Even though Epic Games announced recently how they expanded support for Easy Anti-Cheat to have full support of native Linux, plus Wine / Proton (and so the Steam Deck), it seems it's not as easy as we hoped.
In the original announcement, Epic mentioned how it can be enabled with "a few clicks in the Epic Online Services Developer Portal" but the situation is never that simple. A developer of Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has written a post on Steam to explain, noting that there are two versions of EAC. There's the original and the newer version used via Epic Online Services. The majority of games are likely still with the old version, since the newer one needs SDK upgrades and newer integrations.
We already knew that developers needed the latest SDK from the original announcement, but this makes it simpler for us all to understand.
Here's what they said:
One part we already know not to be true, is a requirement of Epic Online Services authentication, as the developers of Brawlhalla showed in their own testing with the new integration which worked without users touching Epic's services directly. The other point remains though, as developers won't upgrade from the older implementation to the newer without a good reason, due to extra work involved when the older one is still getting the latest EAC updates as normal (as confirmed in a later post). Although, there may come a time Epic force EOS for it, but it stands to reason they haven't currently as it would have been a big upheaval for so many developers using it and likely caused plenty of developer backlash there.
Tripwire Interactive also hinted towards the exact same thing, when asked about hooking up support for
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, a developer noted back in September 2021, "The version of EAC used on RS 2 is not the version that is advertised in this, and it is not something that will work for RS 2 players.".
Hopefully the actual work involved in moving from old EAC to new isn't too much, but it's a reason why we've yet to see any really look to do it. Once the Steam Deck is out though, it should improve, if enough players ask developers to get it sorted, otherwise players may have to resort to a manual install of Windows on the Steam Deck instead of SteamOS 3 to play some of the most popular multiplayer titles.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
About the author - Liam Dawe
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
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The thing I really wanna know is:
Was Valve aware of that before they made the claim of "just a few clicks"?
If so then they made a really anti-consumer move. Lying and misleading us with Epic's help.
If like us Valve didn't know about that then I have one more reason to despise Epic, because IMO that looks like blatant sabotage since Epic already knew "nobody" uses that version of their Anticheat.
Was Valve aware of that before they made the claim of "just a few clicks"?
If so then they made a really anti-consumer move. Lying and misleading us with Epic's help.
If like us Valve didn't know about that then I have one more reason to despise Epic, because IMO that looks like blatant sabotage since Epic already knew "nobody" uses that version of their Anticheat.
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mr-victory Jan 9, 2022
Which type of EAC does Fortnite use?
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The thing I really wanna know is:
Was Valve aware of that before they made the claim of "just a few clicks"?
Epic made the "few click away" announcement.
EAC was bought by Epic (not Valve) a few weeks before they announced EGS (and imho when they did, and Tim explained his "gaming vision", it became clear why they bought it. So the actual surprise was that they were supporting proton just because it would benefit gamers, not that they use it as a troyan horse to impose their infrastruture in the industry).
Reading it now it's clear that they didn't outright lie and that they really meant "Epic Game Services -which includes EAC" support is few clicks away. But the press (gamingonlinux on top in this case) wasn't disingenuous when it wrote that EAC was one click away either. Only actual devs trying to make this work know these kind of details, like that the same product EAC has two different libraries with different licenses and stuff attached. I mean, after the articles Epic could just release a statement and let the press disambiguate this. New games will probably use EOS libraries. But there is no way old ones will undergo all the work to integrate it when EAC library works fine for its intended purpose.
But I guess they were just happy to get free PR and then leave to the individual devs to deal with the unrealistic expectations of their fanbase. And possibly create attrition with them (ovbiously it's not just Vermintide, it's plenty of "plz do the few clicks and support proton" threads on EAC games Steam forums).
Last edited by Mal on 9 January 2022 at 7:03 pm UTC
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413 games on Steam (link make use of Epic Online Services and don't require an Epic Games account.
Seems that the EOS is for several stuff, not only EAC. And it seems that that stuff is mostly working correctly with Wine. Also, there's a separated list for EAC https://steamdb.info/tech/AntiCheat/EasyAntiCheat/
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I'm not going to say I believe this notion, but there is a nasty suspicious part of my mind saying "Huh. Maybe Epic wanted to give Valve the impression that they were playing along with the whole 'Stuff running on Linux well for the Steam Deck' schtick, while actually not doing anything much to help, so Valve would realize too late to do much about it by the time the Deck was released".
