What should I use for the Witcher EE?

[cybmole]

i have just ordered the Uk version of witcher extended edition from Amazon.

So , if it arrives in the next day or so, should i try to get it work with current slysoft version ( & if so, with what profiling), or would I be better advised to wait for a new release of game jackal ?

 

[evlncrn8]

well when it arrives, scan it to see what protection it has...
it'll either be safedisc, or tages (or possibly, but doubtfully) starforce...

 

[cybmole]

well when it arrives, scan it to see what protection it has...
it'll either be safedisc, or tages (or possibly, but doubtfully) starforce...

i have read elsewhere that the protection is solidshield( whatever that is).
here is the link & the info:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f79/witcher-enhanced-edition-253046/

Scanning -> J:\The Witcher Enhanced Edition\System\witcher.exe
File Type : Exe, Size : 4610864 (0465B30h) Byte(s)
-> File Appears to be Digitally Signed @ Offset 0464CC8h, size : 0E68h / 03688 byte(s)
-> File has 3965128 (03C80C8h) bytes of appended data starting at offset 09CC00h
[Heuristics] -> Flag : 00000000000000000000001100010111
[!] SolidShield v1.9.6.4 detected !
- Scan Took : 0.266 Second(s)

Scanning -> J:\The Witcher Enhanced Edition\System\djinni!.exe
File Type : Exe, Size : 6291288 (05FFF58h) Byte(s)
-> File Appears to be Digitally Signed @ Offset 05FF0F0h, size : 0E68h / 03688 byte(s)
-> File has 5592816 (05556F0h) bytes of appended data starting at offset 0A9A00h
[Heuristics] -> Flag : 00000000000000000000001100010111
[!] SolidShield v1.9.6.4 detected !
- Scan Took : 0.15 Second(s)

Scanning -> J:\The Witcher Enhanced Edition\System\tdvm.dll
File Type : Dll, Size : 19503392 (01299920h) Byte(s)
-> File Appears to be Digitally Signed @ Offset 01298AB8h, size : 0E68h / 03688 byte(s)
-> File has 19273912 (012618B8h) bytes of appended data starting at offset 037200h
[Heuristics] -> Flag : 00000000000000000000000100000100
[!] SolidShield Core.dll v1, 9, 6, 4
- Scan Took : 3.687 Second(s)

Scanning -> J:\The Witcher Enhanced Edition\System\TagesClient.exe
File Type : Exe, Size : 396232 (060BC8h) Byte(s)
-> File Appears to be Digitally Signed @ Offset 05F000h, size : 01BC8h / 07112 byte(s)
[Heuristics] -> Flag : 00000000000000000000000000000100
[!] Tagès activation client v5.5.2.8
- Scan Took : 0.860 Second(s)

NB that is someone else's analysis - I don't know how that is done, but does that info answer the question as to whether game jackal should work, & in what mode ?

 

[Danger]

May be of some interest from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAGES

As of mid-2007 and up until the time of this writing (November, 2007), a popular practice has been to combine the Tagès protection system with the SolidShield protection system, as evident from a plethora of recent Tagès-protected applications. Namely, SolidShield joined by the Tagès APIs is a very common configuration, as usually one can not apply two executable wrappers (That is to say, both SolidShield and TAGESCAP) on the same executable file.

&

The usage of Tagès in The Witcher, spawned some controversy. Upon detecting a supposedly pirated copy, Tagès quietly and undetectably sabotages the content of the game to the point it was unwinnable by making certain key non-player characters disappear permanently. Tagès has been found to conflict with disc image drive emulators and react similarly to the presence of SCSI and SATA drivers in the system, resulting in the copy protection system preventing users from running legitimately purchased copies of the game. These problems can sometimes be avoided by uninstalling the Tagès driver with the official installation program and then starting the game (which will automatically install the appropriate driver version)[2], but saved games already in progress must be abandoned and the game started over from the beginning.

See also:
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=620119
&
http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=2507.0

I haven't read/seen that second link as it requires you to register/log in and I couldn't be bothered.

 

[cybmole]

"Quote:
The usage of Tagès in The Witcher, spawned some controversy. Upon detecting a supposedly pirated copy, Tagès quietly and undetectably sabotages the content of the game to the point it was unwinnable by making certain key non-player characters disappear permanently "

scary stuff - is there any risk of this happening to me if I use game jackal ( assuming that I can get it to work)

I have to admit that I'm inclined to chicken out here & play with the DVD in the drive until such time as an official profile is released.

