EAC stops game when Asus AURA is Installed!
closed
amtcubus
I just loaded up the Open-Beta to have a look when EAC detected the Lighting Service ( Asus AURA ) as a Game Security Violation.
How my RGB Software that runs independently from VRChat is causing an issue is beyond me.
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Afevis
Aurora is another good open source lighting program for ASUS and other products that doesn't have this issue either.
Tupper - VRChat Head of Community
closed
This is not a VRChat bug.
This is an issue with how Asus AURA operates, which apparently disagrees with EAC. Unfortunately, we can't fix this or work around it from our perspective.Some newer versions of the AURA software apparently don't have this issue. Try updating it! If that doesn't work, you'll have to uninstall the software, unfortunately.
Some alternatives exist, such as OpenRGB and Aurora.
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Pluvia Machina
Tupper - VRChat Head of Community: Blaming ASUS for mistakes they didn't make, but rather your company made is extremely unprofessional.
Afevis
Pluvia Machina: This is 100% absolutely an issue with how AURA works. Every EAC game has this issue.
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Pluvia Machina
Afevis: That does not change the fact VRChat Inc. implementing EAC is the source of the issue, nor does it change the fact that it's unprofessional & counterproductive for VRChat Inc. deflect responsibility onto other companies for its own mistakes.
The smart decision would be to delete EAC completely from the game, as it would solve an uncountable amount of compatibility issues, please the customer base, and ironically increase the security of the game because EAC does absolutely nothing to stop avatar rippers & crashers from exploiting file caches & Unity engine limitations (techniques used IMMENSELY more often than modded clients).
VRChat Inc. needs to swallow its pride, admit adding EAC was a mistake, and swear to remove it & never consider again adding an anti-cheat system. The community CLEARLY does not approve of it and VRChat's refusal to budge will only increase community disapproval.
VRChat Inc. is choosing pride over its own sustenance at this point. Until they change, it will keep draining their wallets and incentivizing users to switch to competitor platforms until the platform ceases to exist, or worse: gets swallowed up by Epic Games & Tencent.
Tupper - VRChat Head of Community
Pluvia Machina: To be quite blunt, we have no plans to disable anti-tamper systems for the benefit of RGB lighting.
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Pluvia Machina
Tupper - VRChat Head of Community: And also to be blunt, whether you have plans to or not, you SHOULD make plans to completely remove EAC immediately, but for many more reasons that I have already stated. Chief among which being that using EAC as a means to "increase security" and combat avatar ripping & the crashing of users fundamentally doesn't work, as these malicious acts neither require the use of a modded client NOR is using a modded client the most frequently used method of doing so--exploiting file caches allows thieves to steal avatars and the limitations of the Unity engine allows crashers to exploit particle physics & unoptimized avatars. EAC will not fix those, and makes it worse if anything because EAC prohibits the use of mods designed to PREVENT avatar rippers & crashers. EAC is also one of the easiest anti-cheat (or "anti-tamper" as you put it) software to bypass, even in the games they are already in, and there is no anti-cheat software in existence that is actually effective at its job (save whatever means apart from VAC that Valve has implemented in Team Fortress 2 to combat the bot crisis). VRChat is also a social platform, not a Major League Gaming title, so there is no need for an anti-cheat system anyway. Thus, EAC is completely moot in its purpose--it is nothing besides invasive bloatware at this point.
Speaking of invasive bloatware, many users are concerned about the privacy invasion & performance decrease posed by EAC. Since VRChat is already a demanding game with a (frankly) shitty game engine, adding EAC--which constantly runs in the background--will make crashing & low performance all the more likely, especially for users with weak hardware. This can prevent the game from running at all for some people. Since EAC is owned by Epic Games, which is half-owned by the Chinese conglomerate Tencent, and with China being notorious for how little its government cares about the right to privacy, there is zero confidence that EAC with how invasive it is towards users' computers will have any respect for their privacy.
