Ahhh yeah that makes sense, I just didn't get it straight from reading that part, thanks.

Putting aside the rest, didn't you mean then that you cannot run them without galaxy.dll? That's what confused me, and the reason for which I asked about that.

There's a vast difference between having some .dll files in the folder to enable Galaxy integration if you want that versus requiring Galaxy to download and install. People should stop acting like they're almost the same thing, they're not.

I am not sure what you've read. But I wrote that "game.gog" (a file that is installed with Dungeon Keeper Gold) has nothing to do with Galaxy. It is a CD binary with language/audio files.



The save game files of a DOS game with the cloud save feature are stored in the directory "cloud_saves". This functionality works without Galaxy. I think Galaxy simply uploads and synchronizes this folder to a cloud similar to Dropbox.

The Anniversary Edition of Titan Quest - released in 2016 (after the introduction of Galaxy) - is still updated by the devs. And they - not GOG - included additional dependencies (galaxy.dll, etc.) because several people want online features like achievements, multiplayer, cloud saves etc (Just look at what people in several threads here think when one of these features is missing). Back then Titan Quest included the GameSpy multiplayer services. Galaxy is the replacement here. Was GameSpy a problem for you like Galaxy?

As long as they don't do anything with those apps/programs if they're not installed or being used why worry so much?

If they make galaxy needed for even one non-cdpr SP game then I could see worrying a bit, but not atm.

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No problem. :)

The games are somehow now linked to those files and expect them to be in the game folder...so that if the files are not there, even if one doesn't use galaxy, it causes the games to not run/crash. If the files are there and galaxy isn't installed they seem to run fine and not start/call galaxy, etc.

Yeah, it was the "with" word that confused me.

As for the connection of games with galaxy, I cannot speak for galaxy 2.0, but I remember that by editing some keys through the regedit, you could very easily "hide" them from galaxy 1 (ie it wasn't able to detect them).

Good to know....though why hide the games from galaxy if it's not installed? o.0

Obviously that's for those who do have it installed, but for some reason don't want it to "see" some of their games.

But about the galaxy.dll thing, its mere existence may not be relevant for practical purposes other than a bit of space if it's completely inactive, but didn't I see something about it breaking compatibility with older OSs, as in the way it's implemented makes games that in themselves would work on XP and/or Vista, possibly even 2k, no longer work on those? If so, that would be a practical problem for those who have computers still running those, maybe especially for old games.

It's infact completely useless, I just happened to mess with it because a friend of mine did NOT want for his games to be automatically added through galaxy *shrugs*

I highly doubt it: a dll is completely inactive unless called, without galaxy installed it wouldn't function in the first place, and I don't even know if galaxy 1 supports XP (I don't believe so though, it's just too old).

Sure this may happen, but it would me rather a bug than something intended...and people who still play old classics on older os (be them actual os or through virtual machine) would have already called out GOG for something serious as this.

Doesn't. Was talking of adding the Galaxy hook in itself, not of Galaxy 2.There was a whole discussion. And then there's the whole things with saves in Forgotten Realms: The Archives games. Or here. I'm sure I saw another too, saying that support was offering that manual workaround instead of fixing the installer, but can't find it now.

What. The. Hell.

Seriously? I could never imagine so many different issues and that could spread so much. I was fine as long the .dll was completely useless on an environment galaxy-free, but if that bring issues, GOG should definitely take action.

But thos this issue happens only on older OS (aside from the last one, sicne it seems to be caused by the cloud feature)?

While you're absolutely correct, that doesn't mean the .dll files don't pose a separate problem. Generally speaking, the less extra components a game is dependent on to run, the more likely it is the game will be preserved long-term. And it doesn't help matters in this case that the components are closed-source.

We already have multiple examples of newer operating systems ruining functionality for games due to no longer supporting things like "Game Rentals for Windows Live" and "Securent". Mind you, I am not saying the presence of a Galaxy .dll file itself is DRM like those clearly are.

What I'm getting it is if these Galaxy files are being required as part of DRM-free offline installers, the concern is with game compatibility down the line. Separate from Galaxy, users have reported that Windows 10 updates have messed with ability to run their games. Adding in extra chances for that to occur is not DRM, but it is a valid concern.

And on top of all this, this apparent "requirement" of Galaxy components being added to games should be concerning to us offline installer users (I think I recall you saying in a different topic that you use the offline installers). The Galaxy-pushing appears to keep increasing over the last few years despite GOG's comments about it being optional.

While I do agree with you on all fronts, I don't think that GOG is trying to push galaxy all the way: imho they spend already too much time with offline installers, so they opted to make one single build which then gets distribuited through either offline installers or galaxy installers.

If I have to be completely honest though: I have yet to understand the reason behind galaxy installers... I mean, you can download the client if you want to use it, (from which you'll download the games in the first place), so this second installer's nature eludes me.

I am guessing/hoping that one of the following would happen before or after then: GOG would update the installers to work with new OSs that had compatibility issues with those files, GOG would remove them(if need be), or someone else would remove them if need be.

There is no second installer. Now there's the offline installer (without Galaxy, though containing some files that will allow Galaxy to more easily find and interact with the installed game if they choose to use the client later), and there's installing through Galaxy. The old (recent when you made this thread two and a half years ago) offline installers that contained the game + Galaxy have been gone for a solid year and a half, at least.