Back in my day, we had RELOADED, Razor1911, DEViANCE! Haven’t pirated games in forever though, I mostly buy “indies” today and steam + gog facilitate that nicely.
I only pirate games that I wouldn’t mind playing but also hate the publisher, or the publisher makes the games annoying to play despite steams easy UI and setup.
Games from EA, Ubisoft, Rockstar, etc I will pirate with no remorse and then place the launcher link in my steam library.
Yesterday I tried to mod persona 4 golden on Linux. After a couple hours of headaches and some help from the developer, I finally managed to fix the problem and launch persona aaaaand denuvo shut it down.
Denuvo literally shut down my legal version of P4G because I used one too many versions of proton. This is why I support fitgirl
They still pay for Denuvo for Persona 4? What a waste of money.
Atlus, like many Japanese companies, is very protective of their ips, for worse. There is no better
Yeah, Denuvo registers every version of Proton as a different computer. So when you cycle through a bunch of different versions, Denuvo sees you booting it on a bunch of different computers back-to-back. IIRC Denuvo’s ToS allows for 5 different computers to boot a game within 24 hours. So it locks you out for 24h, as an anti-account-sharing measure. It has hit the spotlight a few times recently, because of the Steam Deck users needing to cycle through Proton versions.
Note plenty FitGirl repacks are lossless; as in, she isn’t taking less important files out of the game, she’s compressing it better. 90GB→35GB seems accurate; you often see ~1/3 of the original size, like this. And it shows plenty game devs
- do an extremely bad job at basic tasks like compression.
- give no flying fucks about players, who might have really slow connections.
And then those same developers get amazed at the fact FitGirl is so popular. “Maybe we’re doing something wrong? …nah.”
The downside of the compression is the install can take way longer than the download. But if you’re on a slower connection the smaller download would be a big benefit.
I wouldn’t really say that. The kind of extreme compression Fitgirl does comes with the tradeoff of really long decompression times. Depending on which games, nearly 45 minutes (with a 7800x3D)
Some games lack compression but I would not want those long install times by default, if you have a speedy internet connection they usually take longer to install than to download. Don’t get me wrong, for people with really slow internet those repacks are a godsend but they are not “better” on every aspect.
Steam gets around this problem by doing the decompressing on the fly as you download. Go check out your CPU usage next time you install a game.
Edit: I think this is also why it defaults to not downloading while you game. Steam doesn’t want you to have a bad experience from the decompression.
More like check your hdd. Steam goes like this for me download, download, download, pause downloading to extract and smash my hdd, download, download, downloand.
I hope you aren’t literally still using an actual HDD.
Yeah I think it ends up waiting for slower storage if your cpu or HDD are too slow. I experience that with slower sdcards on the Deck.
But on a decent NVMe with a balanced CPU the download and disk are full bore and the CPU usage goes really high.
Ahh yeah this could be. My system isn’t by any means crazy but it is modern. A tuned 5600x (draws about 115W at full load) and an nvme 3.0 ssd. I’m being bottlenecked by internet bandwidth at the moment.
Is this why steam is so insanely slow to download games.
It will also use ALL your bandwidth by default. I can’t even watch a yt video or anything while doing a steam download unless I limit the bandwidth in settings.
What kind of router do you have? If it has any kind of “smart queue” or “smart qos” you could try enabling that and it will de-prioritize steam’s packets (as needed) so that web browsing and voip still work.
Awesome thank you for the tip. I’m not too well versed in networking so I never really dig around in my router settings. I’m just using the Modem/router supplied by the ISP right now and it doesn’t look like it has anything like that from a quick look through the config page.
Ahh yeah the provided router might not have some of the more advanced features. But suffice to say this isn’t so much a steam problem as it is a “how computer networks work” problem. The way routers work by default tends to penalize “bursty” traffic like loading websites/gaming/voice and prioritize sustained traffic like your download, so it’s nice that valve provide the option to limit the bandwidth. I’m on satellite internet right now waiting for verizon to finish their fiber install and I can’t even use that reliably because my bandwidth changes constantly D=
It’s more likely that the devs are not being given the time or resources to do this kind of thing properly. Their bosses are too concerned with what will save money and generate shareholder value.
It’s basic math for these executives, the cost of bandwidth is magnitudes less than than the cost to pay someone to reduce it. They do not care about the cost to gamers.
This implies fitgirl is doing it properly. Which it’s trade off faster download longer install times or vice versa.
Decompression during install is generally less of a bottleneck than network bandwidth, so fitgirl is doing it properly.
do an extremely bad job at basic tasks like compression
I’ve installed one game from FitGirl so far. It took three hours to unpack while hammering all the cpu cores, failed, and required another three-hour go to install properly.
