• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Assassin's Creed Origins' Denuvo and VMProtect Bypassed

Joined
Jun 10, 2013
Messages
161 (0.04/day)
Location
H-town
Most of this is seeing it in a bad light, just like C.G.I. in movies, but not notice when it is good or care to mention. Companies aim for income, or should we just be okay if 1 million buy it but 1 billion pirate it? If you guys can propose something, by all means, I'm interested in knowing what. If not, this Denuvo stuff is all they can currently muster.
I have a personal vendetta against GoG for taking some liberated games that are old and still work fine even in Windows 10 but they wrap it in their software and sell it, sucks for the ones that could still be played without needing tweaks and/or fixes.
But if you search for "free" and "GoG," you'll find sites that give the downloads to GoG versions of the games, so GoG is not purely the way to go, either.
 
Joined
Oct 11, 2006
Messages
1,073 (0.16/day)
System Name My Current Desktop
Processor i9 12900KF
Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX Z690-E GAMING WIFI
Cooling ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 360
Memory G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6400 F5-6400J3239G16GA2-TZ5RS
Video Card(s) RTX 3090 FE
Storage SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 1TB
Display(s) Samsung G80SD
Case Fractal Design Torrent White
Audio Device(s) Schiit Bifrost2
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Razer Basilisk v3 pro
Keyboard Keychron Q6 Max (brown)
Software Win 11 Pro
This is for an older version of denuvo (4.0), but "voksi" shows the process of cracking the exe. Very cool stuff seeing some of the process. i'm sure CPY has different methods and techniques, but still worth a glance.


mods, if this violates any rules, please delete.
 
Joined
Jun 10, 2013
Messages
161 (0.04/day)
Location
H-town
Alright, I think I have clearly stated everything as I see it... I don't think chino said anything in misleading or biased way. Feel free to believe otherwise... I don't see further discussion as productive, have a good day.
I was mistaken, I only said that I agree if the comment is biased to go along with Duke Nukem's comment. (I'm stating a General Principle, not directly to the article). I apologize for that error.
Comparative Benchmark ...
LINK
Someone states that Denuvo with VMProtect are still working in the background, so it still affects, or just a snicker way to say that they don't agree with the non-changes.
 
Joined
Mar 15, 2017
Messages
194 (0.07/day)
Negatives include getting knocked out of a game because their servers go offline even though you are playing single player. Likewise owning the game and not being able to play because the authentication servers aren't working correctly. There are all sorts of negatives besides potential performance impacts that drm has. These harms are well known. The point stands, it's broken, it is only hurting, why keep it?

I was clearly talking about the performance side of things, hence I used percentages. The discussion wasn't about servers, it was about CPU overhead. Besides, do you honestly see them coming out saying "Hey, we were wrong. Let us remove this filthy DRM caca we baked in so you fine people can enjoy it. We're vewy vewy sowwy." - I certainly can't. They went to great lengths just to make it harder for people to pirate it, surely the won't just throw that away. They should, but they're a bunch of greedy stubborn fools.

Testing can tell plenty of lies... read an amd or nvidia review guide...

Cherry picking using specific settings and circumstances isn't independent testing. You know this as well as everyone else here.

Your wording paints users in a negative light assuming they are wrong, and shows ubi as a benevolent company who could only gain more loyalty with their actions and prove those stupid users wrong.
You see how hard tone is? You tried to be neutral and dry and still had tonal shifts to one side..

I described precisely why the original sounded biased. Return the favor, explain why I would sound biased to you.

Alright, I think I have clearly stated everything as I see it... I don't think chino said anything in misleading or biased way. Feel free to believe otherwise... I don't see further discussion as productive, have a good day.

That's the classic 'I said what I had to say and will now regard everything else you might have to say redundant, so just let me win by demanding to have the last word' attitude, way to go!

I was mistaken, I only said that I agree if the comment is biased to go along with Duke Nukem's comment.

Who? What? I'm not Duke Nukem. I am Nuke Dukem! I'm here to argue about stuff on teh interwebz and chew bubble gum... and I'm all outta gum. :D
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
1,431 (0.36/day)
Processor 11900K
Motherboard ASRock Z590 OC Formula
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 using 2x140mm 3000RPM industrial Noctuas
Memory G. Skill Trident Z 2x16GB 3600MHz
Video Card(s) eVGA RTX 3090 FTW3
Storage 2TB Crucial P5 Plus
Display(s) 1st: LG GR83Q-B 1440p 27in 240Hz / 2nd: Lenovo y27g 1080p 27in 144Hz
Case Lian Li Lancool MESH II RGB (I removed the RGB)
Audio Device(s) AKG Q701's w/ O2+ODAC (Sounds a little bright)
Power Supply Seasonic Prime 850 TX
Mouse Glorious Model D
Keyboard Glorious MMK2 65% Lynx MX switches
Software Win10 Pro
Considering all their old and cracked games still have DRM. This will keep its DRM forever unfortunately. It might get removed in 15years.

