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Most steam games other than AAA ones with their own launcher and extra DRM actually run perfectly fine without steam if you just click the executable in the fol

by fsmv 3y ago

Most steam games other than AAA ones with their own launcher and extra DRM actually run perfectly fine without steam if you just click the executable in the folder

admax88qqq 3y ago
Try it without steam installed, I think most of them still load steam.dll if steam is not actively running.
- notpushkin 3y ago
  There are libsteam_api replacements that stub API calls to Steam. It should be possible to use those to let your games run without Steam. (Obviously, you should only use this on the games you own and make sure you don't break your local copyright laws.)
  - politelemon 3y ago
    Interesting I did a search and found this, it seems to try to emulate the Steam 'environment' https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator/blob/master/README.md https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator/blob/master...
    - dns_snek 3y ago
      I've tried this before - it works for games that don't go out of their way to add more than the baseline level of protection offered by Steam (which, I think, is most of them). It's easy to test, just exit Steam and try to launch the game (.exe) with Goldberg installed. If Steam doesn't open, it's working.
      - hellotomyrars 3y ago
        There are a few of these and Goldberg is my preferred method. Most games that enforce a check beyond this default are also trivially bypassed with another application that simply rips the validation out in the first place. There are also quite a few games that don’t institute any validation and will happily run without steam at all. It’s up to the developer to enable either level of validation and many don’t. The only games on steam that have any meaningful DRM are the ones that go out of their way to do so. Nothing about steam is actually meant to serve as DRM that is more than paper thin. Valve tried to make a push a lot time ago with the custom executable generation technology around the time Civ 5 came out (2010) and it didn’t hold up for long and the appetite was not there. Broadly speaking only Denuvo and very niche solutions for obscure games that are completely homespun (so the demand just isn’t there for people to properly crack them) are the only pure DRM being used on steam now. (I own over 1500 games on steam to be clear, I do however often pirate games to try them out because 2 hours is a pretty narrow window for most games, especially the ones I enjoy. I buy what hooks me.)
    - admax88qqq 3y ago
      https://github.com/inflation/goldberg_emulator#but-it-breaks-steam-drm- https://github.com/inflation/goldberg_emulator#but-it-breaks... > It doesn't break any DRM. If the game has a protection that doesn't let you use a custom steam api dll it needs to be cracked before you use my emulator. Steam is a DRM as much as any API is a DRM. Steam has actual DRM called steamstub which can easily be cracked but this won't crack it for you. That being said looks like steam themselves don't consider their DRM to be very useful https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm > The Steam DRM wrapper by itself is not an anti-piracy solution. The Steam DRM wrapper protects against extremely casual piracy (i.e. copying all game files to another computer) and has some obfuscation, but it is easily removed by a motivated attacker.
grotorea 3y ago
I haven't tried that all that much but I don't remember that being my experience. PCGamingWiki has a list for games for which this is true https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_DRM-Free_Games_on_Steam https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_DRM-Free_G... and you can check individual games if the steam store version has DRM and it feels like a small minority of games.
- dvngnt_ 3y ago
  cyberpunk 2077 doesn't need steam after you've downloaded it
  - chmod775 3y ago
    CDPR leadership has repeatedly gone on record about their loathing of DRM, so that doesn't surprise me. They also run GOG, which is mostly DRM-free games. Another major recent title available DRM-free on GOG is Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian. The common theme for both studios seems to be that they don't use a publisher, which is the likely reason neither add garbage like Denuvo to their games. I feel like DRM/no-DRM might be a good indicator for whether developers or MBAs were in control of a project.
    - jadbox 3y ago
      I had no idea CDPR also owned GOG! "GOG.com is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland."
redder23 3y ago
"Most" is factually wrong. Some yes, most on fact need a crack, most do not have any kind of other DRM other than the trivial steam DRM so they need a steam emu to actually run. You can use steamless and goldberg emu to crack and basic game on your own without actually downloading some exe someone else touched if you are paranoid. But you have to actually do this for most games, the amount of games that just run without that is NOT "most", AAA or not.

