What's the purpose of "EOSSDK-Win64-Shipping.dll"?

[Elegant Caveman]

Why does a singleplayer game on Steam require an Epic Online Services file to function?

Good news is that unlike some other games, Railway Empires doesn't phone home to Epic servers as soon as you launch the game (I haven't done extensive testing, so it's possible it connects later).

Bad news is that if you delete the EOS file, the game refuses to launch, saying:

RailwayEmpire.exe - System Error

The program can't start because EOSSDK-Win64-Shipping.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

So that's still terribly shady.

What possible legitimate reason could there be for such a "function"?

[Elegant Caveman]

Nobody has any idea? Would love some insight into this.

[The Weekend Warrior]

RUST, purchased from Steam, launched on Steam crashes with this exact same DLL in the error message in the Event Viewer... it's even more disturbing what an Epic Online Services thing has any justification being (and even less crashing) a STEAM GAME!!!

[Elegant Caveman]

Originally posted by The Weekend Warrior:

RUST, purchased from Steam, launched on Steam crashes with this exact same DLL in the error message in the Event Viewer... it's even more disturbing what an Epic Online Services thing has any justification being (and even less crashing) a STEAM GAME!!!

Rust is an online game, though, so that's not surprising. EOS is commonly used in online games, because Epic loves pushing their cancer onto other games, forcing people into their ecosystem.

EOS basically replaces Steamworks as an API. Officially, the main use for it is for cross-platform multiplayer (which basically just means that Epic is bribing publishers to use their malware so that their dozen players have someone else to play with).

My point with this thread, though, is that Railway Empire is a purely-singleplayer game.

What is Epic Online Services doing in an offline game?

With my limited testing (just ran the game; didn't play), at least EOS seems to be inactive and doesn't connect to Epic's servers, but there still seems to be some kind of dependency to the file itself, since the game won't run if you delete the dll file (which you can usually do with purely-singleplayer games that "have" EOS; it's just a vestigial file that does nothing).

But yeah... it's disappointing Valve allows this trash on their platform.

[CarnageInc.]

Originally posted by Elegant Caveman:

Originally posted by The Weekend Warrior:

RUST, purchased from Steam, launched on Steam crashes with this exact same DLL in the error message in the Event Viewer... it's even more disturbing what an Epic Online Services thing has any justification being (and even less crashing) a STEAM GAME!!!

Rust is an online game, though, so that's not surprising. EOS is commonly used in online games, because Epic loves pushing their cancer onto other games, forcing people into their ecosystem.

EOS basically replaces Steamworks as an API. Officially, the main use for it is for cross-platform multiplayer (which basically just means that Epic is bribing publishers to use their malware so that their dozen players have someone else to play with).

My point with this thread, though, is that Railway Empire is a purely-singleplayer game.

What is Epic Online Services doing in an offline game?

With my limited testing (just ran the game; didn't play), at least EOS seems to be inactive and doesn't connect to Epic's servers, but there still seems to be some kind of dependency to the file itself, since the game won't run if you delete the dll file (which you can usually do with purely-singleplayer games that "have" EOS; it's just a vestigial file that does nothing).

But yeah... it's disappointing Valve allows this trash on their platform.

Thanks for testing it out and letting us know.
Of course the publisher or devs will never answer why such a file is needed for their single player game.
I have quite a few of them in my library unfortunately, and a few are adding it into them while in EA/Full release (diplomacy is not an option and core keeper the latest two that I noticed).

[Elegant Caveman]

Originally posted by CarnageInc.:

Thanks for testing it out and letting us know.
Of course the publisher or devs will never answer why such a file is needed for their single player game.
I have quite a few of them in my library unfortunately, and a few are adding it into them while in EA/Full release (diplomacy is not an option and core keeper the latest two that I noticed).

Adding EOS to existing games is really the worst, and why I hate it so much.

It's bad enough when it's part of a game at launch, but at least then a potential customer can make an informed decision and choose not to buy that game.

When it gets added to a game years after it's come out (and often without it even being mentioned anywhere), that's a whole other level of scummery.

I consider it theft. We didn't consent. Leave our old games alone.

At this point, before buying a game I always check SteamDB to see if it has EOS, and every once in a while, I check the list of games with EOS[steamdb.info] to see if it's been added to any games I already have.

To test whether EOS is active or inactive in a game, I use GlassWire[www.glasswire.com] (it's simple and free) to check what network connections are being made (if any).