I see some confusion about the DRM in this game and the crack. The cracked version still has DRM. It is just tricking the DRM into thinking nothing is wrong. There are still hundreds of checks every minute. If i remember right, the DRM checks itself everytime it detects player input (walking around.) This is why it is supposedly CPU intensive, the constant checking.
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
12,016 (1.72/day)
System Name Compy 386
Processor 7800X3D
Motherboard Asus
Cooling Air for now.....
Memory 64 GB DDR5 6400Mhz
Video Card(s) 7900XTX 310 Merc
Storage Samsung 990 2TB, 2 SP 2TB SSDs, 24TB Enterprise drives
Display(s) 55" Samsung 4K HDR
Audio Device(s) ATI HDMI
Mouse Logitech MX518
Keyboard Razer
Software A lot.
Benchmark Scores Its fast. Enough.
I'm really starting to dislike TPUs tone on these articles.


DRM that features a Virtual Machine with known exploits, just to decrypt the games media libraries and uses at least one core and a significant amount of CPU time to do so is absurd.

It would be like paying for a 8 room house but only having access to 7 rooms, and you cannot know what's going on in the 8th room, and attempting to find out is illegal.
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
1,431 (0.36/day)
Processor 11900K
Motherboard ASRock Z590 OC Formula
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 using 2x140mm 3000RPM industrial Noctuas
Memory G. Skill Trident Z 2x16GB 3600MHz
Video Card(s) eVGA RTX 3090 FTW3
Storage 2TB Crucial P5 Plus
Display(s) 1st: LG GR83Q-B 1440p 27in 240Hz / 2nd: Lenovo y27g 1080p 27in 144Hz
Case Lian Li Lancool MESH II RGB (I removed the RGB)
Audio Device(s) AKG Q701's w/ O2+ODAC (Sounds a little bright)
Power Supply Seasonic Prime 850 TX
Mouse Glorious Model D
Keyboard Glorious MMK2 65% Lynx MX switches
Software Win10 Pro
DRM that features a Virtual Machine with known exploits, just to decrypt the games media libraries and uses at least one core and a significant amount of CPU time to do so is absurd.

It would be like paying RENTING for a 8 room house but only having access to 7 rooms, and you cannot know what's going on in the 8th room, and attempting to find out is illegal.
RENTING an 8-room house. Remember, you never own this shit.
Best way to solve that? Simply find a different renter.
 
Joined
Jun 19, 2008
Messages
347 (0.06/day)
Location
India
System Name Home
Processor Ryzen 5700x3d
Motherboard Gigabyte Aorus B550 Pro
Cooling Bykski Ryzen Waterblock + BlackIce Pro 360 radiator + 120mm + D5 variable pump + Corsair HD120 x 4
Memory 16 GB G.Skill RIPJAWS @ 3600Mhz 16-19-19
Video Card(s) ASUS Strix 1080Ti with Bykski Waterblock
Storage 2x 970 EVO Plus 1tb + 960GB Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD + 4TB WD Black
Display(s) Samsung 40KU6300 UHD TV
Case CoolerMaster HAF-X
Audio Device(s) Logitech Z906
Power Supply Corsair RM850
Mouse Logitech G304 + Razer Goliathus Speed mouse pad
Keyboard Razer BlackWidow Chroma RGB
VR HMD Oculus Rift CV1
Software Windows 10/High Sierra Dual Boot
Piracy is free promotion.

