[?][VAC] Is Reshade safe to use on VAC secured games?

[♥ Cxssy ♥]

Hello everyone,

I know this question has been asked billions of times already, but did someone get an official <clear and understandable> answer yet?

I'd like to use Reshade.me on some VAC secured games like Killing Floor 2, L4D2, Dying Light, No more room in Hell, Contagion, ... But there is no way to know if it's safe to use.

Rockstar said they were testing commonly used 3rd part softwares (afterburner (rivatuner), Overwolf... for example) to not trigger a false ban on GTA Online. Since Reshade is pretty widely used I assume it's safe to use.

What about VAC? How does it work and could Reshade.me do something it wouldn't like? I'm not that good on this point and it's maybe why I'm so confused, like most of people asking.

I also know that telling you got banned for using reshade/sweetfx is the worst excuse ever a cheater can find, does that mean you can't?

/!\ I'll never try on Punkbuster (or BattleEye lmao) secured games because they are false ban masters ,better close anything running in background and verify your game files everytime you play (don't forget PB installer!)
>But the funniest part is that they suck at banning cheaters.

Thanks in advance to anyone who will clarify this a bit more (or completely)

Fix my english with this if there is anything weird/wrong

[budozero]

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Hello everyone,

I know this question has been asked billions of times already, but did someone get an official <clear and understandable> answer yet?

There is no clear answer to get, it really depends what is done and how its done.
The official VAC KB states:

Originalmente postado por Valve Anti-Cheat System (VAC):

Any third-party modifications to a game designed to give one player an advantage over another is classified as a cheat or hack and will trigger a VAC ban. This includes modifications to a game's core executable files and dynamic link libraries.

I would not take it apon myself to determin what is considered an advantage. By the sounds of it, Reshade is a visual mod, so I could see potential for why this should cause a VAC ban. Even if it infact makes it harder for you to see in game, its not up to our judgement whats considered an advantage and you never know how an "advantage" is detected. It could be something as simple as "oh this is not default, so ban".

You could make an aimbot that automatically misses every shot, its still a cheat.

And this bit here: "This includes modifications to a game's core executable files and dynamic link libraries".

Notice the "includes" part, it does not say ONLY, so imo, if you dont want a VAC ban, dont risk it.

3rd party programs such as Rivatuner and Overwolf are very very different from something that changes ingame visuals, you cant compare the two.

[♥ Cxssy ♥]

Originalmente postado por budozero:

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Hello everyone,

I know this question has been asked billions of times already, but did someone get an official <clear and understandable> answer yet?

There is no clear answer to get, it really depends what is done and how its done.
The official VAC KB states:

Originalmente postado por Valve Anti-Cheat System (VAC):

Any third-party modifications to a game designed to give one player an advantage over another is classified as a cheat or hack and will trigger a VAC ban. This includes modifications to a game's core executable files and dynamic link libraries.

I would not take it apon myself to determin what is considered an advantage. By the sounds of it, Reshade is a visual mod, so I could see potential for why this should cause a VAC ban. Even if it infact makes it harder for you to see in game, its not up to our judgement whats considered an advantage and you never know how an "advantage" is detected. It could be something as simple as "oh this is not default, so ban".

You could make an aimbot that automatically misses every shot, its still a cheat.

And this bit here: "This includes modifications to a game's core executable files and dynamic link libraries".

Notice the "includes" part, it does not say ONLY, so imo, if you dont want a VAC ban, dont risk it.

3rd party programs such as Rivatuner and Overwolf are very very different from something that changes ingame visuals, you cant compare the two.

Thank you for your answer

Concerning Rivatuner and Overwolf, it is displayed the same way if I'm not wrong.
The only thing that I'm not sure about is that .dll injection at launch.

I also found this on Reddit from SweetFX developer:

___________________________________________________________________

Reshade handles injection so the game will use the SweetFX shaders.
It copies the framebuffer from the game (the game output) so that SweetFX has something to work with.
It can grab the depthbuffer from many (but not all) games so that effects that use the game depth information can be used.
It displays the output of SweetFX on the screen.
It displays fps, clock and statistics.
It handles keypresses.
It takes screenshots.
It translates the shader code in SweetFX 2.0 to the language needed for the API you are using: D3D9, D3D10, D3D11, or OpenGL.
It wraps D3D8 code to D3D9 allowing you to apply SweetFX shaders even to D3D8 games (D3D8 technically had shaders but they were very limited)
It monitors changes to the shader and settings files and recompiles SweetFX when changes are detected so they take effect immediately.
It provides SweetFX with additional helpful stuff like time and frame counters that can be used to create effects that have movement or change over time.
It does not process the game image .. all that is done by the SweetFX shaders.
___________________________________________________________________

[budozero]

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Concerning Rivatuner and Overwolf, it is displayed the same way if I'm not wrong.
The only thing that I'm not sure about is that .dll injection at launch.

I assume its not quite the same, Rivatuner/Overwolf and a lot of other programs that display things in game generally wont need the same access as something like a shader.

From what you posted from the dev, it sounds like the injection done there is not done to the game files either. But I am guessing here.

The question is better asked of the dev, but as VAC changes over time, you can never be sure. Today it may be ok, tomorrow not, it will come down to your responsibility in the end regardless.

[SheTookMyVCard]

Watch out when you inject any .dll into any VAC secured game. It will be detected as a modification and may lead into a ban. That is how I got my VAC. Injecting a .dll into mw2.

