Is there a way to skip the 15 second delay when Galaxy isn't installed on certain games? I added the line: "auth_timeout": 1 to the GalaxyConfig.json file, but this apparently doesn't work for games like TerraScape and Islanders. Is there any other way to skip the delay without having to install Galaxy?

Delay? There's a delay?

Yeah, apparently when Galaxy isn't installed, there are certain games that have a long delay before the game loads. I added "auth_timeout": 1 to the GalaxyConfig.json for the game Empty Shell and it worked. But for some reason it doesn't work for TerraScape and Islanders. I'm wondering if there is another way.

Other than Gwent that relies on Galaxy, i'm not aware of any that look or require it.

Which game(s) are you referring to?

I've found out that the games that have a delay will include a "GalaxyConfig.json" file. The games I've seen affected are Empty Shell, Flooded, Islanders, and TerraScape. I found out about this from this post. But it seems editing the GalaxyConfig.json file doesn't always fix the problem. It works for some games and not others. I still can't figure out how to stop the delay for TerraScape and Islanders.

Are you actually using Galaxy to install/run these, or standalone installers? And if the latter, why not use something like InnoExtract to make a better installer?

I don't use Galaxy. I only install with the Standalone Offline Installers. But after I install the game and run it, the game will have a long delay if it includes this GalaxyConfig.json file. I wish I could figure out how to skip the delay for TerraScape and Islanders.

You can add goldberg to your game directory by replacing the galaxy dlls there with the goldberg variants. Of course this doesn't work for every game so it's best to backup the original dll files before trying this method.

There are a few games that take a lot of time (extra 15s) to start due the GOG's Achievement Converter (this is a joke obviously).
A bit more info: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/it_seems_like_gog_is_unable_to_retain_even_their_long_supporting_developers_now/post19

Sadly no they haven't fixed it. As someone above linked to the thread where this was tested and discussed, all that's changed is the "workaround" posted by a GOG staff member only applies to some new post-2023 games that "know" to look for a file and overwrite GOG's default +15s Galaxy client timeout with it. It doesn't fix the problem for the 5 years worth of bugged ones starting from 2018 around the time the Bioshock Remasters were introduced (suffering from the same problem).

Even recently updated games still suffer from it. Eg, The DarkSide Detective received an update this week. Let's test it again:-

Default Startup Time:-

18.7s - to the "Floppy Disk" icon screen
43.2s - to "Click to Start"

Go into \The Darkside Detective_Data\Plugins\x86 and rename or move Galaxy.dll, GalaxyCSharpGlue.dll and steam_api.dll unwanted client files and retest:-

Galaxy-Stub-Less Startup Times:-

3.5s - to the "Floppy Disk" icon screen
28.1s - to "Click to Start"

Same +15s "hanging on Galaxy" problem that's been reported for 6 straight years now. And this is one of the rare "lucky" examples where simply renaming Galaxy files doesn't crash the game (unlike many others which throw up a glaring error message highlighting the unoptionality of the 'optional' client...). For those, the only way of skipping the "offline installer hangs an extra 15s waiting for Galaxy (that isn't installed)" is to quite literally use Steam Emulator cracks (GoldBerg) to replace GOG's official "Ghost Wrapper" (itself functioning like glorified Steam Emulator crack as well). And that only works half the time for GOG games.

No I'm not joking having to post "use Steam cracks on your legally purchased GOG games to get them to startup normally" on a 'DRM-Free' store, and I know I'm not the only one here who's been cutting way back on GOG purchases this year and buying the same games on itch.io (where available) as a first choice as the "actually client-less without the BS" version (that GOG used to be before trying to 'out-Steam Steam' in all the wrong areas...)

I wish I could upvote your post 10 times instead of only once.

Oh the irony, that running "DRM-free" games (legally bought on GOG) requires the same dirty tricks as outright software piracy. Duh! -.-

You're definitely not alone with this. Example "The Castle" very Maniac-Mansion-ish, looks good, oh wait "Galaxy Achievements" = there's a strong probability that this isn't a 'GOG' game at all, it's another "New GOG (tm)" emulated Steam version with SteamWorks API intact 'wrapped' up inside a Steam emulator stub that in turn is wrapped in a Galaxy stub emulator with the same unfixed-after-6-years Galaxy Timeout bug. You know what version doesn't need cracking to start without any Steam DRM AND without endless Galaxy problems? The itch.io version. So it was a no brainer to just buy that there instead of here. Since then I've bought 14x games on itch.io this year (all startup lightning fast), and 0 on GOG - a trend that's going to continue until they stop shovelling this "DRM-Free now = authorised Steam crack because Ancient Red Dragon wants cheevos in all GOG games but devs don't want to have to recode them from Steam API to Galaxy API so the huge compromise is to leave Steam cheevos / SteamWorks API intact in GOG games then 'hack' around it with translation wrappers..." nonsense and fix what they messed up. Realistically, it'll just get filed under "yet another issue to completely ignore until it reaches breaking point".

I've also seen others say that people have stopped "double-dipping" (buying a GOG version despite already owning the Steam version just to have a 'proper' DRM-Free version) based on this issue, and that's definitely true. I would have bought Endless Space here just for a 'proper' DRM-Free version, but what's the point of doing that when I'll just be paying GOG for a 2nd Steam version of the game (pretending to be a "GOG" version) but an inferior one that still starts 8x slower than the DRM'd one due to buggy Galaxy code and both versions still involve emulating a Steam client, one way (GoldBerg for Steam DRM) or another (Ghost Wrapper for Galaxy Timeout issues)? Between this and selling Epic games via Galaxy, at what point is it more honest to drop the pretence that half the new GOG games are even 'GOG platform' games anymore and just sell Steam / Epic keys with a link to GoldBerg as the 'GOG' version (that's what 'Ghost Wrapped' games are virtually pre-packaged like "under the hood" anyway...)

I think I figured out how to skip the delay caused by not having Galaxy installed. Make sure to backup the old files first before trying this out.

For TerraScape, navigate to the game's x86_64 folder: (TerraScape\TerraScape_Data\Plugins\x86_64). There are two files in the folder that need to be replaced: Galaxy64.dll and steam_api64.dll. They both need to be replaced by the same Goldberg Emulator steam_api64.dll file. So the Goldberg steam_api64.dll needs to be copied twice to the TerraScape x86_64 folder and one file renamed to Galaxy64.dll.

Thanks to JacobSlatter for helping me out!

I also agree. I used to buy lots of games here but no longer do because of all of the problems directly related to Galaxy breaking the offline installers. Over the last few months I've had:

1. The already mentioned 15 second startup delay for offline installers

2. Over 2 hours to install God of War due to the way the offline installers have been changed to accommodate Galaxy which can't handle games with lots of unpacked files (like GoW)

3. Windows Defender detecting GOGs Steam API wrapper as a virus and quarantining it so that the game no longer starts.

Yes, I know that all of these problems can be worked around but I shouldn't have to download cracks, roll my own installers and make exceptions in my virus scanner for games I buy on GOG. Everything worked fine before Galaxy was introduced.

If the Galaxy DLL and the Steam API wrapper absolutely have to be included in the offline installers, they should be essentially inert, null wrappers which do nothing but immediately return whatever sentinel value keeps the caller happy. Anything more than that is demonstrably broken and costing GOG sales.