Launch in VM blocked - Cloud computing not possible

[Delta™]

When I try to launch the game on my Shadow PC the Anti-Cheat software blocks the launch with the reason that virtual machines are not supported.

This is the complete opposite from consumer friendlyness.

What is a Shadow PC? A Shadow PC is a cloud gaming platform as a service. You get a virtualised Windows environment, where you can play games (and of course use it as a regular PC). It's like GeForce Now or XBOX Cloud gaming, except you're not limited to the games hosted by these services and you can install mods, which you can't do on these services. For users that don't own a Windows PC or don't have up-to-date hardware, this service enables them to play on high-end hardware.

This will be the future of gaming. You don't need to buy a PC for a lot of money only to pay another large sum just to keep it up to date every 2 years or so.

Personally, I won't upgrade my rig anymore. Instead I will run Shadow PC on my Raspberry Pi, which only costs a couple of bucks and is portable, so I can play it everywhere where I got a decent internet connection, a power source and a screen. No need for a tower anymore.

My guess is that this will be even more common in a couple of years. It's already running very well, except for some games like this. With a 100Mbit/s connection, there is no noticable input delay.

The only other games that aren't woring, that I came across since I have a Shadow PC, are games from Riot, because of their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Vanguard Cheat Engine, which requires TPM to be enabled.

So if you're not letting VMs being used, you're actively blocking progress. And why? Because of an anti-cheat software. Like cheaters aren't going to find other ways. And blocking users just because they use a VM-like platform is like saying "all gamers using that kind of technology are cheaters". Thanks for nothing.

[Front Bucket]

Also, commonly used by cheaters... to cheat. So.... sorry?

cloud computing is NOT the future, and is a stupid argument. lmao

Local devices will always be around... lol

[Mandraw]

Originally posted by Front Bucket:

Also, commonly used by cheaters... to cheat. So.... sorry?

cloud computing is NOT the future, and is a stupid argument. lmao

Local devices will always be around... lol

Anticheat software has always worked better at stopping players from players than cheaters from cheating.
There are better ways to deter cheaters, but well, they require actually putting effort into doing it ( which, fairly, does cost money for a developer, tho probably not much more money than whatever they usually pay for the BS anticheats think is fair to make pay devs )

There are tons of reasons of using virtualization for games, even outside cloud computing ( cloud computing might not be THE future, but it's a nice convenience that is getting widespread. It's not stopping me from having other local computers )

I'll give the game a try anyway, but if it's not leagues above and beyond D&D, not sure I will bother with the hassle ( and security problems ) of ACE ( who also had a BIG exploit discovered last month that let privilege escalation happen, bad stuff, really )

[Delta™]

The best detection is by humans. Implement a feature that records a run and when a player reports another, that record is submitted for review. Either have personel to review that footage or imho even better: Let others review it. If enough others vote that it's indeed a cheater, ban them. This is more than enough. It worked for a lot of games, including Counter Strike, but Valve decided not to implement that feature into CS2 and they have to deal with a lot of cheaters.

Since the game is free, it's easy to create account and cheat with it. Banning someone with anything else than an account is almost impossible. IP? Enough ways to to change it. Hardware adress? Can easily be spoofed. So the best way is a shadow ban. If a cheater is marked as such, don't let them know. Let them play but make the game sh*t for them. Bad loot, only lobbies with other cheaters, not finding lobbies for a long time, let loot disappear from their inventories. Cheaters always ruin the fun for others, so turn it around. If they are successful in cheating, they will do it again and again otherwise.

Anti cheat prevention software is malware. Some are even so invasive, they work at kernel level. That's overstepping a boundary no company should be allowed to.

And again: This presumes everyone is a possible cheater. You don't trust me not to cheat? Why should I trust you with running software on my PC that can spy one or use my hardware in ways I never agreed to? This has happened with some games already, when they use your rig as crypto miners or DDOS attackers.

Originally posted by Front Bucket:

Also, commonly used by cheaters... to cheat. So.... sorry?

cloud computing is NOT the future, and is a stupid argument. lmao

Local devices will always be around... lol

It doesn't matter if it's a VM or not. A VM only has one advantage for cheaters: They can download software they're not sure if it's safe and try it out without destroying their host PC. Preventing the use of VMs will NOT prevent cheaters from using malicious code.

Commonly used by cheaters are computers. Cheaters also breathe air. This is how stupid your argument sounds.

Yeah, Cloud computing IS the future. Local devices will be around, sure, because you need them to stream your cloud computers to.

People always say "this is not the future". This has been said so many times in the age of the internet, companies always said "nah cloud computing won't be the future. It's not safe, we rather store our data on a local server" and now? It's safe, it's reliable. It's cheaper and less effort than managing your own on premise servers.

The same applies for cloud gaming. It's more common, so it got cheaper. Infrastructure has been improved so more people can use it, without suffering from bad connections. It's happened all over the internet with streaming on demand, may it be movies or music. Gaming will follow.

But even if it's not: There is no reason to actively block it. From a hand full of cheaters only one may decide not to, because they doesn't want to possibly infect their system. The others will still do it. But you block all other VM users that don't even think about cheating. What's fair about that?