Anti cheat breaks Focusrite device audio

[JD_Wolf]

Hello, I'm hoping someone from Arrowhead or Game Guard actually looks here for issues, but we'll see.

I used to have this EXACT same issue in Battlefield 2042 with EA's new kernel anti-cheat while running my PC audio through a Focusrite Scarlett (18i8 gen 2). When running the game for a while, I have experienced my microphone getting messed up, until I restart the game, as well as my PC main output (running through the Focusrite Scarlett) getting all kinds of screwy sounding. It's unbearable and makes the game unplayable.

I have started messing with my device's 'buffer size' setting to attempt a work around that previously worked in BF2042, with no luck so far. What had to happen for Dice/EA to fix their issue was to link up with Focusrite in their forums who facilitated getting something white-listed through the anti cheat; maybe their drivers, I'm not sure. I saw the Focusrite community team show up in the EA forums asking to be able to submit drivers to EA for white listing, at least.

Something similar needs to happen with Arrowhead and Game Guard. I'm having the exact same issues and the common denominator is kernel level anti cheat. NO other games or applications have EVER had this issue before using kernel anti cheat, and it has ONLY happened to the games that implement it. 2042 eventually patched in their fix, so can Arrowhead.

[★ ace ★]

They could, doesn't mean they will

[JtDarth]

I would check the control software for your device (assuming the device doesn't have a switch on it somewhere) to see if you can switch it to use the default windows sound drivers.
AFAIK, most the audio interfaces are fully capable of running without their special drivers when run in the correct modes as set by their control software. You'd just need to remember to switch it back before doing production work or whatever, because the low latency drivers tend to have notable advantages in that area.

I'm going to say this here:
Focusrite (like all audio interfaces) seems more focused on podcasting, music production, that sort of thing. They (audio interfaces in general) use more 'invasive' drivers relative to a DAC. If you want a 'zero-hassle' experience while dealing with gaming anti-cheat, you should look into running a DAC, not an 'audio interface'.
Gaming-focused DACs tend to preemptively reach out to keep their software whitelisted.

There are also more expensive DACs that handle all processing ON THE DISCRETE DEVICE with onboard memory, and only connect to OS to set more advanced settings, never needing to load a non-default driver and frequently not even needing the software running once initial config is done.

Audio interfaces, well, they tend to prefer using drivers. Kernel AC tends to say 'no' to ANY unrecognized driver attempting to hook into protected process. NPGG (gameguard) is MASSIVELY more nosy than the other kernel anti-cheat options are, and will actively shut down processes and drivers that it doesn't like, while other kernel AC tend to just pop an error message in the game, or silent report it to the company using the AC, so that they can evaluate it themselves to determine what, if any, actions to take.

[JD_Wolf]

Publicado originalmente por JtDarth:

I would check the control software for your device (assuming the device doesn't have a switch on it somewhere) to see if you can switch it to use the default windows sound drivers.
AFAIK, most the audio interfaces are fully capable of running without their special drivers when run in the correct modes as set by their control software. You'd just need to remember to switch it back before doing production work or whatever, because the low latency drivers tend to have notable advantages in that area.

I'm going to say this here:
Focusrite (like all audio interfaces) seems more focused on podcasting, music production, that sort of thing. They (audio interfaces in general) use more 'invasive' drivers relative to a DAC. If you want a 'zero-hassle' experience while dealing with gaming anti-cheat, you should look into running a DAC, not an 'audio interface'.
Gaming-focused DACs tend to preemptively reach out to keep their software whitelisted.

There are also more expensive DACs that handle all processing ON THE DISCRETE DEVICE with onboard memory, and only connect to OS to set more advanced settings, never needing to load a non-default driver and frequently not even needing the software running once initial config is done.

Audio interfaces, well, they tend to prefer using drivers. Kernel AC tends to say 'no' to ANY unrecognized driver attempting to hook into protected process. NPGG (gameguard) is MASSIVELY more nosy than the other kernel anti-cheat options are, and will actively shut down processes and drivers that it doesn't like, while other kernel AC tend to just pop an error message in the game, or silent report it to the company using the AC, so that they can evaluate it themselves to determine what, if any, actions to take.

Unfortunately "switching" to windows audio would mean bypassing the interface altogether, it doesn't really work the way you describe.

I get that I have a "different" setup than some, but I've seen first hand that getting the device white-listed in a game's AC can indeed work. There were a ton of people with scarletts and even other interfaces with this issue who were trying to play Battlefield, which is why it got noticed. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the case with HD2, as I have not seen one other complaint about this problem. I have emailed Focusrite about this too, and hopefully they can corroborate the EA/Battlefield story and help get in contact with either Arrowhead and/or Game Guard to get this resolved like they did for Battlefield.

As for switching to another DAC, I'm not going to buy more gear to fix something that is the dev's/anti-cheat's problem, that's for sure. If they never see this or fix it, I may resort to bypassing the interface for windows' audio... but it's the only interface I have for my mic too, so I would still have to still use it for communication and try and find a setting that doesn't mess with the inputs as much as the output, I guess...

[JtDarth]

Publicado originalmente por JD_Wolf:

Publicado originalmente por JtDarth:

I would check the control software for your device (assuming the device doesn't have a switch on it somewhere) to see if you can switch it to use the default windows sound drivers.
AFAIK, most the audio interfaces are fully capable of running without their special drivers when run in the correct modes as set by their control software. You'd just need to remember to switch it back before doing production work or whatever, because the low latency drivers tend to have notable advantages in that area.

