Is replacing leader gpx still the only way?

[zonk]

All I could find on the subject was this post -- is replacing the animated leaderheads with these static graphics still the only way to go?

I'm getting literally 5 minute lags to load up the animated leaderheads mid/late game and it's insufferably frustrating...

Is there any way to simplify the diplomatic actions to just pure text? After 9 hours, frankly, the eye candy of an animated leaderhead does zilch for the game experience.