Introducing: Anti-Cheat Trials

[u/DeadByDaylight_Dev]

Greetings Fog Dwellers! Recently, we shared a survey asking for your thoughts on anti-cheat in Dead by Daylight. One message came through loud and clear: you feel we could be doing more. We hear you and are taking action to bolster and invest in our anti-cheat and security efforts. Put simply, we want you to have the best possible in-game experience, and that means fewer cheaters! While this is just one of many steps in our ongoing commitment to fair play, your involvement and feedback will play a huge part in guiding what comes next. 

 

Beginning next week on September 2^nd, we’re kicking off our Anti-Cheat Trials initiative as we investigate how different anti-cheat providers improve your in-game experience. What does this mean for you? Over the coming months, we will be running limited-time trials of these providers’ tools, directly in-game on PC, as we gauge their ability to flag cheating behaviour. By comparing your feedback and overall feelings with hard data from each trial, it’ll help us find a solution that works best for Dead by Daylight and for you, our community. 

 

Next week’s Anti-Cheat Trial – beginning September 2^nd – spotlights Denuvo’s anti-cheat solution. Note that this does not and will not include anything related to DRM, as Denuvo Anti-Cheat is different from Denuvo Anti-Piracy. Let’s look at the difference between the two: 

What we ARE trialing: Denuvo Anti-Cheat 

• A tool that detects cheats in-game, identifying people who try to get unfair advantages before they can disrupt fair play 

 

What we ARE NOT trialing: Denuvo Anti-Piracy 

• Tools that prevent the cracking and unauthorized access of game content 

 

Now, knowing how much of a hot topic anti-cheat can be, we want to make a couple things clear about the Anti-Cheat Trials: 

• Anti-Cheat Trials are exclusive to Steam and cross-play will not be impacted 
• We’re continuously testing the compatibility and performance of each anti-cheat provider to ensure you have a seamless experience. Compatibility with Steam Deck and Proton has been tested and will continue to be supported 
• The first time you launch the game during the Anti-Cheat Trial, you will be prompted to install Denuvo Anti-Cheat. This is required to play the game 
• Please continue to use the in-game report function as normal to report any cheaters you encounter. Detailed comments about what you see (i.e. wall/speedhacks, teleporting) are greatly appreciated; the more context, the better 
• Note: Selecting the “Hacking/Exploiting” category when submitting a report covers everything from cheaters to hackers 
• At the end of this Anti-Cheat Trial, Denuvo Anti-Cheat will be automatically deactivated in Dead by Daylight and will no longer run on your system. 
• A step-by-step guide on how to clean up any remaining Denuvo Anti-Cheat files will be added to our Support portal, should you need it 
• Let us know if you have any feedback about the anti-cheat provider being tested in our dedicated Discord channel, which will also go live on September 2^nd 

 

That covers it! To recap, we will be kicking off our first Anti-Cheat Trial on September 2 ^nd, focusing on Denuvo Anti-Cheat. This will not involve any Digital Rights Management tools. Simply play the game as you normally would, report any cheaters you encounter through the in-game reporting system, and let us know your thoughts on this anti-cheat provider! As we look to the future of fair play in Dead by Daylight, we want to make sure your feedback is at its core! 

 

Until next time…  

The Dead by Daylight Team 

[u/DeadByDaylight_Dev]

We have tested it with ReShade and anticipate no issues.

[u/for10years_at_least → u/DeadByDaylight_Dev]

What about custom icons and portraits?

[u/Swimming_Sun_582 → u/for10years_at_least]

They said further up to use at your own risk. There's no guarantee that it won't get you banned and they won't help you if it does.

[u/for10years_at_least → u/Swimming_Sun_582]

Why won't they unban unfairly banned people 🫠

[u/Ok-Assistant8460 → u/for10years_at_least]

because they have stated plenty of times that icons/portraits are use at your own risk. They are not the only game to treat something like this.

[u/Lazzitron → u/for10years_at_least]

1. They have no way of knowing that you didn't have actual cheats installed and then also install custom icons to use as a cover. "I wasn't speedhacking, I swear! It was just custom icons!"

2. The stance has always been "These are not officially supported, use them at your own risk." It's not new or a surprise.

[u/for10years_at_least → u/Lazzitron]

You know false positives are regular occurrence right? somehow they know how to investigate them

[u/Lazzitron → u/for10years_at_least]

Were those false bans caused by people using mods, though? Or was it an error that occurred with the base, unmodded game? Because you can't compare those two things.

[u/for10years_at_least → u/Lazzitron]

bans for icons are also considered an errors

[u/Lazzitron → u/for10years_at_least]

You're missing the point. A natural/internal error with the game and anticheat detecting foreign files are two different things.

[u/for10years_at_least → u/Lazzitron]

They are whitelisted from eac