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EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By Fremen, 28 March 2024 at 12:52 pm UTC

This is bad news, as more and more companies port their games to "kernel level anticheat" rather than linux compatible EAC or BattlEye, we will just end up having fewer playable games. Until we get kernel level EAC support in Wine, we will start losing games on linux. Very bad news. Prepare for Apex to go the way of kernel level AC too.

Nova, a Rust-based Linux driver for NVIDIA GPUs announced
By Eike, 28 March 2024 at 12:02 pm UTC

Quoting: benstor214Ok, gentlemen! Let’s have at it: What’s mesa? (serious question)

... and is it using Nouveau? Or is Nouveau a part of it?

GE-Proton 9-2 released, ULWGL gets renamed to umu (Unified Linux Wine Game Launcher)
By beko, 28 March 2024 at 11:36 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: elmapulthey lose the opportunity to call it uwu
That's what I read on first glance too 🤷

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By scaine, 28 March 2024 at 11:27 am UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: Genesis198Yeah it's this exact type of bs that made me sell my steam deck and get an ally and never look back,
This sounds angry, but perhaps at the wrong people. You're right, it is bs, but I prefer to tell EA to ram their bs, than be angry at Linux for being different from MS and not having the same anti-cheat options. EA made an explicit choice here, to exclude Linux/SteamDeck customers, even existing customers. It isn't the first time EA have flicked a finger at Valve - it's only recently that they caved on their origin-only stance and came crawling back to steam, so it's probably no surprise to see scummy moves like this from them.

I guess I can take the high road because I recognised EA for the dross it is back in the early 2010's and barely bought anything they touched for over a decade. Titanfall 2 is the primary exception. That was released in 2016, so it's real mystery why we don't have Titanfall 10 by now. I also picked up Mass Effect, mainly for sentimental reasons. Anything else I own has been through Humble Choice, so hey ho. Nothing lost there.

Nova, a Rust-based Linux driver for NVIDIA GPUs announced
By benstor214, 28 March 2024 at 11:18 am UTC Likes: 1

Ok, gentlemen! Let’s have at it: What’s mesa? (serious question)

Orange Pi Neo Linux gaming handheld starts at $499 with Ryzen 7840U, Ryzen 8840U at $599
By novhack, 28 March 2024 at 11:09 am UTC

I love that this will actually exist for a reasonable price but I am still very sceptical about the layout. I can't imagine that using those touchpads for game input can be comfortable. On the wider Steam Deck they have a much better reachable placement.

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By Termy, 28 March 2024 at 10:04 am UTC Likes: 1

It's a shame and an EAsshole move.
But as i'm boycotting EA for many years already, it fortunately doesn't really affect me. One could say "that's what you get for supporting an insufferable asshole company" ^^

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By soulsource, 28 March 2024 at 9:27 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Bogomips
Quoting: soulsource
Quoting: BogomipsAnd then making the program itself hard to decompile and analyze at runtime.
The other way 'round. Making the server side secure enough, that even if the whole game were open sourced cheating would be a non-issue.

I agree that security by obfuscation does not work but in a game it depends what we describe as secure enough.

Most of the time the server send a lot of data to the client then wait for the feedback so the cheating happen on the client side that send back a perfect hit (if we talk about FPS) then the server update the other clients.

So what should be secure? If the client data is changed directly in memory, the data itself would be ok but not the result.

We could avoid to send other players' position to the client until they are really visible (could be a huge load on the server and need a fast synchronous connection, the client cannot interpolate anything).

We could cypher and randomize the memory allocation on the client.

Or we can use AI server side to check super human behavior but sometime a lucky reflex can hit in the same area than a bot (but not in the long run indeed).

I think a lot of different tools/methods could be used together but computer resources consumption should also be kept low to be effective. The subject is vast.

Yeah, I was describing my ideal-case scenario, and it's certainly not an easy to solve problem.
If the client gets the information, the player can cheat. If the client does not get the information and has a lag spike, the player might get an unfair disadvantage as they don't see/hear a potential target in time to react...

The client would also need an approximate position in order to hear the targets, and they could still visualize that with a cheat tool to see through walls...