I'm going to say this here:
Focusrite (like all audio interfaces) seems more focused on podcasting, music production, that sort of thing. They (audio interfaces in general) use more 'invasive' drivers relative to a DAC. If you want a 'zero-hassle' experience while dealing with gaming anti-cheat, you should look into running a DAC, not an 'audio interface'.
Gaming-focused DACs tend to preemptively reach out to keep their software whitelisted.

There are also more expensive DACs that handle all processing ON THE DISCRETE DEVICE with onboard memory, and only connect to OS to set more advanced settings, never needing to load a non-default driver and frequently not even needing the software running once initial config is done.

Audio interfaces, well, they tend to prefer using drivers. Kernel AC tends to say 'no' to ANY unrecognized driver attempting to hook into protected process. NPGG (gameguard) is MASSIVELY more nosy than the other kernel anti-cheat options are, and will actively shut down processes and drivers that it doesn't like, while other kernel AC tend to just pop an error message in the game, or silent report it to the company using the AC, so that they can evaluate it themselves to determine what, if any, actions to take.

Unfortunately "switching" to windows audio would mean bypassing the interface altogether, it doesn't really work the way you describe.

I get that I have a "different" setup than some, but I've seen first hand that getting the device white-listed in a game's AC can indeed work. There were a ton of people with scarletts and even other interfaces with this issue who were trying to play Battlefield, which is why it got noticed. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the case with HD2, as I have not seen one other complaint about this problem. I have emailed Focusrite about this too, and hopefully they can corroborate the EA/Battlefield story and help get in contact with either Arrowhead and/or Game Guard to get this resolved like they did for Battlefield.

As for switching to another DAC, I'm not going to buy more gear to fix something that is the dev's/anti-cheat's problem, that's for sure. If they never see this or fix it, I may resort to bypassing the interface for windows' audio... but it's the only interface I have for my mic too, so I would still have to still use it for communication and try and find a setting that doesn't mess with the inputs as much as the output, I guess...

Most don't need to bypass interface to operate on windows default drivers. If that is the case, that's a problem with your particular audio interface.
According to Focusrite, it's NOT a problem with yours (18i8 gen 2). It is supposed to be able to run under WDM, instead of always having to use ASIO. This should in theory solve the issue. Can't find info about how to make it do that, but that's on focusrite.

It is NOT the dev's/anticheat's problem that you are using rather abnormal hardware that apparently is so poorly thought out that it's control software doesn't offer basic features like a mode switch that lets it run audio directly without additional modifiers or software side processing.
In the case of HD2, NPGG as the choice of Kernel Anti-cheat is overaggressive, but it will only cause issues if the control software for your audio device doesn't have a 'direct' mode or option that can default back to basic windows drivers.

[JD_Wolf]

Publicado originalmente por JtDarth:

Publicado originalmente por JD_Wolf:

Unfortunately "switching" to windows audio would mean bypassing the interface altogether, it doesn't really work the way you describe.

I get that I have a "different" setup than some, but I've seen first hand that getting the device white-listed in a game's AC can indeed work. There were a ton of people with scarletts and even other interfaces with this issue who were trying to play Battlefield, which is why it got noticed. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the case with HD2, as I have not seen one other complaint about this problem. I have emailed Focusrite about this too, and hopefully they can corroborate the EA/Battlefield story and help get in contact with either Arrowhead and/or Game Guard to get this resolved like they did for Battlefield.

As for switching to another DAC, I'm not going to buy more gear to fix something that is the dev's/anti-cheat's problem, that's for sure. If they never see this or fix it, I may resort to bypassing the interface for windows' audio... but it's the only interface I have for my mic too, so I would still have to still use it for communication and try and find a setting that doesn't mess with the inputs as much as the output, I guess...

Most don't need to bypass interface to operate on windows default drivers. If that is the case, that's a problem with your particular audio interface.
According to Focusrite, it's NOT a problem with yours (18i8 gen 2). It is supposed to be able to run under WDM, instead of always having to use ASIO. This should in theory solve the issue. Can't find info about how to make it do that, but that's on focusrite.

It is NOT the dev's/anticheat's problem that you are using rather abnormal hardware that apparently is so poorly thought out that it's control software doesn't offer basic features like a mode switch that lets it run audio directly without additional modifiers or software side processing.
In the case of HD2, NPGG as the choice of Kernel Anti-cheat is overaggressive, but it will only cause issues if the control software for your audio device doesn't have a 'direct' mode or option that can default back to basic windows drivers.

After some researching I can't find anything about how to simply switch my interface to WDM... Focusrite even helps define the difference between ASIO and WDM on their support site, and mentioned that the interfaces are compatible, but NOT how to actually utilize WDM over their ASIO drivers.

I found an old Reddit thread where a user says they uninstalled the Focusrite drivers altogether as a "bypass" to use WDM with the default windows drivers. It looks like this is the only way I would be able to do this too if I feel the need.

Thanks for your replies, I did learn something here, but am still holding out hope they can implement a fix and update the anti-cheat.

[IndianaJones]

Publicado originalmente por JD_Wolf:

Anti cheat breaks Focusrite device audio

Yeah, they scan for suspicious USB devices since we have hardware cheats now.

Uncommon USB device will most likely get flagged, even if legit. Your only chance is to directly contact Arrowhead support. They do not visit or moderate these forums.