[GOG] Could not load the image - Possible FIX?

[MarsM4N]

If you got quite some games on GOG you probably noticed that some cover art & game icons are just broken. Usually you can go into the settings on the library page of the game and replace images with your own, but this is not possible for broken "blanked out" artwork. Since it's bugging me for quite some time I did a bit of research and turns out the issue is around for quite some time and GOG staff are unwilling or incapable to fix it. Just some examples from the GOG community:

[January 06, 2020] Could not load the image in some games
[May 07, 2020] "Could not load image"
[August 07, 2020] Image Override Failed in Galaxy 2.0
[December 26, 2021] Potential Workaround for "Could Not Load Image" Error?
[May 20, 2022] Endless cycle of "Could not load the image" and "Image override failed"

I tried to just find the folder for the images (which is C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\Galaxy\webcache\) and replace the images manually, but it's like a needle in the haystack if you own a few hundred games. Reinstalling GOG or deleting the webcache doesn't fix the issue, it only wipes out all your created colletions, added non GOG games or custom covers. Luckily I did a backup of the whole GOG data folder (C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\Galaxy\) before.

So the last resort seems to be a solution posted by GOG user "fabelhahn" on some of the forum threads mentioned above. It's just a ".bat" batch file, and since I am not an coding expert I would like to ask someone with coding knowledge to have a look at it if it's safe to run. Not that it's downloading some crapware or stealing personal data. The code from the batch file:

[Note:] this fix only works for games you own on GOG. Non GOG games you added (linked) to GOG you'll have to fix manually, see this guide.

 

[Solaris17]

safe

 

[MarsM4N]

safe

Thanks. Well, I just tried it out. And it did actually work!!! That's crazy. Guess he deserves a donation, and I usually never donate, lol.

Full "CMD.exe" report: (see attachment)

It replaced 41 images. I actually did only notice 6 broken cover art for "Drekirökr - Dusk of the Dragon", "South Scrimshaw, Part One", "TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight - Demo", "Agony UNRATED", "The Night of the Rabbit" & "Stranglehold" and 1 broken icon for "Drekirökr - Dusk of the Dragon" in the GOG launcher. So the rest (34 images) had to be broken icons and backgrounds.

When looking up the images from the report the "Downloading WEBP" in a browser they show up as corrupted while the "Trying alternative" do work. So the problem here is most likely corrupted images on the GOG server, I guess.

I also did look up the newly created images in the C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\Galaxy\webcache\ folder and it turns out they are all renamed "PNG" files with a (wrong) "WEBP" ending. Guess you could convert them with a image tool to reduce file size and improve performance, but not sure if that's making a huge difference since they are stored locally on a SSD anyways.

 

[R-T-B]

Heh, the webp conversion process (or lack thereof) strikes again. Thanks for consolidating this info.

 

[MarsM4N]

Just out of interest, those who voted for "... made it worse", what issues where you running in? I personally didn't encounter any.

@ir_cow @traffic cone of schooling

 

[delshay]

I only have two games that's not displayed correctly & the program did nothing. As per usual scan with Norton, program is clean, nothing detected.

 

[MarsM4N]

I only have two games that's not displayed correctly & the program did nothing.

What are the names of the 2 games? Also did you make sure the GOG client was closed and no GOG & GalaxyClient process was running in the task manager?

Folks where reporting in the GOG forum threads linked above that some had to run the tool multiple times. Maybe give it another shot, or 2, or 3, ...

As per usual scan with Norton, program is clean, nothing detected.

I also did a VirusTotal scan and nothing came up.

 

[delshay]

What are the names of the 2 games? Also did you make sure the GOG client was closed and no GOG & GalaxyClient process was running in the task manager?

Folks where reporting in the GOG forum threads linked above that some had to run the tool multiple times. Maybe give it another shot, or 2, or 3, ...