-The Witcher 3
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2015
Messages
1,092 (0.32/day)
Location
Latvija
System Name Fujitsu Siemens, HP Workstation
Processor Athlon x2 5000+ 3.1GHz, i5 2400
Motherboard Asus
Memory 4GB Samsung
Video Card(s) rx 460 4gb
Storage 750 Evo 250 +2tb
Display(s) Asus 1680x1050 4K HDR
Audio Device(s) Pioneer
Power Supply 430W
Mouse Acme
Keyboard Trust
What tone? Everyone is laughing at idiots like ubisoft insisting on screwing honest buyers while pirates are enjoying a care free experience. They should sell their games without these dumb DRM protections and instead use pirates as free PR. Also, being a honest company helps a lot. I'm gonna throw in CDPR again here. I'm sure their games get pirated, they all do, but even pirates often decide to buy it anyway because of convenience and a bit of regret (it's also why I've bought almost all GOG games I've played pirated decades ago). I don't even pirate games anymore because buying them is just more convenient. I do prefer GOG whenever I can because of DRM free policy. They respect me as customer and I respect them. Let me just say I don't play or buy any Ubisoft games, because they are greedy douchebags.
Sometimes games on disk are actually cheaper, but I, not happy whit product because of no native language, bugs, bad performance, and lighting. Skyrim is for 17 but I don't like some gameplay things in this game. I will not buy any more games who will haw Stem DRM.
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
9,511 (3.27/day)
System Name Good enough
Processor AMD Ryzen R9 7900 - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge
Motherboard ASRock B650 Pro RS
Cooling 2x 360mm NexXxoS ST30 X-Flow, 1x 360mm NexXxoS ST30, 1x 240mm NexXxoS ST30
Memory 32GB - FURY Beast RGB 5600 Mhz
Video Card(s) Sapphire RX 7900 XT - Alphacool Eisblock Aurora
Storage 1x Kingston KC3000 1TB 1x Kingston A2000 1TB, 1x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB , 1x Samsung 860 EVO 500GB
Display(s) LG UltraGear 32GN650-B + 4K Samsung TV
Case Phanteks NV7
Power Supply GPS-750C
Companies aim for income, or should we just be okay if 1 million buy it but 1 billion pirate it? If you guys can propose something, by all means, I'm interested in knowing what. If not, this Denuvo stuff is all they can currently muster.

DRM doesn't help companies get more sales , whoever pirates games wont be willing to buy them anyway even if they become uncrackable. DRM is a nice checkbox to tick to give the illusion that you are going to "sell more games".

You can bet that whenever the top brass go on to have a meeting and they ask why their game wasn't successful enough they will get the "it was pirated" BS right away instead of "maybe it was shit". Come on , are you really going to shed a tear for these poor multi billion dollar companies ? By the look of your comment the only thing I can think of is : How many shares have you got mate ?
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jan 27, 2015
Messages
454 (0.13/day)
System Name Marmo / Kanon
Processor Intel Core i7 9700K / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi / X570S Aorus Pro AX
Cooling Noctua NH-U12S x 2
Memory Corsair Vengeance 32GB 2666-C16 / 32GB 3200-C16
Video Card(s) KFA2 RTX3070 Ti / Asus TUF RX 6800XT OC
Storage Samsung 970 EVO+ 1TB, 860 EVO 1TB / Samsung 970 Pro 1TB, 970 EVO+ 1TB
Display(s) Dell AW2521HFA / U2715H
Case Fractal Design Focus G / Pop Air RGB
Audio Device(s) Onboard / Creative SB ZxR
Power Supply SeaSonic Focus GX 650W / PX 750W
Mouse Logitech MX310 / G1
Keyboard Logitech G413 / G513
Software Win 11 Ent
So, remove the protection so it is easier to be cracked or keep it and try to prevent piracy as much as possible. Only a small percentage of the people that get the pirated games will buy the game out of remorse, or just because they liked the game.

You said it yourself. By removing DRM, there is a chance for increased sales even if it's just a very small percentage. As for the other two groups of gamers, seasoned pirates and die-hard "1st day launch" buyers, DRMs hardly make any difference in terms of sales. So the overall sales figure favours DRM-free.

Now let's look at the victims of the battle between devs/publishers and pirates, the honest buyers. They have to pay more for their games to cover the cost of implementing n layers of DRMs. They may have to build more expensive PCs just to get adequate performance for an n-layer protected game. And when those DRM validation mechanisms stop working sometime in the future, their legit copies of the game will become nothing more than junk files hogging disk space.
 
