Games with Valve's CEG DRM won't launch

[tfaller]

Already confirmed games which use CEG and won't launch:

Mafia II (50130) #330
Hitman: Absolution (203140) #282
Sniper Elite V2 (63380) #392

[vanyasem]

Still won't launch with proton 3.16-1

[ghost]

Of interest here... Alice Madness Returns is listed as using CEG but launches just fine. https://steamdb.info/app/19680/config/

"cegpublickey | 3081..."

It does have an EA activation screen however, but that still means that CEG isn't itself a problem unless some games are listed incorrectly or the EA activation worked around it.

Risen 2 is listed as having CEG and fails to start with no error to go by.
Lara Croft and the Guardians of light also listed as having CEG and fails to start.

So from the above it looks like CEG games can run fine but perhaps a check fails with Proton unless the game has some other activation. Its either that or CEG is a coincidence.

I'm still not sold on CEG being the problem here unless the EA activation works around it and allows the game to start, but I do not know the technical ability of the code here - if that's possible for it to be tied into it or not.

The only technical thing I've found so far is the following https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/sdk/uploading

""Error code 15" at launch time
This is the CEG servers rejecting the request to CEG the exe. Check the release state on the game page. If it is not 'playable', you will need to request Steam keys that override the release state."

This suggests only that a game [needs to be set] as playable or has keys that override that state.

"The Steam Servers are too busy to handle your request... Error Code (2)" at launch time
This is the CEG servers failing to find a matching CEG exe. Double check that you have a working CEG executable on the CEG tab of your app admin. Click the 'status' button to make sure that it's propped."

This suggests only that a matching CEG exe [needs to be] found.

Both of these shouldn't be the problem here. While is does seem that Valve's servers are rejecting CEG with Proton, again there's no log entry about it that I've seen so no proof that says this is what's happening [except looking like it].

[Corben78]

My experiements with AvP indicated that at least for AvP ceg seems to matter. I've posted my results in #530 (comment).
Downloading the executables via wine for those games, where proton fails might help.

[d10sfan]

I tried that experiment with Sniper Elite V2, and it crashed right after I clicked play.

[pchome]

Downloading the executables via wine for those games, where proton fails might help.

Tested on #563 , this indeed helped a bit: the game still not launching, but now I can see at least lsteamclient.dll and steam.dll are loaded, and Steam's [API loaded no] message in the log file.

[supertin]

For Hitman Absolution, I can confirm the DRM is the issue... Using a "no-cd" version of the HMA.exe file allows the game to start up. Not sure if it's still talking to Steam or not, but it runs.

If this is Valve's own DRM, should we expect a Valve fix some time?

[neuromancer]

Is this fixed in Proton 4.2?

[marekjedrzejewski]

Is this fixed in Proton 4.2?

Tried Hitman Absolution and it doesn't start.

[CSahajdacny]

Is very ironic that a DRM created by Valve doesn't allow us to play games on the Valve's platform.

[VortexAcherontic]

Is this fixed in Proton 4.2?

Nope tested it just a few seconds ago

[WillHaRSI]

Verified that Typing of the Dead doesn't start

[oblitum]

Is this fixed in Proton 4.2?

Nope tested it just a few seconds ago

My only worry is whether Valve plans to support this in the short term or not, I'm also with a handful of games I can't play on Linux, but gladly I have a bunch of others that work fine, so my plan is to keep playing those for now until this ends up being fixed. I hope it will not take very long.

[mindinsomnia]

Reportedly this effects Deadpool as well.
Crossing my fingers a fix for this could be implemented, it seems to effect quite a few quality games. =)

[XakepSDK]

I hope next proton release will fix it.
Current proton(for history): 4.2-4

[duderand]

FYI - When testing a different version of Proton with Grid 2 (44350) #1647 I noticed that removing the game compatdata folder made the game not start anymore. Verifying the local game files fixed the issue.

I used to remove the compatdata folder because it triggers the game setup (the setup that is run after download) and I think it better tests Proton integration.

[kisak-valve]

"Fixed a console window erroneously appearing while launching CEG games. (needs latest Proton Experimental)" in the 2021-11-02 Steam client beta update should have improved the Steam client's behavior.

[brain-anti-freeze]

One thing I've noticed - I no longer get the 'Steam client service' console when launching games but I do see it when those games process their shaders sometimes.

[jkhsjdhjs]

One thing I've noticed - I no longer get the 'Steam client service' console when launching games but I do see it when those games process their shaders sometimes.

Yes, the console window appearing on every game launch was a bug which was quickly fixed: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/3076515048882667999

[CSahajdacny]

Is there a list of Steam games with CEG?

[NoXPhasma]

@CSahajdacny Most probably not the entire list of CEG games, but it's a start https://gist.github.com/Plagman/eac7cf27885df24dec48f1477a447e1f

[kisak-valve]

Closing as fixed with the 2021-11-19 Steam client update and Proton 6.3-8.

Follow up issues should be tracked separately and as usual, please use the existing compatibility reports for per-game feedback.