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Comment by JoshTriplett

15 hours ago

Wallhacks depend on the server giving the client information the client shouldn't have.

You will find that competitive games already attempt's this, but it's impossible to eliminate entirely.

I can move and reveal what's behind a corner a lot faster than a network roundtrip, so either the server needs to give some advance warning or you're going to see enemies pop into existence suddenly.

And computing if somebody is almost visible isn't trivial either. Level geometry can have narrow openings such as holes in a wall. Or what if somebody jumps?

And that's before getting into non visual information. It's not perfect, but you could still add a significant advantage by drawing the exact location of footsteps.

So yeah, (some) games try, but network latency means the client needs some information a wallhack can use, and the alternative: being killed by an enemy that was invisible is at least as frustrating as being killed by a cheater so the visibility estimate has to be generous.

  • Additionally these games usually have dynamic shadows, and some even fully dynamic lighting. Good luck predicting where those could end up within a network round trip.