Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

New cheat software claims to work on ‘any console’ via machine learning | VGC

AI auto aim software could be more difficult to crack down on consoles…

www.videogameschronicle.com

The software, which was highlighted by anti-cheat group ACPD, reportedly utilises PC passthrough via network streaming or a capture card to bypass console platform security.

A promotional video suggests that it then uses AI to detect elements of the video feed passing through the PC software, such as enemy movement and specific weapons being used, in order to activate the auto aim and auto shoot cheats.

“The cheat uses machine learning and sends input to your controller whenever it sees a valid target,” explained ACPD. “This is aim assist but more amplified without you even needing to do anything all you have to do is aim in the general area and the machine will do the work for you”.



In recent years cheating has been a big problem for many popular PC games, but console players have been relatively protected by the closed nature of those platforms.

Software like the above, however, could in theory make cheats such as auto aim far more common on PlayStation and Xbox, because it bypasses console security by passing through a PC,

ACPD said that while cheat software like the one mention on this page can still be detected by Sony and Microsoft, they would be far more difficult to do so than traditional cheats.

 

[crozier]

Cheaters are scum.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Fuck the people that make such things and fuck the people that use them too.

Consoles have NOT been safe for years now anyhow. These little devices are selling in the 10,000s and 100,000s with months of backorders online too. You're being cheated on consoles, less than the PC world but all the things like game scripts/presets/weapon specifics, auto-aim, rapid fire, wall hacks, lag switching and more are rampant on consoles too.



What can these things do?

How easy are they to use?

While the AI version in the OP is a new form, it's already being curated and community driven en masse. AI will likely overtake things eventually but I'm assuming the quality of something like Cronus and community scriptings/packs etc is exceeding the output so far. There's a ton of YT shit out there on these things and constant updates. It's fucking high time the game industry went after these fuckwad companies and cheaters at all levels. Music industry level of offensive on all fronts time.

 

[Sir Vilhelm]

One thing the human race is good at, great at, is cheating in every aspect of competition.

 

[crozier]

You're being cheated on consoles, less than the PC world but all the things like game scripts/presets/weapon specifics, auto-aim, rapid fire, wall hacks, lag switching and more are rampant on consoles too.

One of the reasons I have all but dropped competitive multiplayer. It’s strictly coop nowadays.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Honestly, at some point we are probably going to need something like an online game ID tied to your real life ID to ensure that each account is owned by an actual unique human. At least for competitive online gaming.

 

[Phase]

Dark days are upon us. For sure many more will start sticking to single player games if this becomes a big enough problem.

 

[Droxcy]

Honestly, at some point we are probably going to need something like an online game ID tied to your real life ID to ensure that each account is owned by an actual unique human. At least for competitive online gaming.

They already tried with Phone 2FA and even that gets owned. Cheaters will always be around just sad reality.

 

[Hawking Radiation]

There needs to be heavy consequences for scum who create the software and others who use it.
It's the only way to combat this.

 

[killatopak]

Cheating on SP. Okay

Cheating on MP. Not Okay

 

[captainraincoat]

New cheat software claims to work on ‘any console’ via machine learning | VGC

AI auto aim software could be more difficult to crack down on consoles…

www.videogameschronicle.com

The software, which was highlighted by anti-cheat group ACPD, reportedly utilises PC passthrough via network streaming or a capture card to bypass console platform security.

A promotional video suggests that it then uses AI to detect elements of the video feed passing through the PC software, such as enemy movement and specific weapons being used, in order to activate the auto aim and auto shoot cheats.

“The cheat uses machine learning and sends input to your controller whenever it sees a valid target,” explained ACPD. “This is aim assist but more amplified without you even needing to do anything all you have to do is aim in the general area and the machine will do the work for you”.



In recent years cheating has been a big problem for many popular PC games, but console players have been relatively protected by the closed nature of those platforms.

Software like the above, however, could in theory make cheats such as auto aim far more common on PlayStation and Xbox, because it bypasses console security by passing through a PC,

ACPD said that while cheat software like the one mention on this page can still be detected by Sony and Microsoft, they would be far more difficult to do so than traditional cheats.