 

[evlncrn8]

i have read elsewhere that the protection is solidshield( whatever that is).
here is the link & the info:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f79/witcher-enhanced-edition-253046/

<snip>

NB that is someone else's analysis - I don't know how that is done, but does that info answer the question as to whether game jackal should work, & in what mode ?

im well aware of the protection, we have already established that there is a tages version and a safedisc version... the question you were asking was what to do when your version arrived... to which, i said scan the folder to find out what protection your copy has..

 

[cybmole]

im well aware of the protection, we have already established that there is a tages version and a safedisc version... the question you were asking was what to do when your version arrived... to which, i said scan the folder to find out what protection your copy has..

1. I don't know how to do that

2. I expect that "my" version has the same protection as everyone elses in the UK - I don't suppose they made a special version just for me !

3. I don't plan on being a guinea pig for this - there's clearly not an official profile yet & frankly I'd rather play the game than speng hours trying to decipher & beat the copy protection, espcially given what I posted earler about tages quietly crippling the game if it's not seeing a genuine DVD.

I bought the slysoft software on the undertanding that you guys solve the copy protection headaches & all of have to do is use your profiles, so buy a UK copy & get to work


Update: game arrived & I downloaded protection ID v6 beta - it finds 3 files on D drive
issetup.dll - pe compact v2.20-v2.79
system\tdvm.dll - solidshield core.dll v1, 9, 6, 4
system\witcher.exe - solidshield

it's all geek to me, but maybe now you can tell me more

PS that was the latest version scanner I could find, if there's a protection scanner built into gamejackal then i can't find it - I read all of the help screens!


PPS no mention of tages - is that good ???

 

[evlncrn8]

ah, you'd scan it with protection id or something similar, and you're probably right about the version you have being the same as others (tages), but who knows, perhaps you got the safedisc batch.. thats why i suggested scanning it when you got it.. and well, as for being a guinea pig, being one sometimes helps the development progress faster than usual, and there's no real risk , just some trial and error and logging and reporting...

 

[cybmole]

ah, you'd scan it with protection id or something similar, and you're probably right about the version you have being the same as others (tages), but who knows, perhaps you got the safedisc batch.. thats why i suggested scanning it when you got it.. and well, as for being a guinea pig, being one sometimes helps the development progress faster than usual, and there's no real risk , just some trial and error and logging and reporting...

i think you posted while I was scanning & typing.

anyway - new puzzle: protection ID did not say anything about tages but when I look in the system folder on D I see tagesclient.exe and tagesclient.dat ???

PS I tried to register with and access the witcher forum , but I'm still waiting on an activation e-mail so can't get in there yet.

 

[evlncrn8]

try scanning the folder you installed the game into...
i'll check the tages client stuff etc later and add detection (if needed), but generally you're best scanning the folder you installed the game into, the chances of detection are far higher that way (definately looks like you got the 'common' tages version though)..

 

[cybmole]

try scanning the folder you installed the game into...
i'll check the tages client stuff etc later and add detection (if needed), but generally you're best scanning the folder you installed the game into, the chances of detection are far higher that way (definately looks like you got the 'common' tages version though)..

OK - although I've now bought it, I haven't actually installed it yet, just examined the disc without allowing it to autorun.

wanted to be sure it would not install any nasty rootkit stuff.

I'd previously has the free demo version but not nasties in that!

 

[evlncrn8]

oh, if the demo was protected im pretty sure there were
try scanning the folder you installed the demo to.. you'll see, these days protection seems quite 'transparent' (especially for the likes of tages)..

 

[cybmole]

oh, if the demo was protected im pretty sure there were
try scanning the folder you installed the demo to.. you'll see, these days protection seems quite 'transparent' (especially for the likes of tages)..

OK so I removed demo , installed & registered full version. scanned install folder & got same results as when I scanned DVD, i.e. it finds solildshield but not tages, even though tagesclient.exe and .dat have been copied to isntall folder ???

Also went to witcher board & posted there to ask if game can be made to run without DVD

have not tried game jackal on it yet, but game plays OK with DVD in drive ( as it should), and drive seems inactive once game has started.

PS it's a 9GB install so I don't have space for an image mode capture, if that's going to take an additional 9GB !

 

[cybmole]

oh, if the demo was protected im pretty sure there were
try scanning the folder you installed the demo to.. you'll see, these days protection seems quite 'transparent' (especially for the likes of tages)..

PS the free demo was a direct download via the game site - no optical media involved . Anyway, why copy protect something that's free to download ?

