Cheating has always been the bane of developers and online players. It removes the skill and luck factors that allow ordinary people to enjoy an online match.

Currently, developers combat cheat engines by looking at and ensuring the integrity of game files. However, with the development of AI and machine learning, cheating can now take place off-PC.

With these new cheating technologies, what are the implications for first-person shooter (FPS) games and gaming in general? And what can game developers do to mitigate it? Let's investigate.

What’s the Deal With FPS Cheating?

Cheating in games, especially in FPS, isn’t new. Over the past few years, there have been issues where gamers, even professional ones, have cheated while playing. And while cheaters have made some games bad and unenjoyable, developers do find ways to stop them.

Traditionally, a person cheating in online multiplayer games by modifying the game files. Cheat engines scan your computer’s memory for the related game’s files. It will then make changes to those files to give you an unfair advantage.

Further recent developments in cheating see software acting as a low-level graphics driver between the game and the actual GPU to hide walls. Other advanced cheat engines inject themselves into the computer’s memory to modify raw code.

However, almost all cheat engines have one thing in common: they modify files or data in your computer. Developers prevent cheating by deploying anti-cheat measures. This software can detect changes in your system, stop cheat engine processes, and monitor your computer’s memory to prevent cheating.

And as cheat makers create new systems, developers frequently update the anti-cheat software to counter these unknown threats.

One popular cheat is the aimbot, where the cheat engine will automatically point your gun at an enemy. This gives the cheater an almost infinite advantage. Because no matter how far or how hidden the enemy player is, they will get detected and shot as soon as they enter the player’s screen.

These aimbots run via cheat engines on your computer. So if an anti-cheat software scans your system, there’s a high possibility of it getting detected.

However, there’s a new kind of cheat engine that is virtually undetectable.

The Rise of AI and Machine Learning in Cheat Engines

Many people know you could use another computer to capture your game. In fact, many streamers use this setup, where they play games on one computer and then capture their screen on another. This lets them stream their screen without losing processing power.

Cheat engine developers then harnessed this tool to create the ultimate aimbot. They use a capture card attached to another computer to record the cheater’s screen. They then used computer vision, advanced AI, and a machine learning program to process the visual data and monitor your screen for enemies.

Once it detects targets, it will then send input commands, similar to mouse and keyboard signals, to lock in your sights. So instead of sitting in your system, the cheat runs on an independent computer. And since the signal it returns to the cheater’s computer is no different from other peripherals, there’s no way anti-cheat systems can detect it.

An Aggressive Response to Cheat Engines

In July 2021, Activision, the publisher of some of the biggest FPS games, like Call of Duty: Warzone, shut down a cheat developer in less than a week since it was revealed they created a machine learning cheat. Although there are no details on how Activision did it, the programmer of the cheat released this statement on their website:

Team,

This statement was not required.

However, at the request of Activision Publishing, Inc (“Activision”), I will no longer be developing or providing access to software that could be used to exploit their games. My intent was never to do anything illegal. At the end of the video that brought so much attention to this project, it stated “coming soon”. The software was never published.

This type of technology has other actual assistive benefits, for example, by pointing a webcam at yourself you could control movement without the use of limbs. Unfortunately, because of its potential negative impact I will not be developing it further.

As of today, the cheat developer’s website is unreachable. And Activision has also taken all other potential sources down.

Can We Stop the Cheats?

An idea, once born and propagated, will never go away. And while Activision acted quickly and stopped that particular aimbot, almost anyone with the knowledge of AI and deep learning can recreate it.

After all, the premise of the aimbot, which is detecting targets, doesn't differ from the ones in cameras and self-driving cars. And although this cheat can be expensive to implement, it’s pretty simple to use if you have the right equipment.

All you need is a secondary device to run the aimbot, a capture card to allow the secondary system to monitor your gaming PC, and a controller emulator to send signals back to your gaming PC. If you have all these, you can go to town and pick off your adversaries like shooting fish in a barrel.

One way to counter this is for anti-cheat companies to utilize machine learning as well. They can measure a player’s movements to see if it’s humanly impossible to accomplish. After all, humans aren’t exact. Our movements have variations, and our response times differ from moment to moment.

So if a player moves like clockwork, then there’s a high chance that they’re cheating. However, this is easier said than done. And they also have to consider what would happen if the aimbot program learns to add variations in its movements like a human.

Is the FPS Genre Dying?

Cheats have been around as long as games have been. And game developers have been fighting against it, even as far back as 2002, when Valve released the first anti-cheat software for Counter-Strike.

As computers become more powerful and machine learning becomes smarter, game developers will have their work cut out for them. They have to detect machine learning cheats done off-system before they become prevalent.

If they do nothing, they risk having their games overrun with cheaters. This makes their game unenjoyable, which could lead to people quitting FPS altogether.

We could only hope that game developers stop and mitigate the damage AI cheating could do. Activision’s quick and decisive action has made FPS games safe from undetectable aimbots, allowing us to continue enjoying FPS games. At least for now.