Epic Games Announces Linux Support for Easy Anti-Cheat

[Uskompuf]

When Valve claimed that their Linux-powered Steam Deck device would be able to run any game from the Steam library most of us assumed this was simply a statement on the power of the device. We assumed that the Linux OS wouldn't be compatible with certain games such as those using Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) or BattlEye however Valve confirmed that they would work with the companies to add support. This has culminated in Epic Games recently introducing Linux & Mac support for their EAC software noting the Steam Deck in their announcement.

The addition of Linux support has been specifically designed to work with the Wine and Proton compatibility layers to ensure that all games using the software should run correctly. This will mean that titles such as Apex Legends, Dead by Daylight, War Thunder, 7 Days to Die, Fall Guys, Black Desert, Hunt: Showdown, Paladins, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection can now be easily updated to include Linux support. The rival BattlEye software isn't currently available for Linux but the CEO has confirmed that support will be added with the first game featuring it coming soon. These moves will drastically improve the Linux gaming landscape and will hopefully encourage more developers to natively support the platform.



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[Darmok N Jalad]

Curious if Bungee will get on board. I believe attempting to run Destiny 2 through Proton will get you banned, and I believe it's all just tied up in whatever Anti-cheat they use. Nice to see progress continuing here. Many of the reasons to not use Linux are really starting to diminish over time. It's not even hard setting up a distro anymore. It's as easy as any other OS these days.

 

[Keslo]

Hooray, Chinese spyware now on Linux

 

[XiGMAKiD]

This will mean that titles such as... Paladins,

It's been a while since I heard that game, last time I played the queue was minutes long. Fall Guys would be nice to have on linux

 

[InhaleOblivion]

Nice to see the effects of SteamDeck already bearing fruit prior to it's release. Why miss out on that potential revenue? Now it's confirmed I can play BDO on the go. Smart move Epic.

 

[bobsled]

Hopefully this slaps Microsoft hard enough that they stop their Windows market share for granted. If gamers could use Linux easily, Windows wouldn't retain such a foothold on the desktop PC market.

And yes, I use Windows as a daily. Microsoft have just become apathetic.

 

[Chomiq]

Better question would be:
"Would you consider switching your OS from Windows to Linux for primary gaming PC?"

 

[N3utro]

Better question would be:
"Would you consider switching your OS from Windows to Linux for primary gaming PC?"

We already know the answer

 

[Vayra86]

Better question would be:
"Would you consider switching your OS from Windows to Linux for primary gaming PC?"

I've been considering it for twenty years.

 

[dir_d]

Better question would be:
"Would you consider switching your OS from Windows to Linux for primary gaming PC?"

If they get me Proper HDR and VRR for my LGc1 and 3080TI then i will 100% move.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
One of the silliest things I've ran into is linux asking what I want to do when clicking on a .txt file
You'd thing display would be a normal thing a person would want to do with one lol

Gaming should be a piece of cake.

 

[R-T-B]

Hi,
One of the silliest things I've ran into is linux asking what I want to do when clicking on a .txt file
You'd thing display would be a normal thing a person would want to do with one lol

Gaming should be a piece of cake.

It's because old school linux used magic bytes and not extensions to identify files.

Modern distros will use either.

 

[qlum]

Just a note, easy anti cheat has had linux support for a long time, what's new here is that it will also work under Wine (a compatibility layer to run windows program's on linux)

 

[efikkan]

Anti-cheating software has never worked, and never will. No matter how much surveillance they add on a system, someone can just use a second computer to analyze the display output and create the desired mouse/keyboard inputs.
The only way to ensure there is no cheating is to control the hardware (e.g. in a tournament). Otherwise, there will always be a risk of someone cheating.

This anti-cheating software is just malware, and people should avoid it. Gaming should be fun, but if you can't deal with the possibility of cheating, then play a different game, or none at all.

 

[qlum]

Anti-cheating software has never worked, and never will. No matter how much surveillance they add on a system, someone can just use a second computer to analyze the display output and create the desired mouse/keyboard inputs.
The only way to ensure there is no cheating is to control the hardware (e.g. in a tournament). Otherwise, there will always be a risk of someone cheating.

This anti-cheating software is just malware, and people should avoid it. Gaming should be fun, but if you can't deal with the possibility of cheating, then play a different game, or none at all.

Anti cheat does not exist to completely prevent cheating as you say, however it does greatly reduce the number of cheaters. If only for being able to target publically available cheats, everyone can access for free. I do agree that they are very intrusive by design and am not a fan of them. That said, I would rather play with terrible client side anti-cheat, than with no measures against cheaters whatsoever.

However, it is much better to detect cheats from the server side, sure it adds overhead to running the server, but a lot of cheats can be detected simply by analyzing the data send to the server.
Someone making unrealistic / unreasonable inputs can be detected quite well, designing an aim bot around that is somewhat difficult. For example.

Client side anti-cheat is basically like an anti-virus, overly intrusive and definitely not the best place to work.

 

[sgarnarite]

Better question would be:
"Would you consider switching your OS from Windows to Linux for primary gaming PC?"

I did, in 2012. You can't always play what the windows people are playing but there's never been a shortage of things to do. There's 800 games in my steam library, enough for several lifetimes.

 

[josephnunn]

As a Steam gamer on Linux for several years the number 1 problem with gaming on Steam on Linux is you can't play multiplayer games with people on Windows platform. This issue single-handedly hard stops Linux from being a viable gaming platform for just about any game of widespread multiplayer interest.

Any and all other improvements to Steam on Linux will not help the gaming situation there until this issue is resolved.

Joseph

 

[efikkan]

However, it is much better to detect cheats from the server side, sure it adds overhead to running the server, but a lot of cheats can be detected simply by analyzing the data send to the server.
Someone making unrealistic / unreasonable inputs can be detected quite well, designing an aim bot around that is somewhat difficult. For example.

Multiplayer games usually works by either sending events or some kind of state to the server. Verifying this on the server side is normal practice, not just for cheating, but to ensure integrity. But the limits of this verification is to see whether it falls within the legal perimeters. So it can't separate between real user input or an aim bot generating "valid" input.

When it comes to performance and analysis, the challenge here is not overheating or overloading the server, but delaying the server tick. The server has to guarantee to complete a new state by every tick (could be 30 Hz, 60 Hz or higher), failing to do so may break the game.

Client side anti-cheat is basically like an anti-virus, overly intrusive and definitely not the best place to work.

This is the part that is completely useless.
There is also the chance of false positives, violated privacy and negatively impacted performance.

 

[ThrashZone]

It's because old school linux used magic bytes and not extensions to identify files.

Modern distros will use either.

Hi,
Hard to refer to anything as magic about linux lol

 

[efikkan]

Hi,
Hard to refer to anything as magic about linux lol

It's actually called magic bytes, even though it sounds silly.