Is it legal and possible to hack the cutscenes out of a computer game?

[Narnia]

I have assassin's creed 1 for PC. (ps: if this is illegal in the US or breaks the forum's rules in some other way, please tell me so that I can ask a mod to delete this thread). I love the game but hate the cutscenes. There is no in game mechanic I can find that allows me to skip the cutscenes, does anyone know a way for me to be able to figure out where the files for the cutscenes are stored so that I can either delete them or edit them so that they play at like x300 speed? Thanks
PS: I looked in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Assassin's Creed folder and I couldn't find anything obvious for cutscenes, any other places I should look/files types I should look for? They have an aweful lot of very large files by the name of stuff like DataPC_Acre.forge, could they be the video files? Or are they elsewhere? Also, I checked and .forge files are not text files.

Just to be clear, I have a legal copy of the game, I am not trying to prevent the company from making sales, I am not trying to bypass the game's copy protection, I am just trying to make my own personal copy of the game more enjoyable.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

It's probably not legal (modifying source), but I doubt the developers would really care so long as you didn't upload it somewhere or distributing it.... On one game I couldn't disable the annoying music in the settings so I blanked out the audio streams instead.

I cant help you with this specific game... The large files are probably some propriety assets file. The problem is that a lot of times that cutscenes are not actual video files, but scripts that generate a video, if that makes sense.

 

[Narnia]

It's probably not legal (modifying source), but I doubt the developers would really care so long as you didn't upload it somewhere or distributing it.... On one game I couldn't disable the annoying music so I blanked out the audio streams instead.

I cant help you with this specific game... The large files are probably some propriety assets file. The problem is that a lot of times that cutscenes are not actual video files, but scripts that generate a video, if that makes sense.

The scripts part makes perfect sense and I think your right about that. Still, can anyone think of a way to remove/shorten the cutscenes by either shortening the cutscenes themselves or by doing something like tricking the game's perspective of time so it plays the files really quickly?

 

[Petek]

I don't have the game (so I can't test), but I found this. Any help?

 

[Narnia]

Not exactly, those cutscenes are only a few seconds long. Although skipping them would be nice, I'm more concerned about the briefing cutscenes where the lead assassin guy gives me this super long, super long lecture about the templars are evil, the assassins are good, etc. Second worst are the cutscenes where you have to ask permission to assassinate the target (they are also long, but at least they don't have the stupid lectures and are also no were near a long as the speeches the boss assassin gives).

 

[innonimatu]

Of course it's legal! Just don't redistribute the actual copyrighted stuff, as per usual law. I'm amazed at the things some young people are believing about imaginary property these days! The privilege grab of the peddlers of that stuff has not (yet ) succeeded in going that far!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Of course it's legal! Just don't redistribute the actual copyrighted stuff, as per usual law. I'm amazed at the things some young people are believing about imaginary property these days! The privilege grab of the peddlers of that stuff has not (yet ) succeeded in going that far!

Well a lot of the EULAs mention not decompiling or modifying it so I was thinking on terms of it breaking the EULA and getting sued... As I said I doubt the developers care unless you start distributing it though.

 

[mdwh]

Well a lot of the EULAs mention not decompiling or modifying it so I was thinking on terms of it breaking the EULA and getting sued... As I said I doubt the developers care unless you start distributing it though.

EULAs aren't the law.

The main problem where an EULA comes into play are countries like the UK where it's copyright violation even to copy from disc into RAM, so since the EULA is the only thing that gives you permission to do so, violating it theoretically becomes copyright violation. However, note that this is "illegal" in the same sense that copying a CD you bought to your own computer or mp3 player is illegal - no one cares (and I believe there are now plans to change this law, if it hasn't been done already).

I don't think this is the case in the US, plus there are additional protections such as fair use.