Denuvo Q&A

CHARLOTTEB_CA

Denuvo Q&A
Hi all,
News broke over the weekend that Total War: WARHAMMER will feature Denuvo Anti-tamper tech to help prevent piracy of our game.
There’s a large amount of misinformation around about the tech and how it will work with TW:WARHAMMER, so here’s a quick Q&A to help explain.
It is very much the case that this tech will be entirely automatic and unnoticed to the vast majority of players, but if you have concerns please do read on.

Will Total War: WARHAMMER require you to be always online?
No.
The game will require initial online authentication via Steam during installation as per all Total War games since EMPIRE. At this point Denuvo will also automatically authenticate.
You can then decide to play in offline mode if you wish.
Other games sometimes need to be always online, but this isn’t a Denuvo or Total War: WARHAMMER requirement and doesn’t apply to this game.

Will it affect the modability of the game?
No.
Like previous anti-tamper tech we have employed in Total War, it is the .exe that is protected, and we aren’t aware of any previous mods that change the .exe.
In any case, there are Denuvo-protected games with mods that patch the values of the game’s .exe in memory (example).

Can you upgrade your PC hardware without any problems?
Yes.
Depending on the upgrade (CPU, mainboard or major OS update), it is likely that Denuvo will need to validate your PC again, which will happen automatically once you start the game. It may also be the case, depending on your upgrade, that Steam might need to validate your PC again anyway. So you would need to be online at that moment.
Regardless, if you upgrade your PC hardware in any manner, we would always recommend you go online anyway and download the latest drivers from your manufacturer’s website in order to ensure the best performance from the game.

Does Denuvo limit the max number of times I can install the game on different PCs?
No.
You can install your copy of Total War: WARHAMMER on as many PCs as you like under your Steam account.
The only limit is on the number on PCs you can install on in any 24 hour period. This is limited to 5 PCs.
There might of course be an unusual reason you would want to install the game on more than 5 PCs in a day, but we hope in that case you don’t mind waiting a couple of hours. This is obviously an important measure to help us prevent the spread of a pirated version of the game, so hope you appreciate that with this understanding you help us make more Total War games in the future.

Does Denuvo cause HDD or SDD (Hard drive) problems?
No.
There’s a misconception that Denuvo writes data (or encrypts data) to and from hard drives continuously. It doesn’t.
You can read more at the Denuvo FAQ here: http://denuvo.com/#page-4

Will Denuvo affect the performance/FPS of the game?
No.
Despite there being no technical reason it should, to ensure that its implementation doesn’t affect TW: WARHAMMER’s performance we have been running tests internally here at CA and externally at Denuvo to see if FPS is different between Denuvo and non-Denuvo builds.
It isn’t.

Is Denuvo a DRM (digital rights management) solution?
No.
Total War games since EMPIRE have used Steam as DRM.
In order to help our games not be pirated (and so we can keep making Total War), we have used various different Anti-tamper technology over the years, and Denuvo is the latest.

http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Denuvo:_Questions_and_Answers

Sabor

CA does it again with quick responses when the community gets worried. Thank you guys, keep it up! c:

bronhoms

well.. This isn't really the kind of news I was hoping for on "newsday" ;C

Vinusole

bronhoms said:

well.. This isn't really the kind of news I was hoping for on "newsday" ;C

lol myself also.

CHARLOTTEB_CA

@bronhoms

There will be something to keep you busy this week! Dont worry

Mattzo

Very good for CA to put all concerns to rest so promptly.

Still, I think most of us weren't bothered about Denuvo and were hoping for something gameplay related today. Ah well, there's always tomorrow.

odsy2

who's asking about denuvo? Lets see another dwarf battle pretty pls ca

Vinusole

CharlotteB CA said:

@bronhoms

There will be something to keep you busy this week! Dont worry

Original release date! lol j/k

odsy2

Vinusole said:

CharlotteB CA said:

@bronhoms

There will be something to keep you busy this week! Dont worry

Original release date! lol j/k

If that was the case I would be so happy. Maybe beta release, go on CA u know u want to

Col. Grizzly

bronhoms said:

well.. This isn't really the kind of news I was hoping for on "newsday" ;C

I too am as sad as a snotling

spudd

Couldnt care less.. more footage pls

TyrionLamperouge

@CharlotteB CA i have heard several time that ca is triying to obtain gw approval to make a creation kit for modders, is that true or just rumors?

KobraKay

Now time to perma ban the dude who created the Denuvo thread

Great that, as many pointed out in the other thread despite the OPs cries, Denuvo doesn't actually prevent any modding or upgrading the pc's.....

JollyRogero

Kudos to CA for their quick and thorough response to this.

Shame on the peeps who threw flame-bombs to inflame the mob on bedeviled hearsay and rumors. Ever-busy are the agents of the ruinous powers in our midst.

KrakenWakes

Can I ask - reading the above, it sounds like I need to authenticate my game via Steam. Is this true even if I'm getting a disc copy of the game? Great that I can play it offline after that anyway, I'm just curious as to why you'd need to authenticate a hard copy online!

(I mean, other than filthy pirate reasons, of course)

Mattzo

Every Total War game since Empire requires activation through Steam.