That’s actually the first pc like cheat program I’ve seen….the rest are either scripts or devices that allow you alter your aiming but they don’t actually aim for you….

digging around you need to pony up for a capture card and some sort of USB device called a titan so it’s a pretty big outlay ..but I’m sure people won’t really care

 

[CrustyBritches]

So you run the feed through to the AI, then run a cord to the controller input and it kills for you while you sit back and watch? In the future everybody will use these and you'll need a supercomputer to win the match.

 

[Antwix]

Hot take but that is actually really impressive.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

This is pretty fucked up. It could cause the Console Manufacturers to implement stricter security. Security that could even screw with Capture Cards. ( I saw them mentioned above, and also relevant to my interests)
Hopefully I'm just worrytrolling. Concerntrolling.

 

[Trimesh]

Hot take but that is actually really impressive.

Technically, it's very impressive - but I have to admit I really don't get the motivation of people that use things like this. I normally play single player stuff, but on the rare occasions I get into competitive multiplayer I always found that the primary pleasure I derived from it was seeing myself get better. That would be completely lost if you were cheating...

 

[Portugeezer]

I am more disappointed that people think that it is fun to cheat, rather than the actual cheating.

 

[ShadowLag]

Cheaters have been infesting Modern Warfare on consoles just as much PC since the game came out. When on console, I've experimented with turning off crossplay, and the hacks are still there, and PLENTIFUL. I remember when the whole "gamers are turning off crossplay to avoid cheaters" thing was making the rounds... but the thing is, it never made a difference, despite reports.

This has been going on en masse for a long time. Almost every night I play (playing on PC mostly now, crossplay fully enabled) I report 2-3 cheaters PER GAME in multiplayer, regardless of what platform it says they're on. It's obvious as daylight, and sometimes I just alt+F4 and give up for the night. This is coming from someone who grew up on wild west Counterstrike 1.0 - 1.6 servers, getting banned from servers for "hacking" when I was just damn good. I know what real cheats look like on the kill cam.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I'm really starting to think that classic single player gaming may be where I end up going.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

When someone does cheating online, is the stat tracking correct and uploaded to servers too?

So someone playing 10 games in a row going 50-0 with an accuracy % of 95% is uploaded?

Never mind trying to track cheating programs, why cant a dev just use software and track it's own database of ultra skewed stats, analyze it and delete/ban the user as it's obvious it's cheating?

Those old COD leaderboard where there's 100,000s of leaderboard users with glitched stats (-139374382 wins) are a probably all cheaters. Stats are so messed up you got negative numbers. Just delete/ban them. Why leave them there?

Or is it one of those shady "dont rock the boat of sales". Let it fly so a dev still gets sales from cheaters, but don't crack down too much or else cheaters (along with their sales and future sales of sequels) will go to other games that are more cheater-friendly?

 

[Popup]

Too impatient to invest the time to improve and too frustrated at not winning to celebrate any progress they made, they seek to make others lose instead.

They need to realise that even being last means you made at least one person celebrate their progress.

 

[LordCBH]

Welp sounds like trials of Osiris is gonna be aimbot cancer on console now too. Fucking yippie.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Too impatient to invest the time to improve and too frustrated at not winning to celebrate any progress they made, they seek to make others lose instead.

They need to realise that even being last means you made at least one person celebrate their progress.

I truly wonder out of all the cheaters, how many of them are truly bad gamers needing a boost, and how many are actually competitive good gamers already but are aiming for perfection with cheats.

On the surface, you'd think it's gamers going 4-25 every match desperately needing aimbots. But maybe it's more like guys going 25-4 wanting to go 29-0.

 

[ManaByte]

There needs to be heavy consequences for scum who create the software and others who use it.
It's the only way to combat this.

 

[Halo is Back]

Cheaters and the pieces of scum who make this crap can swallow a dick. Looks like this problem is only going to get worse as time goes on. If live service types of games want to continue to have a future, then they seriously need to crack down HARD on these mofos while investing more money and manpower into anti-cheat measures.

 

[nush]

Technically, it's very impressive - but I have to admit I really don't get the motivation of people that use things like this.

Achievements, trophies and bragging rights.

 

[Knightime_X]

One way to combat this is extremely fast ranking up that pairs and limits them to other like players.
Win 3 games easily?
Congratulations!
Game 4 and literally every game after pits you towards other auto aim kiddies and nobody else unless their stats are similar to yours.

In social games, have severe handicaps if there is a score pattern being detected.
And if the user makes adjustments to hide their cheating, then compare them to others with similar stats.