So you’re saying that all games should install like this?
You’re meant to check the CRCs before you extract to verify that you actually fully downloaded the file. Otherwise yes, people like myself will mock you online for this trivial anecdote
A lot of devs stopped giving a flying fuck to disk space and performance a long time ago. “32GB of RAM and 500GB of disk space? Don’t mind if I do!” - for a pixel art 2D platformer
It’s so infuriating I’ve either got 3 brand new games or 30 older games installed on to my device.
Even mobile gaming is getting out of hand
The thing about compression is you have to process it to decompress it. It may be benificial to people with limited bandwidth, or for peer-to-peer sharing, but it’s probably better for most users for someone like Valve to share the uncompressed version. Bandwidth isn’t the issue it used to be.
It also makes progressive updates harder. The best you can do is compress each update individually, not the whole package.
I’m aware that compression rates are a trade-off between space and processing time, and that there’s some balance to be had. However, I don’t see this balance from plenty commercial games; what I see instead is disregard.
Here’s a made up example. Suppose you have a choice between compressing a game:
- to 10 GiB, and it takes 2min to unpack it in a certain machine
- to 3 GiB, and it takes 8min to unpack it in a certain machine
FitGirl will consistently pick the later option. And it would be fine if devs picked the former, or a middle ground… but they don’t. Instead, often you get a 10 GiB file that takes 10 min to unpack, the worst of both worlds.
And it isn’t just a matter of the compression algorithm. The developers also have the freedom to choose how they split files; but they often create 9001 files the size of an ant, that is going to hurt decompression times. (Paradox Interactive, I’m looking at you.)
Tagging @[email protected], as it addresses what they said too.
I don’t know any that take a long time to unpack from developers. They do have to pre-compile shaders, but that’s different. Maybe I just don’t pay enough attention, or maybe it’s just because I don’t play many big budget games.
From the top of my mind, Europa Universalis 4. Even the base game takes ages to install, and I don’t think it’s just the Linux version.
Incidentally, I checked it in FitGirl’s site, found EU5 instead, and she’s complaining about the exact same thing:
Installation takes 5-12 minutes (depending on your system, mostly on your drive speed – the game has more than 49000 small files, Paradox never learn from their mistakes)
I did play EU5 (and 4 ages ago) and didn’t notice the issue. I guess I just don’t pay attention to it.
I did because my older computer was a potato, so it was kind of obvious the game took a bit too long to install.
The EA/Ubisoft/Rockstar servers are so shit and their games so large that it’s actually near impossible to download their games on a slow internet connection, because they would just timeout after 3~4 hours.
Downloading a cracked, compressed FitGirl repack over P2P and just ignoring the crack was unironically the only viable way to legally enjoy the games I had purchased back when I had slow internet.
The repacks are windows .exes, yet even work flawlessly via wine. FitGirl truly GOATed.
No it’s making a choice. Faster decompress times. Considering a lot of their customers have fast speeds it doesn’t really matter.
Bingo. And this means they’re effectively choosing who their games are for. And then complaining the ones they didn’t choose decided to pirate it.
I’m curious, are there countries where fast internet is way too expensive but video games are priced well?
Edit: I mean priced well on launch, btw, not on sale
Piracy is the response when companies refuse to serve market needs.
I mean, there will always be people trying to get something for free when they normally have no problem affording it or obtaining it personally. It’s why the Parasite Class continue to drive down wages while raising prices for that sweet labour-free profit margin, even though they already have obscene amounts of wealth. Their boundless greed demands they squeeze even more out of the Working Class whose labour is the source of all wealth.
So yeah, there we’ll always be some people who will pirate purely for the fish.
But in the end, any significant piracy is 100% the fault of those very companies that complain about it.
I am in the process of moving to pc from ps. I wont buy the same games again, it doesnt make sense to me. Where it is cheap and easy I have done but I feel I bought the right to buy them and also I hate some of the features with logins and always on connections.
I love fitgirl.
Truly fighting the good fight.
I suspect FitGirl is a morbidly obese 58 year old man with a twisted sense of humor.
Nah its a Russian women.
Hopefully less old. We want him to keep them repacks coming
Wait fitgirl is actually a female? Been using those repacks for a very long time. A legend among the scene.
Yep, she was super happy when another girl came upon the scene, Empress. They collabed on a big release one time and I remember her saying “Girl power!”, then not long after Empress had a big ego trip and falling out with the repackers.
Folks here are like “everyone uses it. Eventually all gamers realize it’s better”
Me, having never even heard of this in my 30 years of gaming: 🫣
I mean, do you pirate games? If you’ve never gone to a torrent site in your life it’s not surprising, but FitGirl’s repacks are so numerous that it’s hard not to notice them if you do pirate.
