Wednesday, May 27th 2020
id Software Clarifies Denuvo Technology Wasn't Responsible For Doom Eternal Issues Following Update 1
id Software's Marty Stratton clarified the issues introduced in Doom Eternal following its Update 1. Via a Reddit post, the developer informed its audience that Denuvo's introduction into the game with Update 1 (a move that sparked a review-bomb on Steam and a quick backpedaling from the company regarding its inclusion) said that the anti-cheat software actually wasn't responsible for the reported issues.
The developer said that the actual performance issues introduced with Update 1 lie in changes in the graphics memory handling code, as well as some bugs introduced alongside customizable skins. The developer also went on to say that the decision to include Denuvo post-release wasn't one forced by publisher Bethesda, but an entirely in-house one, and that the subsequent decision to remove the protection has nothing to do with Denuvo's software quality. Of course, the addition of an always-on DRM solution to Doom Eternal as a post-release patch still stands, as users that previously acquired the game did so without knowledge of its eventual addition. Look after the break for a complete transcript on the comment.
Source:
Marty Stratton @ Reddit
The developer said that the actual performance issues introduced with Update 1 lie in changes in the graphics memory handling code, as well as some bugs introduced alongside customizable skins. The developer also went on to say that the decision to include Denuvo post-release wasn't one forced by publisher Bethesda, but an entirely in-house one, and that the subsequent decision to remove the protection has nothing to do with Denuvo's software quality. Of course, the addition of an always-on DRM solution to Doom Eternal as a post-release patch still stands, as users that previously acquired the game did so without knowledge of its eventual addition. Look after the break for a complete transcript on the comment.
"I want to provide our PC community the latest information on a number of topics related to Update 1, which we released this past Thursday. Our team has been looking into the reports of instability and performance degradation for some users and we've also seen the concerns around our inclusion of Denuvo Anti-Cheat. As is often the case, things are not as clear-cut as they may seem, so I'd like to include the latest information on the actions we're taking, as well as offer some context around the decisions we've made. We are preparing and testing PC-Only Update 1.1 that includes the changes and fixes noted below. We hope to have this rolled-out to players within a week.
Our team's original decision to include Denuvo Anti-Cheat in Update 1 was based on a number of factors:Despite our best intentions, feedback from players has made it clear that we must re-evaluate our approach to anti-cheat integration. With that, we will be removing the anti-cheat technology from the game in our next PC update. As we examine any future of anti-cheat in DOOM Eternal, at a minimum we must consider giving campaign-only players the ability to play without anti-cheat software installed, as well as ensure the overall timing of any anti-cheat integration better aligns with player expectations around clear initiatives - like ranked or competitive play - where demand for anti-cheat is far greater.
- Protect BATTLEMODE players from cheaters now, but also establish consistent anti-cheat systems and processes as we look ahead to more competitive initiatives on our BATTLEMODE roadmap.
- Establish cheat protection in the campaign now in preparation for the future launch of Invasion - which is a blend of campaign and multiplayer.
- Kernel-level integrations are typically the most effective in preventing cheating.
- Denuvo's integration met our standards for security and privacy.
- Players were disappointed on DOOM (2016) with our delay in adding anti-cheat technology to protect that game's multiplayer.
It is important to note that our decision to include anti-cheat was guided by nothing other than the factors and goals I've outlined above - all driven by our team at id Software. I have seen speculation online that Bethesda (our parent company and publisher) is forcing these or other decisions on us, and it's simply untrue. It's also worth noting that our decision to remove the anti-cheat software is not based on the quality of the Denuvo Anti-Cheat solution. Many have unfortunately related the performance and stability issues introduced in Update 1 to the introduction of anti-cheat. They are not related.
Through our investigation, we discovered and have fixed several crashes in our code related to customizable skins. We were also able to identify and fix a number of other memory-related crashes that should improve overall stability for players. All of these fixes will be in our next PC update. I'd like to note that some of these issues were very difficult to reproduce and we want to thank a number of our community members who worked directly with our engineers to identify and help reproduce these issues.
Finally, we believe the performance issues some players have experienced on PC are based on a code change we made around VRAM allocation. We have reverted this change in our next update and expect the game to perform as it did at launch.
Please stay tuned to the official DOOM Eternal community channels for more on the roll-out of this update. As always, thank you for your passion and commitment to DOOM Eternal.
Marty Stratton
Executive Producer, DOOM Eternal"
43 Comments on id Software Clarifies Denuvo Technology Wasn't Responsible For Doom Eternal Issues Following Update 1
Cutting off PC gamers everywhere just to stop cheaters is not only foolish from a business and economic perspective but also a concept lacking any practical application. The proper solution is to create a system by which cheating becomes so difficult that it lacks appeal to anyone.
