DroidDeck/docs/development/ubisoft-launch.md

Ubisoft launch without Ubisoft Connect

A Ubisoft game never holds its own ticket. Its DRM loader opens Ubisoft's API DLL from the Connect folder, and that DLL asks the running launcher for the session over local named pipes. DroidDeck answers those pipes with droiddeck-upc.exe, a small Windows program that runs in the game's prefix. The game and every Ubisoft DLL stay unmodified, and there is no Connect client, CEF or background service. The session the game receives is real: its ticket comes from Ubisoft's ownership service for the signed-in account.

This file is the specification tools/ubisoft-launcher was written from. The facts come from the protobuf descriptors embedded in Ubisoft's own uplay_r1.dll (proto_uplaydll/UplayDll.proto) and from the public notes in Foxtrot47/Ubisoft-Connect-RE (docs/06-launch.md, docs/10-denuvo.md). No code was taken from either.

Pieces

Piece	Where	Job
Ubisoft runtime	C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\ in the shared prefix	Ubisoft's own uplay_r1(64).dll, uplay_aux_r1(64).dll, uplay_r2(64).dll, ubiorbitapi_r2(64).dll, UbisoftGameLauncher(64).exe, the starter's imports (discord-rpc.x86/x64.dll, steam_api(64).dll) and overlay(64).dll. droiddeck-store-launch extracts exactly these 16 files with 7z from the official UbisoftConnectInstaller.exe, then deletes the installer
Registry	HKLM\Software\[Wow6432Node\]Ubisoft\Launcher	InstallDir points at the runtime folder in both views; Installs\<productId>\InstallDir points at the game, with forward slashes and a trailing slash, as Connect writes it
Shared prefix	compatdata/2929927072	Every Ubisoft game runs here (UbisoftConnect.launchOptions sets STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH), so the runtime is extracted once
Launch file	<game>/.droiddeck-ubisoft.json	Written by droiddeck-store-launch before every launch from the app's ubisoft-launch answer: the account, the owned product ids, a fresh PC ticket, the entitlement's application id and the save folder. Removed first, so a failed refresh falls back to starting the game directly
Launcher	<game>/.droiddeck-launch.bat	Runs Z:\usr\local\lib\droiddeck-ubisoft\droiddeck-upc.exe <launch file> when both exist
Tickets	app, Rust ubisoft/service.rs	Demux ownership_service: initialize (owned products), then GetUplayPCTicketReq (field 14) answered in field 13 {1: success, 2: ticket}

Pipes

All pipes are \\.\pipe\terminal_<session>_<name>, where <session> is ProcessIdToSessionId(GetCurrentProcessId()) (1 under Wine). They are byte-mode duplex pipes with unlimited instances, created before the game starts. Every message is a 4-byte big-endian length followed by a proto2 message, except on uplay_service_ipc_pipe_.

Pipe	Client	Exchange
game_start_ipc_pipe_	UbisoftGameLauncher.exe	game_starter.Upstream{1:{1:{1: build, 2: product, 10: exe, 11: arguments, ...}}} → Downstream{2:{1:{1:0 (overlay off), 2:0, 3: <root>/ + "/" + <exe under root>, 4: <root>/, 8:3, 9:{1:{1,113,0,1,0} 1:{3,123,0,0,0}}}}}
uplay_api_process_ipc_pipe_	game	Req.initProcessReq{1: product, 2: game pid, 5: env set} → Rsp.initProcessRsp(13){1:1, 3:0 (overlay off), 4:3, 6:0}. Kept open. Answering it is what releases the starter (below)
uplay_ipc_pipe_	game (uplay_r1.dll)	Req.initReq(1) → Rsp.initRsp(1), answered every time it is asked. Req.installerReq(13) with initInstallerReq → Rsp.installerRsp(10){1:{1:1, 2:"", 3: language}}
uplay_aux_ipc_pipe_	uplay_aux_r1(64).dll (Denuvo)	{1: rid, 2: init} → {1: rid, 2:{1:1, 2: pid, 3:3367, 3:3368, 3:3962}}; {1: rid, 3:{2:{2: challenge}}} → {1: rid, 3:{2:{2:1, 3:0, 4: game token, 5:""}}}
uplay_service_ipc_pipe_	Ubisoft helpers	Server sends {3:{1:1, 3:{1: <hwscore path>}}} once, then only reads, unframed
upc_api_process_ipc_pipe_standard, uplay_protocol_ipc_pipe_, uplay_overlay_ipc_pipe_, orbit_ipc_pipe_, uplay_crash_reporter_ipc_pipe_	—	Held open, never answered

The session (InitRsp)

Field	Value
1 result	1 (InitResult_Success)
2 account	{1: userId, 2: username, 3: nameOnPlatform, 4: email, 5: "" (password), 6: country}
3 connected	1
4 gameUplayId	the product
5 uplayIds	every owned product whose ownership entry is owned, of type 0 or 1, in state 0 or 3
6 gameCdKeys	{1: product, 2: ""}
7 isInOfflineMode	0
8 upcTicket	the PC ticket from GetUplayPCTicket, never the Denuvo token
11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23	the values a real launch carries ({1:0}, 0, overlay {1:0, 2:3}, hardware score {6211, 22395, 1.0f}, empty, {1:1, 2:1}, {2:1}, empty)
17 storage	{1: "C:/users/steamuser/Saved Games/Ubisoft/<userId>/<product>/"}; the game appends file names directly, so the trailing slash matters
22 ubiServices	{1: applicationId} from the account's entitlements, left out when unknown

The overlay is reported off in all three places. uplay_r1.dll still loads overlay.dll from the runtime folder right after the session arrives, whatever the session says; without that file it gives up with UplayAPI [ERROR]: Startup failed: cannot load uplay library (Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China then sits on a black screen and aborts with code 3 after about 160 s), so the runtime includes it.

Start sequence

1. droiddeck-upc.exe creates the pipes and an auto-reset event marked inheritable, then starts the game's own exe with handle inheritance, in the install folder, with no extra arguments.
2. The exe sees it was not started by Connect and starts UbisoftGameLauncher.exe -gamelauncher_wait_handle <event> -upc_uplay_id <product> ... (it exits with code 3; that is normal).
3. The starter asks game_start and starts the real game from the reply.
4. The game announces itself on uplay_api_process; the answer sets the event, which lets the starter exit. Without it the starter times out and its job object ends the game after about 15 seconds.
5. uplay_r1.dll asks uplay_ipc for the session.
6. droiddeck-upc.exe waits for the announced process, allows 15 s for a restart, then exits with the game's code so Steam sees the game end.

A log of every exchange is written to ~/.cache/droiddeck/ubisoft/upc-<product>.log in the guest.

Denuvo

For protected titles the aux pipe carries the activation challenge. droiddeck-upc.exe writes it to ~/.cache/droiddeck/ubisoft/bridge-<product>/denuvo-<rid>.req and waits 90 s for .rsp. Answering it needs denuvo_service with an ownership token (OwnershipTokenReq, field 28) and is the next step; titles without Denuvo never open the aux pipe.

Not covered yet

• R2 (UPC_*) titles use uplay_r2.dll; their pipe traffic has not been captured, so whether the same server answers them is unverified.
• Orbit (ubiorbitapi_r2) titles.
• Achievements, friends, overlay, cloud saves.