[♥ Cxssy ♥]

Originalmente postado por ImHukaah:

Watch out when you inject any .dll into any VAC secured game. It will be detected as a modification and may lead into a ban. That is how I got my VAC. Injecting a .dll into mw2.

That's not a cheat .dll and doesnt modify game memory.

[Vault Hunter 101]

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Originalmente postado por ImHukaah:

Watch out when you inject any .dll into any VAC secured game. It will be detected as a modification and may lead into a ban. That is how I got my VAC. Injecting a .dll into mw2.

That's not a cheat .dll and doesnt modify game memory.

If you inject a .dll file into a game you will get banned... there are some cheats made in .dll files

[SmollBrain 🏹]

Originalmente postado por Vault Hunter 101| Negev isn't OP:

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

That's not a cheat .dll and doesnt modify game memory.

If you inject a .dll file into a game you will get banned... there are some cheats made in .dll files

Not true, many legit programs inject dlls into your games, example discord: https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/4jezfy/discord_still_seen_as_trojan/

@op reshade does hook games (not directly, it looks like they just hook direct x and opengl, which is safe, since many programs like fraps do the same thing.) and modify their code with detours. It's open source: https://github.com/crosire/reshade/blob/master/source/hook_manager.cpp

[♥ Cxssy ♥]

Originalmente postado por Ƥ€ƤƤ€ŘΜƗŇŦ💙:

Originalmente postado por Vault Hunter 101| Negev isn't OP:

If you inject a .dll file into a game you will get banned... there are some cheats made in .dll files

Not true, many legit programs inject dlls into your games, example discord: https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/4jezfy/discord_still_seen_as_trojan/

@op reshade does hook games (not directly, it looks like they just hook direct x and opengl, which is safe, since many programs like fraps do the same thing.) and modify their code with detours. It's open source: https://github.com/crosire/reshade/blob/master/source/hook_manager.cpp

Thank you for your help, are you using it?

[SmollBrain 🏹]

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Originalmente postado por Ƥ€ƤƤ€ŘΜƗŇŦ💙:

Not true, many legit programs inject dlls into your games, example discord: https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/4jezfy/discord_still_seen_as_trojan/

@op reshade does hook games (not directly, it looks like they just hook direct x and opengl, which is safe, since many programs like fraps do the same thing.) and modify their code with detours. It's open source: https://github.com/crosire/reshade/blob/master/source/hook_manager.cpp

Thank you for your help, are you using it?

not me persoanlly no ;p

[♥ Cxssy ♥]

Originalmente postado por Ƥ€ƤƤ€ŘΜƗŇŦ💙:

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Thank you for your help, are you using it?

not me persoanlly no ;p

Okay nevermind,

So hooking rendering api shouldn't trigger a ban? Cheats do that?
Or in another way: do anticheats scan rendering copy/edit

[SmollBrain 🏹]

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Originalmente postado por Ƥ€ƤƤ€ŘΜƗŇŦ💙:

not me persoanlly no ;p

Okay nevermind,

So hooking rendering api shouldn't trigger a ban? Cheats do that?

Internal cheats can either hook the rendering api or the game's engine functions for drawing yes, but their replacement hooks will have a signature that can be scanned by vac, so as long as it's not using the same hook another cheat uses, you are unlikely to get vac banned for it

[♥ Cxssy ♥]

Originalmente postado por Ƥ€ƤƤ€ŘΜƗŇŦ💙:

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Okay nevermind,

So hooking rendering api shouldn't trigger a ban? Cheats do that?

Internal cheats can either hook the rendering api or the game's engine functions for drawing yes, but their replacement hooks will have a signature that can be scanned by vac, so as long as it's not using the same hook another cheat uses, you are unlikely to get vac banned for it

Would be very sad and disrespectful from a hacker to use the same.

[SmollBrain 🏹]

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Originalmente postado por Ƥ€ƤƤ€ŘΜƗŇŦ💙:

Internal cheats can either hook the rendering api or the game's engine functions for drawing yes, but their replacement hooks will have a signature that can be scanned by vac, so as long as it's not using the same hook another cheat uses, you are unlikely to get vac banned for it

Would be very sad and disrespectful from a hacker to use the same.

I'm sure the vac team doesn't just make signatures for internal hooks alone, they probably scan all of the game's threads looking for more signatures to be sure they didn't just steal a hook before banning you for it, it's just more likely that you may get banned since it increases the chances of vac thinking it's a cheatif they have the same hooks

[♥ Cxssy ♥]

Originalmente postado por Ƥ€ƤƤ€ŘΜƗŇŦ💙:

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Would be very sad and disrespectful from a hacker to use the same.

I'm sure the vac team doesn't just make signatures for internal hooks alone, they probably scan all of the game's threads looking for more signatures to be sure they didn't just steal a hook before banning you for it, it's just more likely that you may get banned since it increases the chances of vac thinking it's a cheatif they have the same hooks

Not sure I got this

[SmollBrain 🏹]

Originalmente postado por ⠀⠀:

Originalmente postado por Ƥ€ƤƤ€ŘΜƗŇŦ💙:

I'm sure the vac team doesn't just make signatures for internal hooks alone, they probably scan all of the game's threads looking for more signatures to be sure they didn't just steal a hook before banning you for it, it's just more likely that you may get banned since it increases the chances of vac thinking it's a cheatif they have the same hooks

Not sure I got this

when a .dll is injected they normally create a new thread in the target process and load a module with the .dlls code to be used in it. So for a .dll cheat, vac can scan the game's loaded modules looking for that specific cheat's dll code, not only limited to looking for hooks the cheat made in rendering api or game itself