That's really sad to hear about the DRM, issues. I don't think this is an issue thats ever gonna be resolved then? Do you think it will be possible to optimize the game for better cpu usage in the future with patches even with the multiple DRM layers?
I'm no cracker / programmer, but even I know that complex VM based DRM claims of "it has no CPU impact" is a blatant lie. Here's two examples of Denuvo by itself:-
- Syberia 3 (Denuvo)
crack notes :
"Game starts up about 40 secs faster without D sooo... yeah Denuvo kills performance... especially when you are using two Denuvos in one Game."
- RIME (Denuvo)
crack notes :
"In Rime that ugly creature went out of control - how do you like three f**king hundreds of THOUSANDS calls to "triggers" during initial game launch and savegame loading. Did you wonder why loading times are so long - here is the answer... after 30 minutes of gameplay it became 2 MILLION of "triggers". Protection now calls about 10-30 triggers per second slowing the game down. Don't forget each "trigger" is under VM + heavily obfuscated"
^ And that's just Denuvo. The link in the ArsTechnica article to the VMProtect page explains aside from virtualization it also does other obfuscation stuff like
"adds to the application code various excessive, "garbage" commands, "dead" parts of the code, random conditional jumps. It also mutates original commands and transfers execution of certain operations to the stack". So millions of additional instructions fed to the CPU are literal cr*p that does nothing but deliberately bog down the CPU more by design. Now put the two of them together, and the result is the "hot mess" that is AC:O...
"Optimising" multiple layers of hostile DRM is like polishing a turd. Obfuscation cripples CPU performance by design by flooding it with fake instructions to try and hide DRM code. Don't see how that can be made faster without toning it right back reducing its effectiveness. The only serious way performance will improve is if
1. Ubisoft removes it, or
2. It gets cracked (resulting in another amusing example of paying customers seeking out the illegal version anyway because it runs faster with far less stutter...) Until then, they're long desensitized to people complaining in forums. The only real "bottom line" message that gets through is enough people voting with their wallets.