Cheating

I heard that AC might use VAC (Valve anti cheat) system but then I also read that the system doesn't work too well. In sim racing cheating is much more of a problem because 0.05% more grip is hard to spot, maybe just awesome driving?

In rFactor it was a major issue and there were many times when me and my friends would question lap times others were doing, it was impossible to know for sure and so we just dropped the sim. It is the doubt that causes the most problems.

Cheating will be a major issue for leagues and multiplayer if nothing is done to tackle it. I don't know how iRacing do it but somehow the game has virtually no cheats, it might have something to do with it not being worth the cost of loosing an account, this is why a subscription system and paying for content also works against cheating.

 

i believe iracing has cheaters too, don't fool yourself.

 

a quick google on it actually found some hacks/cheats for iracing ... :/

 

Jesper, please feel free to try them on your account, bet you wouldn't dare! If you open new account it takes you a couple of months to get into decent races and you'll probably be caught before that happens. Also if it's as easy as using Google, well it's just as easy for iRacing to find and catch members using those hacks.

No cheats in DWC I bet and it's just not worth the effort after building up iRating and paying for lots of content. Seems to me like cheaters will see this game and hack it easily, then they'll join leagues and win all the prizes, it doesn't cost much if they get caught. Also with iRacing we know that cheating is taken seriously and the team are actively working on it and that's enough for most of us. If there is no anti cheat and nothing is actively being done, well what's the point in racing online?

 

It's something that bothers me too. VAC is completely useless (look at Race07!). The only way ATM is having 24/7 adminned dedi servers.
I'd like to think KS have put as much thought into tackling cheats/hacks as they have developing the game.
Any word on this yet Kunos?

 

I would NEVER try any cheats - it's stupid - don't see whats the fun in racing when you cheat - it's just an aknowledgement that it actually exists.

Let's get fair racing only.

 

Words are not enough, if I pay hundreds of pounds to run a league, I need reassurance that work is actively being done against cheats. Again, it's not something that is easily spotted. Give one alien 0.025% more grip and he will still get beaten sometimes but he will also beat the other aliens more often than not.

 

It´s real sad, but as long as there is a lap time to beat there will be someone who tries to do that with some unfair help if this unfair help exists. As i said, it´s sad... but get used to it, i think you can´t avoid that. I have no idea what forces some people to use cheats, as Jesper wrote - it´s just stupid.

 

I will add that in rFactor I knew one guy that said it would not be too hard to create an anti cheat program. I have no idea how he would have done it but if you're smart enough to code a complete sim, you're surely smart enough to code an anti cheat system. But the biggest deterrent imo would be loosing content, if the core package includes only let's say half the content and the rest would cost another £100, that would be a strong deterrent. Of course a subscription based online racing system like iRacing would also act as a deterrent because it takes time to progress and time is money as they say.

The key to stopping cheats even trying to cheat is to make it cost them money and time while also having a firewall in place. Then instead of normal drivers saying "it's not worth the effort", the cheaters are saying it.

I would like to try the preview but this cheating issue is stopping me, been here before and got the T-shirt.

 

First Valve Anti Cheat does not secure Race 07. Second VAC is MUCH better than you guys say. I have a long Counter-Strike (+ Source + Go) history and I can tell you that ALL cheat providers that sell public have been detected by VAC so far. Most several times not only once.

Some years ago VAC was very weak but it evolved. In the beginning of this year they even detected a expensive and very advanced hack which even ESL Wire AC (which is much more advanced than VAC btw) couldn't detect. So VAC banned MANY guys in that banwave. Better providers code a driver which operates on Ring0 as VAC is not a driver and can't communicate to that software layer. But only very few cheat coders are that skilled and even that guys failed. Ban wave.

So in the long term VAC is very strong and I would use it.

 

The advantage with sim racing is that there's isn't much money in it because it's more geeky and more of niche thing than for example, popular FPS. Most leagues are just for fun, so the hacker doesn't have much incentive to hack because there isn't much of a market and there are very few hackers/sim racers I imagine. Hacking AC would be just a bit of fun and there's little incentive, so it wouldn't take much to deter hackers, maybe VAC is sufficient but more is always better than less. And if the online side of things takes off and more money starts appearing, there'll be more hackers. The problem with rFactor is that there is no deterrent at all and hacking it is very easy.

Does VAC mean that servers must be with Valve or is it something that gets installed on the server?

 

VAC runs client based (but does communicate with Valve servers of course) afaik and not on gameservers. But there are servers with VAC disabled and then Vac won't get active on the PC while playing on it. At least in Counter-Strike Source. In Global Offensive, the most recent CS, VAC is always active - even offline against bots.

 

I'm Overwatch in CSGO and I can assure you there is A LOT of cheaters.

 

Wouldn't any anti-cheat need to simply check the performance files of a client against whats stored on the dedicated server? And then periodically check them whilst racing is taking place?

I understand some cheats work as "injectors" that inject code after the server has loaded the client. I think that's how RACE07 cheats worked, so the server would load up and accept the client as cheat free, then the client would then inject code and the server wouldn't detect it as it only ran client authentication upon first connection?

 

The haxor's will always exist, in any game.
There are two things that can help to keep them away from you:
1) Participate in a league with good camaraderie (also you can get a good friends) and WITHOUT prizes of any type.
2) The cost-benefit ratio, to write a program to manipulate the data of other software is not easy and take time (bah, is easy with a little experience, but it is beside the point ) so, if you are in a place where there are no awards and only runs for fun, is not going to make sense to the haxor run there because they will want to recover their lost hours running somewhere where they can get a prize.


Don't expect the super security system helps to eradicate the cheaters because they are like cockroaches, will always exist, just look for a good place to be able to run just for fun.

 

The mainstream cheats don't work changing the data in the client or servers files, work by changing the data stored in RAM because is rarely revalidated once loaded, in the last 20 years all anti-cheat systems of any company and game was violated, is a problem that is solved socially, not with more lines of code.

 

Yes of course. The cheats are not always dt and many cheaters just buy new accounts (or have many already) to keep cheating going.

But the point is that ALL cheats everyone can buy are detected sooner or later.

 

Avery . Are you the guy claiming to be me on iRacing ?