At least Diplomacy Is Not An Option is a purely-singleplayer game, so that's probably "safe" (i.e. EOS should be inactive, and won't make any connections to Epic's servers), but Core Keeper has co-op, so it's most probably active. I've removed it from my wishlist, thanks.

I've tested a bit over 40 games "with EOS" that are purely-singleplayer, and in almost every case, EOS is inactive (makes no connections to Epic's servers) and the EOS dll files can be deleted without issue.

In two cases (Railway Empire and Supraland), EOS is inactive, but you can't delete the files, so there seems to be some kind of dependency.

In one case (Insurmountable), EOS was actually active, connecting to Epic's servers as soon as you launch the game. And I repeat: this was a purely-singleplayer game. Disgusting.

[CarnageInc.]

Originally posted by Elegant Caveman:

Originally posted by CarnageInc.:

Thanks for testing it out and letting us know.
Of course the publisher or devs will never answer why such a file is needed for their single player game.
I have quite a few of them in my library unfortunately, and a few are adding it into them while in EA/Full release (diplomacy is not an option and core keeper the latest two that I noticed).

Adding EOS to existing games is really the worst, and why I hate it so much.

It's bad enough when it's part of a game at launch, but at least then a potential customer can make an informed decision and choose not to buy that game.

When it gets added to a game years after it's come out (and often without it even being mentioned anywhere), that's a whole other level of scummery.

I consider it theft. We didn't consent. Leave our old games alone.

At this point, before buying a game I always check SteamDB to see if it has EOS, and every once in a while, I check the list of games with EOS[steamdb.info] to see if it's been added to any games I already have.

To test whether EOS is active or inactive in a game, I use GlassWire[www.glasswire.com] (it's simple and free) to check what network connections are being made (if any).

At least Diplomacy Is Not An Option is a purely-singleplayer game, so that's probably "safe" (i.e. EOS should be inactive, and won't make any connections to Epic's servers), but Core Keeper has co-op, so it's most probably active. I've removed it from my wishlist, thanks.

I've tested a bit over 40 games "with EOS" that are purely-singleplayer, and in almost every case, EOS is inactive (makes no connections to Epic's servers) and the EOS dll files can be deleted without issue.

In two cases (Railway Empire and Supraland), EOS is inactive, but you can't delete the files, so there seems to be some kind of dependency.

In one case (Insurmountable), EOS was actually active, connecting to Epic's servers as soon as you launch the game. And I repeat: this was a purely-singleplayer game. Disgusting.

Steamdb is a great site for info on every game on here.
I got over 200 that says they use it so I don't feel like checking each one of them. I think it would be easier if the devs removed the files if they aren't active or used in the steam version, but I guess they don't want to or care about it?

It's funny that a strictly SP game like railway won't let you delete the files manually. What purpose does it serve on here? I don't understand.

Thanks for the glasswire recommendation, will check it out and bookmark it.

[Elegant Caveman]

Originally posted by CarnageInc.:

Steamdb is a great site for info on every game on here.
I got over 200 that says they use it so I don't feel like checking each one of them. I think it would be easier if the devs removed the files if they aren't active or used in the steam version, but I guess they don't want to or care about it?

The easiest way to test is to just search a game's installation folder for "EOS" and delete every file you find, see if the game runs.

It's usually just one file (EOSSDK-Win64-Shipping.dll), but sometimes there's a couple.

And yeah, it would be nice if devs removed it, but I guess they can't be bothered, or in some cases simply don't know.

I had a surprising exchange with the devs of House Flipper, which is actually what got me to start using GlassWire.

EOS was added, though it was inactive. At the time, I didn't know there were "active" and "inactive" versions of EOS... I simply blacklisted any game that I found on SteamDB's list of games with EOS.

I was very disappointed that it got added and let the devs know. Short version is they explained it was inactive, but they didn't know it was an issue for some players, and they ended up removing the files entirely. This was unnecessary (since it was inactive), but still a very positive symbolic move.

If you're interested in the long version, you can read this thread.

Devs mentioned GlassWire, and I'd seen it mentioned before in similar threads, so I finally got it and started testing for myself all the games I had that were on that SteamDB EOS list.

Point being, some devs simply aren't aware that EOS is an issue for some people, so they might not think to get rid of the extraneous files, even if it's not hard to do so.

