cant start phasmophobia because of unity error. NEED HELP!

[Lehtola70]

So this thing happened today. I tried to play the game after an update i downloaded just before, but it doesnt start. there just pops up some kind of window with the phasmophobia logo and a red !. I've never had this and dont have any experience about it. There was some text ontop of it. It read "phasmophobia - unity2021.3.16f1_401657cf34f". I dont have any clue what it is. I tried to verify the files but it nothing happened and i re-installed the game but still doesnt work. I tried to look at youtube to find a tutorial to fix it but i dont know how and alot of them were done in windows 10. So I now dont know what to do.

So can you tell me how to fix it? All help and suggestions on how to fix it would be appriciated!

[Marcus101RR]

Originally posted by Napu 3.0:

So this thing happened today. I tried to play the game after an update i downloaded just before, but it doesnt start. there just pops up some kind of window with the phasmophobia logo and a red !. I've never had this and dont have any experience about it. There was some text ontop of it. It read "phasmophobia - unity2021.3.16f1_401657cf34f". I dont have any clue what it is. I tried to verify the files but it nothing happened and i re-installed the game but still doesnt work. I tried to look at youtube to find a tutorial to fix it but i dont know how and alot of them were done in windows 10. So I now dont know what to do.

So can you tell me how to fix it? All help and suggestions on how to fix it would be appriciated!

They added an AntiCheat DLL in steamapps\common\Phasmophobia\Phasmophobia_Data\Plugins\x86_64\KS_Diagnostics_Process.dll

You can delete it at your own risk (assuming they don't ban you for such actions) and play single player with it. I have no idea what it does when doing multiplayer. All i know its highly invasive as it will scan your system for any mods, tools, hacks, and or otherwise memory editors. If they are present, it won't start. You are forced to remove them, regardless if you use them for other games or not.

It is a complete disregard to invasion of privacy. If they had added EAC this wouldn't be a problem as you can legit disable it through command prompt if you wish to no invasive AC on your system.

[cjdxn]

Originally posted by Marcus101RR:

Originally posted by Napu 3.0:

So this thing happened today. I tried to play the game after an update i downloaded just before, but it doesnt start. there just pops up some kind of window with the phasmophobia logo and a red !. I've never had this and dont have any experience about it. There was some text ontop of it. It read "phasmophobia - unity2021.3.16f1_401657cf34f". I dont have any clue what it is. I tried to verify the files but it nothing happened and i re-installed the game but still doesnt work. I tried to look at youtube to find a tutorial to fix it but i dont know how and alot of them were done in windows 10. So I now dont know what to do.

So can you tell me how to fix it? All help and suggestions on how to fix it would be appriciated!

They added an AntiCheat DLL in steamapps\common\Phasmophobia\Phasmophobia_Data\Plugins\x86_64\KS_Diagnostics_Process.dll

You can delete it at your own risk (assuming they don't ban you for such actions) and play single player with it. I have no idea what it does when doing multiplayer. All i know its highly invasive as it will scan your system for any mods, tools, hacks, and or otherwise memory editors. If they are present, it won't start. You are forced to remove them, regardless if you use them for other games or not.

It is a complete disregard to invasion of privacy. If they had added EAC this wouldn't be a problem as you can legit disable it through command prompt if you wish to no invasive AC on your system.

If you modify your game files you will be breaking the EULA you all agreed to, do so at your own risk of a ban.

[WolfLink0370]

I believe you can blame hackers for that Anti-Cheat being added too - I did hear a story once where a hacker was doing whatever they wanted, even gloating that they had disabled the ability to report them (which apparently ended up being a true statement).

So as much as it sucks to have that sort of DLL in place - It is unfortunately a necessary evil in an attempt to stop those individuals. Hopefully a less invasive measure is utilized in the future though

[MycroftCanadaNS]

Haaa, so this new .dll snoops?

Amazing this dev is getting away with this. that is intrusive to say the least, and is actually illegal in the vast majority of countries. There is a reason why things of this nature is illegal.

I'm going to check this out with a lawyer, and see what is what.

[MycroftCanadaNS]

Originally posted by WolfLink0370:

I believe you can blame hackers for that Anti-Cheat being added too - I did hear a story once where a hacker was doing whatever they wanted, even gloating that they had disabled the ability to report them (which apparently ended up being a true statement).

So as much as it sucks to have that sort of DLL in place - It is unfortunately a necessary evil in an attempt to stop those individuals. Hopefully a less invasive measure is utilized in the future though

I blame the developer for intrusive, and illegal activity. I got off the phone about 2 minutes ago with a friend who is now checking on this activity to see if there is a law being broken in the country I live.

From what he said, and him ready through these posts about this .dll there is something very fishy going on.

[Pol_Na_T]

Originally posted by MycroftCanadaNS:

Originally posted by WolfLink0370:

I believe you can blame hackers for that Anti-Cheat being added too - I did hear a story once where a hacker was doing whatever they wanted, even gloating that they had disabled the ability to report them (which apparently ended up being a true statement).

So as much as it sucks to have that sort of DLL in place - It is unfortunately a necessary evil in an attempt to stop those individuals. Hopefully a less invasive measure is utilized in the future though

I blame the developer for intrusive, and illegal activity. I got off the phone about 2 minutes ago with a friend who is now checking on this activity to see if there is a law being broken in the country I live.

From what he said, and him ready through these posts about this .dll there is something very fishy going on.

So the anticheat dll is illegal?