Joined
Jun 10, 2013
Messages
161 (0.04/day)
Location
H-town
You said it yourself. By removing DRM, there is a chance for increased sales even if it's just a very small percentage.
https://web.archive.org/web/2016092...:80/site-news/main-news/attack-of-robots.html

You can bet that whenever the top brass go on to have a meeting and they ask why their game wasn't successful enough they will get the "it was pirated" BS right away instead of "maybe it was shit". Come on , are you really going to shed a tear for these poor multi billion dollar companies ? By the look of your comment the only thing I can think of is : How many shares have you got mate ?
Digital Rights Management or not, the object is to support the company that makes the games we play. I have no shares, but how much funding do you provide the cracking teams?
I can shed a tear for the little companies that are also left out due to piracy, as the link I posted above.
Still no answer to "What do you guys propose to combat Piracy, when these games will be craked regardless of these protections or not?" A.C. Origins was bad? Any thoughts as that being the reason?
 

rtwjunkie

PC Gaming Enthusiast
Supporter
Joined
Jul 25, 2008
Messages
14,019 (2.34/day)
Location
Louisiana
Processor Core i9-9900k
Motherboard ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 6
Cooling All air: 2x140mm Fractal exhaust; 3x 140mm Cougar Intake; Enermax ETS-T50 Black CPU cooler
Memory 32GB (2x16) Mushkin Redline DDR-4 3200
Video Card(s) ASUS RTX 4070 Ti Super OC 16GB
Storage 1x 1TB MX500 (OS); 2x 6TB WD Black; 1x 2TB MX500; 1x 1TB BX500 SSD; 1x 6TB WD Blue storage (eSATA)
Display(s) Infievo 27" 165Hz @ 2560 x 1440
Case Fractal Design Define R4 Black -windowed
Audio Device(s) Soundblaster Z
Power Supply Seasonic Focus GX-1000 Gold
Mouse Coolermaster Sentinel III (large palm grip!)
Keyboard Logitech G610 Orion mechanical (Cherry Brown switches)
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Start10 & Fences 3.0 installed)
A.C. Origins was bad? Any thoughts as that being the reason?
I don't think we can operate from that premise. If not mistaken, Origins has ended up pretty highly regarded. We can operate under the idea that it's DRM was pretty intense and overkill. Players needed a pretty beefy CPU in order to not have any game slowdown.
 
Joined
Jun 10, 2013
Messages
161 (0.04/day)
Location
H-town
I don't think we can operate from that premise. If not mistaken, Origins has ended up pretty highly regarded. We can operate under the idea that it's DRM was pretty intense and overkill. Players needed a pretty beefy CPU in order to not have any game slowdown.
Yet, where is the proof? Until then it is due to the optimizations of the game itself.
Sniper Ghost is another game, and affected loading times, so A.C.'s protection affecting the game usage still lingering in the air. Yes, I'm not denying that this is the culprit, either. (So, I"m not completely in the "Dark side.")
I'm neutral but seeing how everyone is hard-pressed to see D.R.M. gone, when it is implied for a reason, here, I feel like trying to defend it. Mainly because they don't put it with intention of bothering the gamers, but here we are affected, or in this case it is allegedly affected.

As for my comparison of C.G.I. being seen on a bad light:
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jan 27, 2015
Messages
454 (0.13/day)
System Name Marmo / Kanon
Processor Intel Core i7 9700K / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi / X570S Aorus Pro AX
Cooling Noctua NH-U12S x 2
Memory Corsair Vengeance 32GB 2666-C16 / 32GB 3200-C16
Video Card(s) KFA2 RTX3070 Ti / Asus TUF RX 6800XT OC
Storage Samsung 970 EVO+ 1TB, 860 EVO 1TB / Samsung 970 Pro 1TB, 970 EVO+ 1TB
Display(s) Dell AW2521HFA / U2715H
Case Fractal Design Focus G / Pop Air RGB
Audio Device(s) Onboard / Creative SB ZxR
Power Supply SeaSonic Focus GX 650W / PX 750W
Mouse Logitech MX310 / G1
Keyboard Logitech G413 / G513
Software Win 11 Ent

That news post doesn't change what I just said: "you get increased sales from DRM-free". Those 100 mil pirates and 3 legitimate buyers in the post belong to the two groups, seasoned pirates and die-hard buyers I mentioned. They are unaffected by whether companies choose to implement DRM or not.

I don't have any issues with distribution platforms like Steam (which have promised to send out physical copies of the game should they shutdown in the future). But "pay to be the victims of intrusive and performance degrading DRMs", count me out.
 
