Chapter 643: Artificial Intelligence Anti-Cheat System
The issue of cheating in FPS games has always been one of the most headache-inducing problems for developers, and this remains true even on the VR platform.
The main reason lies in the game genre itself. To ensure smooth gameplay in FPS games, many solutions rely on local computing, which essentially gives cheaters room to modify data on the client side.
Although various technologies have been upgraded on the VR platform, completely eradicating the impact of cheats is still an extremely difficult task, especially in the shooting game domain.
Most game companies approach the cheating problem from a technical perspective, such as by improving their technical level to make the game itself have fewer vulnerabilities, be harder to invade, and make it easier to detect and stop programs disguised as normal software.
But after all, the cheats always find a way. As the attackers, cheat creators inherently have an advantage. Just like in many games, finding bugs is always much easier than fixing them.
Moreover, the profits from developing shooting games are enormous, so under the temptation of benefits, countless cheat creators flock to the market driven by greed.
In other games, even if an opponent is cheating, they are still constrained by the character's own attributes. But FPS games are completely different—life and death are decided in milliseconds, and cheating yields the maximum reward.
As for the famous VAC system from Chen Mo's previous life, although it was well-known, it couldn't eradicate cheats either; it only served as an auxiliary measure.
VAC essentially works by detecting anomalies in a user's memory or other hardware. After a period of time, it disables the user, making it difficult for cheat creators to determine which specific code triggered the VAC detection.
While this system has relatively high accuracy, its biggest problem is poor timeliness—it can be described as settling accounts after the fact. Obviously, for many professional cheaters, this level of ban is nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
After all, most professional cheaters have numerous accounts; they just switch to another one when one gets banned.
As for using program detection to identify cheats, this was also very difficult to achieve in Chen Mo's previous life.
Many anti-cheat systems did start by analyzing player data, but due to the low level of artificial intelligence and insufficient data, they couldn't accurately determine whether a person was cheating or simply a skilled player.
After all, the data differences between a pro and a novice are like night and day.
So, some people jokingly referred to the fair fight system in Battlefield 1 as an official anti-pro program, because the system was too unfriendly toward skilled players and often misjudged them.
Up to now, the most effective method has still been the official launch of a detection system, which is exactly what Chen Mo did before in Overwatch.
This detection system has extremely high permissions. It starts before entering the game, collects various data, monitors device processes, and hides game memory. Once it detects a program attempting to interfere with game data, it takes corresponding measures. If it encounters an unsolvable situation, it may even shut down the game directly.
Of course, in principle, this kind of ultra-high permission is essentially no different from so-called rogue plugins. The cost is that every move the user makes is fully monitored.
On one hand, it may infringe on user privacy; on the other hand, it can also reduce game smoothness to some extent.
But regardless, this is currently the most effective method.
Chen Mo understood this well, so when cheating ran rampant in Overwatch, he decisively adopted this detection program, banning relatively low-end cheats.
In chaotic times, harsh measures are necessary. Sometimes being overly cautious actually harms the players.
Moreover, VR gaming pods are different from PCs; their main function is still for playing games.
However, this system is not foolproof, just like how PC games in his previous life had mouse macros.
In the parallel world's VR games, there are similar auxiliary input devices that can fool detection programs. They can correct the player's conscious signals, allowing even those with poor aim to significantly improve their accuracy.
In response, Chen Mo's thinking returned to the starting point: could artificial intelligence be used to judge whether a player is a skilled player or a cheater?
Previous games couldn't do this because the AI level was too low. Using various data to determine a player's true skill often resulted in large errors.
But the AI of the Pangu System is already advanced enough. By filtering and detecting real data from a large number of players, it can better determine which operations resemble human behavior, thus distinguishing cheaters from skilled players.
In a sense, the Pangu System and Origin themselves are the world's top-tier cheats, capable of fully simulating human operations to the point of being indistinguishable from the real thing.
So, they would have a much clearer understanding than most humans of whether a certain operation seems like something a human would do.
Therefore, Chen Mo's plan is as follows: First, use a large amount of data to provide the Pangu System with corresponding review standards, allowing the AI to grasp the habitual behaviors of humans in the game and the associated probability data.
Second, certain nodes in the game, such as when a player's kill count exceeds eight or when they get a chicken dinner, trigger detection. At that point, the system checks whether the data transmitted by the player throughout the entire game is abnormal. If anomalies are found, the player is added to the suspect list.
Of course, players who are frequently reported will also be reviewed.
Additionally, special situations in the game data will trigger AI alerts. For example, if a player's aim consistently locks onto an enemy's neck or waist, and the data significantly exceeds normal values, it will also trigger detection.
For confirmed cheaters, the punishment varies depending on the type of cheat.
For special cheats like health locking, wallhacks, plane destruction, or gravity manipulation, the player will be permanently banned directly. These cheats have no acting skills and no deceptive quality—they are too low-end to keep around.
Furthermore, for players using micro-aimbots or assisted aiming, Chen Mo has a malicious joke waiting for them.
First, these players will face immediate punishment within the current game. An AI enforcer will spawn in a hidden location in the game and kill the player on the spot.
After that, the player will have a hidden cheater tag in the system. When they queue up again, they will only be matched with other cheaters, essentially entering a dedicated cheat server.
The cheat server looks exactly like a normal server, but all the players inside are using cheats, and it is filled with a large number of AI bots.
Since these cheating players are all "acting" cheaters using micro-aimbots, they won't quickly realize they've entered a cheat server.
Genius remembers this site's address in one second: