A rumor concerning the secret workings of Ubisoft’s newest Rainbow Six Siege anti-cheat system has begun to provide the brand new tactic a heroic aura on the web. The declare going around on Twitter (opens in new tab) is that Ubisoft is doing one thing deviously easy: updating the Rainbow Six Siege executable each two hours, forcing cheat makers to maintain up with an limitless treadmill of cheat-breaking modifications.
There are causes to doubt the specifics of that clarification, however one anti-cheat professional tells PC Gamer that it really is a viable anti-cheat technique. And even when Siege is not really being reborn each two hours, one thing related could also be occurring.
Ubisoft said final week (opens in new tab) that it is making an attempt out a brand new anti-cheat method on PC, however to keep away from giving cheat makers any hints, the corporate will not say the way it works. The proof for the ‘new construct each two hours’ declare comes from posts in a cheat makers’ discussion board in addition to SteamDB logs, which do present that Rainbow Six Siege’s Steam information are being up to date with shocking frequency.
One poster on that cheat maker’s discussion board describes the system in a different way, nevertheless. Ubisoft is not sending each Siege participant a brand new executable each two hours, they are saying, however as a substitute created a bunch of distinctive executables just a few weeks in the past and has began distributing them to gamers randomly. The precept is analogous: Life will get more durable for skilled cheat-makers as a result of every of their clients could now have a barely completely different model of the sport. A Siege dataminer also says (opens in new tab) that that is what’s occurring.
Paul Chamberlain (opens in new tab), former anti-cheat lead on Valorant and now head of a startup sport studio known as New Avalon (opens in new tab), tells me that the brand new builds each two hours thought is “an honest technique,” however could be “actually time consuming for a developer.”
“I believe we do not see this system from sport builders fairly often because of the operational complexity, however I believe it may very well be efficient,” Chamberlain stated. “Even when it does not fully stop dishonest it does make it harder and costly to make cheats and raises the talent ground required for brand new cheat builders to deal with the sport.”
In the event you needed to go all out, nevertheless, it might be even higher to provide every participant their very own distinctive model of the sport, “since that’d be the utmost quantity of effort for cheat builders to maintain up with,” stated Chamberlain. As interesting as it’s to think about a RainbowSix.exe manufacturing facility that spits out a brand new model each two hours, that context does make the opposite clarification sound extra possible: Ubisoft made a bunch of distinctive Siege builds (if not going as far as to make one per participant) after which distributed them randomly.
Each concepts are interesting for his or her simplicity. Cheaters preserve choosing your locks? Simply throw new locks at them till they’re buried in them. You do not want technical data to grasp that, and it sounds delightfully like a Sisyphean punishment for cheat makers. Sadly, cheat builders can write instruments that assist them adapt, Chamberlain says, so no matter Ubisoft doing is not going to be the One Easy Trick that thwarts them ceaselessly. (We are able to dream, although!)
Ubisoft says it is “assured” in its new anti-cheat technique, which was developed over current months. The system has reportedly damaged Siege stat trackers, although, and Ubisoft hasn’t stated whether or not or not these benign third-party overlays will probably be usable sooner or later. The writer has already stated it will not expose specifics about its anti-cheat strategies, however I’ve requested for touch upon the overlay situation.