What does rFactor 2 have for cheat protection?

Yes and it is already fixed. It was fixed a few days after it was discovered. We just have to wait for the next public build.

 

@aguy0523: i don't say that you or someone else, that tells us he saw a cheater,is telling us a fairy tale here.

But just 1 point: i remember people lagging so massively, that it sometimes looked, as if the cars would jump 50 meters in front.
And that and some other things, make me being VERY careful before i name someone a cheater.

And a replay is always a good way to show things. I didn't expect the someone has switched the replay option to "off".

 

Like Noel wrote last page, the more information that can be gathered the best. Don't be put off by those jumping at your neck.
Your computer should have the replay saved and that could be uploaded or you could record a brief video.

 

I found it donkeys before that at least a couple of weeks.

Not one person listened to me

and what does that say for Beta Testers ?

 

In other words, you got lucky and someone happened to join your server cheating. Beta testers don't go looking for how to cheat this and that way, it's not part of the testing process.

 

You say you reported it but I never saw any clear bug report from you anywhere. Just a very cryptic message about someone joining your server with a fast car and your signature lolp or whatever it is you end your posts with.

There are some aspects of rF2 that are tricky to test. It isn't like there is an ISI "league" where there is a constant flow of vmods with an updated component here and there. Also, say there was a 0.98 component and a 1.0 vmod... then a week later there is a 0.981 component with VERY minimal physics changes and a new 1.1 vmod. A tester could join and get the new vmod and content but not even realize they are actually still on the old physics because the physics change was so small it was almost undetectable. Once the build went public it didn't take long to notice the problem because VEC made some very noticeable changes that impacted top speed which was very easy to spot.

Next time you think you have found a bug. Make a thread for it and be a little more descriptive. It may actually be seen by the testers or devs. Also, don't forget that you are on a lot of ignore lists. So an official bug report thread would probably be more visible.

Also, bug reports belong here:
http://isiforums.net/f/forumdisplay.php/143-Bug-Reports

 

This.

 

Single player mode

 

Truth be told Noel, We dont have enough online players to really root out these exploits/Hacks quickly. Luckily, the player base we have is quite adept at finding them in a reasonable amount of time. If we had more people online we would see the issues quicker... of course we may also have more people crying about the other issues.

 

Just wondering, what kind of checks are in place to ensure that the client is operating with the same track state and weather as the server?

 

I think the thread you started on this pretty much ended up with the right conclusion.

You won't get specific answers, either by choice or because no one who knows (ie worked on the code) is going to come here and answer, but it's been made clear that various forms of cheating are on ISI's map as something to stop, and I'm sure any sort of weather exploits would be included. And having said that, without wind and air pressure working yet it's really down to realroad determining how rubbered up and wet/dry the track is, because that's the only effect weather has on performance anyway. And apart from the obvious join delay with realroad updating (which is worse on long tracks, which also means you can't set a time as early... so you can't take advantage of any difference...) I don't think there have been any reports of accidental incorrect RR, and again I'm sure ISI has put stuff in place to stop people fiddling with it on the client side.

 

The server checks the client for matching files, you can't change anything in a mas and get in a server. As far as I know the server dictates the weather and the car files respond how the car is written to respond to those conditions, you would have to change the car files for that to work and as I said they are checked. I would imagine most of it is hinged upon that system of checks. I too doubt they are going to discuss the in's and out's of it in public. Why would they...

Besides... We all know that anyone who is faster than me cheats.

 

This is true, I use the same method

 

Anti cheat systems are within the game features. Mas file signature to avoid people altering original components among those.

As every feature it needs to be properly tested.

Enviado desde mi GT-I9505 mediante Tapatalk

 

I have this thing I say, don't know where I got it...

It doesn't matter if they're cheating, what matters is if everyone believes they are cheating.

People won't keep showing up to race someone who they believe is cheating. It can destroy a league...

It's important for a league to have the confidence of it's drivers that they are in control of the events and the technology.

 

An established league with identifiable drivers is already a good deterrent, because if you're caught cheating you really have to pack your bags and start somewhere else... and if you're again identifiable you'll probably have a now bad reputation to recover.

But leagues have to put their own stuff in place in the long term, it's the only way. You can't rely on a third party tool to check cheating, because the more popular such a tool becomes the bigger a target it is to break. But unless there are big prizes involved I don't see a need to go that far yet - there just isn't the evidence of cheating (or tools) around to make it worthwhile. Of course at some point there will be, same with any game, and then you have to take action. ISI probably will for quite a while yet with new builds anyway.

I agree though - there are a lot more accusations of cheating than there are actual cheats. It can be hard to believe someone else is 'driving the same' (same car, using the same gears through corners) and going 3s a lap faster, but that's how it is. Small differences add up to a big gap, especially along straights.

 

Agreed, and I think one of the best tools a league can use is race reviews. Watching them race full fuel runs and looking for tire fall off, lap times etc. While doing so your steward/judge will get to see if the driver knows what he's doing or is just tossing it around. Stewards or Judges also lend credibility to the event and make others feel more at ease. They need to have the tools to see all that info and the ability to know how. Then there's the fact that it takes for ever to review races for full grid fields... It's a bit too massive an undertaking for just a few people even and those that do attempt will likely give up soon after.

Myself, I don't worry much about it... Don't know that I've actually ever seen one... You know, a real one. I know they exist... I've seen some guys come in the server and do 400mph laps, but never seen someone really caught hacking.

 

There are some VERY good tools for cheating. I was able to locate the offsets for some of the pitmenu items in literally 10mins. I was able to use the tool to select what tires I wanted for a pitstop. The goal was to make a plugin for remote pitmenu access but scrapped the idea because I wasn't interested in updating the plugin after each new build. Plug Terence gave us official pitmenu access in the plugin API now. But this tool I am referring to is very well designed and makes it very easy to find offsets for cheating. Obviously I am not going to post a link to the tool but it's not at all hard to find on your own.

After so quickly locating offsets with this tool I am now fully confident that cheating is really happening. Maybe not widespread but definitely out there. The best cheat protection rF2 has is the fact that we get a new build every 2 months or so. Each time a new build is released you have to relocate the offsets. The thing is, some offsets are easy to find. So once you find one of those the other offsets can use that as the base. Assuming there weren't some other significant changes in the build.

 

I thought nobody plays this game but yet cheating is a problem? Strange to say the least.

 

I meant rF2 specific tools (ie a program you run that does stuff for you). I don't think it's good to go into details, but finding and reading a value is very different to changing a value and having it accepted, which I would suspect is where most anti-cheat work would be concentrated. Encrypting or constantly moving live values wouldn't be good for performance.