SH4 Anti-piracy protection - like Starforce?

[Captain Nemo]

I have not ordered SH4 yet, but plan to soon, I just wondered if the anti-piracy protection that comes with it is like Starforce or is it something less intrusive? Also can you do a full install and play SH4 without the DVD in the drive or is it necessary to keep it in the drive like SH3?

Nemo

[danlisa]

I think they have decided on Securom as protection but I don't have the game yet.

You can google to find out further info.

EDIT - It is SecuROM. (confirmed) This is far less intrusive compared to SF.

[mookiemookie]

Ubisoft dropped Starforce last year due to public outcry. Not sure what they use now but I know it isn't Starforce.

[Gizzmoe]

Also can you do a full install and play SH4 without the DVD in the drive

No.

[It762]

rofl starforce, securrom it's all the same I think.

I liked those old copy protection schemes much better e.g. when they are integrated into the game - Manic mansion.... Monkey Island etc...

[Immacolata]

Yes, losing your Maniac Mansion manual was really awesome :)

[Spaxspore]

rofl starforce, securrom it's all the same I think.

I liked those old copy protection schemes much better e.g. when they are integrated into the game - Manic mansion.... Monkey Island etc...

no its not, secrum doesnt install hidden software on your machine like starforce does. Securm is a lot more computer user friendly. And allows the user to make backups of thier legally purchased discs so u can keep the orginal nice and safe and scratch free.

[joea]

rofl starforce, securrom it's all the same I think.

I liked those old copy protection schemes much better e.g. when they are integrated into the game - Manic mansion.... Monkey Island etc...

no its not, secrum doesnt install hidden software on your machine like starforce does. Securm is a lot more computer user friendly. And allows the user to make backups of thier legally purchased discs so u can keep the orginal nice and safe and scratch free.

Indeed. :yep:

Nothing in common with Starforce.

[TheSatyr]

Securrom is just as bad if not worse. Some people with Neverwinter Nights 2 did a test by running the game with Securrom and without it,(Which may actually have been illegal),and found that Securrom causes the game to run over 5 fps slower than it ran with Securrom removed.

There is actually a huge e-mail campaign and a massive Forum petition now to get Securrom removed from the game,but so far Obsidian is totally ignoring the e-mails and petition and not even bothering to reply to any of them.

[Spaxspore]

Securrom is just as bad if not worse. Some people with Neverwinter Nights 2 did a test by running the game with Securrom and without it,(Which may actually have been illegal),and found that Securrom causes the game to run over 5 fps slower than it ran with Securrom removed.

There is actually a huge e-mail campaign and a massive Forum petition now to get Securrom removed from the game,but so far Obsidian is totally ignoring the e-mails and petition and not even bothering to reply to any of them.

well nwn is a resource hog to begin with, anyhow the ver of secrum 7 on SH4 is a new version. I had 0 performance problems @ max graphics @ 1600x1200 res

[Gizzmoe]

Securrom is just as bad if not worse. Some people with Neverwinter Nights 2 did a test by running the game with Securrom and without it,(Which may actually have been illegal),and found that Securrom causes the game to run over 5 fps slower than it ran with Securrom removed.
It´s impossible to draw a conclusion out of this. If they had tested like 5 different Securom-protected games on at least two different PC´s and all showed the same symptoms, now that would mean something.

[P_Funk]

If you think about it though for all the trouble and outcry and alleged wrong doings, both true and false, all this invasive or seemingly passive piracy prevention software is irrelavent.

I mean there isn't an anti-piracy system made that can't be hacked, and any idiot with google and the ability to string together a sentence can find the seedier side to the internet. Its so ineffective that you can get the game before its in stores. But for all that it doesn't do half the time you might even hurt sales for fear that some 14 year old puke will download it when he wasn't going to buy it anyway. I can remember alot of people telling me about a few games "I never played it cause it had starforce".

