AC: Origins (Denuvo and VMProtect) cracked - Sensationalist Headlines

I don't think there's an article but here's a post in r/Crackwatch with the NFO: [url]https://www.reddit.com/r/CrackWatch/comments/7uzbor/assassinscreedoriginscpy[/url] And a comment why it's a big deal: [QUOTE]This is a sub about pirating PC games. Assassin's Creed Origins had more anti-piracy measures than any game we've ever seen, in history. Denuvo, which encrypts the entire game, and decrypts it on the fly, at a cost of game performance. It's hard enough to crack that alone. But then on top of that, VMProtect, taking that encrypted game and forcing it to run through a "virtual machine", like telling your Windows PC to pretend it's a Mac. Also at a cost of significant game performance. Then just for good measure, on top of that, UPlay, Ubisoft's own custom anti-piracy measure. 3 layers of anti-piracy protection, 2 of which are the most difficult layers we've ever seen, and they were combined. It was seemingly impossible to crack. And CPY cracked it in 4 months. Insanity. [/QUOTE]

I wonder if the cracked version has any noticeable performance improvements

Even though I've owned the game since release, I'd be curious to see if their release does actually perform better. There has always been speculation about the performance impact of the drm, now here's an opportunity to see if there's any validity to that.

[QUOTE=Paysus;53105330]I wonder if the cracked version has any noticeable performance improvements[/QUOTE] Denuvo + vmprotect is still in the game, it's just bypassed so probably no performance improvements

btw the version of the game is from literally 3 days ago :)

Well the DRM did its job, people who were gonna buy it have probably already bought it by now.

If it does ubisoft will look like such asshats, but the issue is that the game did amazingly well anyways so they're still getting all the money they want to not give a shit. I don't think they ever expect it to last forever just to rake in as much money as possible before they do. That's almost half a year of people only playing it if they bought it (obviously there are variables like friends playing it, but you get what I mean). This won't stop them and because of the hype around many people said "fuck it" and bought it anyways.

[QUOTE=MadBomber;53105357]Well the DRM did its job, people who were gonna buy it have probably already bought it by now.[/QUOTE] DRM isn't supposed to stop cracks, just stall them. And it did.

Hopefully now that its cracked they remove it, but they won't I wish this was like universal, 'if its cracked, its gone'

[QUOTE]And CPY cracked it in 4 months. [B]Insanity[/B].[/QUOTE] Okay but not really, most DRM falls before the game is even released. Denuvo itself has managed to persist for a very long time with only a small spate of ~day-week cracks happening because developers were using an old version or something. Now that some of how the systems work is known to crackers, 4 months isn't really insanity. It's probably anticipated by the guys making the DRM.

I keep hearing these performance issue claims, but have they been confirmed at all? Because to me the below quote sounds ridiculous. [QUOTE] Denuvo, which encrypts the entire game, and decrypts it on the fly, at a cost of game performance. It's hard enough to crack that alone. But then on top of that, VMProtect, taking that encrypted game and forcing it to run through a "virtual machine", like telling your Windows PC to pretend it's a Mac. Also at a cost of significant game performance.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=J!NX;53105368]Hopefully now that its cracked they remove it, but they won't I wish this was like universal, 'if its cracked, its gone'[/QUOTE] That's a management level decision tbh. If they understand that "it's cracked as we can't just update the DRM" is the current state of affairs, and that continuing to pay for the DRM licences would have no benefit they should understand that removing it would be a net gain for them. But depending on how much they're making they might just willingly take the hit of the licence fees.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;53105369]Okay but not really, most DRM falls before the game is even released. Denuvo itself has managed to persist for a very long time with only a small spate of ~day-week cracks happening because developers were using an old version or something. Now that some of how the systems work is known to crackers, 4 months isn't really insanity. It's probably anticipated by the guys making the DRM.[/QUOTE] 4 months is insanity when it comes to DRM when some gets cracked a day before release that is some very stubborn drm, and it worked

I remember reading on here once that if a game's denuvo is cracked, then by license agreement they hav to remove denuvo from their game. Is there any truth to that? If it is, could bode well for better performance from the game if they remove it.

[QUOTE=J!NX;53105378]4 months is insanity when it comes to DRM when some gets cracked a day before release that is some very stubborn drm, and it worked[/QUOTE] Denuvo has recorded history of going uncracked for, well, fucking ever. It appears that games as far back as FIFA 2016 and the 2016 Rocksmith release aren't cracked still. And don't tell me there's no pirate interest in those games, pirates crack shit for the sake of it, demand or not. 4 months is impressive, but by no means is it incredible, amazing, or any other superlative.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;53105388]Denuvo has recorded history of going uncracked for, well, fucking ever. It appears that games as far back as FIFA 2016 and the 2016 Rocksmith release aren't cracked still. And don't tell me there's no pirate interest in those games, pirates crack shit for the sake of it, demand or not. 4 months is impressive, but by no means is it incredible, amazing, or any other superlative.[/QUOTE] Yeah, except it was getting faster until it was being cracked within a day with games using new builds. It doesn't have a great history any longer. This was a unique combination of drm tricks that made this one harder to crack. And now, of course, it gets easier.

