from the removing-extraneous-code-speeds-software-up dept.
Submitted via IRC for takyon
Evidence continues to mount about how bad Denuvo is for PC gaming performance
One of the biggest arguments against anti-piracy checks built into video games (commonly known as "digital rights management," or DRM) is that they punish paying customers with stuttering, loading times, and other detractive gameplay issues. While leading DRM vendor Denuvo has long claimed that its tools don't hamper video games, the stats keep piling up to suggest otherwise.
This week, in its third video on the topic, YouTube channel Overlord Gaming confirmed an additional six examples of improvements once Denuvo was patched out of recent games. The differences in performance range from marginal to noticeable. Yet in all cases, Overlord confirms a general trend of Denuvo impact in two key categories: loading times, and sporadic-yet-severe spikes in "frame time."
The latter issue emerges when a system struggles to render the next frame of animation in a video game, resulting in a pause far greater than the 16.67-millisecond standard found in "60 frames per second" action. Overlord Gaming once again found frame time spikes in the 100-, 200-, and even 400-millisecond ranges in every tested game that had Denuvo enabled. These rare-but-severe dips subsequently went away in each game's post-Denuvo version.
All six tested games included loading times that were anywhere between 50-80 percent longer with Denuvo enabled. Overlord's tests made sure to reload and retest both pre- and post-Denuvo versions a few times, to see how leaving any information or assets in a system's RAM might affect subsequent reboots, and to confirm that post-Denuvo versions weren't unfairly benefiting from game elements remaining in the testing system.
It is important to note that for a long time, after cracks, developers remove Denuvo DRM from their games, which seems to imply that they know full well it hinders game performance.
Related Stories
Denuvo-Free Devil May Cry 5 Reportedly Improves the Game's Performance by Up to 20FPS
It appears that Denuvo's anti-tamper tech has significant impact on Devil May Cry 5's performance, and a Denuvo-free .exe game file has now surfaced online.
The Devil May Cry 5 .exe file was actually released by Capcom following the game's release earlier today, but has now been pulled. However, the file can still be downloaded through the Steam console. Several users are reporting FPS improvements by up to 20FPS while using the Denuvo-free exe file.
Sound familiar? Devil May Cry 5 is the game AMD demoed running on a Radeon VII GPU at its CES 2019 keynote. I wonder if they were running it with DRM.
Average frame rates are only part of the story when it comes to a game's performance. Minimum frame rates, percentiles, etc. can measure frame stuttering. A significant boost in a game's performance can also increase minimum frame rates.
Related:
Denuvo Forgets to Secure Server, Leaks Years of Messages From Game Makers
More Powerful Denuvo DRM Cracked 10 Days After Release of PREY
'Rime' Creators Will Remove Anti-Tampering Code If It's Cracked
New "Out of Control" Denuvo Piracy Protection Cracked
Denuvo License Generator is Latest Circumvention Method
Voksi Releases Detailed Denuvo-Cracking Video Tutorial
DRM Software Company Takes Legal Action Against Cracker
Hitman 2's Denuvo Protection Cracked Three Days Before Launch
New 'Valeroa' Anti-Piracy System Cracked "In 20 Minutes"
Evidence Continues to Mount About How Bad Denuvo is for PC Gaming Performance
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Thursday December 27 2018, @04:48PM (2 children)
I had a look thru the video, it would have been so much better and easier if they had actually synced up the feeds so that the DRM and non-DRM versions was showing the same thing at the same time. Now it's like all over and somewhat hard to judge since they are not rendering the same things at the same time. But sure it does seem like the DRM version is showing less FPS, have a higher GPU temp and CPU temp even while then showing less frames per second to the screen. So there is quite clearly something else that is consuming resources. It might be some kind of wishful thinking or visual placebo but the non-DRM version somehow looks a bit crispier and brighter when it comes to the image quality but that might just be all in my mind.
That said one shows the DRM retail and one shows it with the DRM patched out, was there other fixes with the DRM patch-out? In that case that could somehow invalidate the whole experiment since they could also have fixed bugs and various other issues that was included in the patch to remove the DRM. Also they don't seem to compare it to the cracked version. The cracked version and the non-DRM version might not be the same or actually show similar results. It would have been an interesting comparison that is missing here. Possibly for legal reasons. But cracked software might, or sometimes does, leave things in there running that was part of a protection scheme. Just in a disable or non-functioning state, sometimes this is due to laziness, sometimes due to complexity. So it's still around but stuck in a box, a loop or some virtual machine where it cant break out. So it could still be there, consuming some resources but still not interfere with what you wanted to accomplish.
But sure, it still does seem like the pirated version, or the non-DRM version, is the superior product compared to the DRM version.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday December 27 2018, @05:35PM (1 child)
Data like this would be more helpful: https://developer.nvidia.com/content/analysing-stutter-%E2%80%93-mining-more-percentiles-0 [nvidia.com]
If 100-400 ms spikes are happening, that's going to cause bad stuttering and won't be helpful at all for when you want something like VR consistency.
