The main functionality of cheats in online multiplayer games

In the esports and online multiplayer gaming industries, the battle between anti-cheat developers and third-party software creators has been ongoing for decades. Understanding the underlying functionality of cheats is essential not only for their development but also for creating effective protection systems. This article examines the main categories of functions in modern gaming software and the mechanisms by which they impact gameplay.

Automation of game mechanics

This category includes functions that perform actions that require high reaction speed or precision.

• Aimbot: Automatically aims the sight at the enemy.
  • Legit Bot: Simulates human movements, has smoothness (Smooth) and field of view (FOV) settings.
  • Rage Bot: Instantly locks onto the nearest target, often ignoring walls (if equipped with Wallhack).
• Triggerbot: Automatically fires when the player's crosshairs touch the enemy's hitbox.
• Recoil Control System (RCS): Compensates for weapon recoil by automatically moving the cursor in the direction opposite to the recoil vector.

Visual features in cheats (ESP and Wallhack)

The functions in this group allow the player to obtain information that is hidden by the game engine or obstacles.

• Wallhack (WH): Rendering player models through walls. This can be achieved through texture substitution or intercepting rendering commands.
• ESP (Extra Sensory Perception): Displaying text or graphic information over the game world.
  • Box/Skeleton: Frames or "skeletons" of characters.
  • Distance/HP: Distance to the enemy and his health level.
  • Snaplines: Lines from the center of the screen to players for quick detection.

Network Data and Physics Manipulation (Exploits)

The most dangerous category, exploiting vulnerabilities in client-server architecture.

• FlyHack: A cheat that allows the player to ignore gravity and move along the Z (height) coordinate axis.
• NoClip: Disabling collision calculations, which allows passing through walls and textures.
• Devsupport (Developer Support): Emulating developer privileges. This is a specific feature that allows you to activate the server's built-in debugging tools. This can include "god mode" (invulnerability) or forcibly disabling character rendering for other players.
• Magic Bullet: A method whereby the server forcibly transfers the bullet's impact point to the enemy's coordinates, even if the shot's trajectory was different.

Methods for bypassing game protection using cheats

To ensure that the above functionality remains unnoticed, the following are used:

• Kernel-level drivers: The cheat operates at the OS kernel level (Ring 0), which allows it to hide from most anti-cheats.
• Injectors: Programs for introducing cheat codes into the game process.
• External Overlay: Drawing visual functions on top of the game window to prevent anti-cheat from recording changes in the process's memory.