Starforce was a big lesson. I wonder where the future is. I don't think its bullet proof software.

EDIT. That said I am getting me SH4. :D

[Immacolata]

I think the best "anti-piracy protection" is giving the game away for free :rotfl:

[DiveMonkey]

I don't mind sucrom so much, I have it on Olegs IL2 46 and haven't had any problems :up: I had LOTS of problems with starforce :damn: on SH3.

It was slow loading and made me flinch at the speed it ran my drive:o More than once i actually moved away from my computer thinking it was about to explode!

I'm glade ubi moved away from starforce:up:
But I don't think crying about sucrom is a very good idea, I've heard some people have had problems but most have found solutions at sucroms site.

I mean, they could always bring back Starforce 4.0 :nope:

[Spaxspore]

only time i had issues with s7 was with titan quest when it first came out. I bought it and for a love of me i kept gettin security module failed to intilized, i was not the only one, soon after THQ released a patch that removed s7 completely

[TheSatyr]

They should all just go back to the CD-Key security system....it was about as succesful as anything else they tried.

Course now it's CD-Key and anti-pirating software combined with alot of games...and it still seems to be easy for people to crack the anti-pirating systems.

I really don't see starforce or securrom being much use other than to give the illusion that it's "pirate safe".

I have a cousin who does software security checks for the government,he has yet to come accross a system that can't be cracked given enough time.

He even once told me that all he needs is a person's address and phone number and he can gain access to that person's pc with very little trouble. (He actually used to do tech support that way in his old job. He'd just go into someone's pc and find and fix problems. Firewalls,ISP security systems...he could get past anything.). I should mention however that this guy is a freaking computer genius though. Good thing he's ethical about the things he does with his machine.

I think software protection is there just to keep low end hackers from pirating products...It's certainly not going to stop the better hackers from doing it.

[Spaxspore]

They should all just go back to the CD-Key security system....it was about as succesful as anything else they tried.

Course now it's CD-Key and anti-pirating software combined with alot of games...and it still seems to be easy for people to crack the anti-pirating systems.

I really don't see starforce or securrom being much use other than to give the illusion that it's "pirate safe".

I have a cousin who does software security checks for the government,he has yet to come accross a system that can't be cracked given enough time.

He even once told me that all he needs is a person's address and phone number and he can gain access to that person's pc with very little trouble. (He actually used to do tech support that way in his old job. He'd just go into someone's pc and find and fix problems. Firewalls,ISP security systems...he could get past anything.). I should mention however that this guy is a freaking computer genius though. Good thing he's ethical about the things he does with his machine.

I think software protection is there just to keep low end hackers from pirating products...It's certainly not going to stop the better hackers from doing it.


all gaming devs and producers should follow star docks example. No cd check, just have to register to get patchs, and u can even dl the whole game as long as you have a s#

[Dowly]

The gaming industry should just admit it, no matter what copy protection software they use, it will be cracked (from what I´ve observed, every new release has been cracked in max. 2 days. Even the ArmA´s own integrated FADE protection was cracked ,IIRC, just hours after the first patch release). The single player games have lost the battle against piracy loooooong time ago.

Like it has been said, they need to think of a way to attract people to buy the real thing. BUT, adding merchantise to come with the game, also raises up the prices. :nope:

[pj]

I think all copy protection sucks, but the version of Starforce that came with Age of Pirates: Carribbean tales can be disabled with the Device Manager in Control Panel. This will allow games that otherwise would not work (like Oblivion) to run.

The drivers are found under Hidden Devices - disable them to run programs they conflict with, then you can turn them back on to run the protected game.

PJ

[P_Funk]

Well the thing of it is though, if I'm going to buy the game I'll buy it. Usually people download games because they don't want to pay for it. If I can afford a super expensive computer then I can likley afford the software that it was meant to run.

