Editing Cheating in online games (section)

==Bots and software assistance==
===Aimbots and triggerbots===
An '''aimbot''' or '''autoaim''' is a type of [[computer game bot]] most commonly used in [[first-person shooter]] games to provide varying levels of automated [[target acquisition]] and [[calibration]] to the player. They are sometimes used along with a triggerbot, which automatically shoots when an opponent appears within the field-of-view or aiming reticule of the player.

Aimbotting relies on each player's client computer receiving information about all other players, whether they are visible from the player's position or not. Targeting is a matter of determining the location of any opponent relative to the player's location and pointing the player's weapon at the target. This targeting works regardless of whether the opponent is behind walls or too far away to be seen directly.

Some servers allow inactive players to spectate, watching the game from the viewpoints of the active players. Recording of gameplay actions is also often possible. If someone was using a targeting aimbot, the bot would be obvious to the spectator as unnatural exact position tracking. Some aimbots and triggerbots attempt to hide from spectators the fact they are being used through a number of methods, such as delaying firing to hide the fact it shoots the instant an opponent is in the cheater's crosshair. Some triggerbot programs can be easily toggled on and off using the mouse or keyboard.

Cheat suites may incorporate these in addition to other features, including adjustments to extrasensory perception, move speed, ammo count, and player radar. Neophytes may colloquially define these suites as aimbot programs.

===Artificial lag/lag switch===
In the peer-to-peer gaming model, lagging is what happens when the stream of data between one or more players gets slowed or interrupted, causing movement to stutter and making opponents appear to behave erratically. By using a lag switch, a player is able to disrupt uploads from the client to the server, while their own client queues up the actions performed. The goal is to gain advantage over another player without reciprocation; opponents slow down or stop moving, allowing the lag switch user to easily outmaneuver them. From the opponent's perspective, the player using the device may appear to be teleporting, invisible or invincible, while the opponents suffer delayed animations and fast-forwarded game play, delivered in bursts.<ref name="about lag switch">{{cite web |url=http://compnetworking.about.com/od/consumerelectronicsnetworks/f/lag_switches.htm |title=What Is a Lag Switch? |author=Bradley Mitchell |publisher=About.com |access-date=2012-12-15 |archive-date=2011-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707074829/http://compnetworking.about.com/od/consumerelectronicsnetworks/f/lag_switches.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Some gaming communities refer to this method as "tapping" which refers to the users "tapping" on and off their internet connection to create the lag.

The term "lag switch" encompasses many methods of disrupting the network communication between a client and its server. One method is by attaching a physical device, called a hardware lag switch, to a standard Ethernet cable. By flipping the switch on and off, the physical connection between the client and the server is disrupted. The designers of [[video game console]] hardware have started to introduce built-in protection against lag switches in the form of voltage detectors, which detect a change in voltage when the switch is flipped. Some manufacturers have taken counter measures to bypass or trick this detector.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://premiumlag.com/competitors/ |title=What Our Competitors Won't Tell You |date=September 3, 2009 |publisher=Premium Lag |access-date=2012-12-15 }}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Source is a lag switch seller and does not back up claim.|date=May 2019}} This can also be achieved by simply unplugging the Ethernet cord going to the client, causing a disruption in the player's internet connection. Other methods, called a software or wireless lag switch, involve using a computer program. In this method, the cheater runs an application on a computer connected to the same network as the client. The application hogs the network bandwidth, disrupting the communication between the client and its server. However, one cannot do this for an unlimited amount of time. At some point, if no traffic is being received, most game clients and/or game servers will decide that the connection has been lost and will remove the player from the game. In some P2P games, it can result in all players lagging or being disconnected from the game.

Simpler methods are firewall or router rules that apply bandwidth shaping and network latency, a cheat is able to adjust limits on both bandwidth and latency to stay relevant to a P2P network yet have considerable advantage over other players.

===Look-ahead===
Look-ahead cheating is a method of cheating within a peer-to-peer multiplayer gaming architecture where the cheating client gains an unfair advantage by delaying their actions to see what other players do before announcing its own action.<ref>{{cite book |author=Jouni Smed and Harri Hakonen |title=Algorithms and Networking for Computer Games |year=2006 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=0470029749 }}</ref>

A client can cheat using this method by acting as if it is suffering from high [[latency (engineering)|latency]]; the outgoing packet is forged by attaching a time-stamp that is prior to the actual moment the packet is sent, thereby fooling other clients into thinking that the action was sent at the correct time, but was delayed in arrival. A partial solution is the [[lockstep protocol]].

===World-hacking===
'''World-hacking''' is a method or [[third-party software component|third-party program]] that enables a [[user (computing)|user]] to exploit bugs and to view more of a [[Level (video games)|level]] than intended by the [[video game developer|developer]].

A common aspect of [[real-time strategy]] games is the player's partial limitation or complete inability to see beyond the visibility range of individual game objects that are under their ownership (typically units and structures); this concept is controlled by a mechanism known as the [[Fog of war#Simulations and games|fog of war]]. World-hacking usually enables the user to bypass this mechanism, either by removing it entirely and/or by [[rendering (computer graphics)|rendering]] objects through the fog that would not normally be visible.<ref name="Pritchard-Gamasutra"/> In multiplayer modes, this allows for a distinct advantage against the other players who are subject to the intended settings. The advantage gained can be substantial, especially for the average real-time strategy games that rely on the [[rock paper scissors]] dynamic to [[game balance|balance]] out individual objects' varying strengths and weaknesses.

[[File:AssaultCube wallhacks.png|thumb|Wallhacking in ''[[AssaultCube]]'', where players concealed in the corridors to the left and right are indicated with red rectangles]]
World-hacking may also allow a player to see through solid or opaque objects and/or manipulate or remove textures, to know in advance when an opponent is about to come into targeting range from an occluded area. This can be done by making wall textures transparent, or modifying the game maps to insert polygonal holes into otherwise solid walls. This variation is commonly known as a "wallhack" since it basically allows to the player to see enemies through walls.

World-hacking relies on the fact that an FPS server usually sends raw positional information for all players in the game, and leaves it up to the client's 3D renderer to hide opponents behind walls, in plant foliage, or in dark shadows. If the game map rendering could be turned off completely, all players could be seen moving around in what appears to be empty space. Complete map hiding offers no advantage to a cheater as they would be unable to navigate the invisible map pathways and obstacles. However, if only certain surfaces are made transparent or removed, this leaves just enough of an outline of the world to allow the cheater still to navigate it easily.

[[Asus]] released wireframe display drivers in 2001 that enabled players to use wallhacks, announcing the settings as "special weapons" that users could employ in multiplayer games. In a poll by the Online Gamers Association, 90% of its members were against the release of the drivers.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/10/asus_releases_games_cheat_drivers/ |title=ASUS releases games cheat drivers |date=May 10, 2013 |publisher=The Register |access-date=2013-06-06 }}</ref>