# MegaMix+ Megathread

[toc]

## General

### What is the difference between MM and MM+?

- MM+ is the only "official" PC port of the Project Diva series. If you are someone who prefers playing on PC, this may be a viable option for you.
- The UI largely remains the same as its Switch counterpart.
- Mix mode is no longer available as the control scheme just would not make sense on PC.
- (Applicable to Japanese/Asian users only) The default control scheme for the UI is swapped (e.g., ◯ for cancel; Ⅹ for confirm) for international audience. There is currently no way to change this.

### What songs are missing?

- ネコミミアーカイブ (Nekomimi Archive)
- Ievan Polkka
- ハト (Hato)
- Saturation

### Can these songs be restored? If so, is it difficult?

The first three songs can easily be restored by placing the PV files in the game directory. The Saturation one, however, requires a bit more work, as Sega went out of their way to blacklist the PV ID in the game logic. See [restoring missing songs](#Restore-missing-songs) for more info.

### How do I change the language of the game?

Right click on the game in your Steam library, Properties, Language.

### Does the game run on Linux?

The game runs perfectly on Linux and Steam Deck, including mods. See [ProtonDB](https://www.protondb.com/app/1761390).

## DRM

### Is there DRM?

Denuvo.

### What is Denuvo, and how does that affect me as a consumer of this game?

There are *a lot* of misinformation regarding Denuvo as a company and its products, so I'm adding this section to clear things up. Denuvo has two mainline products: Denuvo Anti-Tamper and Denuvo Anti-Cheat. The one being applied to MM+ is Denuvo Anti-Tamper.

Its primary purpose is to discourage entrylevel release groups or pirates from obtaining the game through ways that are not deemed official. It **DOES NOT** prevent people from modding the game, or implementing cheats, or anything as such. Denuvo Anti-Tamper works by implementing varying levels of its own virtualization layer, control-flow obfuscation, anti-debug checks and more, *if* the developer chooses to. In MegaMix's case, it is really just a bunch of garbage instructions appended to the executable that do not greatly affect our analysis effort.

Despite what you may hear, there is plenty of misinformation regarding Denuvo Anti-Tamper,
- Denuvo Anti-Tamper **does NOT** have kernel level access.
- It does not gain illegitimate access to your system. Heck, MM+ runs as a regular user with all the default tokens. This can easily be proven with one or more tools.
- Denuvo Anti-Tamper **does NOT** write garbage data to your SSD.
- Not sure where this one originated from, but the product not only gains nothing by writing crap to your SSD, there is also not a single reliable and reproducible source that suggests this is an on-going issue.
- Denuvo Anti-Tamper **does NOT** prevent cheating.
- See Denuvo Anti-Cheat.
- Denuvo Anti-Tamper **does NOT** "encrypt" the executable.
- That is not how code works. The Anti-Tamper simply introduces vast amount of noise to the overall execution flow of the process - hence it may cause a negative impact on performance.
- Denuvo Anti-Tamper **does NOT** overheat your GPU or CPU (you'd probably notice if something is overheating long before Denuvo if your setup is having such issues).
- Denuvo Anti-Tamper **DOES** negatively affect performance.
- In MM+'s case, irregular framepacing despite what appears to be 60fps - though this may also be down to the bad frame limiter implemented. We currently do not have concrete proof for either of these claims.
- In other game's case, see videos from [Overlord Gaming's Denuvo deep-dive series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_6zYVcJIKM).
- Denuvo Anti-Tamper **DOES** negatively affect consumer experience. <!--(elaborate?)-->
- This point is more or less similar to the one above; as a paying consumer, you are paying for a product that may not perform as expected - a compromised experience if you will. The performance bottleneck is widely regarded in the gaming community as a harmful experience to the overall gameplay and is anti-consumer.

### How likely will Denuvo be removed?

Sega will likely eventually drop the Denuvo protection months down the road based on current Denuvo adoption trends - or not. Time will tell.

As for the probability of third-party scene groups, the chances are unfortunately relatively low, as Project Diva itself is a relatively niche series, and due to the skills required for "removing" Denuvo out from the existing assembly - this usually would not be an issue; however, due to the Ukraine war, various legendary release groups (e.g., CODEX) have left the scene as they are impacted by the war. Empress remains the most notable (good or bad) release group that is still active and working on high-profile releases (e.g. Elden Ring, Resident Evil 8, etc.)

### Can't one just remove Denuvo?

Denuvo Anti-Tamper is not something that can be "simply removed" (in most cases). Existing cases of Denuvo removal either relies on the dev having accidentally leaked the non-protected executable, or through a high-profile release group with skilled REers. Unlike standard copy protections, Denuvo is not a simple "hmm, I guess you do have the game after all" switch. It is cooked at compile-time. Vast amount of garbage instructions are introduced at cook-time along with varying levels of obfuscation - all randomized. If a reverse engineer were to drop this executable into their tool, they'd realize how big of a task and how futile it is to analyze what the application is doing given the scale of it.

