Policy on injectors ? And a little introduction to them.

Since FXAA cames out, I've been using injectors with every game I played.

What's an injector ? For those who don't know it's a very small bunch of dll and stuff you put in the exe directory of the game you intend to play with. They provide top notch anti aliasing and various visual tweaks at the cost of 1 or 2 fps on most up to date rigs, except with those who also add ambiant occlusion off course.

My favorite tweak is by far "sharpness". You would'nt believe the amount of games that have blurry textures; by applying the sharpness filter you make them clearer, prettier, and reduce your eye strain a lot. It's like putting on correctives glasses for the first time.

Most famous injectors are FXAA and SMAA, wich are aslo used as the backbone of various enhanced packs, such as Sweet FX or enB injector.

GTA4 and Skyrim players are familiar with them, giving those game a second life trough unbelievable graphics.
Here's what I did with them:

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1358761273-tesv-2011-11-19-15-04-06-76.jpg
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1358761677-tesv-2011-11-20-14-13-05-38.jpg
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1358761729-tesv-2011-11-18-15-10-42-02.jpg

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1358761790-gtaiv-2012-11-13-12-21-49-70.jpg
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1358761828-gtaiv-2012-11-13-12-10-01-53.jpg
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1358761860-gtaiv-2012-11-16-19-40-58-01.jpg

Nice uh ?

But those are extremly moddable game, on most multi games, injector just enhance nicely the overall graphic quality. For exemple, my BF3 looks like this:

OFF: http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1358763155-bf3-2013-01-21-11-10-01-63.jpg

ON: http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1358763060-bf3-2013-01-21-11-09-59-49.jpg


SO.
It would be hard to consider this as an unfair advantage or a cheat, even if I have to admit it sure help a bit to spot enemies without having your eyes bleeding because of ugly blurry textures. But, hey, pro fps players already play at 800*600 with every settings on low. This gives a far more undoubtable advantage, but can't be considered as a cheat.

Injectors doesn't affect game files in any way, and I've never heard of anyone getting banned. Punkbuster maybe kicked one or two players a few years ago, but it has been fixed and PB admin stated that injectors are legit and will never get you in trouble.

TLDR I'd be very pleased if a Relic's official acknowledge the fact that many player use injector, and make sure that the anticheat they choose for COH2 wont false positive on them.

Have a nice day !

you have examples of this for COH1? Looks nice!

It sure does !

Though, those GTA and Skyrim screens also involve various other mod/texture pack. But the BF3 screen is quite self explanatory, and it's even better in motion in game.

Sorry, no screen for COH1 and i've desinstalled it (bouh). If you want to try it by yourself, I higly recommand the SweetFx pack http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/sweetfx_shader_suite_download.html

It comes with rather neutral presets but you'll see a clear difference.

Scroll lock touch for on/off
#define sharp_strength inside SweetFX_settings.txt to define the amount of sharpness added.

thanks for the link.
it looks different, but saying its "much better" is a stretch.
for an RTS game i do not know if the additional clarity is worth the cost in FPS.
these enhanced graphics do nothing for viewing the minimap.

it definitely offers more options to competitive players though and is worth experimenting with...

its not a "slam dunk" that i'd use it all the time.

my guess is taht THQ and Relic consider dll injection techniques a violation of the license agreement.

I would agree with Tychus. To me, the difference isn't enough to make up for the FPS loss.

Normally FPS loss is about none, wich is quite incredible considering the quality of the antialiasing they provide, especially SMAA.

Strange you're experiencing noticeable FPS loss, it runs so well on my "reasonnably powerful" rig; I assumed It could works pretty flawlessly on any PC.

About the results you get I'm sorry they didn't pleased you enough, but again, sweetFX without tweaking comes with very neutral presets.
So, not a surprise if you don't see a clear improvement.

I'll post screenshots as soon as I'll get my hand on COH2 and figured out some fine tweaks
Maybe it wont need them, but I've yet to find a game that can't be improved in some way or another, at least according to personnal tastes.

I'm not very worried about the legal outcome of using them; again, nobody as far as I know has ever been banned nor repeatedly kicked of a game because he used injectors.

