Is anyone else getting concerned with reWASD being associated with cheating?

[jeynos]

Something that has been worrying me lately as a heavy user of reWASD is the fact that it seems to be becoming synonymous with cheating in various different gaming communities.

In the last few years we have seen the rise of crossplay and with it the ability to use controller in multiplayer PC games with the benefit of aim assist. In many games like Call of Duty/Warzone, Apex, Halo and The Finals the aim assist is extremely strong to the point that mouse and keyboard players are generally disadvantaged.

This has led to people using input remappers like reWASD to spoof their m/kb as a controller to gain aim assist in these games. This is becoming rampant in various games:
Jackfrags (huge FPS content creator) just posted today about reWASD cheating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJXX40jGA6k
And recently this video was going viral in The Finals community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moBgG4RVr-w
You can also see many forum posts like this one if you search for reWASD on reddits or steam forums that are calling out people using reWASD to controller spoof or asking for configs to do so. Just a quick search for the term 'aim assist' on the reWASD discord shows how many people show up to use the program solely for that purpose.

The worrying thing is the fact that now reWASD as a program and term is being associated with cheating, as it is getting more and more common for people to use it just to gain aim assist on m/kb and sometimes even use other things that are clearly cheating like anti-recoil scripts.

Personally, I use reWASD to map mouse and keyboard controls to Joy-Con so I can play with Joy-Con gyro on PC. I don't use it to map controller inputs and only want manual inputs with no aim assist. My concern is that with so much talk now about reWASD for cheating that eventually anti-cheat companies like EasyAntiCheat, BattleEye, etc are just going to blanket ban the reWASD executable or service, and people who use it for legit purposes will also be punished just because other people are exploiting.

The sad part is that any input remapper can do the same, but reWASD being so easy to use and available is a double edged sword here as it has become the 'go-to' for an easy way to gain AA and cheat in online multiplayer games.

Is the reWASD development team concerned about this development? Is anything being done to combat it or discussions made with anti cheat companies to ensure reWASD doesn't get banned?

Maybe a possible solution would be to have different versions of reWASD, one that allows basic input remapping that anti cheat companies can whitelist and the other that has all the controller spoofing and scripting that they can block, rather than blocking it for everyone even people who don't use it to cheat or gain AA on m/kb.

[strokel]

Hey there!

We would like to address some concerns regarding the use of reWASD and provide clarification on our software's position within the gaming community.

We share your concerns and want to assure you that we are committed to taking appropriate measures to avoid being perceived as cheat software within the community.

reWASD is designed as remapping software and does not position itself as a tool for gaining advantages over other players in online games. We strongly condemn any programs that facilitate gaining unfair advantages.

Additionally, we would like to emphasize that after applying a configuration, we caution our users that reWASD is not considered cheat software. However, we cannot guarantee 100% protection from bans. Excessive use of certain features, specifically Rapid Fire and Key Combo, may be interpreted by other players as unfair play, potentially leading to claims against your account.

It's important to note that reWASD, at its core, is remapping software. How users choose to utilize the functionality provided is ultimately their responsibility.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

[jeynos]

Hey there!

We would like to address some concerns regarding the use of reWASD and provide clarification on our software's position within the gaming community.

We share your concerns and want to assure you that we are committed to taking appropriate measures to avoid being perceived as cheat software within the community.

reWASD is designed as remapping software and does not position itself as a tool for gaining advantages over other players in online games. We strongly condemn any programs that facilitate gaining unfair advantages.

Additionally, we would like to emphasize that after applying a configuration, we caution our users that reWASD is not considered cheat software. However, we cannot guarantee 100% protection from bans. Excessive use of certain features, specifically Rapid Fire and Key Combo, may be interpreted by other players as unfair play, potentially leading to claims against your account.

It's important to note that reWASD, at its core, is remapping software. How users choose to utilize the functionality provided is ultimately their responsibility.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Thanks for your response, it's good to know the reWASD team is aware of the situation and trying to avoid it. FWIW I have seen a few comments in these discussions flaring up over the past few days defending reWASD and pointing out that it's a useful software and not just for cheating, but they were in the vast minority. I feel like soon reWASD is going to be used in the same breathe as Cronus, XIM, etc.

[xmarvelous]

Hey there!

We would like to address some concerns regarding the use of reWASD and provide clarification on our software's position within the gaming community.

We share your concerns and want to assure you that we are committed to taking appropriate measures to avoid being perceived as cheat software within the community.

reWASD is designed as remapping software and does not position itself as a tool for gaining advantages over other players in online games. We strongly condemn any programs that facilitate gaining unfair advantages.

Additionally, we would like to emphasize that after applying a configuration, we caution our users that reWASD is not considered cheat software. However, we cannot guarantee 100% protection from bans. Excessive use of certain features, specifically Rapid Fire and Key Combo, may be interpreted by other players as unfair play, potentially leading to claims against your account.

