The Denuvo DRM Thread

[Nikanuur]

Just found out about one of the old tests. Idk of the state of Denuvo today though:

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/282924-denuvo-really-does-cripple-pc-gaming-performance

 

[RomanRichter]

Welp, Empress now redoing everything from scratch because of how stuffed and humfisted DRM was (Bassically different drms layered on top of each other).
Fuck this crap, soon DRMs will eat most of PC horsepower

Just found out about one of the old test. Idk of the state of Denuvo today though:

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/282924-denuvo-really-does-cripple-pc-gaming-performance

Still depends on game and D implementation, but mostly that's pretty accurate

 

[Nikanuur]

One thing I haven't yet understood. Does Denuvo stay in the background even with no games actively running? Do some parts of it load with Windows boot? Or does it only activate when the game is being started?

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

as far as i remember, at least older versions, it has no reason to be active while you're not using something protected by it. problem is, when it does protect it makes a mess of your system, and ssds suffer the most.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

You guys are confusing it with anti cheat. Denuvo is limited to the lifetime of the process

 

[BlackAdderBG]

You guys are confusing it with anti cheat. Denuvo is limited to the lifetime of the process

Denuvo has its own anti cheat and I don't think they even say if it's specifically used or just part of the package.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

no, it's slipped into your anus unannounced. experienced just few days ago. maximum rage, instant uninstall (also because the game it was tied to turned out total turd).

 

[J1M]

Sad that game quality has dropped so much that nobody is interested in cracking them anymore.

 

[Hirato]

Just found out about one of the old tests. Idk of the state of Denuvo today though:

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/282924-denuvo-really-does-cripple-pc-gaming-performance

Unfortunately most of the guy's benchmarks are no good.
The loading times specifically are fine however.

Basically the issues boil down to:
1. He's measuring GPU performance.
2. He's not measuring CPU overhead and properly isolating this variable.
3. Due to game logic calculations, games' CPU requirements do not scale linearly with framerates; e.g. an extra 5% of CPU power might be enough to double your framerate, likewise an absence of 10% might take it from a smooth 60 to incapable of maintaining 30.
While my example is extreme, this is why his results are all over the place, and we still do not have a firm 'denuvo's overhead is X' metric.

I have a few other posts in this thread that go into more detail.
EDIT: There was a Gears game that he accidentally did correctly. That one is quite valuable.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Just found out about one of the old tests. Idk of the state of Denuvo today though:

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/282924-denuvo-really-does-cripple-pc-gaming-performance

Unfortunately most of the guy's benchmarks are no good.
The loading times specifically are fine however.

Basically the issues boil down to:
1. He's measuring GPU performance.
2. He's not measuring CPU overhead and properly isolating this variable.
3. Due to game logic calculations, games' CPU requirements do not scale linearly with framerates; e.g. an extra 5% of CPU power might be enough to double your framerate, likewise an absence of 10% might take it from a smooth 60 to incapable of maintaining 30.
While my example is extreme, this is why his results are all over the place, and we still do not have a firm 'denuvo's overhead is X' metric.

I have a few other posts in this thread that go into more detail.
EDIT: There was a Gears game that he accidentally did correctly. That one is quite valuable.

These guys benchmarks are retarded and shouldn't be used as proof for anything even if it shows that denuvo affects performance.

There is also the variable of how denuvo is implemented and "removed". Probably most of the time the code is still there, but just flags the check as positive or some shit. So it still burdens your CPU even if devs say it's removed.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

the performance impact of denuvo is relative to how frequently the checks are, some games are retarded and put the checks in code called very frequently

 

[BlackAdderBG]

the performance impact of denuvo is relative to how frequently the checks are, some games are retarded and put the checks in code called very frequently

Yes! Some fighting game even tied it to its controls lol

 

[Hirato]

Just found out about one of the old tests. Idk of the state of Denuvo today though:

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/282924-denuvo-really-does-cripple-pc-gaming-performance

Unfortunately most of the guy's benchmarks are no good.
The loading times specifically are fine however.

