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    A digital distribution service owned by Valve Corporation. Originally created to distribute Valve's own games, Steam has since become the de facto standard for digital distribution of PC games.

    Is cheat engine safe with single player games on Steam?

    This topic is locked from further discussion.

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    ravingham91

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    After hearing about Jeff using cheat engine on Dying light I really want to use it to get infinite filters on metro redux...But is there any risk?

    What are your experiences with cheat engine and Steam?

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    Jesus_Phish

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    I've known people who've run cheat engines on games they bought through steam and nothing ever happened. I think unless a game is running the VAC software or some other anti-cheating software (punkbuster etc) then you should be fine. And that software usually runs on the server you connect to to play the game.

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    billymaysrip

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    If the game has VAC, then no, it's not safe to use cheat engine. If it doesn't, and has no specific anti-cheat system then it shouldn't matter.

    If the game does have VAC, you can launch the game in -insecure mode, and can use cheat engine that way and you won't be VAC banned. The only issue is that you won't be able to connect to VAC secured servers. That's it. The vast majority of single player game do not have anti-cheat systems.

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    ravingham91

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    Silly question...How do I tell if the game has VAC?

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    Jesus_Phish

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    #5  Edited By Jesus_Phish

    @ravingham91: Here's a list. You search the steam store with "Valve Anti-Cheat enabled" and it'll return any game with it. You can click on "single player" as well to lower the number down. Keep in mind though that single player games with mutliplayer will show up on that list if they have VAC.

    But again, VAC runs on the servers you connect to to play those games. No server connection, no VAC.

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    Corevi

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    Silly question...How do I tell if the game has VAC?

    Only multiplayer games, and only games that are only available on Steam on PC.

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    T_wester

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    #7  Edited By T_wester

    Cheat engine just works fine with steam single player games, I have used it for several years now and I haven't had any problems. If your are nervous launch steam in ofline mode.

    Remember to close cheat engine if you boot up a multiplayer game, some anti cheat measures will detect it even if it's inactive.

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    NeoCalypso

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    @t_wester: I've had a mini heart attack or two back when I used to play WoW and I'd forget to close cheatengine and have the game warn me about it. Thankfully they don't instaban you or anything, they pretty much just go "hey...close the cheat program before you log in will ya."

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    nightriff

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    Yes it is fine. Cheat Engine with multiplayer only games is messed up. But single player is ok. Used it to power through a replay of SR3 and towards the end of SR4 when I was sick of collecting the orbs but wanted to max everything I just gave myself like a few hundred to unlock all abilities. Also gave myself a bunch of money in XCOM on a second playthrough so I wouldn't have to worry about that system.

    I personally try to only use CE on replays but some games for me push me to use it. I really want to play the Half-life games for the story and setting, but hated the combat in 1, so I'm debating on just giving myself infinite ammo and health and just bum rushing through the game.

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    zor

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    Yeah, I have a friend... <__< ... >__> .... who has used a cheat engine before with games from steam, and he didn't have any issues. Just make sure that you only do it for single player games, or in single player mode.

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    T_wester

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    @neocalypso: At least they tell why in Wow, I was getting an non specific error message trying to play Arma 3 until it dawned on me that it was Cheat Engine causing the problem .

    @nightriff: The Half-life games have god old fashioned console codes so no tricky needed.

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    nightriff

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    @t_wester: Its been a couple years but I thought I tried to find codes and was unable to. I was more inept with PC games back then and probably just missed them when I searched but I'll give it another shot. About damn time I play those games and become a crazed HL3 supporter (maybe).

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    ravingham91

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    Thanks for the help people! Now I wont have to suffocate when scrounging for ammo in ranger-hardcore!

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    Akyho

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    My dad uses a hex editor/cheat engine all the time on games through steam. He never play multiplayer and so its a what ever situation. He has been playing Resident evil remake hd and got so sick of Ribbons as he needs to save as of when he feels too sore or tired (58 year old man who has just had major surgery kinda needs to stop when he can) so he cheated himself 99 save ribbons so he can save as often as he likes.

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    sado

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    I've used Cheat Engine for years on steam games and am still in good standing with VAC. Although, I've never used it with games where it would be a problem to use it on, i.e. multiplayer games. From my experience, it seems fine to use as long as you don't use in games where it might impact other players. Also, in most cases, Cheat Engine wouldn't even work in multi games where values are checked server-side for validation. The user values would likely be ignored and immediately revert to the actual one according to the server.

    If you wanted to be safe though, you could always switch steam to offline before jumping in.

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    fisk0

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    #16 fisk0  Moderator

    @t_wester said:

    Remember to close cheat engine if you boot up a multiplayer game, some anti cheat measures will detect it even if it's inactive.

    Don't just remember to close the program, also make sure the process isn't running in the Windows Task Manager (sometimes programs crash during exit, keeping their processes running), since VAC looks for cheat programs in memory.

    Also, I think stuff like PunkBuster (which isn't as widely used these days as it used to be) also checks for installed programs, not only running ones, so it could have issues with Cheat Engine even if you aren't using it at the moment.

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