Wednesday, November 1st 2017
CPUs Bear Brunt of Ubisoft Deploying VMProtect Above Denuvo for AC:O
It's been extensively reported that Denuvo has failed as an effective DRM solution for games, as some of the newer releases such as "Assassin's Creed: Origins," were cracked by pirates less than 48 hours into the market release. For those who bought the game, Denuvo adds its own CPU and memory footprint. In an effort to stem further piracy of "Assassin's Creed: Origins" (because hey, there are limited stocks of pirated copies on the Internet), Ubisoft added an additional DRM layer on top of Denuvo, made by VMProtect. The implementation is so shoddy, that paying customers who didn't spend a fortune on their PC builds (most PC gamers) complain of abnormally high CPU usage, which is in some cases, even reducing performance to unplayable levels.
Ubisoft deployed VMProtect as a concentric DRM layer to Denuvo. Genuine user authentication has to now be performed by two separate pieces of software with their own PIDs, CPU-, and memory-footprints, not to mention user data falling into more hands. Gamers such as this one took to Steam Forums to complain about abnormally high CPU usage, which is traced back to VMProtect. Gamers complain that the game now hits 100% CPU usage, resulting in frame-drops, stuttering, and even unplayable frame-rates. As gaming prophet Gabe Newell once said, the only way to beat piracy is to offer a better service than the pirates. Right now the pirates offer better frame-rates, at an introductory price of $0, while stocks last.
Source:
TorrentFreak
Ubisoft deployed VMProtect as a concentric DRM layer to Denuvo. Genuine user authentication has to now be performed by two separate pieces of software with their own PIDs, CPU-, and memory-footprints, not to mention user data falling into more hands. Gamers such as this one took to Steam Forums to complain about abnormally high CPU usage, which is traced back to VMProtect. Gamers complain that the game now hits 100% CPU usage, resulting in frame-drops, stuttering, and even unplayable frame-rates. As gaming prophet Gabe Newell once said, the only way to beat piracy is to offer a better service than the pirates. Right now the pirates offer better frame-rates, at an introductory price of $0, while stocks last.
82 Comments on CPUs Bear Brunt of Ubisoft Deploying VMProtect Above Denuvo for AC:O
In a game menu with 60-80% CPU with nothing else showing.....How does a menu screen require 60-80% CPU o_O. Either DRM or a horribly designed game...either way....never buying
The proof is a well known respective cracker who is a credible expert who says the DRM is queued every time you move and more.
A well known credible cracker/programmer word vs a company......I'll go with the first person.
I'm not saying Ubi is completely truthful here either, because something is wrong with performance. However, I'm more likely to believe results of people on this site who test the game.
As to Ubi, they are arrogant enough that if the 2nd DRM was actually to blame for the performance drop, they would tell us, and then tell us to "deal with it, it's because of pirates that we did it!"
Users can purposely make their games appear to perform at low framerates with very high system loads if they choose settings which incorrectly match their systems' abilities. Basically, the game will always try to use all of their systems' resources and the lower they set the framerate targets, the more it will appear that something is wrong because the game will try to keep the load high even at low framerates. The benefit to this, of course, is that the appearance is improved.
forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/1759689If there is indeed a problem, the most likely culprit and solution is that they will need to fix bugs and/or tune their dynamic resolution engine and/or game in general. This DRM stuff is completely unfounded. Can anyone provide PROOF of the DRM conspiracy!?!? Nope.