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By Kaarlo, 28 March 2024 at 11:08 am UTC

The best part? I spent a full year convincing my old friend to try the game, because it felt like our old stuff we used to play together. Yesterday he bought it and we played it for the very first time and it was crazy fun.


I’m not making this up, we ended the session, I went to bed, checked my phone and saw the news…


Guess I’m dualbooting windows for the first time in years then :/

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By omer666, 28 March 2024 at 6:08 am UTC Likes: 1

Bought SW Squadrons after whole decades not buying a single EA game, now I wonder if I'll be able to play it in the near future... Should have known better, I guess

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By damarrin, 28 March 2024 at 5:54 am UTC

Anti-cheat will, of course, always be necessary as long as people continue to be c**ts. I'm sure people who play Battlefield V are having a horrible experience of it.

Is creating a good server-side anticheat solution even possible?

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By based, 28 March 2024 at 5:17 am UTC

Thankfully I dont own much MP games from them, not buying anymore till I see support

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By Genesis198, 28 March 2024 at 11:08 am UTC

Yeah it's this exact type of bs that made me sell my steam deck and get an ally and never look back,

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By iHad169, 28 March 2024 at 3:34 am UTC

Proton 9.0 can repair EA anticheat?
These Microsoft puppets

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By ToddL, 28 March 2024 at 1:40 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: finaldestSo EA are breaking Steam Deck support for their back catalogue of games one by one?
Why would EA suddenly decide to add Anti Cheat to their back catalogue of old games?

I smell a big rat with that kind of behaviour.

I guess Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo has a hand in this. I guess one of them has new hardware on the way, A new handheld maybe.

I will put tinfoil away now.

Between those three, I'm picking Microsoft because of the recent rumors about them making a handheld and Nintendo can't do crap about EA because they're too busy finding other means to screw customers without resorting to kernel anti-cheat.

I guess EA took my $3.99 for this game during that sale of theirs on Steam and now, I can't play this on Steam Deck once they add this crappy anti-cheat. I just have to hope that this doesn't affect the single player portion of the game but I doubt it.

On top of that, the EA launcher is one of the worse ones out there for the Steam Deck and it tends to break so many times over that Valve has to fix it on their Proton updates.

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By Pengling, 28 March 2024 at 12:45 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: finaldestI guess Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo has a hand in this. I guess one of them has new hardware on the way, A new handheld maybe.

I will put tinfoil away now.
Nintendo does, but it wouldn't be that - EA already doesn't support their hardware properly as it is.

Maybe EA just doesn't like handhelds.

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By finaldest, 28 March 2024 at 12:33 am UTC Likes: 2

So EA are breaking Steam Deck support for their back catalogue of games one by one?
Why would EA suddenly decide to add Anti Cheat to their back catalogue of old games?

I smell a big rat with that kind of behaviour.

I guess Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo has a hand in this. I guess one of them has new hardware on the way, A new handheld maybe.

I will put tinfoil away now.

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By yndoendo, 28 March 2024 at 12:14 am UTC

Last BF game I actually played was Battlefield Bad Company 2. Tried Battlefield 3 and it was the last one purchased and tried, did not care for the new direction. Dropped EA when they started requiring their own launcher. Also preferred the larger player maps that Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare original, made it harder and more fun.

EA and Blizzard are both dying studios that are held up by their legacy and IP contracts like Star Wars, NBA, NFL,and FIFA. Marcus Lehto said it best about EA. Look forward to quality designers jumping to new studios to produce better games.

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By robvv, 27 March 2024 at 10:55 pm UTC Likes: 1

Looking through my Steam collection, I see that from EA I only have the Dragon Age & Overlord games and Alice: Madness Returns. By the looks of things, it'll stay that way too!

Nova, a Rust-based Linux driver for NVIDIA GPUs announced
By pleasereadthemanual, 27 March 2024 at 10:46 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Eike
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualYou see, it's actually really simple.

(...writes a manual...)


Quoting: Eike
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualI get the distinct feeling I'm missing something...

(Serious) question: Mesa?
Probably!

