GShade was one of the most popular third-party tools for Final Fantasy XIV. Now it is no longer available, and the reason lies in a dispute between two modders from the community.
What is GShade? It is a version of ReShade specifically tailored for FFXIV. ReShade is a so-called “post-processing injector” that can influence the graphics in games after the fact.
It can beautify colors and sharpen assets or add other effects that are normally not available in the games. GShade was developed by FFXIV player Marot Satil and gained great popularity.
Although third-party tools like GShade are officially banned in FFXIV, they are used by many fans. On the server of GPosers, the “home” of GShade, thousands of FFXIV players gathered, and many streamers and YouTubers also utilized the popular unofficial feature. However, that has now changed.
Modder puts malware in his program, quickly backtracks
Who had the dispute? A few days ago, there was a dispute between the creator of GShade, Marot, and another modder named NotNite, which resulted in the demise of the popular app.
NotNite was apparently unhappy with how GShade worked and decided to add her own modifications to the tool. She created an alternative version “GeezShade” that was able to download and use GShade’s graphical presets.
In a blog post, NotNite explained that GShade was “junk”:
- When an update was available, the tool was disabled until the update was completed.
- Settings were lost after updates.
- There were intrusive pop-ups.
With GeezShade, players could use NotNite’s version without the drawbacks but with all the graphical settings and templates they had customized over the years in GShade.
Marot responded to the new version by adding extra code to his tool. He ensured that users of GeezShade experienced a forced reboot of their PCs when they started the program.
OH MAN pic.twitter.com/GDcdwZMC48
— soot 𓅂 𓁹 (6.3 DONE… YEET) (@RaVenZeYs) February 6, 2023
In a post on Discord, he stated that he intentionally built this feature to prevent manipulation of his tool by third parties. Normal GShade users were not affected.
Marot explained that the forced shutdown was specifically intended as a lesson for NotNite to keep her hands off GShade: “[…] It could have been anything in the user data and you would have been responsible for the distribution to the people and the execution of that. I intentionally chose the reboot because it is something completely harmless. […]”
But even though the reboot seems rather harmless, it is still considered malware and immediately resulted in a strong backlash from the community.
How the dispute ended: Marot’s statement caused a lot of anger within the GPoser community of FFXIV. Many fans were angry that the modder had injected malware into the tool.
The claim that the forced reboot was harmless and that Marot could have added something much worse was also not well received. It was perceived as a threat that this could happen in the future.
This was followed by a wave of uninstalls of GShade, with instructions on how to completely remove the tool without backups while retaining their presets. The official FFXIV subreddit banned GShade on their Discord and in the forum.
In the end, Marot apologized for the intervention and explained that the reset code was removed from GShade. However, it was probably too late. Shortly thereafter, the tool disappeared from the Github page where it could previously be downloaded, and from the official GPosers page.
The GPosers Discord was completely shut down. It is now impossible to post there. Many former GShade fans are now looking for alternatives to beautify the game for themselves.
The director of FFXIV, Naoki Yoshida, has expressed his disappointment over the use of third-party tools multiple times in the past:
