Punkbuster is the biggest piece of crap I have ever installed

ríomhaire

*this is a rant, I'm not asking for help*

Battlefield 2 was on sale on Steam recently and I remember playing it in an internet cafe years ago and really enjoying it so I picked it up but didn't install it because I knew I'd be getting a new laptop soon after. I have that new laptop now and I downloaded the game and went through the process of installing Direct X (which I already had thanks very much), GameSpy Comrade (why does GameSpy still exist?) and Punkbuster (which Steam got stuck while installing so I had to cancel and do it again).

I knew Punkbuster had a reputation of kicking for the Steam overlay (I wonder do they choose not to fix this to make people annoyed at Steam and hence VAC as it's the competition or do they just not care?) but I decided to run the game anyway and see if I would be lucky and it wouldn't notice. Well it didn't kick me for that but it did kick me for not having a fully updated version of Punkbuster.

So then I discover I need to download PBSetup to update Punkbuster because Punkbuster can't keep itself up to date. A separate programme that only exists to keep another programme updated, WHAT THE HELL?

So after that I played again and got kicked for "multiple direct3d loaded". I figured maybe this was the error for the Steam overlay but I Googled it and it's something much stupider. It's kicking me because I have two sets of graphics drivers. You see my new Asus laptop has a graphics card for gaming/high performance programmes and an intel GPU for when the graphics card isn't needed in order to save on power. Punkbuster for some insane reason THINKS THIS IS A ****ING CHEAT.


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.


I don't need help by the way. I already discovered a fix via Google and I'm just letting off steam here. Apparently the fix for this is to install old drivers that don't support the twin graphics card graphics chip set ups and force the computer to use the graphics card the entire time even when it's not needed. Thanks a lot Even Balance.

the_syco

ríomhaire wrote: »

Punkbuster for some insane reason THINKS THIS IS A ****ING CHEAT.

Yup, sounds about right. Hope you enjoy the game, though - it's great fun

Scram

Punkbuster has been a scourge when playing the Battlefield series, i got kicked the other week cause as you say PB couldnt update itself..so you have to manually go and do it..yeha its a real pain.

Hercule

it hinders legit gamers 10x more then it prevents cheating, it is an excellent tool for stopping fake CD keys from playing multiplayer - my feeling is that is all the publishers care about.

VAC isnt exactly better but at least it pesters you less

the_syco

Hercule wrote: »

VAC isnt exactly better but at least it pesters you less

VAC is completely sh|te.

ríomhaire

Hercule wrote: »

it hinders legit gamers 10x more then it prevents cheating, it is an excellent tool for stopping fake CD keys from playing multiplayer - my feeling is that is all the publishers care about.

VAC isnt exactly better but at least it pesters you less

VAC doesn't kick you though. If it detects a cheat it bans you forever from that game engine with appeals process. (If you get banned in CSS you're also banned in TF2 but not in MW2)

Thankfully VAC isn't known for false positives except for that one time where it went crazy and banned thousands of people from MW2.

In any case anti-cheat programmes will never be able to keep up with hackers (though they are good for little kids who think it's cool to download aimbots but don't know what the hell they're doing). The only way to counteract cheaters is either an OnLive type system where people aren't running their own copy of the game or preferably good server admins.

Krieg

Oh im jumping on this one

I ****ing hate PB!
Worst anti-cheat system ever. Even to this day, BC2 still does a 1-5second freeze on server join because of PB. It gave me a GUID ban from BF 2142 despite not even having the game installed!. Just the fact that you have to update it manually speaks volume and sooo many disconnets because PB "wasnt able to connect to the server" :mad::mad::mad:

Morlar

I have always hated that piece of **** software.

cherryghost

I think its great altogether. Better than Steam VAC anyway :pac:

Spiritine

cherryghost wrote: »

I think its great altogether. Better than Steam VAC anyway :pac:

+1

sparkfireman

15 minutes into a game.... PB kick because it cant update itself... Fck sake... Manually install pb... it spent 2 mins playing with itself... Then went back gaming and about a day later kicked because losing key packets... Such hassle from a useless ridiculous program made by f*gg*ts for f*gg*ts. They all need to be r**ed and burned. Useless waste of space the lot of them...

ríomhaire

Oh wow I'd forgotten I posted this. There seem to be a few people here who hate VAC. Can I ask why? I've never heard of VAC giving false positives or hassling people except for that one time with MW2 where Valve gave out free copies of L4D2 as an apology.

Spear

ríomhaire wrote: »

Oh wow I'd forgotten I posted this. There seem to be a few people here who hate VAC. Can I ask why? I've never heard of VAC giving false positives or hassling people except for that one time with MW2 where Valve gave out free copies of L4D2 as an apology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Anti-Cheat#False-positive_detections

there's also mention of VAC being used to ban people for non-cheating offences such as taking advantage of special events/items.

ríomhaire

Spear wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Anti-Cheat#False-positive_detections

There are six recorded instances of incorrect detections, all quickly rescinded

Ok, so six cases in its entire history, all quickly taken back, as opposed to one false ban every six minutes for Punkbuster. That said I am surprised to read there was an incident as recent as June. I frequent the TF2 forums so I'm really surprised I didn't hear about that.

Spear wrote: »

there's also mention of VAC being used to ban people for non-cheating offences such as taking advantage of special events/items.

I don't see what's wrong with that.

Spear

ríomhaire wrote: »

Ok, so six cases in its entire history, all quickly taken back, as opposed to one false ban every six minutes for Punkbuster. That said I am surprised to read there was an incident as recent as June. I frequent the TF2 forums so I'm really surprised I didn't hear about that.

A PB false positive only kicks you, not permabans you for life. You can also appeal a PB ban, you can't with a VAC ban.

Those 6 incidents are only the publicly acknowledges ones by Valve.

cherryghost

Punkbusters EULA :O

Licensee understands and agrees that the information that may be inspected and reported by PunkBuster software includes, but is not limited to, Licensee's Internet Protocol Address, devices and any files residing on the hard-drive and in the memory of the computer on which PunkBuster software is installed

d22ontour

Well in fairness it's hardly going to only detect cheats/hacks in the punkbuster folder on a hard drive.

Gearheart

try turning off the steam overlay in the steam settings / ingame . bf2 and punkbuster has a bitch fit with the drivers for sum reason.