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By Kirby, 28 March 2024 at 11:07 am UTC

Quoting: ecdjWeird question maybe, but does this also affect the single player story mode?
i don't think so

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By Kuduzkehpan, 27 March 2024 at 9:50 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: dubigrasuWill the singleplayer campaign still be accessible?
i guess you can play singleplayer since game dont require anti-cheat in singleplayer campaing so far. Or you bypass it with transgaming (wine proton etc.) and play singleplayer mode.

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By Bogomips, 27 March 2024 at 9:05 pm UTC

Quoting: soulsource
Quoting: BogomipsAnd then making the program itself hard to decompile and analyze at runtime.
The other way 'round. Making the server side secure enough, that even if the whole game were open sourced cheating would be a non-issue.

I agree that security by obfuscation does not work but in a game it depends what we describe as secure enough.

Most of the time the server send a lot of data to the client then wait for the feedback so the cheating happen on the client side that send back a perfect hit (if we talk about FPS) then the server update the other clients.

So what should be secure? If the client data is changed directly in memory, the data itself would be ok but not the result.

We could avoid to send other players' position to the client until they are really visible (could be a huge load on the server and need a fast synchronous connection, the client cannot interpolate anything).

We could cypher and randomize the memory allocation on the client.

Or we can use AI server side to check super human behavior but sometime a lucky reflex can hit in the same area than a bot (but not in the long run indeed).

I think a lot of different tools/methods could be used together but computer resources consumption should also be kept low to be effective. The subject is vast.

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By Kimyrielle, 27 March 2024 at 8:32 pm UTC Likes: 7

Quoting: dpanter
Quoting: KimyrielleWon't affect me personally
And what if EA forces this crap into every title they ever published or developed? Will you be affected then? We already saw Capcom try this song and dance number, randomly breaking things because reasons.

Regardless of who is personally affected, moves like these are disasters for Linux gaming as well as the entire gaming industry. DRM is cancer, retroactively forcing it on older titles is despicable and anti-consumer to a degree most companies can't even bring themselves to think about. And then we have the "Triple A" monsters...

It would still not affect me personally. The Sims 4 was the last EA title I ever bought (and that's not exactly a new game), and I highly doubt I will ever buy another one. These guys just don't make any good games anymore...

That doesn't mean I don't agree with everything you said. ;)

Btw, it's a disaster even for Windows users. They'd be better off without a piece of malware running in the background that can get hacked and mess with their system because it has access to all of it. These things are not only morally questionable, but a security nightmare waiting to happen.

4D Golf is making my brain melt away
By no_information_here, 27 March 2024 at 8:00 pm UTC Likes: 2

Ooooh. Gonna have to try this.

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By KerrWasHere, 27 March 2024 at 7:56 pm UTC

Why not figure out how to support this on the steam deck

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By soulsource, 27 March 2024 at 7:56 pm UTC Likes: 6

Quoting: BogomipsAnd then making the program itself hard to decompile and analyze at runtime.
The other way 'round. Making the server side secure enough, that even if the whole game were open sourced cheating would be a non-issue.

No Man's Sky 4.6 'Orbital' adds starship customization and a space station overhaul
By Nezchan, 27 March 2024 at 7:51 pm UTC Likes: 4

Just logged in to take a look at the new stations, and yeah, they're quite different from the old ones. It gives more of an "active" feeling, where the aliens look like they're moving around on various errands, rather than just standing around in a nondescript waiting area full of unused seating.

Same layout for each, but the colour schemes and assorted decorations change, which is still miles better than the original design.

It was really nice to see they put the trade terminal next to the teleporter. That'll save headaches for a lot of folks.

EA anticheat arrives for Battlefield V in April, will break it on Linux / Steam Deck
By hell0, 27 March 2024 at 7:50 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: udekmp69
Quoting: KimyrielleMaybe one day the developers of shooters will figure out how to design cheat-resilience into the game itself, instead of trying to take control over their customers systems, which won't ever work.

I think they need to stop focusing on client-side and develop a decent server-side solution.

Now that's something "AI" (aka neural networks) could be useful for, rather than spitting out humongous piles of somewhat believable texts or images.