Starfield Paid DLSS Mod Creator Hits Back at Pirates, Threatens to Add 'Hidden Mines' in Future Mods (www.ign.com)

submitted 2 years ago by nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works to c/games@sh.itjust.works

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[-] nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works 126 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Starfield Frame Generation - Replacing FSR2 with DLSS-G Free version of the same mod not made by a man child that isn't happy making half a million a year.

[-] Bluefruit@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

Is that an exaggeration or do they actually make close to that? Im just curious

[-] nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works 37 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

https://web.archive.org/web/20230924045050/https://www.patreon.com/PureDark He started hiding his count but he was at 11k last week and his most popular/cheapest tier is $5 USD so he makes 55k a month. So basically 660k+ a year.

[-] Bluefruit@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago

Yikes. I mean i kinda get you wanna get paid for your work but at the same time id be way down for making 600k.

Hell id kill for 80k lmao

[-] nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 years ago

I'd personally settle for a pateron where people reward me for whatever even if it is exponentially less than paywalling/drming/mining it.

[-] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 60 points 2 years ago

Wow. Talk about ensuring no one uses your mods again.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

Hahaha.

Sorry, I dont mean to laugh, but where have you been?

The bulk of gamers only care about their instant gratification. If they actually were capable of taking a stand then there'd be a lot less awful companies pulling in billion dollar+ game releases.

[+] Sharpiemarker@feddit.de -73 points 2 years ago

Because they want to get paid for their work?

[-] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 69 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I have no problem with someone getting paid for their work. In fact, I encourage people to get paid for their work. But if you decide to sabotage your own product for the sake of attacking people who refuse to pay for it, you just make your product worse for everyone who did pay for it and you do nothing to actually solve the piracy issue. In that case, you're reaping what you sow.

[+] Sharpiemarker@feddit.de -39 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Did none of you read the article?

The modder, PureDark is talking about putting in anti-theft mines into their mods. Exactly like the Mad Max game where you can't win and it makes it impossibly difficult if you're playing a cracked copy. Below is the quote from the article, emphasis mine.

PureDark also responded to how quickly the Starfield mod was cracked.
"It was expected since it was something I put together within a day or two, but I did get enough patrons so it's done its job. So from now on I will place hidden mines in all my mods to make it harder for these people.

[-] nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works 24 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Wow a day or two of work and you earn probably 200k+ from it, crazy. Guess he is hurting for cash or he see's the end of the cash train as other people start making equivalent mods. Or maybe he is afraid of bethesda/nividia/amd coming down on him.

[-] abraxas@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Others' estimates put his earnings over $500k (at least if it remains relevant for a year).

[-] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 years ago

It's a day of work to implement the DRM, not the mod itself, which he did release day 1 for free on Nexus, only the frame gen version is behind the patreon wall, additionally he's released many such DLSS+FG mods for various games (which all come with the sub) so he has a lot of experience implementing it and has clearly gotten it down pretty well.

Every game has its own challenges but Starfield was particularly easy (according to him) because of how FSR was implemented

[-] raptir@lemdro.id 9 points 2 years ago

That... is not at all specified what kind of "mine" it would be. You're assuming it's innocuous, everyone else is assuming it's malicious. But we're all making assumptions.

[-] YeetPics@mander.xyz -2 points 2 years ago

They made starfield and then the mods?

[-] simple@lemm.ee 48 points 2 years ago

That's hilarious. I can't believe someone would openly admit to putting malware in a paid mod, I'm surprised anyone actually bought it in the first place.

[-] amio@kbin.social 25 points 2 years ago

So someone will take his mods and make actual pirate versions of them. If he's trying to Streisand it, couldn't have done a better job. I don't see it being very profitable, though...

[-] ilickfrogs@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

B r u h, what a petulant fucking child. Game developers tried the same shit for years and those still got cracked. This guy can go fuck himself.

[-] Jagget@programming.dev 11 points 2 years ago

https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/2751 I like this one better. It even adds menu options

[-] Pika@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I understand he's mad that he's losing money of a thing he made but, I think he's going about that the wrong way. I would see that as more of a challenge then a "wow I shouldn't do this", I expect any person doing stuff like this would look at it the same way, free cracks and exploits are rarely about the money, it's generally about the challenge of doing something that isn't supposed to be allowed. Adding "mines" to try and sabotage it I believe will just make someone more apt to try and crack it.

[-] Pheonixdown@lemm.ee 8 points 2 years ago

Reminds me of Game Dev Tycoon, the pirated version of the game would occasionally have your hit games lose a bunch of sales due to piracy.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 2 years ago

In Mirror's Edge one of the jumps near the end of the game was programmed to be actually undoable. It slowed you down, just a little bit, so it was now impossible to complete the game.

[+] slimerancher@lemmy.world -13 points 2 years ago

Why is everyone angry that he is going to add some kind of anti-theft in his product?

[-] abraxas@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Several reasons.

Paying customers are footing the bill for that anti-theft
The guy is making over $500k off someone else's product with a couple days' work. I'm no Tankie, but you don't have to be a high schooler or a pothead to have a problem with capitalism's more toxic extremes. People have been conditioned to forget this, but piracy is a counter-leverage to prevent product pricing from going out of control. Just look at the average prices of Switch games vs PC games. The harder it is to pirate a product, the further the price of that product is from a value consensus.
These types of anti-thefts tend to false-fire for the paying customers (who footed the bill). This is especially true because he builds his mods against a closed-source product that behaves in ways he cannot always predict. Published modding interfaces are never perfect.

[-] slimerancher@lemmy.world -2 points 2 years ago

Thanks for the response. While I don't really agree with all these points, but at least I can understand that. So, thanks!

[-] Fraylor@lemm.ee -3 points 2 years ago

Then why not just open with "I'm ignorant" instead of whatever it is you're bothering to try and say?

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Have you ever tried not being a cunt?

[-] Fraylor@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago

Have you?

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

An actual, serious "No, you!"

Oh my god I dont need to be laughing this hard before bed. How fuckin sad.

[-] Fraylor@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

Okay pal, sweet dreams internet warrior.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

[-] UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago

"product"

The real value of the "product" was done by (m/b)illion dollar investments by Nvidia and game companies facilitating support for FSR or alternate upscalers. His "product" takes a few days to implement and others are able to offer the same "product" for free.

He is making a ridiculous amount of money considering the amount of work required and feels like an insult to modders who actually spend hundreds of hours tinkering and publishing their work for free. He already makes more than he deserves on patreon, why is he so sensitive about others pirating it.

this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023

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