Seriously though, I wonder what cost/benefit looks like when it comes the choice to go with it these days. I mean, up to ~2016 it was considered kind of bulletproof... well SOME people really thought it was lol. But now... it's becoming more like throwing money at a problem and hoping it will go away.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just not up on it enough, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around how you produce data to show sales saved with DRM, versus how many sales are lost to piracy/cheating. You have a few ways to peek into behavior and trends, but unless you've got your finger down on people's attitudes, how could you know how many of those people are even 'potential customers' in the first place? Wouldn't you need Schrodinger's graphing machine to show the difference between the two scenarios? How do they extrapolate? Just compare a game with Denuvo to another game without it? Of course their sales figures will differ. How many years of study and analysis would it take to assess every sales factor and start to build up a picture of the impact? How many more to repeat that many times?
Maybe I'm just stupid or something. But I wonder if the world will ever get a chance to know if Denuvo and others actually protect games from the impact of cheating and piracy in a meaningful way. It's hard to know, because the dev's side isn't really that clear. We don't often have access to the nitty-gritty cost/benefit. So from our end, it kinda looks like a waste of money that mostly just pisses paying customers off. I thought the idea was to have more people buy the game and want to keep playing it!
As time goes by, I get more of this feeling that this approach to dealing with very legitimate issues that impact everything in some way, is just inadequate. It doesn't work that great, and it has bad side-effects. But I guess for now, that's tolerable (for them.)
I absolutely detest cheaters, so you won't ever change my mind by projecting on others "troll and fixed minded"
If you can't stand cheaters, don't play online, ever. PC or Console, it doesn't matter because there are cheaters on every platform. But hey, sure, go ahead and punish everyone because poor little you has a problem. :kookoo::rolleyes:That is a simple answer, the numbers are grossly over-estimated to give the powers that be a justification to enact more control in ways they should never have. Piracy happens, sure, but not in the numbers or to the effect industry pundit's claim. Cheating? Minor annoyance in the overall scheme of things. Yes, it's a problem, but one being blown out of proportion.
Like it or not, kernel level anticheat does a lot, but also does the publisher caring and putting enough effort and money on policing their servers. It's a work no one likes to do because is hard and a black hole of money, but if you want fish you need to wet your ass.
But putting Denuvo claiming to protect mp in its actual state (depressing) and later quit it can perfectely probable being some higher up from Zenimax who is a little stingy because some people still pirate it, even if it sold like hotcakes. If you really want to commit to online, you don't take these false steps.
No where even close to the popularity and scene PC has, it is at least 1000x larger on PC and there can be no denial of such a thing.
2 or 3 games on console vs almost all MP games on PC, your logic is missing statistical and larger views over the issue.
All it comes down to is, oh my precious PC and allegience to a platform, that's the real argument behind your nonsense.
Can you tell me any other reason of Windows being more insecure than other OSes and Intel having more vulnerabilities apart of "being bad at their job" or "meanie hackers not having good morals"?
Video game cheating when it effects others enjoyment should be dealt with, but as stated, due to the inherent way PC's are being a mostly open platform.. people find ways around it.
Your safest bet is on a console.
Speaking of old Call of Duty games on PS3 or X360, does cheating work on backwards compatibility on newer consoles? From memory the exploit is done to memory which is stored locally, this would be very hard to do if a console has not been reversed engineered by some modding group.
Things are pirated and hacked, specially if they are popular. What stops that is security investing from the publisher's part, not stop doing business in a platform because of a gut feeling.
Your logic is completely invalid and does not support your argument.
Is not that hard to understand that no matter what platform you use and how close it is, security depends on how many people attracts to hack it, let it be popularity, bussiness or ease (sometimes those are tied), and how willing are publishers to defend their service. Games being hacked is a consequence of the publisher dropping support or not doing enough for those games and people looking into those games for something to exploit. It doesn't have anything to do with the platform being "open", which no gaming platform is, even pc unless you play open source games.
Your argument is detached from reality.
This has nothing to do with meltdown or CPU specific attacks, completely different.
Cheating or use of cheats is not hacking, it took a skilled programmer to get the cheat to work, this is nothing more than exploiting code and running things in parallel with the games .EXE in real time to give a superior advantage.
Visual studio is mostly what they code with, hardly hacking.
Spectre, Meltdown are not for cheating in multiplayer games, for some reason you have a very hard time understanding this.
And literally around 3 games on console maximum have a cheating problem, NO argument whatsoever.
It seems you are trying to create argument, rather than see any logical conclusion, in other words, creating illusions to keep from the truth and goal of what i was speaking about.