Some players believe that Valve’s specialists should study the experience of a tech enthusiast.
Cheaters in competitive games are a long-standing problem, and Counter-Strike 2 is no exception. Although Valve is developing the VAC anti-cheat, players continue to complain about cheaters in ranked and casual matches.
Recently, a developer under the nickname karola3vax talked about his projects — CS2FOW and CS2AC; these are two anti-cheat solutions that work on the server side and are designed for Counter-Strike 2 community servers.
CS2FOW is positioned as server-side protection against Wallhack. karola3vax explained that usually the game client always receives information about enemies, even if they are not in direct line of sight, but behind walls. Wallhack cheats read this information, which gives cheaters an advantage. The proposed CS2FOW will check whether the enemy should actually be “visible” before allowing the server to transmit player data:
The system combines PVS, BVH8, and AVX algorithms. Simply put, PVS quickly skips players who cannot possibly be in the field of view, and BVH8 performs a detailed check of map geometry only when necessary. Depending on the players’ location, the PVS algorithm reduces visibility calculations by 86%, and in some cases, completely eliminates these calculations.
karola3vax noted that this solution also had a positive effect on optimization: “Since hidden enemies are no longer displayed on the client, my tests also showed that the average FPS on the client increased by about 20%.”
CS2AC is a server-side anti-cheat system based on player behavior analysis. According to the developer, it includes 19 independent detection modules. The system will track player behavior, such as “series of shots fired at an unrealistically fast rate as soon as the crosshair reaches an enemy.” It will also track anomalous accuracy, automated Bhop, and other specific actions that may indicate the use of cheats.
According to the developer, CS2AC’s assessment is not based on a single random coincidence:
When enough evidence is gathered, CS2AC generates a clear report explaining what happened. Reports can be sent to the server console or another platform. Server owners retain control over how each detection case [of cheats/anomalous behavior] is handled.
Regular Counter-Strike 2 players don’t need to download anything — these anti-cheat solutions work server-side.
Источник изображения: Valve
Some members of the Counter-Strike 2 community are skeptical of karola3vax’s anti-cheats. For example, if the server experiences glitches, opponents might start spawning “out of thin air.”
However, there are users, like Neosteam, who believe in the project. They express opinions like: “a solo developer was able to do this, but Valve couldn’t. This is proof of how useless the developers at Valve are.”