Subject: Copy-Protection-Ridden Game Binary ?Resembled A Barnacle-Encrusted Ship?

As one group of game hackers disbands, another takes over <https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/denuvo-cracking-group-denuvowo-reportedly-disbands-lawsuit-from-irdeto-has-a-chilling-effect-but-cracking-continues-as-piracy-hub-purges-links>:

Most recently, long-running cracking group RUNE has taken to using
Denuvo DRM as cannonball target practice, and a couple days ago
released a proof-of-concept crack for Assassin's Creed: Mirage,
fully removing Denuvo Anti-Tamper and VMProtect from the
executable in one fell swoop.

Surprising nobody by now, the stripped version appears to run way
better than the original, with a 15% boost to average FPS and a
76% uptick in minimum frame rates. This was measured on a beefy
rig, too, with an Intel Core i7-13700K and an RTX 5080.

As an added bonus, the main executable size dropped from 496 MB to
102 MB. That's hardly surprising considering how much the binary
resembled a barnacle-encrusted ship ? the crack strips out 34
VMProtect-virtualized functions, 200 Denuvo VM cores, 261 function
obfuscations, and 25,000 function relocations.

It seems to me this sort of shenanigans should be becoming
unsustainable. The cost in system resources for the copy-protection
system is like a tax that every *honest* buyer is being forced to pay.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: Copy-Protection-Ridden Game Binary ?Resembled A Barnacle-Encrusted Ship?

On 30/09/2026 04:34, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

It seems to me this sort of shenanigans should be becoming
unsustainable. The cost in system resources for the copy-protection
system is like a tax that every *honest* buyer is being forced to pay.

Agreed. Denuvo ruined my Ghostwire: Tokyo experience as I had to change
wine settings a few times, and each change triggered Denuvo.

We've had a few good Denuvo-crackers over the years, but voices38 and
now RUNE are doing an excellent job.

voices38 is being threatened with legal action, but doesn't seem too
bothered.

EMPRESS went nuts and now doesn't crack any more. She was also the
cracker for CODEX before a falling out. Some members of CODEX then
became RUNE!

Before these guys, we had MKDEV, Voksi, Baldman and CPY.

Cheers,
--
Rob
"I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational
in order to prove that you care, or, indeed, why it should be necessary
to prove it at all." - Avon, Blake's 7



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: Copy-Protection-Ridden Game Binary ?Resembled A Barnacle-Encrusted Ship?

Robert wrote:

On 30/09/2026 04:34, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

It seems to me this sort of shenanigans should be becoming
unsustainable. The cost in system resources for the copy-protection
system is like a tax that every *honest* buyer is being forced to pay.

Agreed. Denuvo ruined my Ghostwire: Tokyo experience as I had to change
wine settings a few times, and each change triggered Denuvo.

We've had a few good Denuvo-crackers over the years, but voices38 and
now RUNE are doing an excellent job.

voices38 is being threatened with legal action, but doesn't seem too bothered.

EMPRESS went nuts and now doesn't crack any more. She was also the
cracker for CODEX before a falling out. Some members of CODEX then
became RUNE!

Before these guys, we had MKDEV, Voksi, Baldman and CPY.

Cheers,

I'm all for Denuvians, except in my lab, if they shout out, "Remember
the Bandwidth," we put acid washclothes over their faces, which eats
through their bodies down like a chimney. Because I don't take that much bandwidth motherfucker. But I do have feelings. And when you throw my
SORRY back in my face, it hurts more than you hate Lucent Communications
& Cisco, faggot embalmers of VAX system fluid. Go suck on a server,
magpie shitasses. You all suck! BTW, your grandfather was a pigeon,
faggot dumpster ass. And I'm not talking to Scott Dorsey. I'm talking to
the faggot dumpster asses around here creampieing while bitching about
access & bandwidth. Shag your sorry ass. ?Hey man ? sending this out
across the big wide everything.? Hey Google, is creampieing a verb or a participle? Yes? You old curmudgeon. They are much better behaved in the
other groups not dealing with the C language. Halfway through I realized
I was talking to FORTRAN era dinosaurs. That's not you of course. You'd
never mud wrestle over the distinction between C and variations on the
suckin' vanilla. You guys suck. Expect a Christmas card.
--
I hate it when you breach my space
And I hate it when you preach your case
And you should go down, down
Save someone else

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: Copy-Protection-Ridden Game Binary ?Resembled A Barnacle-Encrusted Ship?

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Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 11:44:18 -0500
Xref: m68k.vk3heg.net comp.misc:1578


Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

It seems to me this sort of shenanigans should be becoming
unsustainable. The cost in system resources for the copy-protection
system is like a tax that every *honest* buyer is being forced to pay.

Perhaps "honest" buyers should stop supporting such things with their
money?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)