Hammerting (Epic website & Portal reloaded (steam website). Followed instructions, It's just not detected.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Heh, the webp conversion process (or lack thereof) strikes again. Thanks for consolidating this info.

WebP is a pain. I kinda hate it..

 

[ir_cow]

Just out of interest, those who voted for "... made it worse", what issues where you running in? I personally didn't encounter any.

@ir_cow @traffic cone of schooling

Oh I just voted whatever and didn't read lol. A bit of trolling. Now I know you can see it

My GOG icons are fine. Haven't seen any broken images as of yet.

 

[MarsM4N]

Hammerting (Epic website & Portal reloaded (steam website). Followed instructions, It's just not detected.

So those 2 games you didn't buy from GOG, but added them manually. Right? If so no wonder it didn't work. The fix is only for games purchased from GOG.

Non GOG games you have to fix manually. Just click on the game, click on Settings/More, Edit.., MEDIA & select the image you like to replace (required sizes see below).

If it's not clickable you have to replace the image in the C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\Galaxy\webcache\1234Numbers1234\gog folder manually, like recommended in this post at the GOG forums. For STEAM games just look up the game on SteamDB. Then look for a folder in the GOG webcache folder with the same number as the "App ID" from the game on SteamDB. Then just grab the images from SteamDB ("clienticon" = Icon, "hero_capsule" = cover, "library_her" = background).

You'll need to resize/crop the images & then rename them to ".webp" or convert them to webp. Cover = 342x482pix, Icon = 112x112pix, Background = 1600x650pix.

For games from EPIC Games it would be the same procedure. For EPIC games you'll have to visit ScreamDB and search for the app ID of your game. Of course only if you can't replace the images "the easy way" in the GOG launcher settings.

 

[ixi]

Never have experienced this kind of bug in gog. Using gog for years.

Is there anyone else that have experienced this bug or maybe it is unique for your pc?

 

[R-T-B]

WebP is a pain. I kinda hate it..

It's really just the lack of support. WebP and AV1 are both actually better formats, technically speaking. We've gone through migrations before but this one really is dragging out way too long. That's the rub.

 

[MarsM4N]

Did some more digging and actually found a website where you can research the "App ID" for GOG games, gogdb (GOG Database). Yay! With the App ID you can find the location in the GOG folder (C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\Galaxy\webcache\1234Numbers1234\gog) for a specific game that has broken images. Very helpful if you wanna fix it by hand.

I also tested converting the "fake" WebP images with the free image software GIMP. Worked like a charm. You just need to look up the folder that contains the broken image, open the broken image with GIMP, select File, select Overwrite, done. Super simple. Reduced the file sizes from 221KB (PNG) to 43KB (webp) & 22KB (PNG) to 8KB (webp).

The automatic method however is still the way faster method, especially if you have a huge game library. Converting them to "real" WebP doesn't seem to provide any noticeable improvements, but in case you want a top optimized experience I would recommend saving a copy of the "CMD.exe" report so you can actually backtrack what actually got replaced, in case you want to convert the images later.

It's really just the lack of support. WebP and AV1 are both actually better formats, technically speaking. We've gone through migrations before but this one really is dragging out way too long. That's the rub.

I don't think it's the lack of WebP support since all images in GOG use that format and are displayed without any issue. The fact that it's more a rare case for some games images indicates that they just have corrupted image files laying around on their servers. Theoretically GOG dev's would just have to run the posted tool, go through the CMD report and replace the broken images. But I guess they are just too busy fixing broken Cyberpunk 2077, lol.

Just some numbers for science, how common is it? Based on my example, I got 447 GOG games in my library, 3 images per game = 1.341 images in total. 41 broken images got replaced. So that's a "failure rate" of 3,057%. So 3 out of 100 images are broken. Not the world, but I find it really just embarrassing. Especially since it's just super simple to fix.

 

[lexluthermiester]

It's really just the lack of support. WebP and AV1 are both actually better formats, technically speaking. We've gone through migrations before but this one really is dragging out way too long. That's the rub.

