How does DMA cheating work? To create a cheat, access to the game's memory is required because it contains all the necessary information, such as the locations of enemies and the player. This information can be used to draw enemies from a two-dimensional perspective on the screen. If someone is shot, their health changes in the game's memory, which is crucial for everything.
By using DMA cheating, a DMA board can be inserted into the computer running the game. This DMA board is a hardware component that plugs into a PCIe slot on the motherboard and reads the game's memory in a way that is very hard to detect. To prevent anti-cheat software from detecting the board, the firmware can be flashed to mask it as a legitimate PCIe device. For example, a PCI board Wi-Fi adapter can be purchased, its firmware reversed, and then mimicked with the DMA board.
Next, a cable is connected to the DMA board and plugged into another computer. This second computer is where the cheat software runs, using the game's memory read from the board. This setup allows for a memory-based cheat without altering the memory on the game's computer. For example, a radar can be drawn on the second computer or any device, showing the player’s and enemies’ locations. For a more advanced setup, a device called a fuser can be used to display ESP on the game monitor. The fuser outputs the second computer's display over the first computer's display and removes the black color. By drawing ESP with a black background on the second computer and overlaying it on the game display, the black background is removed, leaving the ESP overlay on the game without any detection vectors because the fuser mimics the monitor.
For aimbot and triggerbot functionalities, a hardware device called a km box can be used, which mimics mouse input while the cheat software on the second computer helps control the mouse. Can DMA cheats be detected with proper anti-cheat measures? Riot Vanguard has been effective against low to medium-quality DMA firmware, particularly mass-sold options. Although DMA is very hard to stop entirely, the best anti-cheat examples globally will cause long-term trouble for DMA cheaters. Call of Duty may not take meaningful actions to stop DMA.
Will DMA become the future of video game cheating? DMA and computer vision cheats are the unstoppable future of cheating. How does computer vision work? Essentially, an AI model is trained to detect enemies in a video game, using undetectable methods to capture the screen and input, allowing for automatic detection of enemies and aiming at them, with recoil control and triggerbot capabilities possible. Is computer vision being used on PC or console, or both? It is being used on both and will improve as the underlying technology advances. Cheaters are not advancing computer vision technology; larger companies like car manufacturers are funding and advancing computer vision for use cases such as self-driving cars, and cheaters are utilizing publicly available releases for cheating purposes.
Are DMA and computer vision currently being used and available to most cheat providers? DMA and computer vision are becoming more widespread and will become rampant soon. Competitive integrity may never exist in gaming, but the goal should be to minimize the cheating problem as much as possible. What kind of anti-cheat measures are needed to detect computer vision? Any traditional anti-cheat measures would suffice, assuming the cheater uses only one device. If the computer vision cheat runs on the same computer as the game, anti-cheat can find it using the same methods for other types of running cheat software. Advanced computer vision setups using novel methods for screen capture, input, and running the AI model on a separate device are, in my opinion, unbeatable by any type of anti-cheat.
When will computer vision cheats become mainstream? They are becoming quite popular and will soon be mainstream in the cheating space. The technology needs a bit more time to improve for games where enemies aren't as visually clear as in CS2. Would AI anti-cheat be the only effective detection method for computer vision and DMA? Traditional anti-cheat measures can be taken client-side against some DMA and computer vision cheaters. DMA hardware is plugged into the computer running the game, so the device can be scanned and tested by advanced anti-cheat measures. Poor quality DMA firmware devices are easier to detect. For computer vision, anti-cheat can look for methods of capturing the screen, influencing input, or the AI model itself if it runs on the same device as the game. The problems arise with advanced DMA firmware or computer vision cheating methods. Theoretically, hardware can capture gameplay, influence input, and run the AI model on a separate device, making detection nearly impossible. Just like DMA cheaters with proper firmware and cheats that don’t write to the game’s memory, these setups are nearly undetectable. In such situations, cheating becomes a fact gamers must deal with. There is no magical server-side AI anti-cheat coming. Proper closet cheaters are indistinguishable from legitimate players, even when reviewed by AI.