Nearly doubled loading times are also a pain in the ass.
The solution is simple. Don't play games that use DRM. Don't use marketplaces that don't clearly label which games use or don't use DRM.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @08:25PM
I'm sure this isn't news to anyone here, but gog.com is the place for non-DRM.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @08:07PM (8 children)
I changed my video game habits a few years ago. I stopped buying day 1. Do I miss out on anything? Well no, not really. I do not game with other people. I have such an expansive catalog of stuff already it is no big deal. I do however gain quite a bit. I usually wait about a year.
1) price. After a year the price is usually half of what it was on launch day. Sometimes even better if the game is perceived as a 'bomb'.
2) DLC packed in. Many times the DLC that they nickle and dime you with is bundled up into a 'game of the year' edition, AND costs less.
3) Game breaking bugs are usually already fixed. If they are not they are getting drilled in the reviews and forums. So you can avoid a buggy mess nicely. With the satisfaction that the dev cares a bit (or not).
4) DRM removal. Many times the DRM is gone already. If they want to get onto GoG (which many do). So I am not being treated as a criminal on day 1.
5) proper walkthroughs have been made. Some of the games I play take a bit of time. I get stuck here and there. So a good walkthrough can really help.
6) Good stuff sticks, crap fades. Good games people are still talking about. Meh games people forget about. So you can usually get decent games that have been vetted.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Thursday December 27 2018, @11:47PM
I lost my gaming zeal on a C-64, thanks to Electronic Arts and their head-banging DRM.
Although I did start up an informal little business realigning drives knocked out of alignment by their software. I considered a copy of a cracked game fair exchange for my services.
I had about the same respect for EA as I would have for a mechanic slipping valve grinding powder into oil changes.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday December 28 2018, @01:47AM (3 children)
So many fantastic multiplayer games become essentially unfun because the servers are empty and there are not enough people to re-live the game in its prime. Some multiplayer games can also become unfun if they get mega popular. Draws the Zerg. Just trolls, trash, and toxicity.
If it's a multiplayer experience then you have to be there day 1. Bugs and all, drink it up. Especially if it's an MMO or mod. MMO content is made with groups of people in mind. It sucks being the only person wandering through low level lands because 99.8% of the pop is max level. Mods are short lived and either fizzle out or blossom into completely different games. Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Natural Selection are good examples. Each was a mod that became a full fledged game (that are still played today). But being there at the beginning and seeing it evolve was incredible.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @02:09AM
I gave up being griefed years ago for minor mistakes in a .... game. I also stopped having time to watch that sort of thing grow. It is interesting, I am not saying it is bad. I am saying I just do not do that anymore. The benefits for me were rather minor.
The empty realms show what is worth hanging around on... Bragging rights are 'nice' but gain you little.
The trolls and griefers are always there. One game I joined into I was being yelled at within 20 seconds. I had JUST started playing the game (as in I had just installed it) and had no idea what the keybindings were at all. The game had been out a whole 2 weeks. Yeah that was 'fun'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @11:09AM (1 child)
if the multiplayer dies after just a year, then it's not a game I want to be playing anyway.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:49PM
Then you'll probably never experience an indie multiplayer game. The Ship and Air Buccaneers were both incredibly fun and unique. Low player pops cause a negative feedback loop that cause more and more people to quit over time. There are also situations where the match matching servers went offline from low usage, effectively killing it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2400/The_Ship_Murder_Party/ [steampowered.com]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/223630/AirBuccaneers/ [steampowered.com]
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @12:28PM
I just bought a PS4. There's plenty of games around for it, some of them quite cheap. I haven't needed one. Now I'm looking through the catalog of games to play.
I've stopped buying PC games. It's a load of horse shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @02:57PM
I've gotten into the habit of when I see something on sale with Steam, I hop over to GoG to see if I can get it there.
I like the DRM-freedom that I get with GoG.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday January 08 2019, @10:10AM
7) Better graphics drivers and hardware giving you better overall performance.
(Score: 1) by tedd on Friday December 28 2018, @02:29AM
Um, no. For the vast majority of games with Denuvo, developers haven't removed it when it was cracked.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denuvo#List_of_games_formerly_using_Denuvo/ [wikipedia.org]
Compare with the linked table with the one above it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @08:53AM (1 child)
Here, slip on this lovely ankle bracelet...
--DRM peddler
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:13AM
To me, buying a DRM game is like buying the right to drive a car for a few days from Hertz, Avis, or other rental agency.
Having a cracked game is like having title to the thing.
I am either the boss or subordinate to other things in my life... and I do not like being subordinate unless its ME that's getting paid to put up with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:27PM
All you need to know is it definitely is bad. Don't reward those cocksuckers with your hard earned money.