Disable the Intro Movies

[Stuie]

This will remove the intro movies. In place of the movies you will hear a clicking sound... then you will be at the main menu.

Instructions:

Download the attachment, and unzip it to the following folder (assuming a default install of Civ4):

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Art\Movies\Intros

If you don't want to overwrite the intro movies, change their names before you unzip my replacements. You will hear a clicking noise in place of the movies, but you won't have to click - there you go!

 

[vDrag0n]

Nice one, very useful

 

[Mercade]

Download the attachment, and unzip it to the following folder (assuming a default install of Civ4):

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Art\Movies\Intros

If you don't want to overwrite the intro movies, change their names before you unzip my replacements. You will hear a clicking noise in place of the movies, but you won't have to click - there you go!

Sorry, but this is the wrong way of modifying the game. In order to safely modify the game - preserve the original files - and don't have your changes overwritten by a patch: do not edit / overwrite files in the original directories.

Instead, copy the file into the directory:

My Documents\My Games\Civ4\CustomAssets\Art\Movies\Intros\

M.

 

[jerry247]

can't you just turn the movies off in the .ini

 

[phalzyr]

can't you just turn the movies off in the .ini

That would turn off all movies, nto just intro movies...

 

[KevinTMC]

Thanks a bunch for these useful placeholder .biks, Stuie!

Sorry, but this is the wrong way of modifying the game. In order to safely modify the game - preserve the original files - and don't have your changes overwritten by a patch: do not edit / overwrite files in the original directories.

This is sound advice...for those times when doing it the right way works.

But there are some things that have to be done the "wrong way", or else they don't work. Such as the modification at hand.

(Is it because the programmers consciously disallowed for it to be done the "right way"? Maybe, since this modification makes the annoying Take2 thing go bye-bye.)

I imagine that my experience would be typical: I first tried putting these files in the CustomAssets directory under My Documents, but they did not work as intended. The opening movies were not disabled--or rather, the audio from them was unaffected. The video, well, it disappeared at some point, and stayed gone through the main menu.

It's not optimal to replace the original files, but it needn't be dangerous, since they don't have to be deleted. Just rename the originals (as Stuie suggested), from *.bik to, say, *.old, then install the new files provided above. (If you're paranoid, you can back up the files to another part of your hard drive, outside any directory having to do with Civ, as well.) To be extra conscientious, you can also do what I do: create an "Installed Stuff" folder under My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4, and place a copy of the original downloads of every mod and tool and hack in there, so you can see exactly what you've installed and tinkered with over time.

-- Kevin​

 

[Mylon]

Try editing the Civ4 shortcut to include -nointro ?

I have shortcuts for launching mods so I don't have to bother with the silly in-game switching and enduring the game loading a second time. As a side benefit, the intro movies don't play when launching a mod.

Thus, another alternative would be to create an empty mod folder and launch that mod using a shortcut.

 

[SimCutie]

Replacing movie in "C:/Program Files/Firaxis Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 4/Assets/Art/Movies/Intros" with blank movie does the trick.
Suggestion to put them in "My Documents/My Games/Civ4/CustomAssets/Art/Movies/Intros/" does not work as noted by KevinTMC.
"-nointro" switch deos not work, too.

So, I come up with this. As added benefit, it will remove intermediate picture shown for 2-3 secs between 2K games movie and Civ4 intro movie.

Just put CvIntroMovieScreen.py file in your My Documents/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 4/CustomAssets/python/screens folder.

PS) Has any one short or blank AVI or BIK movie file ( less than 1 second or so) like this movie but with blue or sky blue (or with any lighter shade than black)background ?
I'd like to replace wonder movie with it. Black background of Stuie's movie is too dark.

.

 

[KevinTMC]

Brilliant! Works like a charm.

Thanks a bunch!

You da (wo?)man.

-- Kevin​

 

[Sevo]

(EDIT) Okay...as Kevin points out below, SimCutie already posted this fix...I'm just slow on the uptake. Here's the nitty gritty of the code in case you're looking for it...

bMovieState = 0
	def interfaceScreen (self):

		return   

		self.currentMovie = "ART_DEF_MOVIE_2K_INTRO"
		self.X_SCREEN = 0
		self.Y_SCREEN = 0...

That stops the function that starts the intro movies. The game will launch right to the main menu--no clicks, no blue screens.

 

[KevinTMC]

Actually, I have a more elegant solution....

Umm...okay. Looks exactly like SimCutie's solution though (post #8 above).

Perhaps yours is "more elegant" because you added the "return" line in a slightly different spot? Does the alternate placement in fact make any detectable difference? I honestly don't know...been a very long time since I spent much time coding (in Applesoft BASIC, that was!).

-- Kevin​

 

[Sevo]

Umm...okay. Looks exactly like SimCutie's solution though (post #8 above).

Well, once again, that's what you get for not reading the posts closely enough. I only read SimCutie's about halfway down. I was all excited because I thought I had come up with something cool...




*sigh*

 

[rupertlittlebea]

 

[KevinTMC]

I was all excited because I thought I had come up with something cool...

But you did come up with something cool.

It just so happens that you were Liebniz to SimCutie's Newton. (Or the other way around, depending on who you listen to on the subject of calculus.)

I'm just glad that there is a good solution to this whole business. Sure, I may be only saving about ten seconds and three mouse clicks all told, but it feels a lot faster and nicer to launch the game now.

-- Kevin​

 

[/dev/null]

Hm, this was probably only added in one of the recent patches, but I figure this is the perfect place for it to go (since I was looking and found this thread)...

To disable the intro movies (in version 1.61 - not sure about other versions) edit your CivilizationIV.ini and change this:

NoIntroMovie = 0

to this:

NoIntroMovie = 1

Seems to work fine for me....

Oh, and for reference, my CivilizationIV.ini is in this directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserID\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\CivilizationIV.ini

Enjoy.