Starforce question

[Pirimeister]

Maybe Jim Cobb can answer this, since he is the honorable watcher against Starforce abuse over at wargamer.com :)

I was wondering how effective is that Starforce cleaner that's available? Could I, for instance, buy and install Silent Hunter and then remove Starforce - would my PC be completely cleaned of the darn thing?

I know that these drivers may or may not cause trouble, but I don't want to find it out the hard way. Plus, I really want to buy SHIII.

Can I have some light shed on this?

[Doctor Sinister]

I expect Marines is your man for answering this...

It you lived in the US, you can apparently download SHIII to your hard drive and avoid the Starforce nonsense.

Dr. S.

[Pirimeister]

I read his post on that Direct2Drive. Is there any financial reason for that service being available only in the US? I mean, sinc ethere are no fisical object to ship and all i would think it could easily be available to everyone, like Matrix Games does.

[Doctor Sinister]

Maybe it's a licensing thing.

Dr. S.

[Marines]

Thank you Andrew. :)

If you install a game that uses Starforce APP, say Superpower 2 or Silent Hunter III, it will install SF without your knowledge. Also, if you download the SF cleaner and remove the SF drivers your game will no longer function, if you manually uninstall the SF drivers, then your PC is pretty much finished. You either suck it up and play the game, and perhaps, face the consequences of what Starforce may do to your system.

I was wrong in my post about the D2D version of SHIII not having SF protection, it in fact does.

In conclusion, after installing SHIII via D2D, I have noticed memory leaks in several games, Brothers in Arms is one, and it affects MP play greatly.

Be wary of what you choose.

[Priest]

@MARINES

Is there a website available that one could go to to find out what games have Starforce so that we might avoid any games that include it?

[Marines]

This should provide you all with a little more information.

Do We Really Want the “Force” to Be with Us?

I hate software piracy. To me, software piracy ranks with plagiarism and conning elderly widows out of their Social Security as loathsome practices used by cretins with just enough brains to leach off honest, hard working individuals. I can accept that publishers go to some lengths to protect themselves.

However, as in any human activity, copy protection has its limits. I think publishers using the copy protection system “Starforce” has stepped over the line. A full discussion of the problem can be found on the Gone Gold forums but the nut of the issue is that Starforce installs a hidden system driver that evidently can disable CDW software such as Nero when they are being used legitimately. It can also slow down performance and disrupt operating systems. More details and a plan of action can be found at http://www.boycottstarforce.org/.

I have not experienced any of these problems myself but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. A special application is needed to remove Starforce as manual removal will foul up systems. A representative of Starforce’s developer, StarForce Technologies Ltd, wrote a nice reply to user concerns and can be read in this forum posting. He points out that it is the publishers’ prerogative to decide what gets installed and what the user is told.

Be all that as it may and bearing in mind the fact that my system hasn’t been affected, I don’t like this one little bit. The “P” in PC stands for “personal”. I demand full control over my system and have spent hundreds of dollars in anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-spam apps to maintain system integrity. I resent demos I download in order to do my job as a writer and games I bought to enjoy that put things on my system without telling me upfront in plain English what will happen if I install or that it could potentially destabilize my operating system.

Two things should happen:

The developers of copy protection systems should either ensure their product does not have adverse effects on systems or put a disclaimer on the installation screen that some bad things might happen.

Publishers should note on boxes or on download sites that their copy protection does or does not install things on their systems. Further more, if they do use Starforce, publishers should use the “clean” tool in their uninstall procedure.

Gamers will stand for a lot if what they see is a legitimate operation by publishers. Secret, shabby practices will erode their patience.

http://www.wargamer.com/articles/behind_the_lines_20/

[Pirimeister]

Man, this really takes the wind off my sails, regarding SHIII.

I don't want to find out the hard way that my system has been messed up... :nervous:

This is enough for my to give up on the game. Too bad. But software publishers have to learn that this no way to conduct buiseness. :mad: My PC is definetly not their playground!

[Priest]

Same here, I think that I will pass on SHIII. Also a kinda stupid question, how do you know when you have had Starforce installed?

[Marines]

Same here, I think that I will pass on SHIII. Also a kinda stupid question, how do you know when you have had Starforce installed?

Right click My Computer

Click Properties

Click Hardware

Click Device Manager

Click View

Click show Hidden Devices

Click Non-Plug and Play Drivers

Scroll down until you reach S

Also, quite a few games use this APP software, and unfortunantly at the behest of the company, the www.boycottstarforce.org website was taken down. The website detailed every game that used Starforce.

[Doctor Sinister]

Useful info'. I'm clean.

Dr. S.

[Priest]

I'm clean too, so I suppose that before you install any program that might use Starforce you should use the explore option to see if Starforce is included on the disk?

[Marines]

I'm clean too, so I suppose that before you install any program that might use Starforce you should use the explore option to see if Starforce is included on the disk?

I try my best to keep up with the happenings of Starforce, if you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to contact me.

[chrisvalla]

So is there a starforcecopyprotectionsucks.com website anywhere yet?

[Pirimeister]

Picking up where I left off (and I'm really embrassed as I write this), I went out and got SH3 :o There, I said it; it's done. And you can call me names :cheeky: They had it for £18/$33 at dvd.co.uk

But I what I wanted to tell you is that I have yet to experience any problems like memory leaks or failiure to read DVDs or CDs (although I have yet to record burn any disks with them). Just to give an example, I was playing the game and Alt-Tabbing between it and the internet, with media player going in the background. After some 45 minutes of this, I paused the game, went for my karate practice and when I got home 2 hours later, I was able to resume the game and it worked just fine.

So my strongest complain against Starforce right now has to do with it installing itself without informing the user - there's no excuse for that. And yet, this annoying copy protection software has been already cracked.

Once again, the abiding users get the hassel, while the software pirates have it the easy way - the games minus Starforce problems. :mad:

Of course, as you've probably have read it, SH3 trully is a great game! I'm yet at the naval academy stage, but so far the experience has been great. The graphics are great and I've spent quite some time flying (and diving) around with the external camera. Trully amazing!
I guess I'm sub heaven now: Dangerous Waters & SH3 :love:

Cheers!