Key Takeaways
1. DRM often harms paying customers more than it affects pirates, leading to performance issues in games like Resident Evil 4 Remake.
2. Capcom replaced Denuvo with Enigma Protector, resulting in significant performance degradation, particularly on lower-end devices.
3. While some gamers express concerns about modding, most mods, including REFramework, continue to function properly despite the updates.
4. Performance issues are particularly severe on devices like the Steam Deck, with frame rate drops reported as high as 30%.
5. There is a call for Capcom to reconsider their DRM strategy, as it penalizes paying customers without effectively deterring piracy.
The essence of the anti-DRM debate is that DRM tends to hurt paying customers more than it does pirates. This is particularly relevant for an older game like Resident Evil 4 Remake, where a change in DRM has been reported to degrade performance by 20-50%. In this case, Capcom swapped out the DRM protection software Denuvo for a more affordable option called Enigma Protector. This alternative was also utilized in the Resident Evil 4 Remake demo and implemented in Resident Evil Revelations after Denuvo’s license ended. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first instance of a Capcom title facing performance issues related to DRM.
Concerns About Modding
Some gamers are criticizing this update as a setback for modding. However, as noted by well-known mod creator FluffyQuack, this isn’t a significant issue for most mods available for the game. REFramework continues to function without problems, as do most cosmetic mods that players can install through FluffyQuack’s Fluffy Mod Manager. Only a small percentage of mods are affected by such updates, and they should work properly after receiving their own updates.
Performance Issues Reported
When it comes to performance, users are experiencing much more serious drawbacks. The game shows the most significant performance losses on less powerful devices like the Steam Deck, with frame rate drops of up to around 30% reported. This is unfortunate for those players since Medium settings previously ran at a stable 40-50 FPS on that type of hardware. Now, the CPU and GPU VRAM requirements are simply too demanding for earlier entry-level users to maintain a frame rate above 30 FPS. Testing by FluffyQuack on a more powerful PC indicated greater variability, yet still showed up to a 20% performance increase with Denuvo compared to Enigma, which aligns with, if not slightly under, other findings.
In conclusion, it would be great if Capcom rethinks this strategy or completely eliminates DRM like they did for Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 3 Remake. Given that the game is already cracked, such a move seems to only penalize paying customers while causing minor annoyances for modders and pirates, which is not a positive outcome. There’s no need to spoil a solid PC port while still addressing issues in Monster Hunter Wilds.
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