In laymen's term, imagine asking someone to remove the salt after the meal is already done. You *can* do that, but it will take effort, and it may not be perfect.
## Mods
### Is the game moddable?

~~The game *just* released. People are still investigating. While the game ships with Denuvo, this does not impact the moddability of the game. If anything, it simply hinders the performance and research efforts required.~~

~~Some players have successfully implemented/ported various texture mods from previous Project Diva mods. Further news will probably be announced on the Project Diva Modding Discord.~~

~~> Give it a few days, maybe a week. Could be less, but added security measures in this release may delay when actual mods are first readily available compared to when MM released on the Switch. It's a developing thing, and some things may work right away, others may not. At the current time, custom modules are working. [name=Brolijah]~~

Yes, we now have a fully functioning [mod loader](https://github.com/blueskythlikesclouds/DivaModLoader).

### Install DivaModLoader

:::danger
❌ Due to the nature of such mods, arbitrary code execution is possible; we advise you to **not** download these DLL-based mods without checking with others first.
:::

[DivaModLoader](https://github.com/blueskythlikesclouds/DivaModLoader) is a work-in-progress mod loader for MegaMix+. The plugin allows third-party developers to make changes to the game and inject custom code or change certain aspects of the game. A pre-compiled version of the mod can be downloaded [here](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/531640485459132416/980194940644647003/DivaModLoader.zip).

The mod loader can be installed by simply dropping the files under your installation folder of MegaMix+.


To install a new mod, simply drag and drop the mod directory into the `mods` folder.

To run the mod loader on Linux/Proton, go to the game properties and set launch options to ```WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dinput8=n,b" %command%```

### Restore missing songs

MM+ by default does not contain various songs that some previous Project Diva games had. See [What songs are missing](#What-songs-are-missing). The mod aptly named [`Restore Cut Songs`](https://drive.google.com/file/d/16s5IwKjJ4tIJF5oF2pd52fFpSrovoaPk/view?usp=sharing) by M&M can be used to restore all missing songs. Source code is available [here](https://github.com/ActualMandM/DivaDllMods/tree/main/Source/BypassSaturationBlock).

Simply drop the `Restore Cut Songs` folder into the `mods` folder in your MegaMix+ directory after you have installed DivaModLoader.

### Remove framerate cap / toggle VSync

As described in [Is the framerate capped?](#Is-the-framerate-capped), a framerate cap of 60fps is implemented, and the frametime wildly inconsistent - likely due to a bad frame limiter implementation.

This cap and the frametime issue can be alleviated by installing the [HighRefreshRate](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j8mC144IyzEMtdY1vsoCcogJA3B_IC9L/view?usp=sharing) mod by M&M. Source code is available [here](https://github.com/ActualMandM/DivaDllMods/tree/main/Source/HighRefreshRate).

Simply drop the `High Refresh Rate` folder into the `mods` folder in your MegaMix+ directory after you have installed DivaModLoader. The default framerate is 120 and VSync is enabled by default. You may change these behaviors by modifying the `config.toml` file under the directory.

### Unlock Extreme difficulty

By default, many Project Diva games do not come with Extreme/Extra Extreme difficulty unlocked. This can be resolved using the [ExPatch](https://github.com/nastys/ExPatch/releases) plugin by nas.

Simply drop the `ExPatch` folder into the `mods` folder in your MegaMix+ directory after you have installed DivaModLoader.

## Performance
### Is the framerate capped?

60FPS by default. <!--Add info on how to uncap the framerate here when figured out-->

The current community patch uses either [a pre-made Cheat Engine Cheat Table (.ct)](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/531648057452789771/979505466986082304/DivaMegaMix_FPSUncap.CT) or a Diva Mod Loader compatible mod that can toggle VSync and set or remove the framerate cap.

See [remove framerate cap](#Remove-framerate-cap--toggle-VSync) for more details about the mod.

### How is the performance?

:::info
Feel free to add your own findings here.
:::

Tested on a AMD 3900X + GTX 1070 at 4K60 w/ MLAA. About 70% GPU usage. No dropped frames, though the frametime is inconsistent; this may be alleviated by installing the framerate cap removal mod mentioned above.


Tested on AMD Ryzen 9 5900X + RTX 2070 at 1080p 240Hz with MLAA. About 50% GPU usage. No dropped frames, frametime with spikes from 3.8ms to 4.5ms but most of the time 4.0ms.


## Gameplay

### Does the game support non-16:9 aspect ratio?

"Support" in a sense that it won't override your current resolution, but there will be black bars.

### Does the game support other controller layouts? If so, does the button prompt change accordingly?

Yes, out of the box, it supports (including icons) Xbox controller, DualShock4, XInput type controllers. You can manually switch between prompt style in the settings (e.g., default PlayStation glyphs, XYAB, YXAB, arrow-style, etc.) There are a total of 13 styles included. Here are some of the ones you're probably looking for,


The game also supports custom keybinding if your controller is somehow not supported. You can remap everything from the four buttons, to even assigning buttons that press *multiple buttons*.