Thankfully, more and more players are becoming aware of EOS, and speaking up against it, which also raises awareness with developers, of course.

Realistically, EOS is never (or at least not any time soon) going to go away, but the most reasonable compromise we can hope for is to normalize it being an optional thing.

A couple of games already kind of do that, but it's quite rare. At least it means it's possible, so it's not a technological hurdle.

Unfortunately, it being optional would probably go against Epic's best interest (my guess is that the main reasons Epic pushes it so much is 1. to get people tied to their ecosystem, even if they're not on their platform and 2. to give the small handful of players who actually play on Epic someone to play multiplayer with).

Of course this is all speculation, but I have a feeling that a lot of developers/publishers don't add EOS because they inherently think it's a good thing, but more that it's a "suggestion" from Epic.

Originally posted by CarnageInc.:

It's funny that a strictly SP game like railway won't let you delete the files manually. What purpose does it serve on here? I don't understand.

Yeah, which is why I made this thread.

It's probably something inoffensive, but still not a great look.

Someone asked the devs of Supraland (the only other game I've tested which behaves this way) the same question, and the answer they gave was that their code references the EOS api, so even if it's inactive, the file still has to be present.

Presumably, it's something similar for this game.

[The Weekend Warrior]

Did some research in the mean time and it looks like it's tied to Easy Anti-Cheat... might be a clue as to why it is there everywhere. Not sure if cheating would be a thing though in a single player game :) Who knows.

[CarnageInc.]

Originally posted by Elegant Caveman:

Originally posted by CarnageInc.:

Steamdb is a great site for info on every game on here.
I got over 200 that says they use it so I don't feel like checking each one of them. I think it would be easier if the devs removed the files if they aren't active or used in the steam version, but I guess they don't want to or care about it?

The easiest way to test is to just search a game's installation folder for "EOS" and delete every file you find, see if the game runs.

It's usually just one file (EOSSDK-Win64-Shipping.dll), but sometimes there's a couple.

And yeah, it would be nice if devs removed it, but I guess they can't be bothered, or in some cases simply don't know.

I had a surprising exchange with the devs of House Flipper, which is actually what got me to start using GlassWire.

EOS was added, though it was inactive. At the time, I didn't know there were "active" and "inactive" versions of EOS... I simply blacklisted any game that I found on SteamDB's list of games with EOS.

I was very disappointed that it got added and let the devs know. Short version is they explained it was inactive, but they didn't know it was an issue for some players, and they ended up removing the files entirely. This was unnecessary (since it was inactive), but still a very positive symbolic move.

If you're interested in the long version, you can read this thread.

Devs mentioned GlassWire, and I'd seen it mentioned before in similar threads, so I finally got it and started testing for myself all the games I had that were on that SteamDB EOS list.

Point being, some devs simply aren't aware that EOS is an issue for some people, so they might not think to get rid of the extraneous files, even if it's not hard to do so.

Thankfully, more and more players are becoming aware of EOS, and speaking up against it, which also raises awareness with developers, of course.

Realistically, EOS is never (or at least not any time soon) going to go away, but the most reasonable compromise we can hope for is to normalize it being an optional thing.

A couple of games already kind of do that, but it's quite rare. At least it means it's possible, so it's not a technological hurdle.

Unfortunately, it being optional would probably go against Epic's best interest (my guess is that the main reasons Epic pushes it so much is 1. to get people tied to their ecosystem, even if they're not on their platform and 2. to give the small handful of players who actually play on Epic someone to play multiplayer with).

Of course this is all speculation, but I have a feeling that a lot of developers/publishers don't add EOS because they inherently think it's a good thing, but more that it's a "suggestion" from Epic.

Originally posted by CarnageInc.:

It's funny that a strictly SP game like railway won't let you delete the files manually. What purpose does it serve on here? I don't understand.

Yeah, which is why I made this thread.

It's probably something inoffensive, but still not a great look.

Someone asked the devs of Supraland (the only other game I've tested which behaves this way) the same question, and the answer they gave was that their code references the EOS api, so even if it's inactive, the file still has to be present.

Presumably, it's something similar for this game.

That's good to know that some devs listen and remove it. Most of the time I ask about it in the forums for the games I have, it gets ignored and never replied to.
Although today the devs of going medieval replied and said they'll look into removing the inactive eos file in their game, which is fair and appreciated.
It sucks that SP games put eos files in their games for no reason, but like you said, more people are talking about it and being aware.