Modern Warfare 2: Valves VAC not safe? First Cheater vid emerged

Saaking - 26 days 22 hours ago

Really, what's the point of cheating? You just ruin the game for everyone and for yourself.

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Rofflecopter - 26 days 22 hours ago

Did anyone ever think VAC was safe? Hasn't anyone played CS? Believing it was safe was the first mistake. IW telling people it would stop cheaters was the second.

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toaster - 26 days 22 hours ago

IWNet is to prevent hackers!!

Nice job there IW. VAC works best with dedi's and ADMINS.

Admins.. IW, do you know what those are? They patrol servers making sure non of this sh*t happens.

But of course there are always people who think they're too cool to play normally and have skill like the rest of us.

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FantasyStar - 26 days 21 hours ago

You ruin the game for others, but definitely not for yourself. Yeah, you get banned eventually, but I know I'd love to run around with those hacks and totally ruin someone else's day. =D

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RedSky - 26 days 21 hours ago

It's not balanced for being cheat free.

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cyberwaffles - 26 days 15 hours ago

anyone else noticed that horrible ain't talkin' 'bout love remix?

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NRG - 26 days 23 hours ago

Chances are it's IW's job. Why should Valve have to monitor over a game they didn't even make? VAC is a completely automated service that is regularly updated by them for Valve games.

Valve is probably waiting on info and fixes from IW, as that's how it works on all steam-based games that aren't from them. The developer makes updates and patches> final version sent to Valve> Valve distributes it through Steam.

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Pandamobile - 26 days 21 hours ago

How is this Valve's job? VAC is an automated service.

It's not like Punkbuster would catch any more of the hackers. The only Punkbuster busts are legit players. At least with VAC there's no fasle-positives.

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rbanke - 26 days 21 hours ago

Now we know! and knowings half the battle!

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bozebo - 26 days 22 hours ago

no, that is VERY much a cheat.

The technique is called ESP (extrasensory perception) I believe, how it works is take all the player data that is in the client machine and render details infront of geometry. It gives a MASSIVE advantage over other players. Of course the worst part is that you can obviously tell the player's location - meaning you can catch them off guard and sneak with relative ease, and also hunt them down : this wouldn't be at all as easy without the hack. The problem with it is that any program can access that memory and work with the variables externally from the game application, meaning it is incredibly hard to detect.

ESP and wallhacks are usually detected by players - a lot of the time when someone rants "WH!!!" they are not lieing. Usually you can tell if you know where the occlusion zones (or visleaves in source) are in the map. And if the suspected cheater only knows of players round certain corners and not others then it can prove they are cheating - because when an area cannot be seen the server sends no info about that area to the cheater; so the cheater won't know they are there. However sometimes the server sends info about a player's location when the player cannot be seen normally - this is when wallhacks are effective, and this is infact most walls/cover: rather than large divides in the playable area/corridor corners.

note: I am studying game development, I don't write/use hacks

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toaster - 26 days 21 hours ago

Nice explanation!

You know whats fun though? In CSS go to a non-VAC server. Everyone in there has Speeds and Walls and all kinds of stuff and that makes it fair.. lol in a sense. Everyone has they're own hacks and it balances the game... again, in a sense. I don't recommend doing that though. I certainly don't encourage it. I tend to stay clear of those servers.

Hacks are for the weak and the petty.

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bozebo - 26 days 19 hours ago

@toaster
Yeah I've done that before :D... (contradiction with last post lol, but you know what I meant)

As long as it's agreed that the gameplay on the server is void then it's just messing about (also helps you detect cheaters on proper servers). The annoying issue with MW2 and the likes is that your account is linked to your game, so if people cheat and your permenant stats are effected it really is annoying - or on cs when your favourite server is infested with a cheater and you have to find an admin or hop onto some fail server >_< - also the arguments and rants people have when somebody is suspected of cheating (then they just turn the cheats off when they are spectated :/)

Notably though, the people who hop onto a server and cheat are often just bored people who play the game normally aswell, they just fire up a cheat and mess up a game thinking it's funny. The problem with it now is there will be more of a market for stollen steam accounts than there was before with cs. Meaning ordinary gamers will be targeted more by scams etc.

Also, normally VAC takes a few weeks to enforce a ban on a detected cheater. So they may play a few games until them.

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Baliw - 26 days 18 hours ago

Yeah perfectly fair since you DONT know where someone is on a real war.

Btw i really enjoy the team duel in expert. No map, no death cam, just fear.

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toaster - 26 days 21 hours ago

It's easy to hack just about any PC game. That's why admins are important.

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rawrockkillz - 26 days 15 hours ago

Exactly. That's why we need dedicated servers so that Admins can kick them right away and then VAC can ban their account later.

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Pandamobile - 26 days 21 hours ago

If you cheat, you're just doing it for the laughs. Learn the M.O of a cheater, fool.

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ZBlacktt - 23 days 18 hours ago

I agree, Dev's should instant ban the consoles those players use.To bad games cannot be made this day in age that are cheat proof. Some player's just need to make themselves think that they are really that good. Be nice to see a law passed on cheaters caught. Since they are really ruining the game and profit got the companies.

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