So, enable the version few people use, make a glowing press release that's not technically inaccurate but irrelevant to the experience of most actual game developers, and then sit quietly waiting for Valve to realize they've been had, at which point they innocently say "Everything we said was the truth, it's not our fault if it was misinterpreted!"
I suppose more likely it was something more like some Epic exec got some developers and said "OK, Valve have been bugging us to do this thing. Just do the minimum to shut them up, OK? Money doesn't grow on trees (unless you count Fortnite)." And they said "Should we backport the fix to the old version?" "That sounds like extra effort to me."
So, enable the version few people use, make a glowing press release that's not technically inaccurate but irrelevant to the experience of most actual game developers, and then sit quietly waiting for Valve to realize they've been had, at which point they innocently say "Everything we said was the truth, it's not our fault if it was misinterpreted!"
I suppose more likely it was something more like some Epic exec got some developers and said "OK, Valve have been bugging us to do this thing. Just do the minimum to shut them up, OK? Money doesn't grow on trees (unless you count Fortnite)." And they said "Should we backport the fix to the old version?" "That sounds like extra effort to me."
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It's a clear branding issue. Just rename this new version to Difficult Anti-Cheat and everyone will be satisfied!
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People need to stop making this out to be some conspiracy by Epic, when itcannot be proven.
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The thing I really wanna know is:
Was Valve aware of that before they made the claim of "just a few clicks"?
EAC was bought by Epic (not Valve) a few weeks before they announced EGS (and imho when they did, and Tim explained his "gaming vision", it became clear why they bought it. So the actual surprise was that they were supporting proton just because it would benefit gamers, not that they use it as a troyan horse to impose their infrastruture in the industry).
Yeah, I know EAC belongs to Epic.
What I was implying is that Valve, the one pushing Linux Gaming since God knows when, and also the one who have approached Epic in regards to enabling EAC for Proton should have more information in regards to this matter since (I expect?) they have been in touch with Epic for at least some time to even negotiate about enabling Proton compatibility.
Even if Valve didn't make the claim themselves if they already knew about the information we have now and didn't make it clear to the public I still see it as a bad thing.
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People need to stop making this out to be some conspiracy by Epic, when it isn't
Ya know, I think this one might be check-able...
Let's see... From the link like 8 posts above this (I think its #32?), Epic's release announcement:
Epic Online Services launches Anti-Cheat support for Linux, Mac, and Steam Deck
That's the title.... literally Says EOS. Maybe there's more... this seems to be the part everyone's complaining about.
Starting with the latest SDK release, developers can activate anti-cheat support for Linux via Wine or Proton with just a few clicks in the Epic Online Services Developer Portal.
Hey, look, EOS again and you need the latest SDK.
There is something missing from their announcement though. The part where they claim every EAC enabled game would work using the old SDK...not seeing that there.
This doesn't appear to be any conspiracy. It seems more the case of ignorant gamers and media speculating because they don't understand anything about the SDK versions or how EOS works.
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Thanks for the great info in the article.
What I take out of this is simple: Games released in a year or two will have much better Linux support in EAC.
I work for a company with many software developers and I see all the time how many components get upgraded when they already work right now -- close to never. It only happens when there is a security risk. The business pressure directs devs to add features and fix bugs. Changing EAC SDK would be seen as a risk and could cause a bad experience for the 97% of players that don't need the Linux-compatible version.
What I take out of this is simple: Games released in a year or two will have much better Linux support in EAC.
I work for a company with many software developers and I see all the time how many components get upgraded when they already work right now -- close to never. It only happens when there is a security risk. The business pressure directs devs to add features and fix bugs. Changing EAC SDK would be seen as a risk and could cause a bad experience for the 97% of players that don't need the Linux-compatible version.
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People need to stop making this out to be some conspiracy by Epic, when it isn't.
Excuse me, what?
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I'm not sure if I understand this correctly. So supposedly just updating the EAC version , will automagically enable proton support? or even with the up-to-date version you still have to enable proton support manually?
I'm sure it's also not in their mind how bad the linux community is sometimes against registering in to play a game true third party solution.
