Helping New Player w/Impulse version, advice?

[Chibiabos]

Unfortunately, the information here is rampantly correct. It is true that OBSE was designed to work only for the Steam version, and that's an essential true fact. The notion, however, that Steam has the 'real' version and Impulse was somehow modified by Stardock (whom originally made Impulse)/Gamestop (whom bought Impulse) is not correct.

 

However, it is not true that Impulse modified Bethesda's .EXE with Impulse-proprietary DRM protection ... Impulse never has and never will add any protection to games. It is Steam's version that is modified, but the makers of OBSE made their mod for the Steam version. Steam modifies all games to require the Steam client to run while the game does; games purchased through Impulse do not require anything proprietary from Impulse to play the game -- when you start a game you bought through Impulse, the game starts and plays without the Impulse client needing to run.

 

Impulse, as stated, was made by Stardock before it was bought by Gamestop. Stardock published the 'Gamer's Bill of Rights' and eliminated DRM from their own games when they realized they were spending money on DRM which was inconveniencing their paying customers but doing nothing to stop piracy. Galactic Civilizations II had no DRM until, after Stardock sold off their Impulse digital distribution platform, Stardock started selling it through Steam at which point Steam modified the game, as they do all games purchased through Steam, to use Steam's proprietary DRM.

 

I do not like Steam. I do not like having to run 3rd party platforms/clients like Steam when I am playing a game ... I have never had the budget for high-end hardware, my computer is a 'home brew,' and to squeeze out every last bit of the modest performance I have, I prefer to play my full screen games with no background apps running ... however, with Steam, there's no choice. Despite many claims by die-hard steam fans to the contrary, I've caught Steam gobbling several hundred MB of RAM while running in the background and 10-20% of one of my cores. Granted, not a huge amount, but that's RAM and clock cycles that could, instead, be going toward making the games I'm actually playing run just a bit smoother and faster.

 

Be that as it may, however, the end result is the same -- OBSE requires the Steam version, and a lot of mods require OBSE. :/

[DrakeTheDragon]

7. June 2011 last post and now your's... that's some thread necromancy...

 

However, the statement OBSE would 'require' Steam is entirely wrong. I'm using Retail Oblivion (the only 'real' version btw. prior to any DRM appliance) from a regular disc, no Steam, don't even have an account, and OBSE is running totally fine with it.

OBSE had to be adapted to work together with Steam in a cooperation between the OBSE team and the Steam team. Prior to that it didn't work with Steam Oblivion either.

 

The trouble with Impulse Oblivion, however, is that its .exe file is "encrypted" and the OBSE team can't inject its code into it, as it can't get past its encryption. And unlike Steam, Impulse didn't cooperate with the OBSE team to remedy that. That's why their Oblivion version was left out till today, they're blocking it. If this wasn't the case, the OBSE team wouldn't be telling so. There would be no trouble at all, if the .exe was unaltered from the retail version, so no matter how often you deny it, it must be.

 

I don't know what your issue is with Steam, I'm not going to touch it with a long stick myself as long as I can prevent it, but spreading misinformation to mislead others into thinking OBSE would somehow be to blame for Impulse encrypting their game files, disabling the team from doing their thing with it, won't really help anybody.

 

tl/dr: OBSE does "not" require the Steam version.

Edited March 27, 2013 by DrakeTheDragon