SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Hi folks,

Is there a way to disable the Strat First and Malfador splash screens before the game loads up?

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Rob aka dethgod74

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

I was under the impression that hitting any key worked. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Hi Captain,

I was hoping for something I could do to the command line in the desktop icon, so starting it would go directly to the game.

Regards,

Rob aka dethgod74

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

The Mod Launcher by Matryx will load a game directly.

Download:
SE:IV Launcher

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Thanks Captain! Most appreciated!

Regards,

Rob aka dethgod74

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Personally, I'd recommend my mod launcher over Matryx'. It features a number of improvements, such as:

- Acts as a normal window. This means you can resize and move it around.
- Double clicking on a mod name is equivalent to hitting Launch SE4 button.
- Double clicking on a savegame name is equivalent to hitting Load Game button. You can also hit enter to run the savegame when the cursor is in the player number or password boxes.
- You can specify an alternate mod path. This is useful if you prefer to keep all of your mods in a Mods folder.
- You can process turns as host directly from the interface, without changing the player number and password every time you want to play the turn, then process it manually.
- You do not have to run the launcher from the SE4 folder. If you do not, it will check the default installation locations. If this fails, it will provide a prompt to specify a location.
- Savegames are listed in a tree view, categorized by mod folder name.
- When you select a savegame, the date last played will be displayed in the status bar.

Fyron's Mod Launcher download link.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Fyron's Mod Launcher

The program requires the .NET Framework 2.0.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/Sick.gif

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Using SE4 v1.91 works great to avoid the splash screens.

You only need deluxe to process turns, and only if the mod includes anti-missile missiles.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Right, it use modern technology, rather than shoddy c++ com32 api programming from a decade ago.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

I have never understood why people are so annoyed at those splash screens. Strategy First added a whopping two clicks to starting a game that takes dozens of clicks per turn, and at least a couple hundred per play session (in solo). How can people who think that two clicks is an intolerable slowdown even play 4X games?

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Negative. Value. Added.

On purpose, no less.
Shrapnel wouldn't have done that to us.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

So it wasn't Shrapnel Games that added a splash screen to Star Fury?

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

There is a difference between having a splash screen the whole time, and adding one (well two) after a long while.

Removing a feature is far more noticable.

The least it could do is load the modfiles in the background instead of doing nothing at all until you click or it times out.
It is a pity that so many programs don't start right away when you click go. Just get a move on, show the logos in a nonintrusive way that dosen't slow things down, I say. Take pride in your work, but not on my time.

I know this is out of proportion, but its a pet peeve of mine.
So, I stick with 1.91 as an upgrade from 1.94+ where possible.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

But to be fair, it was more of a MM thing then an SFI thing - you can cleary see Aaron's preference for the start menu thing and splashes from Dungeon Odyssey onwards.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

True.
It is far too easy to shift blame.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

I cannot think of a single commercially released game that behaves the way you want.

Did you expect Strategy First to buy the IP, but never mention anywhere that they're the publisher now?

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Great mod launcher program Fyron.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Not at all Cap'n.
I wouldn't mind at all if they had a modest logo on the intro screen. We've got a decent amount of time waiting for the game to load all the datafiles, and that is prime time for having a logo.

I do take offense with a full screen ad that stops the game from loading the whole time it is up.
I've seen some games with 5-8 ads at the beginning... and I'm certainly not going to buy them. If it is ad supported, so be it, but don't expect me to buy it too. One form of payment is enough for me.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Nothing wrong with using C++ Win32/COM. It was, and still is, useful. In fact, you can do all the features you listed for your modlauncher with that "decade old" technology. As a bonus, it doesn't require users to download a 280MB VM framework (and that's just the x86 version! IA-64 is more than double that), it will just run with the *.exe. Takes less memory, too.

"Modern Technology" ain't always all it's cracked up to be.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

When adding a custom icon to your .exe doubles the size of the download, you know you're doing good.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Will said:
"Nothing wrong with using C++ Win32/COM."

By nothing, I assume you mean everything. Its a horrible mess.

"In fact, you can do all the features you listed for your modlauncher with that "decade old" technology."

Never implied you couldn't. It would just involve a lot of headaches dealing with the win32 API.

"As a bonus, it doesn't require users to download a 280MB VM framework (and that's just the x86 version!"

Uhh... Its a 22.4 MB download. Where do you see downloading 280 MB??

"Takes less memory, too."

14 MB instead of 5 MB ram. Oh noes. If 11 MB of ram is a real concern when you are playing SE4, you have some serious hardware issues.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

If you don't understand what the parts of the Win32 API are for, then yes, it may seem like a mess. And yes, there are some parts that are unnecessarily hairy. But the same thing can be said about parts of dotNET.

The 22.4MB download is not the entire download. That's the part that checks for previously installed versions, hardware profiles, etc. and then queues up the rest of the framework for download and integration/compilation. So if you're upgrading from 1.0 to 2.0, it doesn't need to re-download all the backwards compatible stuff. The framework itself is 280MB for the x86 version. And those 280MB need to come from somewhere.

And less memory usage is a good thing. Even 11MB is worth quibbling over, especially for a rather trivial application like a modlauncher. Because there are lots of those trivial little applications, and if all of them begin using triple the RAM they needed, you very quickly run into performance issues.

Anyway, you should probably give Win32 another shot, it seems like you've had bad experiences. Especially for an app like this, the difference between coding with .NET and with "old technology" is practically zero. Any decent visual editor will take care of all the messy GUI bits, and you can just fill in the actual logic. Which really only consists of overwriting a text file with a given relative path, and calling a run() method that optionally includes a saved file in the command switches. And doing that is virtually identical between the COM and .NET interfaces.

Unless your major complaint is making the GUIs, which means you aren't using visual editors, and also that you're masochistic enough to hand-code that stuff. To which I have to say, "Good God man, you have better uses of your time!" Let the machines handle that mundane stuff.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

"But the same thing can be said about parts of dotNET."

Indeed. However, those tend to be arcane issues with very specific parts of the language set, rather than right up front at the basic starting point.

Visual Studio doesn't seem very good at taking care of the messy bits when dealing with COM guis... It doesn't even bother to start you off with a frame in the window where you can use the visual editor; you have to manually set that up and deal with the hWnd madness.

"Because there are lots of those trivial little applications, and if all of them begin using triple the RAM they needed, you very quickly run into performance issues."

Sure, if you needed to run 100 of them at a time, all the time...

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

compromise... use .NET and call functions from the unmanaged COM dll's http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

On further thought, I own at least two games that don't even let you click through the corporate logo splash; they won't respond until the intro movie starts.

Matryx's launcher is sufficient for my needs; Fyron's' feature list seems like overkill to me.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

I tried to accommodate all the crazy configurations people use. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

Doom and Warcraft come to mind.

Re: SE 4: Disabling Splash Screens?
 

I should also add that the inability to move Matryx' mod launcher around on the screen is what prompted me to make my own in the first place. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif