Tequila Works’ RiME has been cracked in just five days, slowdown/stuttering issues were due to Denuv

[delete12345]

Ever since Tequilla Works has put out an ultimatum to crack their game to the crackers, the crackers went on to crack Denuvo in record time of within 5 days.

Now, almost all gaming communities that knows about Rime and the ultimatum are rejoicing over the fact that Denuvo has been cracked, and are waiting anxiously to hear back from Tequilla Works to see if they actually stood by their promise.

According to the news article, here's an interesting quote taken from the NFO text file handed out alongside with the crack:

“But the game will be much better without that huge abomination called Denuvo. In Rime that ugly creature went out of control – how do you like three fucking hundreds of THOUSANDS calls to “triggers” during initial game launch and savegame loading? Did you wonder why game loading times are so long – here is the answer.

In previous games like Sgw3, Nier, Prey there were only about 1000 “triggers” called, so we have x300 here. Next – 300,000 called “triggers” were just warmup for Denuvo, after 30 minutes of gameplay it became 2 f’ing MILLIONS of called “triggers”. Protection now calls about 10-30 triggers every second during actual gameplay, slowing game down. In previous games like Sgw3, Nier, Prey there were only about 1-2 “triggers” called every several minutes during gameplay, so do the math.”

This seemed to imply Denuvo is the main cause of stuttering gameplay when playing the PC version of Rime. Happy to say, this may trigger a few people who legitimately owns a copy of the PC version of Rime.

Source

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Jeez. You know things have gotten bad when DRM is actually causing slowdown in games.
I hope that sometime developers will realize this too, and at the very least use a DRM that doesn't cause these issues.

 

[ItsKipz]

#drmfree

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I highly doubt Denuvo is the sole cause of all the stuttering and long loading times, because the console counterparts also run like ass and have long load times and they don't have Denuvo. It's more likely that the devs just did a shit job at optimizing the game.

But it's nice to see CPY isn't the only group cracking Denuvo now anyways.

 

[Garro]

This reminds me the whole SimCity (4 was it?) incident

 

[The Minecrafter]

That was SimCity™(Sim city 5/ sim city 2013).
Sim city 4 was the last good one.

 

[Taleweaver]

So, erm...is DRM-cracking now becoming a part of getting attention to the actual game?


I can understand the dev's reasoning of releasing a DRM-free version once it's cracked (after all the pirates torrent their copies to each other, you're really only hurting your loyal customers unnecessary). But it's a very weird way to defend DRM in a game (this isn't a competitive multiplayer title, so why attempt to stop people to cheat on themselves in the first place? ).


...and man, that hacker is really pissed off at denuvo. Not without good reason, either. What's the bloody point of checking so often for tamper-software? Do they really expect to find tampering traces after the first thousand calls? And why does it even increase after the game is loaded?

*sigh* this might sound paranoia, but I fear that the goal of anti-DRM isn't so much actually security anymore but politics: a tool to ensure that people get it on consoles if given the chance. Blimey...how long before anti-DRM secretly mines bitcoins for the developer?

This seemed to imply Denuvo is the main cause of stuttering gameplay when playing the PC version of Rime. Happy to say, this may trigger a few people who legitimately owns a copy of the PC version of Rime.

Could very well be. How long before a comparison video of a PC running a normal version of rime vs a no-denuvo cracked one show up?

 

[Molina]

What's the bloody point of checking so often for tamper-software? Do they really expect to find tampering traces after the first thousand calls? And why does it even increase after the game is loaded?

Local game, important data are generally waiting either in the DD or the RAM. If you check only at the beginning, the hacker is free to do whatever he want after (even encrypting data will not save them. Anyone who know how to use CheatEngine can go through it to search single value).

It remember me the good old "launch diablo 2", "eject disk", "keep playing while your friend connect on his computer with the disk".

Grosso modo, Denuvo check the integrity with these triggers during actual gameplay. Obviously it ask resources, so more triggers, more potential burden on the performances.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

So, erm...is DRM-cracking now becoming a part of getting attention to the actual game?

I can understand the dev's reasoning of releasing a DRM-free version once it's cracked (after all the pirates torrent their copies to each other, you're really only hurting your loyal customers unnecessary). But it's a very weird way to defend DRM in a game (this isn't a competitive multiplayer title, so why attempt to stop people to cheat on themselves in the first place? ).
Could very well be. How long before a comparison video of a PC running a normal version of rime vs a no-denuvo cracked one show up?

No, it's just this one game where the devs think their oh-so-superior "protection" is uncrackable so they made the "challenge". Most other devs just don't care, cuz they know full well that Denuvo can be cracked, it's just a matter of time. Though I do wish more devs would release DRM free versions of their game when it gets cracked, that'd be nice.

Also, Denuvo isn't about cheating, it's about piracy. Denuvo doesn't stop people from using trainers or cheat engine at all, it's only there to stop people from being able to crack the game and play it for free.

As to the performance, there are already multiple reports of minimum performance increase of the cracked vs non cracked version (a few people are saying at most a 3fps difference which is nothing), so it's definitely just a poorly optimized game. It also runs like ass on consoles, as I said earlier, so Denuvo isn't really why the game runs like trash, it's just the devs. But of course pirates have to get all offended as soon as the word "denuvo" appears anywhere, so meh,

 

[sarkwalvein]

This stupidty, developers throwing money away to pay for a DRM system that will be cracked anyway and makes playing the game for paying customers a PITA.
The thing will be cracked anyway, people that would pirate it, will pirate it anyway.
People that would pay for it, will still pay (and more happily) if it is DRM-free.

Why the hell are these snake oils for piracy still produced and sold to naive game developers?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

This stupidty, developers throwing money away to pay for a DRM system that will be cracked anyway and makes playing the game for paying customers a PITA.
The thing will be cracked anyway, people that would pirate it, will pirate it anyway.
People that would pay for it, will still pay (and more happily) if it is DRM-free.

Why the hell are these snake oils for piracy still produced and sold to naive game developers?

99% of the time, Denuvo has done absolutely nothing to impact a game's performance, nor has it been a PITA for any game. Only 2 games that I know of, Syberia 3, and this game (even if it is minimal) have actual problems with Denuvo, everything else that uses it is fine.

As to why devs use Denuvo, it's because it actually "worked" like it was supposed to up until now. It's original intent was to delay the process of cracking past a 3 month period (because that's where peak sales happen with a game's release), which is did for the most part. It even increased sales a bunch in those initial months, depending on the game, so it obviously worked. It was never meant as a complete "never cracked!" DRM system, just something to stop people from pirating the game in those initial, and important, sales months. People like to pretend that "OH IF THEY MADE IT DRM FREE IT'D TOTALLY SELL" all the time, but the truth is the people who actually care about DRM beyond piracy is few and far between. They're out there, but they're in no way any kind of majority.

I mean, I don't want to defend Denuvo at all, I wish nobody used it, but people need to get realistic about it's intent and need to stop accusing it of some great evil it doesn't even commit just because they can't pirate a game the day of release instead of a few months down the line.

 

[Taleweaver]

Also, Denuvo isn't about cheating, it's about piracy. Denuvo doesn't stop people from using trainers or cheat engine at all, it's only there to stop people from being able to crack the game and play it for free.

Just for the record: I already firmly believed so as well in the first place.
The reason I wrote that is because that's why they defend it. From the source in the OP:

"Rime is a very personal experience told through both sight and sound," wrote Dariuas, the Rime community manager, on Steam. "When a game is cracked, it runs the risk of creating issues with both of those items, and we want to do everything we can to preserve this quality in RiME."

To me, that's just saying that they want to keep the integrity intact. The "play the game the way it's meant to be played (vvidia)"-thing. However, the argument doesn't hold much ground when it's a single player game only, and even none if it doesn't even help against trainers (which SERIOUSLY impacts how the game is perceived) in the first place.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Just for the record: I already firmly believed so as well in the first place.
The reason I wrote that is because that's why they defend it. From the source in the OP:

"Rime is a very personal experience told through both sight and sound," wrote Dariuas, the Rime community manager, on Steam. "When a game is cracked, it runs the risk of creating issues with both of those items, and we want to do everything we can to preserve this quality in RiME."

To me, that's just saying that they want to keep the integrity intact. The "play the game the way it's meant to be played (vvidia)"-thing. However, the argument doesn't hold much ground when it's a single player game only, and even none if it doesn't even help against trainers (which SERIOUSLY impacts how the game is perceived) in the first place.

Ahhh I see, just a difference in understanding then lol. When I read it, I assumed they just meant that sometimes cracks can cause issues with games, not anything about cheating ha. Like the Nier crack, that caused a few issues where the game would play a Jet sound 24/7 and would crash after 5 minutes.

Cuz cheating definitely isn't covered by Denuvo lol.

 

[Bladexdsl]

good now it gonna be DRM free...that's what they promised!
Denuvo is cancer

 

[gnmmarechal]

Wow.

 

[ScarletDreamz]

"The product’s overall goal is to make the cracking process so long and painful that hackers ultimately give up."

Ha, like that's gonna happen, On 2016 Sega Saturn was DRM Cracked.... 20 years later of the release...

http://kotaku.com/after-20-years-someone-cracked-the-sega-saturns-drm-1783480023

 

[Tomy Sakazaki]

I'm here thinking if it wasn't a clever plan to get "free money". Supposing that the Denuvo bill was paid by the publisher or some kind of investor of the game, then Denuvo may give this money back if their protection is broken before the time that it was contracted (there are rumours that it actually works this way). Then Tequilla openly challenge crackers, creating demand to break Denuvo.
Then shit is broken in record time, Tequilla or publishers gets the money back, doesn't pay back investors.
[/A conspiracy theory made by me]

 

[Joe88]

how long before anti-DRM secretly mines bitcoins for the developer?

crackers have shipped bitcoin miners in their cracks before, 3DM was notorious for this mainly with their GTAV crack after someone find a miner running in the backround the same time the game was running

 

[lefthandsword]

"The product’s overall goal is to make the cracking process so long and painful that hackers ultimately give up."

Ha, like that's gonna happen, On 2016 Sega Saturn was DRM Cracked.... 20 years later of the release...

http://kotaku.com/after-20-years-someone-cracked-the-sega-saturns-drm-1783480023

It has already been cracked a long time ago. What that guy actually did is he reverse engineered the disc drive protocol to allow homebrew and backups to be loaded from a USB drive because Saturn disc drives are beginning to fail one-by-one and mod chips are extremely hard to find

 

[Hells Malice]

That sounds less like Denuvo and more like shit use of Denuvo.

Denuvo has worked in every other good game it has been a part of. No notice of it in Nier. If Rime has hundreds of thousands more triggers, you have to wonder why it would when other games were just fine with much less.

Denuvo is like most other things people cry about. GFWL, Uplay, whatever else companies use(d) that gamers love to cry about nonsensically. It all just doesn't matter and barely affects anyone.

Given Rime devs were provoking people to crack their game, it seems more like they paid just to create some outrage around Denuvo.
Who knows why. Given the name Tequila Works, I mean...that's probably the answer.