Double-edged sword, really. On one hand it's hurtful for creators that make interesting mods but on the other hand it ****s over grifters encrypting stolen assets and that, my friends, is just sweet sweet karma
It’s a double-edged sword regardless. It’s 100% not going to be used only to decrypt basic, untouched ports from other games. It’s obvious that it will be used to decrypt anything from the AC community, whether it’s a port or fully scratch-made content.
Just look at Sketchfab, Cults3D, and other 3D modeling sites. They’re filled to the brim with content originally made for AC, whether it’s scratch-made or not.
Even if a mod is a port from another game, it’s incredibly easy to get your hands on those 3D models anyway. There are entire Discord servers set up just to share them, with ACMP and AutoMod Workshop being two of the biggest ones I know of. So I genuinely don’t understand why people constantly complain about encrypted ports when you can port the exact same models yourself with ease and avoid being stuck with those bloated 2-million-triangle versions.
It honestly just sounds like you want to avoid doing the work that’s actually required for some of these models, especially the Gran Turismo ones, where you need real knowledge of 3D software to fix the issues that come with the ripping tools used to extract them.
I’m not a fan of encryption either, especially when it goes as far as encrypting the physics, since most of the time that’s just Kunos physics anyway. But I fully understand encrypting 3D models if someone has spent weeks reworking a Gran Turismo model. Those rips often come with holes, broken geometry, ruined wireframes, broken UV mapping, missing textures, and other issues that sometimes need to be recreated from scratch. Fixing that properly takes time and effort.
I would understand it being used against the more egregious cases like EX-MODS, Sim Dream, and similar groups. But instead, it’s being used against people who make scratch-built content based on GT or Forza models and actually put real work into them. The only people who truly benefit from this are ACTK, EX-MODS, SDD, and straight-up 3D model thieves.
It’s funny seeing people complain about encryption, but then when
their own work gets edited, reshared, and all the credit is removed, it suddenly becomes a big issue and they want the thieves’ heads.
