is too different from an OS X .app

I'm sure if I messed with it enough I could probably get it functioning, but I just don't have the incentive to do so right now.

[nem108]

I followed the advice in this thread and changed both of the download.xml lists to the blank versions. The updater is still down loading all the splash files. After an hour 45 minutes im stuck on Fr screen 5. The game is essentially unplayable since it takes me at least 2 hours to log in on a successfull attempt. Does anyone have a fix that works? Im playing using OSX or not playing as the case is

[Kaytis]

I followed the advice in this thread and changed both of the download.xml lists to the blank versions. The updater is still down loading all the splash files. After an hour 45 minutes im stuck on Fr screen 5. The game is essentially unplayable since it takes me at least 2 hours to log in on a successfull attempt. Does anyone have a fix that works? Im playing using OSX or not playing as the case is

There is something more generally wrong if it's taking two hours to download the splash screens. Most of us here are trying to save a few seconds by avoiding them -not a few hours. Unfortunately I can't begin to imagine what the problem might be. I would suggest you start by verifying your hard drive using /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. If that shows nothing, you need to consider potential game corruption issues, and lastly potential network issues. None of these seem all that likely to me, but something is certainly off somewhere.

[jphilrose]

On my Macbook Pro, the DownloadFilesList.xml tricks mentioned here used to work, but no longer. An older way to fix this problem does work, and that is to lock the english version of the splash screen file, then unlock when you want to update.

I created a couple of scripts that will take care of this:

open a text/script editor and enter the following line:

sudo SetFile -a L /Applications/dndLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/raw/en/logo/ddo_module_splash.jpg


NOTE: This uses the directory where DDO currently puts this file on my machine. Your configuration may be different. If it isn't in this location, you'll have to search around on your machine to find it.

-a means change a file attribute
-L means change the lock attribute to "locked".

Save this as a Plain Text file with the name "ddoscreen_lock.command" (make sure there is no .txt extension added). I put this in my home directory, you can put the where ever (or name them whatever, but you need the .command extension if you want to run them from Finder).

Create a second file with this line of text:

sudo SetFile -a l /Applications/dndLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/raw/en/logo/ddo_module_splash.jpg


This just changes the "L" to "l" (lower case) which means unlock the file.

Save this as a Plain Text file with the name "ddoscreen_unlock.command" (make sure there is no .txt extension added).

Open a terminal and cd to the location you saved these files. Then make them executable with the following 2 commands:

sudo chmod 777 ddoscreen_lock.command

chmod 777 ddoscreen_unlock.command


Now you can either click on these from Finder window or run them from terminal: "./ddoscreen_lock.command"
It will ask for your admin password.


More on Finding the files: If the ddo_module_splash is not in the directory indicated above, you may be able to find these files by opening a terminal window and entering the following commands:

cd /Applications/dndLauncher.app
find . -name ddo_module_splash.jpg

Use the path of the one in the "en" subdirectory.

If this still doesn't work, run the same "find" command from your user directory (cd ~) or from your root directory (this may take a while).

Change the scripts above to use your correct directory...

[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

[brett.schuchert]

On my Macbook Pro, the DownloadFilesList.xml tricks mentioned here used to work, but no longer. An older way to fix this problem does work, and that is to lock the english version of the splash screen file, then unlock when you want to update.

I created a couple of scripts that will take care of this:

open a text/script editor and enter the following line:

sudo SetFile -a L /Applications/dndLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/raw/en/logo/ddo_module_splash.jpg


NOTE: This uses the directory where DDO currently puts this file on my machine. Your configuration may be different. If it isn't in this location, you'll have to search around on your machine to find it.

-a means change a file attribute
-L means change the lock attribute to "locked".

Save this as a Plain Text file with the name "ddoscreen_lock.command" (make sure there is no .txt extension added). I put this in my home directory, you can put the where ever (or name them whatever, but you need the .command extension if you want to run them from Finder).

Create a second file with this line of text:

sudo SetFile -a l /Applications/dndLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/dndclient.app/Contents/Resources/raw/en/logo/ddo_module_splash.jpg


This just changes the "L" to "l" (lower case) which means unlock the file.

Save this as a Plain Text file with the name "ddoscreen_unlock.command" (make sure there is no .txt extension added).

Open a terminal and cd to the location you saved these files. Then make them executable with the following 2 commands:

sudo chmod 777 ddoscreen_lock.command

chmod 777 ddoscreen_unlock.command


Now you can either click on these from Finder window or run them from terminal: "./ddoscreen_lock.command"
It will ask for your admin password.


More on Finding the files: If the ddo_module_splash is not in the directory indicated above, you may be able to find these files by opening a terminal window and entering the following commands:

cd /Applications/dndLauncher.app
find . -name ddo_module_splash.jpg

Use the path of the one in the "en" subdirectory.

If this still doesn't work, run the same "find" command from your user directory (cd ~) or from your root directory (this may take a while).

Change the scripts above to use your correct directory...

I reinstalled the client from scratch March 25th and just tried this. It appears to skip the updating of those files.

[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