Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) - VAC safe?

[Prosody]

Hey all,

I decided to likely take the plunge and get involved on twitch. Open Broadcaster Software seems like a good solution for me, but of course, I'm a little wary of running 3rd party programs in the background while gaming.

Have any folks around here been using OBS for a long while now and can vouch for it? I've seen many positive testimonials elsewhere, but I figured that there would be no harm in asking the community myself. For all I know, VAC is going to be finnicky a few updates from now and ban all OBS users, but is that not even remotely a possibility? I'm not very tech-savvy, so I'm hoping some of you can put my mind at ease. Thanks!

[Sebastian Nielsen]

The client is installed with the Nvidia Graphics Drivers. Its called Nvidia Experience, and is always running. Thus having it "enabled" (streaming) or "disabled" (not used) does not matter, it is always running in the computers memory, and will trigger any detections that might be tied with it.

You can't shut it off.
If it would be detected, it would trigger many false positives.

Valve HAS the possibility to detect if Shadowplay is streaming or not, but if they ban it, they will inform about it in the forums, because its embedded in the graphics driver.

[Dyuly]

Lex の投稿を引用：

Sebastian Nielsen の投稿を引用：

Lex: Twitch Shadowplay Streaming is something embedded in your graphics drivers. It cant be removed without removing the graphics drivers.

Thus totally VAC safe since Twitch shadowplay will extract the image data at the graphics driver level and export it to twitch.

If it requires you run a third-party application to handle the streaming or to handle the interfacing with the hardware then it should not be used. I assume it has a client which connects to Twitch. This should not be used.

Dude, stop. That's now how VAC works at all, VAC bans based off whether you have a program modifying game files or game memory, none of the software people have mentioned do either of those things

[Sebastian Nielsen]

Abomination121: Lex refers to the DOTA2 built-in non-VAC anticheat, that triggered a 30 day cooldown on his DOTA2 account.

Now Lex thinks this might trigger VAC too, since Valve says OBS is unauthorized software and should not be used. Especially since CS:GO has a own anticheat system with "Untrusted account".

So refrain from using OBS at least. Its not videly used and is a little "tabu" to use.

Nvidia ShadowPlay is completely safe to use, and is embedded in your graphics drivers, and thus wont get you banned from either VAC, DOTA2 or CS:GO. Its a widely known software that every gamer knows about.

[Dyuly]

Sebastian Nielsen の投稿を引用：

Abomination121: Lex refers to the DOTA2 built-in non-VAC anticheat, that triggered a 30 day cooldown on his DOTA2 account.

Now Lex thinks this might trigger VAC too, since Valve says OBS is unauthorized software and should not be used. Especially since CS:GO has a own anticheat system with "Untrusted account".

So refrain from using OBS at least. Its not videly used and is a little "tabu" to use.

Nvidia ShadowPlay is completely safe to use, and is embedded in your graphics drivers, and thus wont get you banned from either VAC, DOTA2 or CS:GO. Its a widely known software that every gamer knows about.

Stop. So many people use OBS to stream CS:GO, OBS does NOT get you banned, and NEVER will get you banned

TL;DR OBS is safe, stop saying it isn't, it's as safe as any other recording/streaming software out there.

[Wrong Way Up]

like i say ive been using obs for over a year with csgo and never had a issue

[Lex]

Abomination121 の投稿を引用：

Stop. So many people use OBS to stream CS:GO, OBS does NOT get you banned, and NEVER will get you banned

TL;DR OBS is safe, stop saying it isn't, it's as safe as any other recording/streaming software out there.

People have been banned for using OBS. And regardless, Steam Tech clearly states you should not use any third-party applications. OBS is a third-party application. Therefore you should not use it.

[Dyuly]

Lex の投稿を引用：

Abomination121 の投稿を引用：

Stop. So many people use OBS to stream CS:GO, OBS does NOT get you banned, and NEVER will get you banned

TL;DR OBS is safe, stop saying it isn't, it's as safe as any other recording/streaming software out there.

People have been banned for using OBS. And regardless, Steam Tech clearly states you should not use any third-party applications. OBS is a third-party application. Therefore you should not use it.

So how do pro match commentators cast games then? do they just, magically upload the game to the internet? no, they don't, they use third party software, usually OBS or Xsplit in their case.

Once again, TL:DR OBS IS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SAFE

[Sebastian Nielsen]

NO software is generally SAFE to use except Valve Personell explicity says is safe.