The other thing though, is that a single player game is just a hunk of code. Its hard to regulate an abstract things that is basically an original sequence of 1s and 0s. Yu dn't buy a game as much as you buy a copy of it. But what they can force you to pay for is the services connected to those games. Online play is where you have a hard time getting around the system. And what do you know, the thing that I need to play online is a CD Key. The old calssic way of individualizing every copy of a game.

But on another note, maybe if games didn't cost more than what my allowance was for 3 months when I was 15 then maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

[It762]

Securrom is just as bad if not worse. Some people with Neverwinter Nights 2 did a test by running the game with Securrom and without it,(Which may actually have been illegal),and found that Securrom causes the game to run over 5 fps slower than it ran with Securrom removed.

There is actually a huge e-mail campaign and a massive Forum petition now to get Securrom removed from the game,but so far Obsidian is totally ignoring the e-mails and petition and not even bothering to reply to any of them.

Same issue with vegas rainbow six! With copy protection it'S more laggy - if i switch to optical sight it causes a lag of several seconds! without copy protection it runs faster. But well...

[Lt. Staumeier]

Wow! This lifts a HUGE rock off my heart. I hate StarForce with a fire hotter than hell. It's messed up two DVD drives and made me pay for games I can't play :damn: . That UBI settled on SecuROM is a news better than anything.

[Rilder]

I think the best "anti-piracy protection" is giving the game away for free :rotfl:

Then you'll have pirates paying you to take there pirated copies :rotfl:

[Immacolata]

I think the best "anti-piracy protection" is giving the game away for free :rotfl:

Then you'll have pirates paying you to take there pirated copies :rotfl:

So how do we get the best anti-piracy protection-protection? :rotfl:

[Lt. Staumeier]

No matter what protection you use, you're gonna have the software pirated. There's no protection a pirate can't crack. At least not as of today. Often it's dead easy to crack down a game.

I have several games at home that I've cracked in order to get rid of the CD/DVD requirement. (Legally bought, though). It just annoys me to switch discs all the time. And, as a matter of fact, a few of them runs smoother and more stable when they have their copy-protection removed.

So what am I saying? That we should remove copy-protection? No, not really, since that would give even more pirated copies, but at least settle for a copy-protection that doesn't screw it up for the legit customer, like StarForce.

[DiveMonkey]

No matter what protection you use, you're gonna have the software pirated. There's no protection a pirate can't crack. At least not as of today. Often it's dead easy to crack down a game.

I have several games at home that I've cracked in order to get rid of the CD/DVD requirement. (Legally bought, though). It just annoys me to switch discs all the time. And, as a matter of fact, a few of them runs smoother and more stable when they have their copy-protection removed.

So what am I saying? That we should remove copy-protection? No, not really, since that would give even more pirated copies, but at least settle for a copy-protection that doesn't screw it up for the legit customer, like StarForce.

I think there's a source of revenue the gaming industries has ignored. Lets say you buy a game, it comes with a CD\DVD key, you imput your key and as long as you've got tthe disc in the ggame plays.

But how about an in-game option that takes you to the developers site where for a one time fee...say, $10.oo you get a crack exe. with your key #xxx in it that allows you to play without the CD\DVD. but wont work on anyone else's game

You would be assured a CLEAN trojan\virus free exe. guaranteed to work with all patches and updates from the developer, and all the time protecting your $40.oo\$60.oo dollar investment from getting beat too crap.

I'd gladly pay $10 bucks for that :up:

[It762]

that would just be a plain rip off! I would rather take the free crack than a "commercial crack" which costs me extra money. Iam already paying 20 - 50 € per game which is a lot I think.

[DiveMonkey]

I know what your saying, but I had a perfectly legit copy of SH3 that sat on the shelf for 4 or 5 months because of star-force.

While I did finally find an option, it's still kinda like doing street drugs. Your someones guinea pig!

I'd of rather paid a few bucks more for a commercial fix,

Strait from the pharmacy :|\\

[Gizzmoe]

Too much talk about cracks in here. Thread closed.