Introducing Game:ref - the anti-cheat hardware

Stopping cheaters is something we're all for - well, those of us who aren't cheaters, at least - and it's something those on the software side have been trying to eliminate for a long time now. But what about on the hardware side? A new project, just launched on Kickstarter, aims to fill that particular void when it comes to professional esports - and, hopefully, all online PC gaming.

"An easy way to understand it is by looking at how a triggerbot works," Titarenco explained to me, "The idea of a triggerbot is that the software cheat 'simulates' a mouse press when someone is in your crosshairs. But the player doesn't actually click! So with Game:ref, we can see that. This is a very simple concept that people find intuitive. Catching aim-bots is a bit more mathematically involved, but the idea is very similar. This same method applies to auto-hex cheats in DOTA2, and auto-lasthitters in League of Legends."

This is, of course, an anti-cheat solution that relies on the player using it on their machine - it doesn't detect cheating by other players. It makes sense, as it's designed for adoption by LAN tournaments (where a simple visual check can be done to make sure nobody is cheating) and professional gaming in general. Titarenco does hope, though, that Game:ref's adoption will spread to non-pro, everyday players too.

I raised a couple of potential issues - latency and Game:ref itself being flagged as a cheat device by something like VAC, but Titarenco said neither was an issue. Latency clocks in at around 200 microseconds (less than a single millisecond) and anti-cheat software simply can't detect the hardware, so no false flags can be raised.

It's an interesting idea and - if it works - is sure to be a valuable tool for professional tournaments. The opt-in nature of it means it might not be the cure-all solution for everyday play, as others can simply not use it and carry on cheating - though you get around this by having Game:ref-only matchmaking.

But then there's always the chance that committed cheaters could piece together their own passthrough hardware to counter the anti-cheat hardware so it wouldn't detect the falsified signal and oh god my brain's melted a bit. That, Titarenco admitted on Reddit, is something of an Achilles heel for the hardware - though one that only the most committed, tech-savvy and happy-to-spend cheaters would take advantage of.

Titarenco's Kickstarter sets the price of the Game:ref at $125, and he's looking for $200,000 to fund what he calls the final stages of development, with a rough release date set for July 2016. If you're looking for a much more technical explanation of the hardware, check out this blog post.