I am running game jackal on the dvd now but it is not happy. selected "the witcher" profile & started it in auto mode. it began analysing the disc about 40 minutes ago & is still going with the counter at the right well into 6 figures - 224000 & climbing. The progress bar has not filled in at all & the game has not started - it has been a while since I just GJ but I recall that it used to launch the game while it analysed it ?

the log file says it finished ages ago though:
Game Jackal log file - Profile
Log date - 10/10/2008 13:05:16
***********************************************
[10/10/2008 13:05:16] Profile - The Witcher
[10/10/2008 13:05:16] Profile mode: 1
[10/10/2008 13:05:16] Profile CP: 4
[10/10/2008 13:05:16] Driver mode: 41075
[10/10/2008 13:05:49] Using external launcher - C:\Program Files\SlySoft\Game Jackal\85161L.exe
[10/10/2008 13:06:00] Media information
[10/10/2008 13:06:00] Name - Disk1
[10/10/2008 13:06:00] Serial - 3046573825
[10/10/2008 13:06:00] Size - 6150
[10/10/2008 13:06:00] Profile deactivated.
[10/10/2008 13:06:00] End of log file - Profile'


so I've hit cancel & will try strating the game with GJ: - FAIL: the selected profile's executable was not found as a result the auto start feature will nto start the game.

Oh well, back to playing with DVD in drive until someone else solves this.

 

[evlncrn8]

PS the free demo was a direct download via the game site - no optical media involved . Anyway, why copy protect something that's free to download ?

because an unprotected exe allows the crackers to see whats going on and it can give 'hints' when cracking the protected exe... so, the demo obviously won't have a disk check, but the code will be encrypted etc usually to avoid giving such 'hints'...

 

[cybmole]

in another thread, a poster is saying the witcher EE will profile if you use image mode, but will take up 6GB.

now I think he has a different country version of the game to me, so no guarantee that would work for me, but if I could find another spare Gb, am I then going to see much faster loading times within the game, because it will be streaming each chapter from HD, not from DVD ?

if it would work and would, say, halve my loading times, then it could be worthwhile.

UPDATE - tried it anyway GJ version 3113, image mode profile, UK retail version of the witcher extended edition - did not work _ went out for an hour & left GJ building its image, whan I came back it said finished OK so I then tried the game & immediately got the insert DVD prompt.
auto profile dos not work either & I can't see any more options.

PS I'm back on 3113 after having trouble with 3114 & other game profiles

but I would still be curious to know - , would I still have had to retain all of the original game fiolders as well as the complete image or could I have deleted some stuff after making a successful profile ?

PPS I just fooled around with the game some more ( trying unsuccessfully to skip intro logos ) and I see that the the DVD drive is inactive when chapters are loading. So I guess the game would NOT have loaded any faster with a working image mode profile - the loading times mus be due to decompression or other CPU based processing.

 

[matthew]

Can you please try beta v3.1.1.5

 

[cybmole]

Can you please try beta v3.1.1.5

and would that be in image mode or in auto ? 6GB for an image profile is a big committment!

right now, I dont want to risk losing 2 important profiles:
1. my precious NWN2 profile, which I finally got working in 3113 after lots of grief with 3114,
2. my Medieval 2 total war profile, ( which also is fine in 3113 but stops working if I upgrade to 3114);

but hopefully someone else will test 3115 beta with UK release of witcher EE & report back.

If a final 3115 is able to support all 3 games, ( witcher, NWN2, medieval 2) without me having to reprofile , then I will happily upgrade.

 

[cybmole]

Can you please try beta v3.1.1.5

OK - I'm trying this now on my Vista PC, separate from my working 3113 & profiles on my other PC. Have iinstalled the beta
and used Witcher profile from the drop down menu ( as there is a not a witcher EE specific one)
then edited location of witcher.exe, as EE uses a diffrerent program directory

it seems to have worked!

so I also then tried NWN2 on this PC, imported the profile from the other PC, put DVD in drive & let it rebuild ( which was very quick)

that seems to have worked also.

But before going back to my main PC & upgrading there I would appreciate being told the exact steps to follow A) to back up what currenty works & then B) wether to install over or uninstall 3113.

finally - do I then stay on beta if it continues to work or should I replace beta with final when that is released - and once again is that an install over or remove & reinstall process ? If final is coming soon I guess I could just wait for it on the main PC, and eventually remove the beta from my vista PC as I probably won't play the games on that, as it has less powerful graphics card.

 

[matthew]

finally - do I then stay on beta if it continues to work or should I replace beta with final when that is released - and once again is that an install over or remove & reinstall process ? If final is coming soon I guess I could just wait for it on the main PC, and eventually remove the beta from my vista PC as I probably won't play the games on that, as it has less powerful graphics card.

This is up to you... the beta versions we release are generally of a production quality (i.e. they are not compiled with debug code etc). Install over the top is fine (in %99.9 of cases). If in doubt, uninstall first.