WulfRick

steam is the reason i have steam.

Norsa

So the anti piracy efforts have always been a sucess? I mean, there have never been pirated versions og totalwar games right?
The anti piracy protection works 100% right?

Because if it does not, then you are punishing legit players with extra programs that are not wanted on our systems (and sometimes theese programs cause problems on legit peoples computers, sometimes even destroying them)

All the while pirates get "better" version without the the anti program (i would assume, i wouldent know since i do not pirate games) ^^

Like with movies where pirates dont need to wait through the "Piracy is a crime" manditory screens! The legit users who OWNS the movie on the other hand need to be reminded its a crime.. this is beond condesending to the legit consumers..
A pirate does not care nor will he ever see the warning so who are they targeting with this bs?

Defeat piracy by offering better service...
Many devs sell their games without drm theese days, and somehow they survive + garner alot of goodwill from their fans.
Strange is it not?

Tydar

Thanks for the clarifications CA, very much appreciated.

capybarasiesta89

CharlotteB CA said:

@bronhoms

There will be something to keep you busy this week! Dont worry

I'll keep myself busy in Rome over this week, bookee holidays for TW Warhammer premiere, but it has been changed. But also got days off in May

Merwanor

Well then that subject is settled. As long as the system does not make the game worse in any way for the actual paying customers then I do not mind it.

Good to know that mods will still work, always used at least a few mods for TW games ever since Medieval 2. I bet some mods will come out for TWW that improves on certain things too.

bronhoms

How much extra space will this take up?

Edit: I don't have unlimited SSD space.

mewade44

Good to know but doesn't effect me as I preordered months ago. Let's get to the juicy Warhammer info now !

dge1

Good update Charlotte. Thanks.

Mattzo

bronhoms said:

How much extra space will this take up?

Edit: I don't have unlimited SSD space.

The system requirements say 35gb is needed. Denuvo won't add anything more to this..

bronhoms

Mattzo said:

bronhoms said:

How much extra space will this take up?

Edit: I don't have unlimited SSD space.

The system requirements say 35gb is needed. Denuvo won't add anything more to this..

.. I know. If I need to be more specific: How much of the 35gb does Denuvo take up?

Klaleara

Norsa said:

So the anti piracy efforts have always been a sucess? I mean, there have never been pirated versions og totalwar games right?
The anti piracy protection works 100% right?

Because if it does not, then you are punishing legit players with extra programs that are not wanted on our systems (and sometimes theese programs cause problems on legit peoples computers, sometimes even destroying them)

All the while pirates get "better" version without the the anti program (i would assume, i wouldent know since i do not pirate games) ^^

Like with movies where pirates dont need to wait through the "Piracy is a crime" manditory screens! The legit users who OWNS the movie on the other hand need to be reminded its a crime.. this is beond condesending to the legit consumers..
A pirate does not care nor will he ever see the warning so who are they targeting with this bs?

Defeat piracy by offering better service...
Many devs sell their games without drm theese days, and somehow they survive + garner alot of goodwill from their fans.
Strange is it not?

I'm against DRM (and I don't understand how this isn't drm). But it took a little over 2 weeks to Crack Just Cause 3.

A lot of people not willing to wait that long for a game and might just break to buy it.

Granted, if this does screw up the game, CA will have pushed the last button, and will probably perma screw their rep. Hope this isn't a bad choice.

Vinusole

Klaleara said:

Norsa said:

So the anti piracy efforts have always been a sucess? I mean, there have never been pirated versions og totalwar games right?
The anti piracy protection works 100% right?

Because if it does not, then you are punishing legit players with extra programs that are not wanted on our systems (and sometimes theese programs cause problems on legit peoples computers, sometimes even destroying them)

All the while pirates get "better" version without the the anti program (i would assume, i wouldent know since i do not pirate games) ^^

Like with movies where pirates dont need to wait through the "Piracy is a crime" manditory screens! The legit users who OWNS the movie on the other hand need to be reminded its a crime.. this is beond condesending to the legit consumers..
A pirate does not care nor will he ever see the warning so who are they targeting with this bs?

Defeat piracy by offering better service...
Many devs sell their games without drm theese days, and somehow they survive + garner alot of goodwill from their fans.
Strange is it not?

I'm against DRM (and I don't understand how this isn't drm). But it took a little over 2 weeks to Crack Just Cause 3.

A lot of people not willing to wait that long for a game and might just break to buy it.

Granted, if this does screw up the game, CA will have pushed the last button, and will probably perma screw their rep. Hope this isn't a bad choice.

Why are you against it?

gdvxiwezcvwezicvzi

drm is useless and only punishes the guys who actually buy your product...

Cwenraed

Basically Charlotte is saying, this will not effect you in anyway at all. Well that is if you are not a pirate (arrrrr)

It will not take up any hardly of the space required for this game.

And no it does not effect performance.

Mr_Finley7

Are there any reasonable incentives CA could give people to deter piracy?

I'm largely ignorant of the inner workings of the fight against piracy, I absolutely love total war games, and I would never pirate something I enjoy that much.

But I feel like I can't blame them for taking steps to protect their work.