4 ms·

I think that the idea is that if you get enough users on Linux, it seems foolish from the game studio's perspective not to add Linux support to their anticheat.

by ethmarks 11mo ago

walletdrainer 11mo ago
Not necessarily, the anticheat will end up much easier to defeat on Linux.
- swiftcoder 11mo ago
  This depends heavily on how customised the linux is. Back in the day Amazon had to fork Android to add kernel-level support for DRM, otherwise the studios weren't going to permit streaming video on Fire tablets. One could imagine Valve adding an optional kernel DRM module to solve the same problem.
  - walletdrainer 11mo ago
    You still lose because the dev team has to split their attention. And anyway I (and many other people!) have valid keys for basically all widevine streams extracted from supposedly secure android devices. That DRM approach ended up failing miserably and torrent sites are full of WEB-DLs.
  - ethmarks 11mo ago
    But you can still stream video on normal Android devices, no? My Motorola phone supports Disney+. Why did studios object to streaming on Fire tablets unless it had kernel DRM but they're fine with streaming on easily-rootable phones?
    - swiftcoder 11mo ago
      Not at that time, no - this was several years before Google decided to ship Widevine in Android
    - walletdrainer 11mo ago
      FWIW rooting the phone is not enough to get you the widevine keys. Also some services will just downgrade you to a lower quality stream if your device doesn’t have the appropriate keys.
- ethmarks 11mo ago
  It's possible that 'adding Linux support' would take the form of just making the anticheat optional. Maybe playing with the anticheat enabled makes you immune to being reported for cheating (because they can verify down to the kernel level that you aren't), but you can still play without it (but without the immunity from being reported). Obviously they wouldn't do this in today's market because there's no incentive to do so, but if a significant portion of gamers moved to Linux, offering a Linux solution might become a reasonable choice for game studios.
  - pbronez 11mo ago
    Optional anti-cheat could be really interesting. Make it a matchmaking option; let the players decide who they want to play with. This effectively makes "PC without Anti-cheat" a new platform in cross-platform match making. I can imagine a whole scene popping up where everyone cheats to the max, creating whole new game modes.
    - ethmarks 11mo ago
      > I can imagine a whole scene popping up where everyone cheats to the max, creating whole new game modes. That would be very interesting. I also bet that people would start developing bots that play the game better than a human could and eventually it would essentially turn into digital BattleBots.
    - doofkoof 11mo ago
      This already existed in CS:GO, it was called Hack vs Hack. Private servers could choose whether to run anticheat or not. You'd see some with names like HvH and join to find people spinning in circles and comparing which aimbot was the most dominant.

I think that the idea is that if you get enough users on Linux, it seems foolish from the game studio's perspective not to add Linux support to their anticheat.

walletdrainer 11mo ago

Not necessarily, the anticheat will end up much easier to defeat on Linux.

swiftcoder 11mo ago
This depends heavily on how customised the linux is. Back in the day Amazon had to fork Android to add kernel-level support for DRM, otherwise the studios weren't going to permit streaming video on Fire tablets. One could imagine Valve adding an optional kernel DRM module to solve the same problem.
- walletdrainer 11mo ago
  You still lose because the dev team has to split their attention. And anyway I (and many other people!) have valid keys for basically all widevine streams extracted from supposedly secure android devices. That DRM approach ended up failing miserably and torrent sites are full of WEB-DLs.
- ethmarks 11mo ago
  But you can still stream video on normal Android devices, no? My Motorola phone supports Disney+. Why did studios object to streaming on Fire tablets unless it had kernel DRM but they're fine with streaming on easily-rootable phones?
  - swiftcoder 11mo ago
    Not at that time, no - this was several years before Google decided to ship Widevine in Android
  - walletdrainer 11mo ago
    FWIW rooting the phone is not enough to get you the widevine keys. Also some services will just downgrade you to a lower quality stream if your device doesn’t have the appropriate keys.
ethmarks 11mo ago
It's possible that 'adding Linux support' would take the form of just making the anticheat optional. Maybe playing with the anticheat enabled makes you immune to being reported for cheating (because they can verify down to the kernel level that you aren't), but you can still play without it (but without the immunity from being reported). Obviously they wouldn't do this in today's market because there's no incentive to do so, but if a significant portion of gamers moved to Linux, offering a Linux solution might become a reasonable choice for game studios.
- pbronez 11mo ago
  Optional anti-cheat could be really interesting. Make it a matchmaking option; let the players decide who they want to play with. This effectively makes "PC without Anti-cheat" a new platform in cross-platform match making. I can imagine a whole scene popping up where everyone cheats to the max, creating whole new game modes.
  - ethmarks 11mo ago
    > I can imagine a whole scene popping up where everyone cheats to the max, creating whole new game modes. That would be very interesting. I also bet that people would start developing bots that play the game better than a human could and eventually it would essentially turn into digital BattleBots.
  - doofkoof 11mo ago
    This already existed in CS:GO, it was called Hack vs Hack. Private servers could choose whether to run anticheat or not. You'd see some with names like HvH and join to find people spinning in circles and comparing which aimbot was the most dominant.