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Just like it's "not possible" to implement crossplay for Vermintide 2, not even between Windows Store and Steam. Truth is it's "not possible" for Fatshark. They're a tiny studio, they're having their modeller do the animations right in their office with locomotion gear, you can see the guy moving if you watch closely in the game.
Their maps are all just one huge static model, that's why the game takes 100GB where a higher qualified studio takes 30GB with dynamic loading, their netcode is basic to say the least...
It's nice to have some insight, but Fatshark is not a good example for even an average studio.
Their maps are all just one huge static model, that's why the game takes 100GB where a higher qualified studio takes 30GB with dynamic loading, their netcode is basic to say the least...
It's nice to have some insight, but Fatshark is not a good example for even an average studio.
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A login might not be required yet, BUT it can be required in the future.
Epic is no saint and definitively wants to profit from it.
so you think they refuse to migrate to the new SDK because they are afraid that epic will relase an mandatory update for it to require an epic account? its more likely that they will refuse such mandatory update.
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They admitted to Fatshark it could be clearer but that's the only thing Epic are guilty of here.
I can see the argument that Epic's news release could be clearer, but I don't think we (royally, ie gamers) are the target audience. It seems the news release was for developers, possibly even just those already familiar with the ecosystem, hence the links to the SDK and changelog.
Changing EAC SDK would be seen as a risk and could cause a bad experience for the 97% of players that don't need the Linux-compatible version
That totally makes sense. Especially if the SDK's are divergent enough to have separately maintained versions, seems like they aren't very interchangable
What I take out of this is simple: Games released in a year or two will have much better Linux support in EAC.
I agree. The release announcement also mentioned native support for EAC for Linux too, which I think is pretty cool.
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Thanks for the great info in the article.
What I take out of this is simple: Games released in a year or two will have much better Linux support in EAC.
I work for a company with many software developers and I see all the time how many components get upgraded when they already work right now -- close to never. It only happens when there is a security risk. The business pressure directs devs to add features and fix bugs. Changing EAC SDK would be seen as a risk and could cause a bad experience for the 97% of players that don't need the Linux-compatible version.
so lets place a bug bounty, if someone find an security hole, then the latest version of the SDK will patch it, and developers might migrate to it...
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So it will most likely take years to get near the same mp support on Linux.
Unless another multiplatform AC releases.
Even this is not guaranteed, since players can just install Windows. I assume most Deck players would be tech savvy enough to do this - The product won't be sold outside of Steam itself
Unless another multiplatform AC releases.
Even this is not guaranteed, since players can just install Windows. I assume most Deck players would be tech savvy enough to do this - The product won't be sold outside of Steam itself
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Unless another multiplatform AC releases.
Both EAC and BE are multiplatform. That's not the problem. The problem is that Wine is an intermediate layer "messing" with the system calls of the game and therefore similar to cheating solutions. If you subscribe to the idea that you can do an effective anti-cheat by knowing everything that's going on with the system (which I don't), then this is problem.
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Which type of EAC does Fortnite use?
For games in active development it matters less. For games with indefinite life like Fortnite it doesn't matter at all. You find the resources to integrate with new libraries and APIs to ensure of the success of the project for its whole lifetime.
For old games in mantenance mode it's a different story. Updating a library it's not a given but can be done if it's a reasonable effort (the fabled "few clicks"). Refactor the game to use a different one (especially when the software works as is) it's a desperate case to make to management. In any industry not just gaming.
EOS anti cheat supporting proton opens the door for new games to be playable on deck. (and that's very good and not a given, don't forget that)
EAC not supporting proton shuts the door for old games to be playable on deck.
That's the simple, transparent message that should have been given to gamers, even if it makes less PR.
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So the "just a few clicks" statement made in the original announcement wasn't entirely accurate, and would only apply to titles using the EOS version of EAC, which simply hasn't been many games aside from either pretty new ones, and likely predominantly Epic exclusive titles.
We are still looking at what is or isn't going to be possible, but it's not as easy as it was made out to be -- far from it in fact.
There may be other solutions or workarounds, but ripping out the old EAC and rewriting everything to implement "NuEAC" and potentially asking our entire playerbase to connect through and sign through EOS for an honestly tiny market share that was (and would remain) unsupported from the get go might be a deal breaker.
Time will tell.