Steam's Anti-cheat Gizmo.

[Karl775]

Hi Guys.
Steam have this label at the side of some games" Anti-cheating enabled". So I've been playing a little bit of COD Ghosts for the last few nights and I was wondering if this software really works. I know there's a lot to take inconsideration like internet speed, and so on, but I'm sure I've shot and killed them first only to be respawned. So if they are not cheating is it down to having a faster of more powerful processor, ram or GPU.
I'm pretty new to the PC side of gaming, but not to gaming in total.
Would be nice if someone could tell me.
Cheers
Karl775

 

[ctark]

Take it from a cheater, no.. it doesn't really work.

 

[DeathReborn]

It's about as effective as Punkbuster, so not very effective at all.

 

[motsm]

I would guess the game is using client side hit detection, or some sort of hybrid system, as that could result in what you are describing. So it may have nothing to do with cheating, not that it makes it any less frustrating. That said, I don't know anything about CODG, so I'm just speculating.

 

[smackababy]

It is only effective if Steam knows about it or it does something funky. Most FPS cheats use DX injections, so if Steam (or PB) can't detect the program doing the injections, there isn't much they can do.

With that said, OP, what you're experiencing is just a symptom of online gaming. Hit detection and player position is server side. So, when you see someone, your client gets information from the server on player location, you shoot them and your client sends that information to the server. Both of you do this at the same time and whoever updates the server first, gets the kill. It is near impossible for it to be 100% in sync with all players simply due to how internet works. This is why LAN is so much better, as there is little lag between the individual client updates.

 

[mizzou]

it is great at catching lazy cheaters. Rarely its caught people using legitimate mods...but thats up in the air for reality depending on who you ask

 

[gorobei]

VAC or valve anti cheat is a bit different than other cheat detection software.

since valve doesnt want to play whack a mole with the hack makers, they have a delayed action policy. vac basically scans and detects whatever hack comes out. but rather than ban the hacker immediately valve waits a while so that the hack maker doesnt know what triggered/tipped off vac. without immediate feedback on what valve recognized as a hack, the hack maker doesnt know which bit of code to change or which part to try to hide.

while this does have a real curtailing effect on hack makers, the time delay means hack users are able to get away with it for weeks or a month or two. but once that particular hack is identified and added to vac list, the bans are pretty immediate.

i was on tf2 a month ago, and there were a pair of hackers who showed up every day or so for a week. votebans and admins kept them in check, but they were still annoying. a week later i saw one of them in the "joining server" text, and before he even got loaded into the server a "banned by valve for so and so hack" message came up and he was perma kicked/banned.

it takes a while but vac does the job. whether you can tolerate the week or two of the hackers running amok is up to you.

 

[digitaldurandal]

Hi Guys.
Steam have this label at the side of some games" Anti-cheating enabled". So I've been playing a little bit of COD Ghosts for the last few nights and I was wondering if this software really works. I know there's a lot to take inconsideration like internet speed, and so on, but I'm sure I've shot and killed them first only to be respawned. So if they are not cheating is it down to having a faster of more powerful processor, ram or GPU.
I'm pretty new to the PC side of gaming, but not to gaming in total.
Would be nice if someone could tell me.
Cheers
Karl775

There are a variety of anticheating software, however because none of them are a rootkit, none of them work. VAC is basically a checksum. It compares a known list of cheats against your game. If it finds a match you are banned... eventually they often wait over a month to ban as they ban in huge groups. Punkbuster is slightly better. It is a checksum plus it takes random screenshots of your graphic output. Unfortunately because it is not a rootkit - you can program to hook the call for the screenshot and send it a picture of anything you want.

The only anticheat that would work would be a Microsoft Windows built in anticheat. Because it could have complete control of your system it would make it very difficult to bypass effectively. However, the issue now is that even if they released that feature with Windows 10 - how long would it be before games supported it. They would be alienating their player base to require it.

The best option currently is to use one of the anticheat programs plus dedicated servers. This makes it so that admins of the server can ban users who are clearly hacking. This also has its downfall - who has not been accused of hacking when you have a good game? Or hell if you are just in the top 5% of players you are automatically a hacker to half the player base.

 

[digitaldurandal]

VAC or valve anti cheat is a bit different than other cheat detection software.

since valve doesnt want to play whack a mole with the hack makers, they have a delayed action policy. vac basically scans and detects whatever hack comes out. but rather than ban the hacker immediately valve waits a while so that the hack maker doesnt know what triggered/tipped off vac. without immediate feedback on what valve recognized as a hack, the hack maker doesnt know which bit of code to change or which part to try to hide.

while this does have a real curtailing effect on hack makers, the time delay means hack users are able to get away with it for weeks or a month or two. but once that particular hack is identified and added to vac list, the bans are pretty immediate.

i was on tf2 a month ago, and there were a pair of hackers who showed up every day or so for a week. votebans and admins kept them in check, but they were still annoying. a week later i saw one of them in the "joining server" text, and before he even got loaded into the server a "banned by valve for so and so hack" message came up and he was perma kicked/banned.

it takes a while but vac does the job. whether you can tolerate the week or two of the hackers running amok is up to you.

TF2 is free. They will just create another Steam account. There is no excuse for the delay. COD doesn't have dedicated servers and has had issues with extreme amounts of hackers ever since they stopped with the dedicated servers.

I would also like to point out that many of the nonpublic hacks are never picked up by VAC or Punkbuster because they do not use a true heuristic approach.

I know consoles have some cheaters as well but it is maybe the one area that I will give them as having it better than us. It is more difficult to do and so less pervasive and players who are caught lose the multiplayer ability of their entire console.

 

[smackababy]

TF2 is free. They will just create another Steam account. There is no excuse for the delay. COD doesn't have dedicated servers and has had issues with extreme amounts of hackers ever since they stopped with the dedicated servers.

I would also like to point out that many of the nonpublic hacks are never picked up by VAC or Punkbuster because they do not use a true heuristic approach.

I know consoles have some cheaters as well but it is maybe the one area that I will give them as having it better than us. It is more difficult to do and so less pervasive and players who are caught lose the multiplayer ability of their entire console.

Most of the cheats in BF are impossible to detect and while they don't provide things like auto aim, they give a huge advantage to the cheaters. DX injections allow players to have opponents always marked and wall hacks, simply due to each client knowing where everyone is (and hiding it) at all times.

 

[swilli89]

Take it from a cheater, no.. it doesn't really work.

Get out.

 

[JTsyo]

I don't know why FPS games don't have the statical anti-cheat. Usually just by looking at people's stats you can catch the heavy cheaters. Then cheaters will have to dial down the cheats until it looks like normal play and it's becomes more of a handicap tool than annoying cheating.

 

[Annisman*]

I don't know why FPS games don't have the statical anti-cheat. Usually just by looking at people's stats you can catch the heavy cheaters. Then cheaters will have to dial down the cheats until it looks like normal play and it's becomes more of a handicap tool than annoying cheating.

Because I once went something like 134-1 (can't remember the exact number but it's close) in a round of BFBC2 and using this method would have banned me even though I was not hacking.

 

[shortylickens]

thats why I play Kerbal. The only cheating is what you do yourself.