After Roblox recently introduced Hyperion anti-tamper, there were some issues running it on Linux, but there's been workarounds and some of the Roblox staff made it to work on Linux with Wine again, but it seems not for much longer.
This ongoing saga of Roblox working, then not working, then working again and so on looks like it's about to end and not in a good way for people playing it on Linux with Wine. The info comes from the Roblox developer forum (login required), spread across a few posts in the topic "Why isn’t Hyperion an anti-cheat?".
Roblox staff member Bitdancer once again answering lots of questions, and then this was noted:
We have a similar issue with our unofficial Wine support. We see it being used for cheating, which is heartbreaking, to be honest, as this was a personal effort of our developers under the assumption that folks out there would understand and not misuse it.
In reply to a user asking if "Roblox on Linux is likely not gonna last much longer?", Bitdancer replied:
I am very sorry, but you are correct. Unfortunately, we have exhausted our options.
Further expanding on the why:
Wine is an excellent tool for reverse engineering. Additionally, we had to disable many antitamper checks to make Hyperion run on Wine. This has allowed interested parties to learn a lot about the internal workings of Hyperion, relevant to both Win32 and UWP. As the initial shock of Hyperion’s release started wearing off, many people have begun discovering the various angles through which one can learn more about the inner workings of Hyperion. Apparently, many have done just that, necessitating us to become more strict.
Continuing across another post:
The reason I gave above is one, rather significant, reason but not the only one. There have been many contributing factors. For example, the increased detection of cheating on Wine, the floundering of Wine-based Roblox exploits on different Discord servers, and the question of maintainability. Hyperion is a complex piece of software; we introduced more than one bug in Hyperion because we wanted to make something work on Wine. Ultimately, every responsible company must ask whether it is worth the effort. Who is responsible when things go wrong? What does unofficial support really mean? How many users of other platforms will be inconvenienced by our decision to support Wine? How can we make features such as kernel components work, and so much more.
As they explained in the quotes above, it doesn't necessarily mean Linux players specifically are the ones actually cheating, but the way they enabled it to work has allowed cheat makers to look a bit more behind the scenes to enable cheats even on Windows.
So, if you are playing it on Linux, or you were wanting to, it certainly sounds like it will be entirely blocked at some point. A shame, considering how massive a platform Roblox is. It's good to see their team be so clear and open about the issues though, rather than just blocking it and not giving an answer like plenty of other games do.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
hardpenguin Feb 26
QuoteI am very sorry, but you are correct. Unfortunately, we have exhausted our options.Sorry enough to release an official native Linux client with official anti-cheat support?
hardpenguin Feb 26
Quoting: hardpenguinQuoteI am very sorry(...)Sorry enough to release an official native Linux client with official anti-cheat support?
Do we know an example of a game with a native build & official anti-cheat support (BattlEye, EAC) that has dropped Linux support because of cheaters? Lol.
Quoting: hardpenguinRust.Quoting: hardpenguinQuoteI am very sorry(...)Sorry enough to release an official native Linux client with official anti-cheat support?
Do we know an example of a game with a native build & official anti-cheat support (BattlEye, EAC) that has dropped Linux support because of cheaters? Lol.
QuoteUltimately, every responsible company must ask whether it is worth the effort. Who is responsible when things go wrong?I find it interesting how this gets asked about Wine support, and not about how anti-cheat/anti-tamper rootkits create large attack surfaces that usually affect people who don't know any better and don't know what's going on. Perhaps that's just me, though.
psycho_driver Feb 26
the cheating industry move more money than the linux gaming industry, and as an result there is more money being poured into cheating solutions.
not to mention that cheaters just need to find 1 flaw to cheat, while anti cheat solution need to find ALL the flaws to stop cheatters.
Last edited by elmapul on 26 February 2024 at 1:18 pm UTC
hardpenguin Feb 26
Quoting: Liam DaweThat was fast 😭😂. Although I thought Rust did that because of low (percentage) numbers of Linux players.Quoting: hardpenguin(..)Rust.
Do we know an example of a game with a native build & official anti-cheat support (BattlEye, EAC) that has dropped Linux support because of cheaters? Lol.
hardpenguin Feb 26
Quoting: psycho_driverMy daughters were both addicted to Roblox when they initially released their AC and I refused to set up anything windows based in my home so they had to go cold turkey. They've been able to play again since September or so but the old one seems mostly weened off and the younger one isn't as susceptible to hardcore addiction as the older, so she'll be fine. Adios, Roblox.I think the Android version in an emulator on Linux host is still a working workaround (might require a lot of extra steps).
