How to remove Loading Screen after a teleport

[Jerba]

Whenever you quickly move to a new room (e.g. via Quick Travel or teleport), the game may briefly show the loading screen while it is loading the environment. If you have a slow computer, this can take a few seconds and can lead to a wipe on certain boss fights (1st boss S&V, 3rd boss DP).

 

Fortunately, SWTOR offers an easy way to change the loading screen. You can find it under:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars-The Old Republic\swtor\retailclient\LoadingScreens\LoadingScreen.jpg

You probably know that you can replace this file by any image of your choosing to create a custom loading screen (make sure to do a backup before you change it though). However, what you may not know is that you can also just delete or rename this file to something like LoadingScreen2.jpg. That way, whenever the game wants to overlay the loading screen, it cannot find the file and you will be able to see the game just fine. Boom, no more loading screen! For a few seconds, it may appear as if you are standing in space, but at least you can see the world and the interface faster.

 

So in case your raid group has problems with this, I hope this workaround will help.

 

Edit: WARNING: When you are deleting or renaming the LoadingScreen.jpg file, the launcher will stuck at 0% installation the next time you are installing a patch. So make sure to always rename it to the old name before you do an update; then once the update is finished, you can once again rename it to LoadingScreen2.jpg.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Jerba

[KeyboardNinja]

Awesome.

[Prototypemind]

Good money. On most Ops this isn't a problem, but it's become a bit of a headache on the Past/Present/Future fight on DP. I'd buy a better PC but it's just not worthwhile at this point considering that this is the only game I play in what little free time I have.

[Gardimuer]

Thanks for sharing this work around. It's a bit disconcerting not having a loading screen before character selection, but otherwise this is extremely useful. It's already improved my quality of of life as main tank or healer on a few Dread Palace runs.

[valeita]

thanks

[Jerba]

I feel obligated to report that this may break the game for you. Sorry if I caused anyone trouble with this.

 

When I tried to update via the launcher today, the installation for the Game Client was stuck at 0%, and I am assuming that it is related to having renamed the LoadingScreen.jpg file. So when you have renamed the file, make sure to rename it back before you do a patch. After the patch has finished, you can once again rename it to a different name.

Edited November 19, 2013 by Jerba

[ceazare]

Same here, it wouldn't install until I renamed LoadingScreen2.jpg to original LoadingScreen.jpg.

[Darkondo]

Any reason when I rename it back to what it was that i'm still stuck at 0%?

[prairieprof]

Well this really isn't a good work around if you break the patch updates. Is it?

[atschai]

Better still: Replace with an empty text file. Seems to work fine.

This way the launcher can still find the file when patching.

Edited January 6, 2014 by atschai

[Jerba]

Well this really isn't a good work around if you break the patch updates. Is it?

Of course it is not nice that this breaks the patching, but I think it is still worth it. Once you have removed your loading screen, you'll never look back. It is so much more pleasant to immediately see everything after a teleport instead of having to wait and stare at the loading screen.

 

Better still: Replace with an empty text file. Seems to work fine.

This way the launcher can still find the file when patching.

Thanks for that information, I'll try it out; let's see if it will work on the patch next week.

[Leiryat]

Thanks for that information, I'll try it out; let's see if it will work on the patch next week.

 

And? Does this method trick the patch into installing normally?

[Jerba]

And? Does this method trick the patch into installing normally?

Yes; I did not update my post, but this is working perfectly. When you create an empty file under that name, the launcher will still be able to install the patches.

 

So these are the steps you need to do to remove the loading screen:

1. Go to "C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars-The Old Republic\swtor\retailclient\LoadingScreens" or wherever you installed the game.
   
2. Find the file "LoadingScreen.jpg" and rename it to something else, like "LoadingScreen2.jpg".
   
3. Open Notepad and do not enter anything into the file, but go directly to "File -> Save as..." and browse to the same LoadingScreens folder as in 1. Call the file "LoadingScreen.jpg" and make sure that file type is set to "All files (*.*)" and not "Text files (*.txt)", otherwise the file will be saved as "LoadingScreen.jpg.txt". Then hit save and close Notepad.
   

And voilà, you'll never see a loading screen again.

Now, once a new expansion arrives and they change the loading screen, I suppose we'll have to do this again for the new loading screen, but until then, it will work.