Joined
Jun 10, 2013
Messages
161 (0.04/day)
Location
H-town
That news post doesn't change what I just said: "you get increased sales from DRM-free". Those 100 mil pirates and 3 legitimate buyers in the post belong to the two groups, seasoned pirates and die-hard buyers I mentioned. They are unaffected by whether companies choose to implement DRM or not.
This is from Google Play and no D.R.M. from the developer, so makes the D.R.M. part moot. (I don't have Android devices to know if G Play is free of this type of Management)
It's $3 and still 100X more pirates.
Also, you must've missed my post against Good Ol' Gamers. And I'm done being active in this thread, anyways, so Sayonara everyone.
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
9,511 (3.27/day)
System Name Good enough
Processor AMD Ryzen R9 7900 - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge
Motherboard ASRock B650 Pro RS
Cooling 2x 360mm NexXxoS ST30 X-Flow, 1x 360mm NexXxoS ST30, 1x 240mm NexXxoS ST30
Memory 32GB - FURY Beast RGB 5600 Mhz
Video Card(s) Sapphire RX 7900 XT - Alphacool Eisblock Aurora
Storage 1x Kingston KC3000 1TB 1x Kingston A2000 1TB, 1x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB , 1x Samsung 860 EVO 500GB
Display(s) LG UltraGear 32GN650-B + 4K Samsung TV
Case Phanteks NV7
Power Supply GPS-750C
I'm neutral but seeing how everyone is hard-pressed to see D.R.M. gone, when it is implied for a reason, here, I feel like trying to defend it.

So you are clearly not neutral then and love DRM , why wouldn't I believe you own shares at these companies ? Why else would you care ?

Still no answer to "What do you guys propose to combat Piracy, when these games will be craked regardless of these protections or not?"

Why would I care to give an answer to that ? Is it my job to conjure up solutions to boost sales of their games ?

Piracy can't be stopped and it's effect does not impact sales as much as people think. It's a fact that for some reason people don't want to accept. I find it interesting how companies like Ubisoft can bear this "unbelievable burden" that piracy is and still make truckloads of money. If say piracy would be gone , what do you think it will happen ? They'll make what , more truckloads of money ? Why would that make you happy ?

I see you are extremely concerned about this matter. How about being concerned with regards to the ridiculously small and underpaid teams that create these games which in return generate profits in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars. What about them ? Wake up , piracy does not affect the people that actually work hard to make these games a reality , it affects the money mongering suits and I find it astonishing that you don't realize that.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 15, 2011
Messages
6,765 (1.39/day)
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-13700K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX
Cooling Noctua NH-D15
Memory 32GB(2x16) DDR5@6600MHz G-Skill Trident Z5
Video Card(s) ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 AMP Holo
Storage 2TB SK Platinum P41 SSD + 4TB SanDisk Ultra SSD + 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Display(s) Acer Predator X34 3440x1440@100Hz G-Sync
Case NZXT PHANTOM410-BK
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi Titanium PCIe
Power Supply Corsair 850W
Mouse Logitech Hero G502 SE
Software Windows 11 Pro - 64bit
Benchmark Scores 30FPS in NFS:Rivals
This is for an older version of denuvo (4.0), but "voksi" shows the process of cracking the exe. Very cool stuff seeing some of the process. i'm sure CPY has different methods and techniques, but still worth a glance.


mods, if this violates any rules, please delete.
This is harder to understand than rocket science physics.
 
Joined
Oct 11, 2006
Messages
1,073 (0.16/day)
System Name My Current Desktop
Processor i9 12900KF
Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX Z690-E GAMING WIFI
Cooling ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 360
Memory G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6400 F5-6400J3239G16GA2-TZ5RS
Video Card(s) RTX 3090 FE
Storage SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 1TB
Display(s) Samsung G80SD
Case Fractal Design Torrent White
Audio Device(s) Schiit Bifrost2
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Razer Basilisk v3 pro
Keyboard Keychron Q6 Max (brown)
Software Win 11 Pro
This is harder to understand than rocket science physics.

You you need an in-depth knowledge of assembly language to understand it, I took assembly 101, so I don't understand it. :D
 

W1zzard

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
27,972 (3.71/day)
Processor Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory 48 GB
Video Card(s) RTX 4080
Storage 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s) 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software Windows 10 64-bit
@Chino Would be interesting to see some benchmarks with it fully cracked vs not cracked on the same system, just to see if the performance hit is true. lol
Unfortunately it's not that easy. The cracks don't remove the protections, they just circumvent them. So the protection is still fully active which is why there is no difference in performance.

I'm not saying there should be a difference, just that such kind of testing is futile. The only way is to wait for the publisher to release a DRM free version.
 
Top