For people who hate having to wait for the launcher having launched, and only *then* being able to actually start the game, here's a workaround I've just picked up from this post (pet_peeve at MATY):

This works for me (just tested), and since I'm finding the Launcher an annoying PITA, it's quite an improvement. Thanks pet_peeve!

That is very cool. How does this affect updates? Will you still be able to patch the game? Or will you need to replace this every time you need to patch? Or will this only affect you not getting a message about updating since your not using the Launcher? Did I ask too many questions? lol

I guess manual updates might still work – but the installer may puke when it sees that the info.plist is changed, so make a backup. But like it says, in order to ever see the launcher again, you'd have to edit that file.

I can't very well test patching right now, since there *are* no new patches (that I would want to apply) .. but having to edit 1 file whenever there's a new patch is a small price to pay, in my eyes. You'd normally have to undo all your config changes and remove mods and stuff anyway, so that's not a lot of additional trouble.

Launcher is working properly now - with the latest patch (1.11 or 3.2.8 or whatever it is for WA lol).

I always run it by using the Cider exec in the Mac OS file so I can keep an eye on how it is loading... but the launcher itself runs fine.

i loved this because the launcher is so gay and slow, but has anyone figured out how to bypass the launcher with ambitions? typing the same thing still brings up the launcher. i figured that would happen but i wanted to try anyway... this post hasnt had anything in a month so i might just start a new thread..

What do you mean by "typing the same thing brings up the launcher"? What are you typing where?

"Change the last part to read TS3.exe instead of S3Launcher.exe. "

typing "TS3.exe" with ambitions still brings up the launcher. i also just tried changing it to "TS3EP02.exe" and it still brought up launcher. so if anyone else figures it out let me know!

edit:

i also just tried
<key>CedegaGameName</key>
<string>c:\Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 Ambitions/Game/Bin/TS3EP02</string>


AND

string>C:\Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 Ambitions /Game/Bin</string>
<key>CedegaGameName</key>
<string>c:\Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 Ambitions/Game/Bin/TS3EP02</string>


both still brought up launcher.. grr i STRONGLY DISLIKE YOU LAUNCHER!

This didn't work for me.

I KNEW I should have said "no" when it asked me yesterday if I wanted to update. Haven't been able to open the launcher since then.

LoofahFlufferduff: this thread is specifically for people who *don't* want to use the Launcher, so telling them to "just use the launcher" is not terribly constructive ..

iheartcowcapoos: I'm on 1.12 (base game only) and can still bypass the launcher this way. I don't know what the info.plist would look like for a game with an EP – maybe it's different, or maybe there's more than one. It might be helpful if you'd post a screenshot of your directory structure and/or the contents of the various info.plists in case there's more than one.

ncassaro: what do you mean by "Haven't been able to open the launcher" since updating to 1.12? Have you removed your CC? Bypassing the launcher won't help in case the game's crashing due to incompatible CC. If that's what the problem is, please take a look at the crashing FAQs on the wiki: http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php...Loading_Crashes

plasticbox--
when getting to the info.plist with an EP you still right click the base game icon for show package contents. (the icon for ambitions doesnt even give that option when you right click) theres an info.plist and a version.plist and i can't remember if version.plist was there before i installed ambitions or not.
i'm attaching 5 pictures. one is what i see after i click "show package contents" one is the version.plist and the other 3 are the info.plist as i scroll through all of it. they might attach out of order so look at the label on it to see what you're looking at

That sounds a bit odd … what icon is this? Is ist possible that it's an alias? I never had any TS3 EPs, so I don't know if you'd have one app or more than one ... if it's an alias, maybe try to find the original and open that?

I cannot open your last picture –*this might be a site bug, I'm getting a 404, perhaps because of the ( ) in the filename … can you try to upload it again with a different name?

Looking at your last image where it shows the line at the top for <key>CedegaGameName</key>, you have S3Launcher for the string value. I'm surprised it starts without the .exe on it even, but you need to change S3Launcher to TS3.exe.