[mustopak]

Nice one, I'm thinking of replacing the load image with my painting

[MiralukaJedi]

WARNING: When you are deleting or renameing the LoadingScreen.jpg file, the launcher will stuck at 0% installation the next time you are installing a patch. So make sure to always rename it to the old name before you do an update; then once the update is finished, you can once again rename it to LoadingScreen2.jpg.

 

I'm so glad I randomly found this thread. I didn't realize THAT was the cause of my fiancee and my patch issues.

 

Every patch we would get stuck at 0% and the way we got around it was people sending us their .version files. I ended up doing a total reinstall of the game recently (and the new streaming launcher reinstalls it each patch so I didn't have a problem).

 

I've told this to the fiancee and hopefully this will fix the 0% installation bug we've had every patch for the last few months.

[Benirons]

Yes; I did not update my post, but this is working perfectly. When you create an empty file under that name, the launcher will still be able to install the patches.

 

So these are the steps you need to do to remove the loading screen:

1. Go to "C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars-The Old Republic\swtor\retailclient\LoadingScreens" or wherever you installed the game.
   
2. Find the file "LoadingScreen.jpg" and rename it to something else, like "LoadingScreen2.jpg".
   
3. Open Notepad and do not enter anything into the file, but go directly to "File -> Save as..." and browse to the same LoadingScreens folder as in 1. Call the file "LoadingScreen.jpg" and make sure that file type is set to "All files (*.*)" and not "Text files (*.txt)", otherwise the file will be saved as "LoadingScreen.jpg.txt". Then hit save and close Notepad.
   

And voilà, you'll never see a loading screen again.

Now, once a new expansion arrives and they change the loading screen, I suppose we'll have to do this again for the new loading screen, but until then, it will work.

 

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooow, KUDOS! And many many many thanks for this one ))))))

[Lazramthirteen]

One of the most helpful tips I've gotten here in a long time. Thank yu so much!

[Barcstradamus]

Great thread. Thanks for the info.

 

Absolutely piss poor how programmers could make the loading screen itself take longer to load than the actual game to the point where the user has to tweak the game himself. What an epic fail on their part, there's absolutely no excuse for it. Bioware has been making a crapload of revenue from the cartel coins, yet won't even hire enough programmers to keep the game running right or keep the raiding content coming at a reasonable pace. What a shame.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Barcstradamus

[Leiryat]

Too bad after logging in but before clicking play, it downloads and installs the full loading screen image again.

I think only people with the streaming launcher (ST in left lower corner of the launcher) have this problem.

[CheaterLL]

Too bad after logging in but before clicking play, it downloads and installs the full loading screen image again.

I think only people with the streaming launcher (ST in left lower corner of the launcher) have this problem.

 

Before hitting play you can replace the loading screen again.

You will have to do this every time you start the game.

[Leiryat]

I know.

Just mentioned it in case someone was wondering why they have to redo the removal every time they want to play (or are too lazy - like me - to disable streaming altogether).

[JediMord]

It doesn't patch if you follow the instructions on page 2.

 

Thanks for this. My new computer loads the game so fast I could tell that it was fully loaded behind the splash screen. Also when dropping to character select it's instant now. 5 seconds every time I zone or drop to loading adds up to a lot of saved time.

[Jerba]

Too bad after logging in but before clicking play, it downloads and installs the full loading screen image again.

I think only people with the streaming launcher (ST in left lower corner of the launcher) have this problem.

I can confirm, you'll need to have the normal launcher for this to work. There's not much reason to keep the Bitraider launcher anyway, so you might as well get rid of Bitraider and the loading screen at the same time.

 

Thanks for this. My new computer loads the game so fast I could tell that it was fully loaded behind the splash screen. Also when dropping to character select it's instant now. 5 seconds every time I zone or drop to loading adds up to a lot of saved time.

How much of an improvement it makes mostly depends on the situation. For example, after a teleport, you are rooted and cannot move until your computer has loaded all of the environment, so that e.g. you can't fall through the floor or walk through walls. Nevertheless, you will be able to already see your surroundings. This is especially important in boss fights like Raptus where you need to orient yourself and figure out which direction the throne is, and a second or two definitely help there.

Once the environment has loaded, you can start moving, no matter whether you have the splash screen or not. In fact, it is possible to already start moving while you still see the splash screen, though you won't know which direction you're running.

The splash screen stays up until all textures are loaded in high-quality, so if you don't care about those, you will immediately start seeing the game world as it is being loaded.

I agree that this is a great fix and I recommend it to every progression player, but this does not fix the endless loading screen, there will still be times where you'll need to wait.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Jerba