[MycroftCanadaNS]

Originally posted by Pol_Na_T:

Originally posted by MycroftCanadaNS:

I blame the developer for intrusive, and illegal activity. I got off the phone about 2 minutes ago with a friend who is now checking on this activity to see if there is a law being broken in the country I live.

From what he said, and him ready through these posts about this .dll there is something very fishy going on.

So the anticheat dll is illegal?

No it isn't illegal.

I just checked back with my friend, and he says that the anti-cheat laws in my country allow developers to protect their product, but are not allowed to collect personal data.

It doesn't snoop on what files you have on your system, only files within the game directory itself (hard to say we have to take the word of the developer), and any memory resident programs loaded such as known cheats along with trainers, and hack mods.

I had VLC running in the background, and OBS for recording, and so far I guess things seem to have worked out but that doesn't mean next time I play I get a banned for whatever reason.

I don't think you have to worry, just make sure that you check on what can be run in the background like VLC (I normally will listen to a documentary on ghosts while playing the game).

So for now no it is not illegal. Laws haven't caught up with technology. I do understand why developers in this day, and age wish to protect what they have created along with protecting it's online base. I get it but there is no need for developers to cross into no mans land.

Also just to clear something up here, the .DLL isn't mining your data so you are safe.

[IvoryTemplar]

I can't tell if this is a joke thread or not.

Countless games have anti-cheat software. This isn't something brand new and earth shattering. Nor is it illegal.

Get rid of your mods and/or hacks and you'll be fine without breaking any EULA or ToS or whatever.

And stop making threads like this. You're making yourself look bad.

[Marcus101RR]

Originally posted by Ivory Templar:

I can't tell if this is a joke thread or not.

Countless games have anti-cheat software. This isn't something brand new and earth shattering. Nor is it illegal.

Get rid of your mods and/or hacks and you'll be fine without breaking any EULA or ToS or whatever.

And stop making threads like this. You're making yourself look bad.

You can disable them and play locally, or with friends only, that is a rightful option. You just can't play public lobbies. This isn't any different for this game either, also this was added recently without being in changelogs or notified. Secondly, all AntiCheats require you to agree/disagree to the terms, if you disagree the game will launch but most online features will be disabled. BattleEye, EAC do this automatically. Which is why you can disagree to an invasive data logging.

And to iterate:

Originally posted by Marcus101RR:
Report 1 says Speed hack? Are you going to get logs that show movement data?
report 2 says used the N word? Are you going to listen to all recordings transmitted to you? That is a violation of privacy
Report 3 says Hostage taking? Can you confirm that everyone completed the map and guessed the right ghost, or maybe he wanted to double check it was right?

1- Yes, they can actually check that.
2- What you say ingame can and will be checked by them and it's not a violation of privacy, now if it's over 3rd party software like discord then yeah nothing they can do about it.
3- There's ways to check if is a "hostage situation" but yeah this one can be rough to nail down.

[Snoopa]

Originally posted by MycroftCanadaNS:

Originally posted by Pol_Na_T:

So the anticheat dll is illegal?

No it isn't illegal.

I just checked back with my friend, and he says that the anti-cheat laws in my country allow developers to protect their product, but are not allowed to collect personal data.

It doesn't snoop on what files you have on your system, only files within the game directory itself (hard to say we have to take the word of the developer), and any memory resident programs loaded such as known cheats along with trainers, and hack mods.

I had VLC running in the background, and OBS for recording, and so far I guess things seem to have worked out but that doesn't mean next time I play I get a banned for whatever reason.

I don't think you have to worry, just make sure that you check on what can be run in the background like VLC (I normally will listen to a documentary on ghosts while playing the game).

So for now no it is not illegal. Laws haven't caught up with technology. I do understand why developers in this day, and age wish to protect what they have created along with protecting it's online base. I get it but there is no need for developers to cross into no mans land.

Also just to clear something up here, the .DLL isn't mining your data so you are safe.

Just because you pay for a game does not make it YOUR game. You're simply purchasing the license to play said game. The dev is allowed to revoke that license and ban you if they feel you are altering their game in any way. So of course there is nothing illegal about putting an anti cheat into their game.

As for your VLC and OBS running in the background. That has nothing to do with the game files. You will not get banned for that. It's odd to think otherwise.

[xXFrostTempestVikingXx]

Originally posted by MycroftCanadaNS:

Haaa, so this new .dll snoops?

Amazing this dev is getting away with this. that is intrusive to say the least, and is actually illegal in the vast majority of countries. There is a reason why things of this nature is illegal.

I'm going to check this out with a lawyer, and see what is what.

Ive contacted a friend of mine who has serious pull with Steam and we're looking into this. If this is true that its scanning files on peoples computers that it shouldnt have access to, I will make sure that steam investigates the matter cuz Ive had enough of these devs and their bs.

[orochidiot]

Apparently, it's because of WeMod
Mine also appeared the icon with the red "!" and the crash named "Phasmophibia Unity 2022.3.5f1_9674261 d40ee"
I tried to launch it and it did say it detected WeMod activity and that I should disable it if I didn't want to get banned, which I was confused about because I wasn't using WeMod on Phasmo, I am using it on another game.
When I tried to launch it again to see if the same thing happened it crashed again.
I still need to finish the game I am using WeMod for, but I hope that when I uninstall it, it will allow me to launch the game.
If I get banned just because I simply have the program installed despite not using it I will get very upset. Using it on other games shouldn't mean getting banned from another that is completely unrelated.