Launcher

DDO's launcher is a small, secondary program responsible for starting up the game. The launcher file is called "DNDLauncher.exe", and it is located in your DDO folder. This is the file your shortcut for launching the game should point to.

Loading screen download issue
The launcher is notorious for downloading loading screen images each time you boot up the program. The launcher tries to download and update 20-somewhat .jpg files, stored under "raw" folder, including now discontinued DE/FR loading screens. There used to be a file called "DownloadFilesList.xml" where you could modify and fix minor filename reference mistakes and avoid download them; this has since been removed.

To force the launcher skip downloading them, use command line option, or use alternate launcher below.


 * (2019)
 * (2017-)
 * Skipping Download Loading Screens?? (Steam forums, 2017-)

Commandline options
There are a couple command line options (Windows start button or keyboard shortcut WIN+R > type "cmd" ) that modify the behavior of the launcher.
 * -nosplash
 * -skiprawdownload (skips downloading of 30 loading screens)
 * -disablepatch (can help with error patchclientDLL::checkdatfiles failed {unable to decrypt or decerialize data downloaded from server} )
 * -username myusername
 * -password mypassword (note: this works, but is unsafe since the password is not encrypted)

For example, your shortcut might point to:

'''NOTE: You must use the title "DNDLauncher.exe" for the file. Anything else like "TurbineLauncher.exe" will not work with these commands. Furthermore; you need to be running the command line program in administrator mode or you will not have permission to use the commands above.'''


 * (2012 forum thread)
 * (2017 post by Cordovan)

Launcher crashes
If the launcher crashes regularly before anything loads, you might need to delete, redownload and reinstall the whole game.

Alternate launchers
Players have created alternate launchers to start the game:
 * Dungeon Finder with the possibility to launch multiple accounts at once.
 * (2015-)
 * (2014-, last updated 2018?)
 * pylotro (2012)