I have no idea about plists in WA or Ambitions since I have neither installed and won't be.

if you read the posts above you'll see that i tried that already and nothing happened, the launcher still showed up. i tried a bunch of other stuff that made sense too but the launcher refuses to back down



i know i was confused too but once you open it it has everything for ambitions as well. where ever it has a file for "sims 3" it has a file for "sims 3 ambitions" so i put my custom content in the same location except under sims 3 ambitions instead of sims 3. thats why i figured changing the game bin to sims 3 ambitions instead of just sims 3. i dont know if this comment even made sense, i'm having a hard time typing what i'm trying to say haha

To 'show package contents' for Ambitions, you need to go to the original and THEN show package contents (should be able to ctrl+click on an alias and go 'show original' - but the original is in the Contents/Resources/Add-ons of the Base Game).

If you change the info.plist file in the contents of the Ambitions game, then opening your game with an Ambitions alias will bypass the launcher. It works, I just checked.

Your CC no longer needs to go in the game file. You no longer need the d3dx9.dll (the purpose of which was to bypass signed assemblies - which EA has built into the game now, and which could interact badly with macs that run WINE) either. All CC goes in your Documents/Electronic Arts/THe SIms 3 folder.
There's info on how to set that up elsewhere on here.

ALthough, I did notice that when I changed the info.plist file and bypassed the launcher, all my already launcher installed CC, all of my saved games and all of my properly placed CC was gone.
I'm guessing with the new patch and what is involved in bypassing the signed assemblies, the launcher is required.

iheartcowcapoos I did read your post and what you said you changed, and I also looked at the image attached that you said is your plist. That image does not have the correct text in the string. So either you have attached the wrong image of the plist you changed or you haven't changed the plist.

Loofah I'm not sure what happened with your stuff, but for me my game saves and launcher installed stuff worked fine after changing this.

Launcher is definitely not required for 1.12. I'm bypassing it and my saves and CC are perfectly fine (including Riverview, which is the only thing I've installed with the launcher).

Yeah, I looked again.... and I had changed the name of my Electronic Arts folder in my Documents and created a new one to test my framework installer again LOL.

It did work LOL.

(As Red Foreman would say.... dumb ass! LOL)

just a little update: if you want to bypass the launcher for late night (if you haven't already figured it out) open applications>the sims 3 then right click on the sims 3 late night and click "show original." in the new finder window it brings up, right click "show package contents" then right click on info.plist and click "open with" then "other" and open with text edit.
scroll down to the same place that the original post here lists and change S3Launcher.exe to "TS3EP03.exe"

hope that helps somebody at least! =)

Hey there! Has anyone gotten this to work for Generations yet? I keep trying... haven't gotten it yet....

Thanks!

I got it to work by changing the launcher ex to TS3.exe in the base game

Sure, it works.

ok for generations! go to
applications>the sims 3
right click on "the sims 3 generations" and press "show original"
right click on "the sims 3 generations" once again in the new window and press "show packaged contents"
double click to open the contents folder
right click on "info.plist" and "open with" text edit
go to the same line of code as in previous posts and replace it with what you see in the picture i've attached. you should have changed "the sims 3" to "the sims 3 generations" and "S3Launcher" to "TS3EP04"

oooh, this is handy I'll give it a go now :D

There's no longer any need to change it for each EP/SP eg, changing it for Generations with "TS3EP04" is not necessary.

If you already have patch 1.22, you can just use "ts3w.exe".
And this way, there's no longer any need to edit or create new Aliases for future EPs or SPs. This executable will launch the appropriate pack by the files installed on your Mac.
Provided of course, that EA does not change this method in the future.

Hey!

Somehow this won't work here. I tried a few things, like "TS3EP05.exe" or "TS3.exe" and now "ts3w.exe", but nothing works. There's just this green Sims 3-Icon appearing on my Dock (two times!), but then nothing is happening and the two green icons disappear again. Does anybody know what i can do?