Valve Anti-Cheat

Valve Anti -Cheat (VAC ) is a software that was integrated by the game company Valve in the multiplayer component of their games. Its purpose is to detect so-called cheaters in online games, and exclude them from the games. VAC uses for different methods, also called Detections. These detections behave similarly to virus definitions antivirus engines and will always reloaded at the start of an Internet game. Here, VAC focused primarily on the executable game files and program libraries.

The release of Half-Life 2 in November 2004, Valve announced an update for VAC with the name VAC 2. Approximately one year after the announcement of the final version was released.

Principle of operation

If a player is cheating on a secure server with VAC, his Steam account for more games is disabled on VAC secured servers. This lock is only true for games with the same engine. If, for example, in Counter -Strike 1.6 ( which uses the GoldSrc engine) was deceived, still can in Counter -Strike: Source ( Source Engine ) will be played on secure servers. To keep the cheaters in the dark, which cheat the blocking has been triggered, and so that other scammers can not be warned, the lock shall enter into force only after a few days or weeks. The lock is permanent and will be reversed under any circumstances.

Criticism

VAC ( 2) is criticized due to the large distances between updates, as these are crucial for the effectiveness of the system.