I've been lead to believe that they do not act like cheats for the game's code, wich they don't interfere with anyway, and that anticheat company are well aware of that.

COH2 will probably be my top game for the next years, so I just wanted to sort this out 100% sure with the competent authorithies I've seen hang around here lately.

PS: and btw I've been using FXAA for years in COH1, so no risk at all with him.

well with injections you can also hack the game. No idea if there is a possibility to distinguish between hacks and graphical tweakings.

Screens look nice though

It does not modify any game files either on disk or in memory.
Instead it uses a custom Direct3D runtime dll which the most DirectX games will call.

And

it'll be interesting to see how far various publishers allow the thin end of the wedge to be inserted between their game and the intended UI experience.

hopefully, TribalBob or someone from Relic can add something useful here.

i bet big time event promoters ( MLG, ProLeague) play it safe just give it blanket "no".

... Almost forgot to add that FXAA is now officialy supported by nVidia. You can check in your driver settings, there is a lign for it.

Am I the only one who actually dislike the result? It's mostly becoming cartoon-ish with fake colors, not more realistic.

Am I the only one who actually dislike the result? It's mostly becoming cartoon-ish with fake colors, not more realistic.

+1

Am I the only one who actually dislike the result? It's mostly becoming cartoon-ish with fake colors, not more realistic.

I completely agree. "More contrast" doesn't make things automatically look better. And sharpening especially does some pretty crazy shit to the image that I don't like at all in a lot of cases.

Old news. Isn't this exactly the same thing what Pfuscher has done for months now, for CoH?

HD textures ? No it's not the same.

FXAA has been around for a while now, and many games have it.

Sharpness DOES fix what I hate most in anti-aliased games: stuff starts to look blurry (because that is precisely what it is supposed to do).

Adding contrast and other graphical tweaks can also be considered cheating by some people. Why? It allows you to see the game, in a way that was unintended by the developers. When SC2 began, there were rumors that playing with the settings on lower settings allowed you to "pop out" stealthed units. Sure, you still can't attack them directly, but its an edge many consider unfair.

Players were getting banned in BF3 for using those and color tweaks. Stupid I know but they still were. I am pretty sure DICE said they did not want people using them.

-> Not true.

They didn't ban anyone for modifying colours with injectors.
They banned those who tweaked the game's file.

With this http://bf3.realmware.co.uk/colour-tweaker/

Administrators should be aware that posts of this nature constitute a probe of
the attack surface of the application.

Code injection is an invasive modification or addition to the application's
private program space. Once inside the target process, injected code will
already have bypassed walls against external threats. It will have full access
to all internal information, and could easily transfer that to any device, the
existence of which the sorry 'Screenshotter' program is not even aware.

The idea that such extreme measures should be needed to mess with simple
graphics settings, is madness. By gaining acceptance for injectors, you open the
floodgates for all the evils in the universe. It is highly unlikely that anyone
pushing this subject has any interest in small insignificant graphics settings.
If you believe in that, go play with the nvidia control panel for two hours to
make your game look "better".

If Relic under Sega aims to be serious about competitive multiplayer, they
should care about their application's integrity. External programs can detect
specific threats, like anti-virus do. But as any CoH strategist would know, you
don't want to be in a position where you are reacting to the enemy's moves. A
new threat comes out, and works until it is identified. Hostile buys a new game
key once they go cheap, and makes a slightly modified version. Endless pain.

The people who are best positioned to verify the integrity of the application's
internal space, are the people who made it. They know what's supposed to be in
there, and not. If they didn't already do so, Relic can protect CoH2 against
entire categories of threats by studying and implementing application security and
integrity. Like Microsoft did with Patchguard.

An absolute ban on injected code goes without saying, but it takes some effort
to detect it. Not that much effort really, once you know the APIs.

Obviously, some programs like Steam, and certain advanced firewalls, may need to
inject, but in those cases the DLLs will be digitally signed by a serious
company.

Stuff like "by gaining acceptance for injectors, you open the floodgates for all the evils in the universe" is overstating the point a little bit. But I definitely agree with what you're generally saying.