It's important to note that reWASD, at its core, is remapping software. How users choose to utilize the functionality provided is ultimately their responsibility.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Please, make a separate strip down version with the only purpose to use for Dualsense, Dualshock work wireless on PC. No scripting or any feature that people can abuse it for "online cheating"

[jeynos]

Update on the situation in THE FINALS:
The developers have just patched the game and noted that now re-mapping programs will not have access to aim assist. This is because reWASD use for gaining aim assist on m/kb was becoming rampant in the last few weeks. I have tested it (with a real xbox one controller) and as long as reWASD is running it does indeed disable all aim assist. And it does not block reWASD from just being a general remapper as I am still able to use it for a pure m/kb config with all native controller inputs muted.

[Miron4ik42]

Noted

Thank you for informing

[newguyhere]

Update on the situation in THE FINALS:
The developers have just patched the game and noted that now re-mapping programs will not have access to aim assist. This is because reWASD use for gaining aim assist on m/kb was becoming rampant in the last few weeks. I have tested it (with a real xbox one controller) and as long as reWASD is running it does indeed disable all aim assist. And it does not block reWASD from just being a general remapper as I am still able to use it for a pure m/kb config with all native controller inputs muted.

wow if the finals can detect it i think every game can .
and they will not likely do the same thing like the finals did. they could just ban someone running the rewasd....

[jeynos]

Update! COD has officially banned use of reWASD through their anti-cheat program Ricochet


From what I understand this isn't like the FINALS where it simply disables all forms of AA if reWASD is running, in this case it force closes the game if reWASD is detected and they say if you try to get around that you could end up getting banned. This is a pretty big escalation in reWASD being labeled as a cheating program and exactly what I was afraid of. I don't play COD anymore these days but if I did I would now be unable to use reWASD as a simple remapper for m/kb binds to Joy-Con (no aim assist) like I used to do through reWASD.

This makes reWASD less useful as a program if it continues to spread and I hope something can be done to counteract this.

[jeynos]

Article on IGN about the news even calls out reWASD by name: https://www.ign.com/articles/call-of...tes-aim-assist

I sadly don't think it's possible to go back from here, reWASD which is a great remapping software is basically forever going to be known as a cheating software to the wider public now.

[I2anger]

So right now it seems they can detect the program on your computer, i uninstalled it and the game is working normal again. If your having issues try saving your profiles and uninstall REWASD

[jeynos]

Another update: Apex now gives an anti cheat error if reWASD is detected on your PC at all. So now that is two of the biggest multiplayer games out there that treat reWASD as a cheating program.

[1ncorrect]

We are aware of this.

[lunarfreyax]

So right now it seems they can detect the program on your computer, i uninstalled it and the game is working normal again. If your having issues try saving your profiles and uninstall REWASD

This is even worse ! Need to uninstall reWASD just to play online shooter and then install again for other game, it' a nightmare

[tij]

Looking around on web ... one can certainly see rewasd beeing associated with cheating.

While rewasd was certanly not designed to be cheating software ... it certanlt CAN be used to gain advantage over other players (what most ppl will define as cheating) ... saying otherwise is just naive

And while rewasd is not the only remapping software (Cronus ... Xim) ... it seems its the one getting single out atm.

I could find 2 scenarios were ReWASD can be used to gain advantage on other players:

1. Fooling game in believing you using controller to gain Aim Assist ... while in fact you are using kbm (keyboard mouse) as Virtual Controller

2. Macros/Combos ... where you can assign input sequence for a single press button ... using this one can compensate for gun recoil in FPS game.

Most of cheating ranting concernd FPS games. But i can see rewasd being used in fighting games to gain advantage too (pulling hard to do combos with a single press of the button) ... possibly other type of games too.

In the end ... i dont think there is a way to use rewasd in competitive gaming without there being a way to abuse its functions to gain advantage.

i think one can hope for ... is developers not banning ppl from multi-player games if rewasd is disabled/turn off ... not allowing game to start if rewasd is simply present (aka it is turn off) on system - is a bit over the line

Just my 2 cents.

PS. Gaining advantage over other players is pretty funny way to define cheating. One can argue that rewasd limits polling rate to 500, therefore ppl with 8000 polling rate keyboards are cheating (since they have advantage over me)?

If I have 14900K with 4090, 500hz monitor, 8000 polling rate kbm, fastest internet that money can buy ... am I a cheater since I have massive advantage over other players?

[jeynos]

Another update:
EA Anti-Cheat, now used in Battlefield 2042 and Battlefield V, is now blocking the game from running if reWASD is detected as installed. reWASD does not have to be running, it still stops the game from running even if the program is closed. This is similar to COD's blocking.


It is now becoming impractical to remain a reWASD user if you actively play multiplayer shooters at all. I wish reWASD had reacted to the rising tide of people using their program to cheat much sooner, and evaded being targeted by these companies.