(copy-pasting this to both mass effect 2 and 3 forums)
I've recently discovered that by .ini file edits (similar to how we rebind text skipping to mousewheel) we can make unskippable cutscenes skippable (in mass effect 2 and 3), because all that determines if a cutscene is skippable or not is just an ini file line that goes "SkippableMovies=" followed by the name of the movie file associated with relevant cutscenes. By just adding more lines like this for cutscenes that aren't currently skippable, we would be able to skip those cutscenes.
Here's the question: should this be legal in speedruns?
My thoughts: yes, it should. It is a very easy edit to make (just copy-paste in some lines like we do for mousewheel text skipping). It serves basically the same purpose as mousewheel skipping as well: removing some of the dumb slow stuff that isn't gameplay to make the run more enjoyable. Making the run more fun to do is worth quite a lot, I think.
Doing this also wouldn't necessarily be unprecedented compared to other speedruns. I was asking some other speedrunners (albeit not Mass Effect runners) what they thought about this situation, and one mentioned that Prince of Persia: Warrior Within literally just deletes the entire cutscene folder in order to achieve a similar purpose.
Curious what anyone else who may or may not be paying attention to these forums/ran these games thinks.
Sure I don't see an issue with doing this. It's like you said we are already changing the ini for text skip why not cutscenes as well. I also agree it will make the run more fun and not such a pain to do attempts. I'm really curious how much time this takes off ME3. Do you have a guide on what to edit to do this?
here's what you need to do: download some kind of mass effect 3 coalesced editor find the bioengine->fullscreenmovies->skippablemovies section
compare the list of movie files there to the files in the /Mass Effect 3/BIOGame/Movies folder add anything that isn't already included under new lines of "SkippableMovies=" where the equals sign is followed by the name of the file (you can look at pre-existing examples to see how it is phrased).
Like you said we already use similiar change for the mousewheel so I don't see why not use it for the cutscene either, it kinda serve the same purpose. Also I was planning to get back to Mass Effects runs now that I'm unemployed would make my life better than watching the same 30 minutes cutscenes every time.
Ok so I did enough work on this to get a list of movies during the run that are not listed in the skippablemovies section. I also figured out that the DLC movies are not stored in the /Mass Effect 3/BIOGame/Movies folder but in a file in the dlc folder. I was able to figure out what the name of the two Extended Cut movies are so I can test if this works with the DLC.
It also looks like there is at least one typo with the files and entries in the file so there is at least one cutscene that was supposed to be skipable that is not.
Anyways below is the list of the movies to add to bioengine->fullscreenmovies->skippablemovies I will do some off stream testing tonight and see what works.
Cat004_arrival_pt1 Cat004_arrival_pt3 Cat004_Cit_Close Cat004_Loop Cithub_Load01 - Cithub_Load08 End001_ShuttleDown_End End001_ShuttleDown_Start End01_HammerFail End01_HammerIntro End01_HammerLand End01_Sheild_Intro End01_Sword_Bad_Pt1 End01_Sword_Bad_Pt2 End01_Sword_Descent End01_Sword_Good End01_Sword_intro_pt2 End01_Sword_intro_pt3AD End01_Sword_intro_pt3DA End01_Sword_intro_pt4G End01_Sword_intro_pt4G End01_Sword_intro_pt6 End01_Sword_intro_pt8 End01_Sword_intro_pt10 End002_Smls_Tunnel End02_Cit_Flower End03_Anderson_Short End03_Device_Dock End03_Im_Short Ght002_Geth_Death GLO_01_Relay Gth001_Arrival_Pt1 Gth001_Arrival_pt2 Gth001_Depart Gth002_Quar_Death Gth002_QuarBomb_Gun Kro001_100_SurArrival_pt2 Kro001_ExoIntro_Drop Kro002_Convoy_PR Kro002_Cure_PR Kro002_CurePR_01 Kro002_CurePR_03 Kro002_Fight_pt1 Kro002_Fight_pt2 Kro002_Fight_Pt3 load_f01 ME3_ProCit_Loop Nor_CIC Nor_PreHenchmanSelect norend_hackett_speech_Geth NorEnd_Hackett_Speech_Intro norend_hackett_Speech_quarian norend_hackett_Speech_Turian NorKro_SummitVid_Mordin NorKro_SummitVid_Padok NumberReel ProCit_100_Arrival ProCit_Arrival_Generic ProEar_Intro_Pt2 ProEar_Intro_Pt2_Fem ProEar_Intro_Pt4 ProEar_Intro_Pt6 ProEar_Intro_Pt6_Fem ProEar_Intro_Pt8 ProMar_Arrival_pt1 ProMar_Arrival_pt2 ProMar_Depart ProMar_EscapePt2_Joker ProMar_Escapept4_Est ProMar_IM_Cutaway ProMar_Smls_Load Smls_Kro001 Smls_NorFTL Smls_NorLoopLF Smls_NorLoopRt Smls_ShutLoop_Kro002 Smls_ShutSpace_LF Smls_ShutSpace_RT
Extended cut End002_Crush End03_Device_Dock_Bad
Well I did learn something today, don't make the loading screens skip able It really breaks the game. I'll need to remove the loading screens from my list above. I just started my off stream testing and this is the first thing I found.
Well here is an update. Unfortunately none of the Extended cut cutscenes are skip able. So that means no extended cut is still the fastest. Also it looks like none of the big Earth cutscenes are skip able. I think there were a couple of small ones that worked but I couldn't really tell.
Thinking about the loading screens it may still be possible to skip them and not have the game mess up. This would work if you wait until the loading notification is gone before skipping. You probably won't save much time and it may not be worth it if you accidently break the game.
My testing so far has been from Sanctuary until Earth so I still haven't tested a full run. I will take a brake for now and do a full run in a bit. I may stream it we'll see.