The solution is NOT to detect during a match, but after.
Basically, use their stats as a method to detect cheating.
Consistent executions over a period of time is a dead give away.

 

[A.Romero]

It sounds too magical to be true. I don't get how it works.

I'm skeptical.

 

[captainraincoat]

Joined the discord to learn a little more...apparently they are banking on them not banning USB devices (which you need as it goes through this titan device)
not realising they can simply filter out the devices plugged into the usb ports

Hopefully this is some elaborate trojan where they have paid to have their pcs infected with spyware and their bank accounts cleaned out

 

[Holammer]

PS360 era COD games saw more cheating on consoles. Hell, try to play them today and BOOM, modded lobby.
Black Ops 2 on PC had dedicated servers and it employed VAC/TAC. It was some of the best MP I ever enjoyed on PC.

 

[Kenpachii]

U can't make this shit up, this could very well be the end of competitive multiplayer games.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

I never got cheating as an actual way to play.

Like I get the curiosity aspect, and maybe it’s even fun for a bit. But surely after a while you’re just going through the motions, as it saps an real engagement you might have with the game? On top of the fact that you’re ruining it for everyone else…

Nowt so queer as folk I guess.

 

[Trimesh]

Joined the discord to learn a little more...apparently they are banking on them not banning USB devices (which you need as it goes through this titan device)
not realising they can simply filter out the devices plugged into the usb ports

Hopefully this is some elaborate trojan where they have paid to have their pcs infected with spyware and their bank accounts cleaned out

Because naturally the controller interface will identify as "Cheaterfuck Cheatmaster 9000 (0xdead, 0xface)" rather than "Microsoft Xbox One X controller (0x045e, 0x02d1)" or "Sony Dualshock 4 (0x054c, 0x09cc)"

 

[KungFucius]

One thing the human race is good at, great at, is cheating in every aspect of competition.

This is the basic algorithm of life; "Find a way to do better than others and exploit it to your advantage"

 

[Gifmaker]

The lengths people will go to in order not to having to improve themselves, it's kind of aspiring really.

 

[rofif]

bf5 is already impossible to play on pc...
On official servers, people shoot through walls, fly, are immortal or team tickets just faaaallllll down.
On custom servers, you kill an admin, are labeled as cheater and banned.
I can't... I hate online gaming

 

[lh032]

good, death to multiplayer.

Hail single player games!!!!!

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Bring on more PvE content I say.

 

[Makoto-Yuki]

Honestly, at some point we are probably going to need something like an online game ID tied to your real life ID to ensure that each account is owned by an actual unique human. At least for competitive online gaming.

it's starting:

Tencent is now using facial recognition to stop children in China from gaming all night

China's biggest tech company takes late-night gaming sessions very seriously.

www.pcgamer.com

Tencent is linking online accounts to real life identities. They're justifying it as them "protecting the children". Eventually it will spill over to adults. That's the classic excuse to get shit implemented because you don't wanna be the one who argues against protecting the children, right? It's a classic move by governments all around the world. Once it's up and running then they win and can push it further

"But this is America! China is on the other side of the world". Tencent own or are involved in:

Epic Games - Fortnite, Rocket League, Epic Store, Unreal Engine
Riot Games - League of Legends, Valorant, Legends of Runeterra
Activision Blizzard - World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, Call of Duty, etc
Ubisoft - Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Tom Clancy, etc
Frontier Developments - Elite Dangerous, Jurassic World Evolution
PlatinumGames - Nier Automata, Bayonetta, Astral Chain, etc
Roblox
Don't Nod - Life Is Strange
Grinding Gear Games - Path of Exile games
Super Cell - Clash of Clans/Clash Royale
Mini Clip - a shit load of mobile games
Discord

And that ain't the full list...If Tencent start pushing this shit on all those then gaming is royally fucked. The most devastating ones would be Epic (think of all the games that use Unreal), Riot, and Activision Blizzard.

 

[Holammer]

I never got cheating as an actual way to play.

Like I get the curiosity aspect, and maybe it’s even fun for a bit. But surely after a while you’re just going through the motions, as it saps an real engagement you might have with the game? On top of the fact that you’re ruining it for everyone else…

Nowt so queer as folk I guess.

