Mario Kart Wii - Cheater Detection/Blocking System - Ignorance is Bliss (Work In Progress!)

Channel:

MrBean35000vr

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Published on November 19, 2014 5:09:04 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmFqBy7ZZV0

Game:

Mario Kart Wii (2008)

Duration: 4:01

84,007 views

1,254

This video was made in a private room, so no complaints allowed! Compare the two videos side by side to get an idea of what's going on.

Currently I am working on a cheater and hacker detection/blocking system that I've nicknamed "Ignorance is Bliss".

It is able to determine when a user is using item hacks in an online race, and block that player from being able to send item commands to your Wii! Furthermore, it also blocks that user from being able to touch you, or win the race on your Wii, meaning they really can't do anything to you.

The detection system is watching out for several things, and more are planned. The "reason" byte (left-side, 3rd byte) indicates what a player has done wrong, and also what the system is watching for. Here's a list of the values the "reason" byte can be:

00 - Nothing
01 - People trailing items that are different from the ones they report as having.
02 - Timer hacks.
03 - Glitch abuse.
04 - If the lightning delimiter, POW delimiter, or Blooper delimiter are used.
05 - People using items that are different from the ones they report as having.
06 - If unstable drop items are shot.
07 - If a user has an item in the hold without touching a box.
08 - If a user has registered an item, but we can't tell how they got it.
09 - If a player just tried to crash the game (anyone not running IIB will freeze)

In the CTGP version that has been released recently, and in all future versions (not in this video), the cheat reason and player ID will be written into the milliseconds of the clock when detection occurs. The first two digits will be player ID (01 - 12, based on the position of the player on the VR screen prior to the race), and the final digit is the cheat reason from above.

If these are detected and a certain threshold is reached (to compensate for any lag, with some exceptions), the player can no longer send item commands to your Wii, interact with your racer, or finish any higher than last place (on your Wii. They can win on theirs). You may notice that some obvious things are missing (speed hacks, instant miniturbo, anyone?) but I'm planning on implementing those later on.

This video shows the detection system in action, with two points of view, one from my point of view, and another from SpyKid, who was hacking. We did this all in a private room for obvious reasons. By comparing the videos side by side, you can see exactly what happens when the threshold is reached, how many items SpyKid tried to use on me that didn't exist, etc. And how he lost on my Wii at the end. Also, naturally, credit to SpyKid for the right-side footage.

There was a second hacker in that race, testing more subtle hacks. The detection system caught him out too, but that player did not cheat enough to get discounted from the results. As the system becomes more reliable, the cheating threshold can be lowered to make detection easier. But this is currently a work in progress, and I'm still working on ironing out the last remaining false positives that sometimes show up.

It's currently out in CTGP, and will be ported to other patchers soon. So far, actual testing against Worldwide hackers is going reasonably well. It's funny that the most complicated cheat code I've ever written is a cheat code that stops other cheaters. Oh, the irony.

I'm making all of this to help encourage more Wiimmfi Worldwide play. Coupled with the new ban system that was recently rolled out, hacking on Wiimmfi could become very difficult soon, and not very rewarding. Part of the reason that many players do not play or stopped participating in Worldwide is because of the cheating situation, and I hope we can resolve that. Further, this stuff could also be used to help search for cheaters in clan wars and similar, though it cannot detect "guru" codes. It'd be very hard to make a system that could find those.

So guys, I will be continuing to work on this over the coming days, and hopefully I'll have good results to bring soon. I can implement this very easily into the CTGP-R Channel via auto update, and to the Homebrew Channel Wiimmfi patcher that I made (with a manual update). I can also provide instructions to make it work with the other patchers. If everyone has the cheater protection, there will be no point to anyone hacking, and that is my goal!

Thanks for watching, and see you all again!

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