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SpellSword: My understanding now is that regardless of if you run FEAR.exe, FEARXP.exe, FEARXP2.exe or FEARMP.exe SecuROM's files won't be installed.
I think installing SecuROM system-wide is the part of the DRM that GOG have removed, yes.

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SpellSword: However while the two expansion packs are running (FEARXP.exe or FEARXP2.exe) SecuROM is active and scanning your computer's RAM. SecuROM's activity ends when FEAR is exited and SecuROM remains uninstalled?
This also appears to be true in that whatever SecuROM code is additionally inside the game's .exe's still hasn't been properly removed (as opposed to a system-wide .dll running on Windows startup). Remember SecuROM had multiple versions with different features (eg, Data Position Measurement (measuring the physical location of data on an optical disc), debugging protection, later versions from 2007 started to have online activation limits, etc). As Wikipedia notes on its SecuROM page "Software that can be used to bypass copy protection, such as disk drive emulators and debugging software, will block the launch of the game and generate a security module error" which is exactly what's still happening with the GOG's FEAR expansions.

Despite GOG's claim "it's debugging not DRM", the entire reason it's there is 100% DRM / copy protection (to try and detect drivers used by 3rd party software that mounts ISO files as virtual CD-ROM drives). FEAR isn't the only game that had this, eg, Bioshock 1 "Classic" (non-remastered) disc version had both SecuROM and online activation and yet the newer DRM-Free builds on both GOG & Humble Store work fine offline even with Process Monitor running, so DRM-Free there = they were obviously given a "clean" build from the developer. I could be wrong, but FEAR on the other hand suggests that GOG could only obtain the DRM'd disc version to which they half-patched the CD-check part of it out using known 3rd party "NoCD's" that were floating around at the time. Unless Monolith lost the source code to the game / expansions, I can't see why they wouldn't have given GOG a clean version of FEAR if they had it.

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SpellSword: Running FEAR Multiplayer or the original non-expansion campaign does not involve SecuROM running at all? Do I have that correct now or am I still mistaken?
Running the original doesn't appear to have any DRM running, but I'm not sure about multi-player as I tested it by deleting FEARMP.exe immediately after install to rule out the multi-player component being a cause of anything (because I'm personally only interested in single-player, I never did much MP testing).
Post edited April 21, 2020 by AB2012
high rated
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SpellSword: However while the two expansion packs are running (FEARXP.exe or FEARXP2.exe) SecuROM is active and scanning your computer's RAM. SecuROM's activity ends when FEAR is exited and SecuROM remains uninstalled?
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AB2012: This also appears to be true in that whatever SecuROM code is additionally inside the game's .exe's still hasn't been properly removed (as opposed to a system-wide .dll running on Windows startup).
So what we need are clean versions of FEARXP.exe and FEARXP2.exe. If they are floating around anywhere then it could just be as simple as replacing the executables that come with the GOG version.
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Korell: So what we need are clean versions of FEARXP.exe and FEARXP2.exe. If they are floating around anywhere then it could just be as simple as replacing the executables that come with the GOG version.
The problem with this is(if it is done by GOG for the installers people DL) that GOG cannot(afaik) legally do so(i.e. DL "other copies" of the EXEs and use them) without the IP holder's say so.

Of course one could(not saying people should do this, in case anyone on staff reads this) go to "certain sites", get a clean copy of the EXEs for their legally bought game copies, and use the clean EXEs(and maybe scan them via a competent scanner first if one wants to be cautious) by dumping them into their game folders.
Post edited April 22, 2020 by GameRager
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AB2012: a lot of people were left highly unimpressed with GOG's support,
When support is treated as dickishly as the tone in the public posts about this, I would suspect they'd be unimpressive with their responses.
Post edited May 10, 2020 by flowwolf
So, if I understand all this correctly, only F.E.A.R.'s expansion packs and the multiplayer exe have the Securom DRM, but not the original game itself?
Post edited May 11, 2020 by TheBigCore
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Korell: So what we need are clean versions of FEARXP.exe and FEARXP2.exe. If they are floating around anywhere then it could just be as simple as replacing the executables that come with the GOG version.
GOG could change the exes installed if they wanted to, they've used cracked exes many times before. Since the "DRM" doesn't actually call out anywhere, and is just running for no real reason, I don't think GOG cares or considers it DRM.

(Not expressing an opinion one way or the other myself).
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TheBigCore: So, if I understand all this correctly, only F.E.A.R.'s expansion packs and the multiplayer exe have the Securom DRM, but not the original game itself?
That's correct, yes.
Speaking of SecuROM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ltfyqD3lM
Sorry to bump an old thread but did anyone discover a fix for this? I just finished fear and wanted to check out the MP menu.

When I goto MP in the game menu it just exits, if I try to launch fearMP which I assume is the multi player version of the game nothing happens.. not even an error message.

I know the internet servers are long gone but it "should" be possible to get this running on a locally, back when games actually came with LAN play, I see it has a dedicated server exe.. although I got a network error trying to start it.
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Dos_Boss: Sorry to bump an old thread but did anyone discover a fix for this? I just finished fear and wanted to check out the MP menu.
I don't think it's been patched, though I've never tested the multi-player version to see if it still works (it might not anyway if servers are down). The issue many were commenting on here is that even for single-player the DRM in the expansions was only half removed without ever touching the multi-player.
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Dos_Boss: Sorry to bump an old thread but did anyone discover a fix for this? I just finished fear and wanted to check out the MP menu.
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AB2012: I don't think it's been patched, though I've never tested the multi-player version to see if it still works (it might not anyway if servers are down). The issue many were commenting on here is that even for single-player the DRM in the expansions was only half removed without ever touching the multi-player.
Okay I thought the Mutliplayer not working might have been because of this issue.

It does'nt give an error, no "no server found" or anything it just does'nt launch at all.

Did they fix the issue with the expansions and secrurom? I just finished the main game and will moving on to Extraction Point next.
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Dos_Boss: Did they fix the issue with the expansions and secrurom? I just finished the main game and will moving on to Extraction Point next.
Not properly no (last update was 2015). I mean the expansions are playable as long as you don't have certain software like Process Monitor running, but it's not exactly ideal for a 'DRM-Free' game to constantly scan other applications memory then refuse to run depending on what it 'likes'. The expansions also stutter more than the base game, quite possibly because of all this unnecessary SecuROM memory scanning overhead still left in there.
Post edited March 20, 2024 by AB2012