There are the occasional psychopaths that just do it to ruin for others, but strange as it may sound, having a high K/D ratio gives you a lot of social standing. Especially for young people.
Similarly Gamerscore is so important people cheat or buy games with easy achievements to pad out the score.

 

[Makoto-Yuki]

There are the occasional psychopaths that just do it to ruin for others, but strange as it may sound, having a high K/D ratio gives you a lot of social standing. Especially for young people.
Similarly Gamerscore is so important people cheat or buy games with easy achievements to pad out the score.

i remember being obsessed with my k/d ratio in cod4. i was like 15 at the time and everyone bragged about their k/d ratio.

 

[Captain Toad]

Lame

 

[Soodanim]

I never got cheating as an actual way to play.

Like I get the curiosity aspect, and maybe it’s even fun for a bit. But surely after a while you’re just going through the motions, as it saps an real engagement you might have with the game? On top of the fact that you’re ruining it for everyone else…

Nowt so queer as folk I guess.

Same as this. Even accounting for the people who get joy from fucking it up for everyone else, eventually you're just watching the game play itself. You're doing about as much meaningful input as someone who watches a Twitcher streamer. You might as well pay them the money you're going to spend on the cheat device and game, at least that way there's one less fool in the game ruining it for others

 

[Rikkori]

I have to say, I take an almost perverse pleasure in seeing the console space get compromised just like the PC one. You thought you were safe there but that was just a lie. Now they gotta start taking security more seriously everywhere. No one's safe unless everyone is.

 

[01011001]

Cheaters have been infesting Modern Warfare on consoles just as much PC since the game came out. When on console, I've experimented with turning off crossplay, and the hacks are still there, and PLENTIFUL. I remember when the whole "gamers are turning off crossplay to avoid cheaters" thing was making the rounds... but the thing is, it never made a difference, despite reports.

This has been going on en masse for a long time. Almost every night I play (playing on PC mostly now, crossplay fully enabled) I report 2-3 cheaters PER GAME in multiplayer, regardless of what platform it says they're on. It's obvious as daylight, and sometimes I just alt+F4 and give up for the night. This is coming from someone who grew up on wild west Counterstrike 1.0 - 1.6 servers, getting banned from servers for "hacking" when I was just damn good. I know what real cheats look like on the kill cam.

are you playing on PS4 because on Xbox hacks are impossible atm. since it hasn't been jailbroken.

the PS4 is moddable so there is a chance hackers are on PS4. I personally haven't had any in any game I play but since CoD is so popular, I guess chances to come across hackers in Ps4 are very high in that game

 

[Trimesh]

It sounds too magical to be true. I don't get how it works.

I'm skeptical.

Why? There is nothing at all unreasonable in the description on a technical level - all the software needs to do is analyze the video and track your aim point and potential targets. Neither of those is any significant challenge. It then needs to issue the correct commands to move your aim point onto the target and pull the trigger. This is basically what the Phalanx CIWS was doing in 1980 only using radar data with a much lower resolution and update rate rather than video - in fact, that was rather harder since there wasn't any direct aim point feedback and it had to be inferred from the radar - although the RoF of the Phalanx was high enough that you could get a pretty solid return off the ammo you were firing and the main constraint was trying to converge on the target before you ran out of ammo. And that was using now 40 year old technology - think systems based on CPUs like the 8086, Z8000 or MC68k.

 

[bender]

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

You have to be the ultimate incel cuck to want to cheat on an online video game.

People that do this and the wankers who facilitate them need to fucking grow up.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

U can't make this shit up, this could very well be the end of competitive multiplayer games.

This thread is loaded with single player fanatics coping isn't it?

 

[ShadowLag]

are you playing on PS4 because on Xbox hacks are impossible atm. since it hasn't been jailbroken.

the PS4 is moddable so there is a chance hackers are on PS4. I personally haven't had any in any game I play but since CoD is so popular, I guess chances to come across hackers in Ps4 are very high in that game

Yeah, I swap around between PS4 and PC. You may be right, I'll have to watch for XBox icons next time and look at the ratio more closely. It's annoying that the platform icons are gone while in a match though, you have to just remember them from the lobby screen :\

 

[Fbh]

Sucks.
One of the many reasons why I mostly stick to single player and coop multiplayer.

Hopefully machine learning can be used just as effectively to detect cheaters as it is used to cheat. And I don't know how MS/Sony deal with these things but I hope it is with console bans and not meaningless account bans.