Valve Personell has said that some software is safe, for example all the software that follows with your hardware/graphics card.
Of course, all functions in your operating system (Windows) is safe too.
Also theres a list out of the VAC forums saying which software is safe.

Any other software is to regard as unsafe, and CAN result in a VAC ban.
And if ANY third-party unauthorized software caused a VAC ban, then Valve support WILL NOT reverse the ban. It does not matter if the software is impossible to use to hack with.

[Wrong Way Up]

Lex の投稿を引用：

Abomination121 の投稿を引用：

Stop. So many people use OBS to stream CS:GO, OBS does NOT get you banned, and NEVER will get you banned

TL;DR OBS is safe, stop saying it isn't, it's as safe as any other recording/streaming software out there.

People have been banned for using OBS. And regardless, Steam Tech clearly states you should not use any third-party applications. OBS is a third-party application. Therefore you should not use it.

so si fraps
so msi afterburner
so is your programs for your graphics card
so is gamebooster and yet none get you a vac ban and ive not seen anywhere on the internet about obs resulting in a vac ban

[Dyuly]

Sebastian Nielsen の投稿を引用：

NO software is generally SAFE to use except Valve Personell explicity says is safe.

Valve Personell has said that some software is safe, for example all the software that follows with your hardware/graphics card.
Of course, all functions in your operating system (Windows) is safe too.
Also theres a list out of the VAC forums saying which software is safe.

Any other software is to regard as unsafe, and CAN result in a VAC ban.
And if ANY third-party unauthorized software caused a VAC ban, then Valve support WILL NOT reverse the ban. It does not matter if the software is impossible to use to hack with.

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/569/721/4d8.gif

[Dyuly]

Sebastian Nielsen の投稿を引用：

NO software is generally SAFE to use except Valve Personell explicity says is safe.

Valve Personell has said that some software is safe, for example all the software that follows with your hardware/graphics card.
Of course, all functions in your operating system (Windows) is safe too.
Also theres a list out of the VAC forums saying which software is safe.

Any other software is to regard as unsafe, and CAN result in a VAC ban.
And if ANY third-party unauthorized software caused a VAC ban, then Valve support WILL NOT reverse the ban. It does not matter if the software is impossible to use to hack with.

Also, that moment when your graphics card drivers are technically third party software that valve hasn't explicitly said are VAC safe.

Learn to stop going ERMAHGERD SOFWAER IZ VAC BANZ

[Sebastian Nielsen]

wrong way up: What Valve means with "third party software" is like "Software we have not scrunitized".
A software can have 3 states in VAC:
Blacklisted - Will result in ban.
Whitelisted - Will never result in ban.
Unknown - MAY result in ban.

The OBS is in Unknown list currently. Thats why Valve Support say "Refrain from using it".

FRAPS, Shadowplay and MSI Afterburner is in "Whitelisted" list, according to threads out on the VAC forum, and is generally safe to use.

[Lex]

wrong way up の投稿を引用：

Lex の投稿を引用：

People have been banned for using OBS. And regardless, Steam Tech clearly states you should not use any third-party applications. OBS is a third-party application. Therefore you should not use it.

so si fraps
so msi afterburner
so is your programs for your graphics card
so is gamebooster and yet none get you a vac ban and ive not seen anywhere on the internet about obs resulting in a vac ban

They may or may not result in a VAC ban. It's impossible for us to know since any evidence either way is sealed. In any case, you should not use ANY third-party applications. This bears repeating: do not use ANY third-party applications!

[Blu]

I'm no IT expert. But from what I see, I believe even if the OBS program "hacks" into the game data (like what you guys say), this OBS will be detected and checked by VAC and will be allowed. To OP: If you're afraid of VAC ban, try it on your smurf first. If your smurf is not banned after awhile, it should be fine.

[Lex]

Sebastian Nielsen の投稿を引用：

wrong way up: What Valve means with "third party software" is like "Software we have not scrunitized".
A software can have 3 states in VAC:
Blacklisted - Will result in ban.
Whitelisted - Will never result in ban.
Unknown - MAY result in ban.

The OBS is in Unknown list currently. Thats why Valve Support say "Refrain from using it".

FRAPS, Shadowplay and MSI Afterburner is in "Whitelisted" list, according to threads out on the VAC forum, and is generally safe to use.

There is no way to verify that ANY third-party application is safe. Even if they say it might be safe, you might get banned anyways and you will have no way to know and you'll have no recourse. The best option is to not use any third-party applications on your system.