PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PC, Xbox One) is getting a long-awaited anti-cheat update. This update is intended to block cheat tools and aids like ReShade. However, it may also impact innocent programs like Nvidia’s ShadowPlay.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has a massive problem with cheaters. Even after over a million cheaters were banned in January, the number continues to rise. Therefore, the developers want to deploy a new anti-cheat update to stamp out as many cheating attempts as possible right from the start.
However, they might shoot over the target with this.
Block for hacks, cheats, and ReShade
The new anti-cheat patch for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will launch on February 6, 2018, at 3 AM. There will be no downtime. From then on, harmful tools from outside the game will ideally be blocked. This especially affects cheats and hacks like wallhacks, aimbots, or instant healing.
Additionally, there are tools that are not intended as cheats but could be abused as such. This especially refers to the popular program ReShade. With this, you can change color saturation and thus improve the contrast between terrain and an opponent.
So, anyone who sets up ReShade accordingly will see opponents better and further away than someone playing without the tool. Therefore, it ends up on the block list of the new update. While you won’t be banned for it, if ReShade is on the system, you won’t be able to play PUBG anymore. You may even have to reinstall PUBG completely after uninstalling ReShade.
Also prohibited: Modifying game files to avoid the unpopular Miramar map.
Anti-cheat patch is a drastic move against third-party software
Besides ReShade, the anti-cheat update might also catch other tools that are not harmful. The developers have already indicated that recording software, such as Nvidia’s popular ShadowPlay, might initially not work.
The developers have already apologized for this and promise to quickly find a solution if these programs are mistakenly blocked.
Another consequence of the new anti-cheat measures is the loss of Steam Family Sharing in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
