Irdeto, the company behind Denuvo and the newer Denuvo Anti-Cheat have announced that developers on Steam can now get direct anti-cheat integration through Steamworks. Denuvo is one of the most popular DRM solutions, with it often appearing in Windows releases of popular AAA games. Now with this Anti-Cheat easily available direct through Steam no doubt many developers will look to use it.
The question is: how will this affect Linux compatibility of games both native Linux builds and Windows games run through the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer? Back in May, we reported that the Denuvo team did mention they were aiming for support of Proton.
After shooting a message over to Irdeto here's what Reinhard Blaukovitsch, Managing Director of Denuvo by Irdeto, said in reply:
We can confirm that future deployments of Denuvo Anti-Cheat will not prohibit Linux users from accessing single-player and non-competitive multiplayer features of their games. For example, campaigns or custom multiplayer game matches. Linux users will not be required to install a kernel-mode driver, and the lack of anti-cheat software will not prevent their game from starting.
Even though there is no kernel-mode driver on Linux, the userspace game process performs significant cheat detection. Linux users accessing multiplayer will be reported to online services as running at lower integrity. Some game developers may choose to prevent Linux users from accessing ranked or competitive game modes. We'll do our best to convince developers and publishers to allow Linux users to participate in competitive modes. Still, we must be honest with them and disclose our reduced detection capability on Linux.
We'll communicate concrete plans for growing Linux detection capability and how the community can contribute as our userbase grows.
In a further clarification to us, we asked if this was only for Windows games in the Proton compatibility layer or if it will have the same kind of support for native Linux builds to which they replied "This is for Windows games in Proton".
When asked for their plans (if any) to support native Linux builds of games, here's what they said:
We have not yet been engaged by an organization expressing interest in native anti-cheat support for Linux. Once there is demand, we’d have no hesitation to take on that task. It’s worth noting that we’ve had anti-cheat technology on consoles for many years now. Our experience with Linux-like environments on the Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation 4 & 5 indicates that effective native Linux anti-cheat would require a from-the-ground-up effort and not just a port. Denuvo Anti-Cheat is heavily dependent on hardware security features which makes it fairly kernel-agnostic, so it’s just a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’. Our best bang-for-the-buck in the short term is Proton.
So there you have it. If demand comes, they will do it too and it's only a matter of time. Nice to see them being so open about it and happy to chat with us on it so clearly.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: HamishQuoting: elmapuli think we should let the fight against drm with the windows users, while we fight for linux marketshare, we can join they in their fight later on, but we dont have enough people/resources to fight in both fronts at the same time run today, live to fight tomorrow.The thing is, if I was of the mindset that was okay with DRM solutions, I would not be using Linux in the first place. Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
drm can be broken later on, windows users dont have an issue with that, because there are enough hackers on the windows comunity to break any drm they might have.
meanwhile we dont have neither all the games nor the cracked games.
we would have both if we had an better marketshare.
Quoting: elmapuldrm can be broken later on, windows users dont have an issue with that, because there are enough hackers on the windows comunity to break any drm they might have.Let's be honest, if running a game with a crack to get around DRM is considered an acceptable user experience, so is running a Windows game through WINE with no support. We can do better on both platforms.
meanwhile we dont have neither all the games nor the cracked games.
we would have both if we had an better marketshare.
Quoting: Hamishthat is, if the game RUNS.Quoting: elmapuldrm can be broken later on, windows users dont have an issue with that, because there are enough hackers on the windows comunity to break any drm they might have.Let's be honest, if running a game with a crack to get around DRM is considered an acceptable user experience, so is running a Windows game through WINE with no support. We can do better on both platforms.
meanwhile we dont have neither all the games nor the cracked games.
we would have both if we had an better marketshare.
a lot of games dont, or run without a lot of features.
like sound effects (eg: track mania from steam)
full screen (eg: disgaea)
cutscene playback (eg: guilty gear, melty blood)
Quoting: elmapulthat is, if the game RUNS. a lot of games dont, or run without a lot of features.Which is exactly my point. How is that any different than running a cracked version of a game with broken multiplayer or other quirks related to breaking the DRM system without developer support?