I used to torrent frequently, but rarely software.
Since I graduated and started making adult money I haven’t really at all. When I want to vote with my wallet, I just don’t play it at all (usually these are live service games anyways).Although I’m going to start torrenting music and video again on principle.
vote with my wallet
Lol
Yeah, I know, it doesn’t actually work, because capitalism is a joke. But you get the idea, I think
God bless Fitgirl
The repacker* is great but there’s also ElAmigos and DODI.
They crack, she repacks
They crack, she repacks
This is just not true. Both DODI and ElAmigos are Repackers.
ElAmigos repacks are actually pretty good from my experience.
I only use DODI when there is no Fitgirl release. DODI torrents are always behind spam/scam link gates and the installer is horrible. In the DODI installer to start it for some reason you have to press the up arrow or something. Just… why? It’s like he saw that feature on his phone lock screen and decided to add it without asking himself what purpose it serves. The installer is also totally broken if you have changed windows scaling so every time I want to use it I have to go into the properties and disable scaling.
i’m surprised, i just thought if you couldn’t afford a game these days you waited till it was 90% off on steam
I thought there was something like patient gamers who only played games a year after release or something like this but I can’t find it
That’s me, I have a MASSIVE wait-list on Isthereanydeal.com and buy most games at around $5, including triple A games, assuming I haven’t already gotten them for free from Epic, Amazon or Good Ole Games.
However, if I know it’s NEVER going to go down or it’s from Nintendo, torrents all the way.
Steam doesn’t release every game in every market, do they?
I’ve had a lot less of a desire to pirate games after moving to Linux full time a few years ago. But FitGirl has been the one reliable place for public torrents, compaed to chancing it on the third Google Link or scrolling through the Russian CS-Rin-Rulette forum to find links.
I’ve never had a single problem with cs-rin and I’d be surprised if the average person ever would.
If you can afford it
Might be a better option, or least send the devs some support while using repacks. It’s sort of like a thrift store when you find something you really wanted maybe a game you didn’t even know of, and it means a lot more because it feels like finding a treasure.
I actually didn’t know that the whole point of fitgirl was for compression, I’ve been blessed with massive hard drives. I think I took my 4tb ssd for granted. Not everyone has even an extra $5 .
If you can afford it. Might be a better option, or least send the devs some support while using repacks.
Honestly, I think this is a case-by-case basis. I don’t weep for EA losing money when people acquire The Sims for example. The people that did the heavy lifting already got paid, and the less money that’s going into the Trump Empire and Saudi Arabian pockets the better.
That’s almost besides the point, though. We’re living in a time where if you buy something you for the most part don’t own it. Buy an EV? Then the battery is rented. Buy an iPhone? You don’t get to choose what software or hardware to put in it, only Apple batteries are acceptable else your screen/camera/faceID array will magically stop working. Android phones are barking down the same route.
Buy an eBook/Audiobook from Amazon? Well they can edit and redact it whenever they please. A film from iTunes? DRMed, bound to die whenever Apple decides to no longer support your platform. Video game? You get a license to run the software, nothing more.
There are studios I feel happy supporting, ones that treat their customers and their workers right. Don’t think a single one of them is a AAA studio though. Like, why should I pay Bethesda when they don’t pay their musicians?
I actually didn’t know that the whole point of fitgirl was for compression
The whole point of view of the article is about people from countries that can’t afford the modern AAA price, internet bandwidth… and even PC capable to run the game decently (AAA the full price always take in account hardware that runs on “Ultra settings”; not the customers running it at very low).
As aside note, piracy isn’t even about piracy itself anymore: someone who buy an AAA videogame on “exclusivity store” (such as Epic)… soon or later will discover that’s easier to store a fitgirl copy of his purchase to run the same game seamelessly across all the PC in their household (good old: Install > Next > Next > Finish) … rather having set up those 2+3 launcher per PC.
The best option is piracy. Do not engage in capitalism where you can avoid it.
Excluding Indie devs, sure. Stardew Valley will always have my full support.
I don’t know which stores exactly are listed there. But at least with some shady key resellers, piracy might actually be better than buying from them according to some indie devs: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48908726
Isthereanydeal don’t list those shady resellers.
I have zero trust installing pirated software, especially when they go out of their way to break it when using wine on Linux or running it in a vm.
You must’ve stumbled on some bad sources I’m afraid.
They don’t go out of their way to break it, they just don’t pay attention to it (yet). There was an interesting interview here a few months ago: https://lemmy.world/post/32441387
