I posted a previous article about renaming .BIK movie files to stop the certain cinematic files from loading. That article primarily dealt with the BioWare/EA logo and the Mass Relay Jump sequence. But there is an additional way that involves speeding up the loading sequences
By toggling the processor affinity for the Mass Effect 2 executable, the loading screens do not loop. They play just once and then the game proceeds.
Toggle Process Affinity for Mass Effect 2
I still have Windows XP installed so these screens will reflect that.
1) After starting Mass Effect 2 as per normal, bring up the Task Manager (Control-Alt-Del):
2) Right-Click on the MassEffect2.exe process and select the “Set Affinity” sub-menu.
3) I have a dual core CPU so I only have CPU 0 and 1. If you have a quad-core or multiple CPUs, you’ll obviously have more listed.
From the “Processor Affinity” screen, de-select all CPUs except for CPU 0! Hit “OK”
4) Bring up the “Processor Affinity” screen again (as outlined in Step 1), re-activate all the CPUs again and hit “OK”.
Note that you’ll need to toggle the processor affinity every time you start up Mass Effect 2.
I tested it out and it seems to work. I noticed that the load screens played just once and the game proceeded immediately after.
I played Mass Effect 2 for a while after toggling the processor affinity and noticed no ill side-effects or instability.
Is it me or does the ‘loyalist’ look like Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah Walker from Chuck)… Not that I’m complaining. I wonder that the inspiration for the face modeling was for that character.
The voice actor for the Miranda Lawson character is actually Yvonne Strahovski and her’s is the only character in Mass Effect 2 to have a resemblance to its voice actor.
Strange. Don’t know why your comment didn’t get automatically approved. I’ve got the blog set to automatically allow comments from people who’ve been approved already.
Different computer? I got three here that I jump around on.
Ah. Browser cookies etc.