I knew someone who after thirteen long years wanted to finally play Duke Nukem Forever but was old school enough to not want a Steam account. So he played a cracked version of the game which, by deactivating Steamworks, also meant that the Ego system in the game was broken. He completed the entire game with the lowest amount of health possible, not even getting the first boost you get right at the beginning of the game from using the urinal.
My playing the copy of Shadow Warrior 2 I was gifted by GOG.com through WINE and DXVK and having a few issues with video playback is a small point in comparison.
Quoting: HamishQuoting: elmapulthat is, if the game RUNS. a lot of games dont, or run without a lot of features.Which is exactly my point. How is that any different than running a cracked version of a game with broken multiplayer or other quirks related to breaking the DRM system without developer support?
1)i dont remember the last time i pirated something, but last time i checked i didnt missed any feature, it was an offline game anyway.
2)with the current marketshare we dont have both, drm-free games or games with drm, currently we dont refuse to play games with drm because we want to boycot drm, but because we CANT play then.
you would still have the option to only play drm free games, the difference is that you will be able to play everything else.
3)its not just about us paranoid with privacy , security and freedom, but about everyone else too.
4)drm seems to be an thin layer compared to an operating system, there is a reason why it take so little time to break the drm of most games, but its taking years to make some games work on linux.
Last edited by elmapul on 22 January 2021 at 4:25 am UTC
Quoting: elmapul1)i dont remember the last time i pirated something, but last time i checked i didnt missed any feature, it was an offline game anyway.I already gave an example with Duke Nukem Forever earlier in the thread. Sure, you can come up with a list of games that do work flawlessly once cracked, but I can do the same for Windows games running in WINE. It is not that they can not be made to work, it is the uncertainty and volatility that is the problem. In both cases you are left on your own without support.
Quoting: elmapul2)with the current marketshare we dont have both, drm-free games or games with drm, currently we dont refuse to play games with drm because we want to boycot drm, but because we CANT play then.I mean, that is exactly what I have been doing. There are many Linux native games I refuse to purchase and play because they come with DRM solutions, most prominently Steamworks. And I am happy to say I still have a large backlog of Linux native DRM free games to get through.
Quoting: elmapulyou would still have the option to only play drm free games, the difference is that you will be able to play everything else. its not just about us paranoid with privacy , security and freedom, but about everyone else tooSure, as things stand it is a personal consumer choice. But the way you presented it makes it a false dichotomy. You can have both, or neither, and one compromise is not greater than the other. Your preference is for more titles on Linux no matter what, my preference is for more DRM free titles. In the end we are both buying Linux games and supporting the industry. I am not hurting Linux marketshare by using Linux to only play DRM free titles.
What I will say is a DRM free Windows game that works well in WINE is in the end more accessible to me than a Linux native game that requires DRM in order to function. And while my objections to Windows native games are on a technical level, my objections to DRM systems are on an ethical one.
Quoting: elmapul4)drm seems to be an thin layer compared to an operating system, there is a reason why it take so little time to break the drm of most games, but its taking years to make some games work on linux.DRM is deliberately antagonistic by design, unlike the APIs that make games work on other platforms. You are both hugely underestimating the effort it takes to break DRM systems and underestimating the effectiveness of emulators like DOSBox or compatibility layers like WINE. But I am not going to deny that both take a great deal of talent and effort to pull off. And the difference still remains that one is legal and the other often is not.
Garry? Can you switch Rust to DAC instead of EAC! :D
slaapliedje Jan 23, 2021
Quoting: JauWe would have to accept a kernel module... I just hope they would only load it with the game then unload it. I don't want to be forced to block it myself then load it → play the game → unload it every time.But that would require privilege escalation to load the module.
Doing a full on container would be the only decent way. If we could get VirGL to fully pass through the GPU to a VM, it could work that way too.
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