[QUOTE=J!NX;53105378]4 months is insanity when it comes to DRM when some gets cracked a day before release that is some very stubborn drm, and it worked[/QUOTE] Then again, they likely lost a lot of sales because of it, mine included.

If I know a game has Denuvo I really think twice about buying it for my PC. If I know a game is using Denuvo and VMProtect [b]at the same time[/b], I flat out avoid it, just like I did this game.

the game played fine for me. But I'm a dirty blasphemer that doesn't mind under 60FPS. As long as a game doesn't go under 30 I'm happy.

[QUOTE=Tuskin;53105464]the game played fine for me. But I'm a dirty blasphemer that doesn't mind under 60FPS. As long as a game doesn't go under 30 I'm happy.[/QUOTE] I agree with you that a 30 FPS lock in a slow paced action game like that is fine, but I think the problem that people have with its performance is the fact that even when dropping all of the settings to the absolute minimum on hardware that is well beyond the requirements for most modern games, you still can't get it to run at 60. It would be one thing, if there was an actual trade-off in performance versus graphical quality, but for me at least on my system, it runs the same no matter what. You're locked to 30fps whether you're at minimum settings 1080p at 50% internal resolution or 1440p maxed out with full res, it doesn't make sense. To compare it to another good looking open world game like GTA, with that game I can either run it at 4k30 which is smooth and feels okay for driving around and playing by myself, and it looks great, but I drop it down to 1080p to bring the fps up to 60 when I play online otherwise I'd never land a shot. But in ACO making the same change brings no difference and that's what's odd and is probably the root of the speculation.

I have a GTX 970, and I'm playing it on high at 1080p.

[QUOTE=Orkel;53105403]Then again, they likely lost a lot of sales because of it, mine included.[/QUOTE] Insignificant to the sales they made tbh. The average consumer, even PC gamer, doesn't really care.

[QUOTE=MadBomber;53105357]Well the DRM did its job, people who were gonna buy it have probably already bought it by now.[/QUOTE] And now because it's not going to be removed I have no plans of doing so unless I find it for $10 used for console at a rental place. Sad, because it looks like the most interesting AC in [I]years[/I].

[QUOTE=Tuskin;53105496]I have a GTX 970, and I'm playing it on high at 1080p.[/QUOTE] Yeah me too. I think it's being held back by my i5. There are some articles that have some benchmarks suggesting that having six or more threads can increase performance like 20 or 30% with this particular game, compared to four threads. Being CPU limited does explain why changing graphics settings doesn't change the fps for me. And being so CPU limited is another reason for the speculation that the drm is holding it back, but again, I don't know this to be true.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;53105388]Denuvo has recorded history of going uncracked for, well, fucking ever. It appears that games as far back as FIFA 2016 and the 2016 Rocksmith release aren't cracked still. And don't tell me there's no pirate interest in those games, pirates crack shit for the sake of it, demand or not. 4 months is impressive, but by no means is it incredible, amazing, or any other superlative.[/QUOTE] I don't know man, it may not be incredible, but it is fabulous, maybe even excellent, though not fantastic, or phenomenal. But it is astonishing, abeit not that trememdous though still fairly remarkable. Am I to call it marvelous? Perhaps not, though it is wonderful. [editline]3rd February 2018[/editline] [QUOTE=Orkel;53105403]Then again, they likely lost a lot of sales because of it, mine included.[/QUOTE] I don't know, it's not usually that terrible if something has DRM, I'll still buy a [I]smaller [/I]title if it had DRM, though I'm almost always hyper-vigilant with it. if it doesn't fuck the performance / is removed after its cracked its fine really. if it requires some set up though then hell no never going through that

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;53105399]Yeah, except it was getting faster until it was being cracked within a day with games using new builds. It doesn't have a great history any longer. This was a unique combination of drm tricks that made this one harder to crack. And now, of course, it gets easier.[/QUOTE] That's turned back around actually, the newest version of Denuvo has been a bitch apparently.

[QUOTE=Svinnik;53105351]Denuvo + vmprotect is still in the game, it's just bypassed so probably no performance improvements[/QUOTE] So why is it called crack? Why not call it a bypass. Crack sounds like something that disables drm completely.

This is fun news, considering it was hailed as the almost perfect solution. Also on top of buying Denuvo games, I also avoid them. I don't want to buy a game that I one day can not play anymore just because of some stupid DRM. Or when Denuvo suddenly stops their servers and developers don't care to remove it. Also cracking your legit bought games (for offline play purpose) doesn't work with it.

Shame I already bought it. Worth it just to buy it, honestly, that way you can keep up to date with it.

Having your binaries cracked [i]4 months[/i] after you released the game is [i]phenomenal[/i] performance of that DRM. People have had 4 months to modify your binaries and it took them until now to get it. All software can be hacked. The most crucial sales window of AC:O is over and I'm sure Ubisoft got what they want out of it. Also, I don't at all trust crackers when they talk about the performance hit of a DRM. They have everything to gain by making you distrust the creators of DRM. They're not credible at all.