by fsmv 3y ago

Most steam games other than AAA ones with their own launcher and extra DRM actually run perfectly fine without steam if you just click the executable in the folder

admax88qqq 3y ago

Try it without steam installed, I think most of them still load steam.dll if steam is not actively running.

notpushkin 3y ago
There are libsteam_api replacements that stub API calls to Steam. It should be possible to use those to let your games run without Steam. (Obviously, you should only use this on the games you own and make sure you don't break your local copyright laws.)
- politelemon 3y ago
  Interesting I did a search and found this, it seems to try to emulate the Steam 'environment' https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator/blob/master/README.md https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator/blob/master...
  - dns_snek 3y ago
    I've tried this before - it works for games that don't go out of their way to add more than the baseline level of protection offered by Steam (which, I think, is most of them). It's easy to test, just exit Steam and try to launch the game (.exe) with Goldberg installed. If Steam doesn't open, it's working.
    - hellotomyrars 3y ago
      There are a few of these and Goldberg is my preferred method. Most games that enforce a check beyond this default are also trivially bypassed with another application that simply rips the validation out in the first place. There are also quite a few games that don’t institute any validation and will happily run without steam at all. It’s up to the developer to enable either level of validation and many don’t. The only games on steam that have any meaningful DRM are the ones that go out of their way to do so. Nothing about steam is actually meant to serve as DRM that is more than paper thin. Valve tried to make a push a lot time ago with the custom executable generation technology around the time Civ 5 came out (2010) and it didn’t hold up for long and the appetite was not there. Broadly speaking only Denuvo and very niche solutions for obscure games that are completely homespun (so the demand just isn’t there for people to properly crack them) are the only pure DRM being used on steam now. (I own over 1500 games on steam to be clear, I do however often pirate games to try them out because 2 hours is a pretty narrow window for most games, especially the ones I enjoy. I buy what hooks me.)
  - admax88qqq 3y ago
    https://github.com/inflation/goldberg_emulator#but-it-breaks-steam-drm- https://github.com/inflation/goldberg_emulator#but-it-breaks... > It doesn't break any DRM. If the game has a protection that doesn't let you use a custom steam api dll it needs to be cracked before you use my emulator. Steam is a DRM as much as any API is a DRM. Steam has actual DRM called steamstub which can easily be cracked but this won't crack it for you. That being said looks like steam themselves don't consider their DRM to be very useful https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm > The Steam DRM wrapper by itself is not an anti-piracy solution. The Steam DRM wrapper protects against extremely casual piracy (i.e. copying all game files to another computer) and has some obfuscation, but it is easily removed by a motivated attacker.

grotorea 3y ago

I haven't tried that all that much but I don't remember that being my experience. PCGamingWiki has a list for games for which this is true https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_DRM-Free_Games_on_Steam https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_DRM-Free_G... and you can check individual games if the steam store version has DRM and it feels like a small minority of games.

dvngnt_ 3y ago
cyberpunk 2077 doesn't need steam after you've downloaded it
- chmod775 3y ago
  CDPR leadership has repeatedly gone on record about their loathing of DRM, so that doesn't surprise me. They also run GOG, which is mostly DRM-free games. Another major recent title available DRM-free on GOG is Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian. The common theme for both studios seems to be that they don't use a publisher, which is the likely reason neither add garbage like Denuvo to their games. I feel like DRM/no-DRM might be a good indicator for whether developers or MBAs were in control of a project.
  - jadbox 3y ago
    I had no idea CDPR also owned GOG! "GOG.com is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland."

redder23 3y ago

"Most" is factually wrong. Some yes, most on fact need a crack, most do not have any kind of other DRM other than the trivial steam DRM so they need a steam emu to actually run. You can use steamless and goldberg emu to crack and basic game on your own without actually downloading some exe someone else touched if you are paranoid. But you have to actually do this for most games, the amount of games that just run without that is NOT "most", AAA or not.