Quoting: hardpenguinI suggest reading their previous statement on it.Quoting: Liam DaweThat was fast 😭😂. Although I thought Rust did that because of low (percentage) numbers of Linux players.Quoting: hardpenguin(..)Rust.
Do we know an example of a game with a native build & official anti-cheat support (BattlEye, EAC) that has dropped Linux support because of cheaters? Lol.
Quoting: psycho_driverMy daughters were both addicted to Roblox when they initially released their AC and I refused to set up anything windows based in my home so they had to go cold turkey. They've been able to play again since September or so but the old one seems mostly weened off and the younger one isn't as susceptible to hardcore addiction as the older, so she'll be fine. Adios, Roblox.Hopefully they were unaffected by the many problems affecting it!
Roblox Has a "Cannibal Cult"...
Roblox: The children's game with a sex problem
Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers
Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper.
A 12-Year-Old Sued Roblox and WON
And so on, and so on...
Quoting: psycho_driverMy daughters were both addicted to Roblox when they initially released their AC and I refused to set up anything windows based in my home so they had to go cold turkey. They've been able to play again since September or so but the old one seems mostly weened off and the younger one isn't as susceptible to hardcore addiction as the older, so she'll be fine. Adios, Roblox.i hope they dont grow up hating linux because you enforced it...
"Wine is not supported"
Was what you got with their last anti-cheat than some smart guy hacked around it.
They clearly really really don't want to support Linux.
It's just that it's really hard not to support Linux(especially as a browser based game), so they've failed multiple times.
This is by the way a two sided sword, because they have such shit Linux support Linux players will start trying hacking around their restrictions and sharing what they find, enabling cheaters.
A good example is Roblox itself.
At first they had "Wine isn't supported"(and cheats). Than someone made a complete open source and custom alternative client.
Than someone merged a patch in Wine. Than they dropped this.
Now they once again believe they've got a tool that can stop Linux users.
Lets see.
hardpenguin Feb 26
Quoting: Liam DaweI suggest reading their previous statement on it.Thanks! You are destroying me in the comments with all those well-documented facts 🥲
Quoting: hardpenguinI am basically a human-book of Linux gaming history at this point.Quoting: Liam DaweI suggest reading their previous statement on it.Thanks! You are destroying me in the comments with all those well-documented facts 🥲
hardpenguin Feb 26
Quoting: Liam DaweI am basically a human-book of Linux gaming history at this point.Perhaps you should write and (self-)publish a book 😎
Quoting: PenglingQuoting: psycho_driverMy daughters were both addicted to Roblox when they initially released their AC and I refused to set up anything windows based in my home so they had to go cold turkey. They've been able to play again since September or so but the old one seems mostly weened off and the younger one isn't as susceptible to hardcore addiction as the older, so she'll be fine. Adios, Roblox.Hopefully they were unaffected by the many problems affecting it!
Roblox Has a "Cannibal Cult"...
Roblox: The children's game with a sex problem
Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers
Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper.
A 12-Year-Old Sued Roblox and WON
And so on, and so on...
the sex offenders is the biggest issue, but this is a problem in any online experience , i dont know about an solution that dont require parents monitoring what their kids are doing and only allowing then to play online when they are arround.
as for the exploiting young developers, the easy solution is introducing an proper game engine that wont take 80% of your profits, and give up on making anything commercial in easy to use tools like roblox, use then just to have fun instead.
i never heard about the cannibal one, dont know what its about and dont have time to read /watch it.
Quoting: LoudTechieNow they once again believe they've got a tool that can stop Linux users.they have, ban account from people who insist in playing on wine.
Lets see.
maybe we can make custom servers for linux users, but that is liking forking facebook and ignoring that people are there to interact with other people and their content...
its like playing an MMO with only 1% of the players...
Quoting: elmapulthe sex offenders is the biggest issue, but this is a problem in any online experience , i dont know about an solution that dont require parents monitoring what their kids are doing and only allowing then to play online when they are arround.Supervision and education really are the only things that can be done here.
Quoting: elmapulas for the exploiting young developers, the easy solution is introducing an proper game engine that wont take 80% of your profits, and give up on making anything commercial in easy to use tools like roblox, use then just to have fun instead.You're quite right. The issue, though, is that they promote to children (who tend to want quick results and won't have an easy start with most game-engines) that they can make money making games in Roblox, and basically shuffle them into sticking with company scrip but for kids, and then that also sometimes ends up overlapping with the above, according to the stories covered in the videos.
Quoting: elmapuli never heard about the cannibal one, dont know what its about and dont have time to read /watch it.That one is utterly bizarre, and definitely worth the watch to get an up-close look at exactly the sort of freaky stuff that's going on in Roblox.
StalePopcorn Feb 26
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