Riot wants to "revolutionize" the fight against cheaters with his Free2Play first-person shooter Valorant. We have already reported on the controversial anti-cheat Vanguard, but even more exciting could be the so-called »Fog of War«, which specifically targets wallhacks.
But how does Riots Anti-Wallhack work? And is it really as revolutionary as advertised by Riot?
What are wallhacks?
A wallhack makes obstacles almost transparent, making enemies visible in certain areas or across the map. This means that the victim of the theater has no use hiding behind coverings, for example. Knowing their position is considered by many to be the most powerful of all cheats.
What is the Fog of War?
Riots anti-cheat chief developer Paul "Arkem" Chamberlain commented on the so-called "Fog of War" in a very detailed blog post. In short: In order to effectively kill wallhacks, the game server simply does it no position data of playersthat are not actually visible are sent to the client. This gives the eponymous "war fog".
What initially sounds very simple and logical, however, presented the developers with some obstacles in practice. For example, ways had to be found to …
- … to guarantee the instant visibility of an opponentas soon as it comes into view again. With competitive games like Valorant, very high demands are made here, since any delay can be crucial and unfair advantages or disadvantages.
- … not to affect the performance too much. So that the game can decide when the position data of a visible opponent is to be transmitted to the client, the field of vision of the player must be constantly checked. In a game that works on the server side with 128 Hertz, a lot of data to be processed in real time quickly comes together. In addition to visual impressions, acoustic, such as movement noises, must also be included.
According to Chamberlain, however, various fine adjustments have succeeded in solving all problems and even negligibly influencing the performance (in the region of 2 percent).
more on the subject
Anti-Cheat in Valorant: Why fans fear it, but Riot holds on to it
How revolutionary is the Fog of War?
The idea of not transferring unnecessary position data and thereby making wallhacks practically useless is completely new, but not. In 2004, the HLGuard (Half Life 1 Engine Guard) was replaced by the so-called WH Block (Wallhack Block) expanded.
It is based on the same principles as the Fog of War and was even made mandatory for the Counter Strike Ladder by the ESL in 2005 introduced.
The HLGuard (version 1.9) was last updated in 2010. However, there is no more recent information on the state of development and whether this or a similar technology is still used. It would always make sense, but a lot also depends on the Feasibility in the respective game engine from.
For example, Chamberlain was initially not at all sure whether the Fog of War, which is actually borrowed from League of Legends, can actually be implemented in the Unreal Engine on which Valorant is based.
