Yes, it is Denuvo causing all those crashes and loading issues.

[pmemer]

Before you say something like "Denuvo has no impact on performance" or "nobody cares lol", I actually have tested it.

As you may know, Atlus kind of screwed up when they released the Digital Deluxe edition, and shipped the .exe without Denuvo. The .exe with Denuvo was shipped once the game officially launched. The major issues with the game right now are the load times, the infinite load screens and the constant crashing. All of which are being caused by the terrible implementation of Denuvo.

So, I took the Denuvo free .exe from the Digital Deluxe release, and replaced the .exe that my game was currently using. Right away I noticed the difference in filesize. The current .exe is just under 500mb, the Denuvo-free exe is only about 34 mb

As for performance, load times drastically shot down once Denuvo was gone. Went from a solid 10 or so seconds when transitioning zones to near instant (on an m.2 SSD). The stutters during loading times were gone, as well as all the crashes that sometimes happened. The game itself ran a lot smoother too with less microstuters and skips.

So unfortunately, unless Atlus/Sega removes Denuvo, the only fix for your crashing and loading issues is to track down the Denuvo free .exe from the Digital Deluxe release. It's out there, I just can't say where.

Once again Denuvo screws over paying customers more than the pirates.

[Sayuri]

Woa, didn't expect that the load times were painful because of that.

I would like to try that, do you have any guide or something to remove Denuvo? will that affect anything to my account? or it is just fine?

[pmemer]

Originally posted by Sora:

Woa, didn't expect that the load times were painful because of that.

I would like to try that, do you have any guide or something to remove Denuvo? will that affect anything to my account? or it is just fine?

I can't tell you where to find the .exe without Denuvo, as it would break Steam ToS in regards to piracy and the like. Going to have to consult Google on that one, sorry.

Should you find it, all you have to do is replace the current .exe file in your install directory with the Denuvo free one. Your account will be fine since the .exe is identical, except without Denuvo

[BioRadical]

That big of a difference? Damn... I mean I can overlook games that have slight frame drops, but drastically increased load times and worse off crashing?

If you can't implement DRM properly to not mess with legitimate consumers, don't do it.

Thanks for the heads up, removing the game from my cart now.

[Sayuri]

Originally posted by pmemer:

Originally posted by Sora:

Woa, didn't expect that the load times were painful because of that.

I would like to try that, do you have any guide or something to remove Denuvo? will that affect anything to my account? or it is just fine?

I can't tell you where to find the .exe without Denuvo, as it would break Steam ToS in regards to piracy and the like. Going to have to consult Google on that one, sorry.

Should you find it, all you have to do is replace the current .exe file in your install directory with the Denuvo free one. Your account will be fine since the .exe is identical, except without Denuvo

I see, thank you. I understood what you mean, I think I might try it!

[Geist]

This is probably why load screens cause frame drops too. Time for more experiments.

[FhqwhTODD]

You mean the version of the game that doesn't have Denuvo had the same problems because of Denuvo. I am in shock.

[CheeseBoar]

For anyone who has the Deluxe Edition but didn't buy it soon enough to get the Denuvo-free file, you can use DepotDownloader to download older versions of games that you legitimately have in your Steam library. Doing this was something that you could actually do inside of Steam itself up until recently, when Valve changed some things around; DepotDownloader works in the same way as Steam did before. This won't matter if Atlus and SEGA remove the depot that has that Denuvo-free file, but last I checked, it's still active.

[Kipi_GiD]

Interesting as I have Deluxe Edition and I was experience all those issues right away after the pre-release in 19th. So, that means it can't be just Denuvo's fault because, based on the OP's claims, I shouldn't have experienced those problems at all...

[definitely not aragi]

I bought the digital deluxe edition on 18/2 but still experienced the loading screen issues. Plus my CPU usage jumped from 15 to 100%. The game was using to 85% of CPU. Is it because of Denuvo?

I also tried to play the game from... different sources but got the same result. Had to refund the game

[Lumone]

Originally posted by Future-Proof:

For anyone who has the Deluxe Edition but didn't buy it soon enough to get the Denuvo-free file, you can use DepotDownloader to download older versions of games that you legitimately have in your Steam library. Doing this was something that you could actually do inside of Steam itself up until recently, when Valve changed some things around; DepotDownloader works in the same way as Steam did before. This won't matter if Atlus and SEGA remove the depot that has that Denuvo-free file, but last I checked, it's still active.

which depot has the denuvo free exe ?

[Prof.Paradox]

Originally posted by pmemer:

Before you say something like "Denuvo has no impact on performance" or "nobody cares lol", I actually have tested it.

As you may know, Atlus kind of screwed up when they released the Digital Deluxe edition, and shipped the .exe without Denuvo. The .exe with Denuvo was shipped once the game officially launched. The major issues with the game right now are the load times, the infinite load screens and the constant crashing. All of which are being caused by the terrible implementation of Denuvo.

So, I took the Denuvo free .exe from the Digital Deluxe release, and replaced the .exe that my game was currently using. Right away I noticed the difference in filesize. The current .exe is just under 500mb, the Denuvo-free exe is only about 34 mb

As for performance, load times drastically shot down once Denuvo was gone. Went from a solid 10 or so seconds when transitioning zones to near instant (on an m.2 SSD). The stutters during loading times were gone, as well as all the crashes that sometimes happened. The game itself ran a lot smoother too with less microstuters and skips.

So unfortunately, unless Atlus/Sega removes Denuvo, the only fix for your crashing and loading issues is to track down the Denuvo free .exe from the Digital Deluxe release. It's out there, I just can't say where.

Once again Denuvo screws over paying customers more than the pirates.

post this on the bug report so they can see

[Bluecomet]

Infinite loading screen in non-windowed modes has been the main problem in the bug report thread since early release, feelsbad

[CheeseBoar]

Originally posted by Lumone:

Originally posted by Future-Proof:

For anyone who has the Deluxe Edition but didn't buy it soon enough to get the Denuvo-free file, you can use DepotDownloader to download older versions of games that you legitimately have in your Steam library. Doing this was something that you could actually do inside of Steam itself up until recently, when Valve changed some things around; DepotDownloader works in the same way as Steam did before. This won't matter if Atlus and SEGA remove the depot that has that Denuvo-free file, but last I checked, it's still active.

which depot has the denuvo free exe ?

Depot-wise, it's the one labeled Gyoza Content on SteamDB. I think the manifest was the first one, the one from Jan. 30.

[ValentB]

Denuvo is the cause of crashes in P4G as well. Meanwhile, Denuvo-less version crashes extremely rarely.

[bebybeby99]

I crashed twice during early access and haven't crashed after release. The bugs have been the same even after release so idk where all this is coming from. Just making excuses to pirate the game.