Basically the issues boil down to:
1. He's measuring GPU performance.
2. He's not measuring CPU overhead and properly isolating this variable.
3. Due to game logic calculations, games' CPU requirements do not scale linearly with framerates; e.g. an extra 5% of CPU power might be enough to double your framerate, likewise an absence of 10% might take it from a smooth 60 to incapable of maintaining 30.
While my example is extreme, this is why his results are all over the place, and we still do not have a firm 'denuvo's overhead is X' metric.

I have a few other posts in this thread that go into more detail.
EDIT: There was a Gears game that he accidentally did correctly. That one is quite valuable.

These guys benchmarks are retarded and shouldn't be used as proof for anything even if it shows that denuvo affects performance.

There is also the variable of how denuvo is implemented and "removed". Probably most of the time the code is still there, but just flags the check as positive or some shit. So it still burdens your CPU even if devs say it's removed.

It bloats the executable, and encrypts it; the combo adds overhead and absolutely wrecks CPU cache locality optimisations done on the hardware level.
Even without doing any checks or enforcement, or putting them in dumb places (like Sonic Mania), its mere presence introduces significant overhead.

Take that Gears game the idiot benchmarked. If I recall correctly, he accidentally showed that the DRM used by that game made its game logic take 17% longer, and then proceeded to do nothing with that information.
That's a pretty good indication of the DRM's overhead, and it isolated what was important. While it wasn't denuvo, I'm sure the two have at least similar levels of overhead.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Good thing I have my blizzard games to accompany me.

Levels of dumb this high cannot be real.

 

[lightbane]

Good thing I have my blizzard games to accompany me.

Levels of dumb this high cannot be real.

That looks fun. Manga's name, please?

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Dungeon Meshi

 

[Nikanuur]

Thank you all for the information. Reading all of it, I don't see the point in becoming all worked up over Denuvo. Ok, it steals generally a little portion of the power (with some cases going as high as 1/7 of the power), there are unproven, often debunked rumors that it puts strain on SSD (I'd say every rumor has got a bit of truth to it, but still, nothing major), and it forces you to have an active internet connection from time to time, even for single-player games. The latter is kinda meh. It's good that people talk about it and that they raise their concerns at the appropriate places, but horribly evil anti-consumer Denuvo? Get out of town.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

I agree, it doesn't come and rape you in the ass so it it's kinda OK, good even...? I mean stuttering and crashing are kinda good, no? Thanks for the info guys!

 

[Raghar]

Good thing I have my blizzard games to accompany me.

Levels of dumb this high cannot be real.

That looks fun. Manga's name, please?

It looks like the main character. But, he was smarter in the beginning. Also that person with horns should be shorter.

Basically it's a manga about what to do when you enter a deep catacombs that need at least 14 day to go through, and forget food rations. It's the nicer variant.

 

[Rean]

Thank you all for the information. Reading all of it, I don't see the point in becoming all worked up over Denuvo. Ok, it steals generally a little portion of the power (with some cases going as high as 1/7 of the power), there are unproven, often debunked rumors that it puts strain on SSD (I'd say every rumor has got a bit of truth to it, but still, nothing major), and it forces you to have an active internet connection from time to time, even for single-player games. The latter is kinda meh. It's good that people talk about it and that they raise their concerns at the appropriate places, but horribly evil anti-consumer Denuvo? Get out of town.

Stop posting.

Many thanks.

 

[Nikanuur]

Thank you all for the information. Reading all of it, I don't see the point in becoming all worked up over Denuvo. Ok, it steals generally a little portion of the power (with some cases going as high as 1/7 of the power), there are unproven, often debunked rumors that it puts strain on SSD (I'd say every rumor has got a bit of truth to it, but still, nothing major), and it forces you to have an active internet connection from time to time, even for single-player games. The latter is kinda meh. It's good that people talk about it and that they raise their concerns at the appropriate places, but horribly evil anti-consumer Denuvo? Get out of town.

Stop posting.

Many thanks.

Stop being mediocre. Eben more thanks.

 

[ADL]

 

[Sarathiour]

I mean, at least it canalize his issue into something productive.

Hogwart Legacy

Erm...

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

We shall see how that play off, as long i can get my hands on a working coh3, because fuck paying 300+ bucks for it.

 

[Rean]

Spoiler

Based righteous indignation.