This is because JPG & PNG are the universally accepted, defacto formats. WebP is a solution without a problem and few want, or need, to adopt it even if it is technically improved.

 

[R-T-B]

This is because JPG & PNG are the universally accepted, defacto formats. WebP is a solution without a problem and few want, or need, to adopt it even if it is technically improved.

It's somewhat OT but one should note there is always a want for better compression ratios.

But yeah. The transition isn't even the issue here. Appears to be corrupt or mislabeled images.

 

[48DESIGN]

It's a bit funny to read something about my tool and the rumors about it.
It would be nice if the thread starter (@MarsM4N) could remove the code and direct link from above! Everyone can just use the original link to read about my tool and take a look at the code if he or she likes to. The tool is free overall and the only exchange is not hotlinking the file (and maybe a donation). It is just a batch file to automate a task everyone could do manually... in theory.
RepairGOG-GalaxyImages also works on games inserted with plugins available like Steam, Epic Games and so on. Not only GOG games.
Those myths like "it makes GOG Galaxy even worse" are really not fair if you think about it as they are absolutely wrong.
About the jpg only renamed webp: this is true and it simply works. Renaming to jpg makes all work done by the tool irrelevant and the thumbnails won't show up again. You can convert them to "real" webp but this is not really helpful I guess...

Just out of interest, those who voted for "... made it worse", what issues where you running in? I personally didn't encounter any.

@ir_cow @traffic cone of schooling

That is where it starts to get annoying...

It's really just the lack of support. WebP and AV1 are both actually better formats, technically speaking. We've gone through migrations before but this one really is dragging out way too long. That's the rub.

This is not fully true. There are cases where a webp is bigger in terms of filesize for example. Not EVERY image is better in webp format.

 

[R-T-B]

This is not fully true.

Of course. And there are cases where GIF outclasses simple png. But those are pretty darn rare, and overall the format is better.

 

[48DESIGN]

I do webdesign and webdevelopment for three decades now (since the early beginning) and do use all kinds of image formats. I can confirm that it often outstands png or jpg but I would not call it "overall better"... ‍

 

[MarsM4N]

It would be nice if the thread starter (@MarsM4N) could remove the code and direct link from above! Everyone can just use the original link to read about my tool and take a look at the code if he or she likes to. The tool is free overall and the only exchange is not hotlinking the file (and maybe a donation).

Hello first, welcome to TPU! Big thanks for the tool, great job.

About the removal of the code & direct link to the download file I can't do anything atm as I somehow have no rights anymore to edit the post. Maybe a TPU staff (f.e. @Solaris17) can have a look.

About the jpg only renamed webp: this is true and it simply works. Renaming to jpg makes all work done by the tool irrelevant and the thumbnails won't show up again. You can convert them to "real" webp but this is not really helpful I guess...

I've looked up all the replaced images in the GOG folder and replaced them with real "webp" formatted ones (used GIMP for it). The size difference is quite dramatic, f.e. 1.26MB = 144KB, 1.36MB = 169KB, 1.45MB = 217KB, 1.57MB = 225KB, 1.66MB = 270KB, ...). Theoretically it could speed up GOG, but in times of SSD's it's most likely not noticeable.

This is not fully true. There are cases where a webp is bigger in terms of filesize for example. Not EVERY image is better in webp format.

So what exactly is the problem with the broken "webp" images in GOG? To me it looks like they are corrupted on GOG's servers since that's what I get when trying to load them in the browser.

 

[Solaris17]

I have removed the links and code block from the OP.

For everyone else reading the author has made clear they wanted this material removed from the site and offered there own. I have removed this link as the author appears to offer this as a free tool on there otherwise commercial website. For which we do not allow commercial self endorsement as per the rules.

The remaining links to GOG forums and similar that lead you to the tool in the OP are still intact should you wish to peruse the topic but understand the author appears to run a business at said website and does have a tracking dialogue at first visit.