what the hell is this game installing?

[Roz1281]

Can someone tell me what this game is installing, it threw a bunch of stuff into my program files folder (outside of steam) and now some license agreement came up about installing "AMD CPU Drivers"

I don't know why games can't just be self-contained like the old days, who cares if it's a little bit bigger, I'm sick of having to install 400 .NET, VC++, etc redistributables with every game I download.

This is a snippet from the software it's trying to install, of which i have no clue what it actually is before agreeing:

1. License. The software accompanying this License (hereinafter “Software”), regardless of the media on which it is distributed, are licensed to you by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (“AMD”) for use solely in conjunction with AMD hardware products purchased with the Software (“AMD Hardware”). You own the medium on which the Software is recorded, but AMD and AMD's Licensors (referred to collectively as “AMD”) retain title to the Software and related documentation. You may:
a) use the Software solely in conjunction with the AMD Hardware on a single computer;

[Roz1281]

Nevermind, not going to play this. At the risk of sounding like a whiney jerk, I don't like that it installed a flash player plugin on my clean system, along with a background service from hirez without even asking. Not to mention the .Net installation in addition to another popup from windows saying I need a DIFFERENT .NET install before downloading the one the game wants. (not a fan of Windows lately..) Steam is enough DRM for me. Looks like a fun game though :) I looked on the store page for the usual gold text that says "requires 3rd party license agreement or software" but didn't see it. My fault for not following the fine print link to the developer website that was in the system requirements.

Thanks to anyone who reads this, and I'm sure it's a great game. To the developers, it would be nice to have the standard warning on the steam store page, on the right column since that's where most games have it.

[jester]

If having to install different DirectX and .NET libraries upsets you, you may consider selling your pc, and just getting an Xbox or Playstation.

[EmethSAS]

Yeah, I wasn't thrilled about Flash either, but it is a real great game and my browser blocks Flash for other websites so I figured it'd be fine.

[CryonicSuspension]

Yeah... it was a bit weird. I have a custom built gaming rig that I speced and built myself. I don't have AMD and don't plan on ever having it ( I built a dual core AMD 4400 and the TDP - heat generation was enough to heat an apartment / swimming pool ).

So... I don't understand why I would be forced to install AMD drivers - you can write software to detect CPU... hell you can just do a simple keystroke to bring that information up in an operating system. It seems like bloatware.

[Roz1281]

Originally posted by jester:

If having to install different DirectX and .NET libraries upsets you, you may consider selling your pc, and just getting an Xbox or Playstation.

I don't have to like everything about PC gaming to prefer it to consoles. It's just annoying that I just installed windows 10 3 days ago, and I already have 6 different extra runtime libraries installed from a few games. I don't totally blame developers, it's also microsoft. For example, I don't understand at least all the old runtimes aren't included with a modern windows installation, since you know Microsoft is always pushing gaming on Windows.

[Roz1281]

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Yeah... it was a bit weird. I have a custom built gaming rig that I speced and built myself. I don't have AMD and don't plan on ever having it ( I built a dual core AMD 4400 and the TDP - heat generation was enough to heat an apartment / swimming pool ).

So... I don't understand why I would be forced to install AMD drivers - you can write software to detect CPU... hell you can just do a simple keystroke to bring that information up in an operating system. It seems like bloatware.

exactly, I don't have a single AMD part in the machine i was installing on (though I do have an AMD based system i play some games on also and yes it gets very hot, had to buy a big aftermarket CPU cooler :p).

[MrBloodworth]

Any game that uses scaleform installs flash, as its a flash based GUI system.

[Captain]

Whatever, man... Obviously a game is gonna install stuff it needs to work. If you are not okay with that... then I don't know what to tell you.

[CryonicSuspension]

If you don't have an AMD CPU ( central processing unit ) then you don't need AMD drivers obviously. This isn't rocket science.

[Jin-]

Don't worry it also installs spyware tool which you are forced to have if u want to have game playable. It checks everything your computer runs and even if you don't play Smite.
I tried to remove it, but then game can't get past patcher.

[MrBloodworth]

Originally posted by Jin-:

Don't worry it also installs spyware tool which you are forced to have if u want to have game playable. It checks everything your computer runs and even if you don't play Smite.
I tried to remove it, but then game can't get past patcher.

No, it does not, also there is a buttion to remove the services.

[Roz1281]

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

If you don't have an AMD CPU ( central processing unit ) then you don't need AMD drivers obviously. This isn't rocket science.

Yes that's my point. the license agreement that would have initiated the installer was showing 3 sections, I didn't see a choice on declining the AMD drivers so i cancelled the whole thing. And the install window didn't have a title, logo or any indication what it was or who it was from (IE i couldn't tell if it was Microsoft's DX or whatever, or hirez software etc)


Capt. Buttbeard: I am okay with games doing so, if it's more upfront about it. For example, some MMO's on steam have a big text in gold color stating it requires 3rd party software or license agreement. Then I can look further into it before deciding. Also, many games include a directX redistributable installer in their download, which is easy. Direct X at least only updates what it needs. .NET on the other hand seems to require a different installation for each version. But I've learned to accept that. It's just how this game in particular handled it that bothered me. And what is the need for more software and DRM on top of steam for Smite? I realize the game wasn't a part of steam before, but I assumed (my fault) that with the transition to Steam it would ditch it's old install method and any DRM (like Quake live for example, which used to have it's own installer; now it is the same as any normal steam game, clean install)

I know some people will just install anything, but I ran my last windows installation (7) since the day it was released with 24/7 uptime other than couple crashes and reboots for updates because i am selective in how much junk i put on it. In an ideal world, developers would just include the neccessary .DLL's inside their own installation folder, and would remove them cleanly when you uninstall, but while some developers are good about it, most aren't.

When i removed the game from steam, it didn't uninstall the flash plugin it installed. If that doesn't bother people, it should. This is why I have friends family and strangers always giving me PC's to repair; 50% of games and software out there wants to install things in your windows system directory, unneccessary entries in your registry, and background services to help a program start up .0001 seconds faster.

And yes I was one of those people who raged when I had to install Steam for half-life 2 when it released =\.

[CryonicSuspension]

Youtube inside Steam almost always freezes now and it's probably because of some junk crap that was installed.

[Roz1281]

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Youtube inside Steam almost always freezes now and it's probably because of some junk crap that was installed.

I don't know the reason, but i had that issue a lot in the last couple months, along with others on my friends list. Haven't tried it yet since installing win10

[Tova]

Originally posted by Rotting^2Zombie:

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Youtube inside Steam almost always freezes now and it's probably because of some junk crap that was installed.

I don't know the reason, but i had that issue a lot in the last couple months, along with others on my friends list. Haven't tried it yet since installing win10

it still freezes up on win 10 :|