For all of these reasons and more, the VRChat community has overwhelmingly decided that it will not accept EAC nor any other form of modification-preventing ("anti-tamper") software as part of the game, and with you--the supposed Community Head at VRChat Inc.--continuing to defend your superiors' decisions instead of ACTUALLY REPRESENTING THE COMMUNITY & ITS DESIRES is only worsening the relationship your company has already demolished, prompting literally thousands of users like myself to leave VRChat (until EAC is guaranteed to be removed) for your competitors such as ChilloutVR & NeosVR.
If you have any regard for the game's reputation & long-term financial success, you should immediately stand up to your corporate staff and PAINSTAKINGLY DEMAND that EAC be removed from the game. No questioned asked, no exceptions provided, no negotiations made, end of story.
Your duty is to the COMMUNITY--your own paying customers! It is NOT to corporate!
VolcanicWolf
Tupper - VRChat Head of Community you can fix it, just remove EAC :)
「Nara」
I recommend using OpenRGB instead of using proprietary RGB software. A lot of them use a lot of extra CPU power that can be used for more frames instead
TheXev
Many RGB softwares use a generic RGB control library that hasn't been patched for a security issue that is flagged by MANY anti-cheats. :X
Kazy
What version of AURA are you using? Or is it a different part of the service?
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Pumello
Welp. This is what happens with EAC games. Pleased to have you. Now then, for a bandaid solution and explanation.
From what I've heard, lightingservice.exe has some sort of security issue, hence why EAC blocked it. It's infuriating. This problem is not unique to VRChat, but literally every game with EAC.
The solution? Create a .bat script and put it on your desktop, that when launched will automatically kill the lightingservice.exe task.
Step 1: Open notepad in windows. Yes. Stock notepad.
Step 2: type in "taskkill /IM lightingservice.exe /F" without quotes.
Step 3: Save it, BUT change the "Save as type" from "Text Documents" to "All Files". Then remove ".txt" from the end of the file name, and replace it with ".bat" instead. You may name it whatever you want. That doesn't matter.
Now you have a batch script that when launched, will automatically kill LightingService. (You might have to right click and run as administrator since /F forces it to close.)
You can put this file anywhere. On your desktop for easy access, in a folder. Anywhere you like.
This, while not a permanent solution, at least saves you the effort of constantly having to open task manager to kill that task yourself EVERY TIME you launch any game with EAC.
Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to make this automated more than this. But neither am I smart.
So before running any game with EAC, use that script, and then launch the game. Since lightingservice launches on boot, you have to do this every time you start up your pc to play a game with EAC, VRChat included.
Note that this does not remove the program outright. Which I doubt you'd want anyway. It just automates its shutdown.
It might make your fancy rgb lights return to defaults, since lightingservice is not running to control it.
Hope that helps. Now, let's hope Asus updates their software... one day.
AgenderWitchery
Pumello: Doesn't this solution pose an issue for people who might need the indication those lights provide for power issues?
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Pumello
AgenderWitchery: Yup! It sure does. If you use those lights for idk, GPU temp or something like that i guess.
It's hardly a solution. But it makes it a tiny bit less annoying. The other options are, don't play anything with eac at all, or kill the task in task manager yourself (or run the command yourself in command prompt).
So when the others are either extreme or annoying, this isn't a bad solution.
AgenderWitchery
Pumello: I mean I can just not play VRChat. Along with... everyone else who owns a relatively new Asus motherboard.
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Pumello
AgenderWitchery: This isn't about not playing VRChat. Try to stay on topic.
This is about a problem with any EAC game that anyone with aura sync has to deal with. Aura Sync can be used on tons of devices, from graphics cards to mother boards to peripherals.
And until Asus finally patches this issue and EAC removes the flag, this problem will remain.
The bandaid solution I posted, will let people who still chose to play, play.
Edit: I would like to add, that the complaints about this issue goes back over 4 years, and it's yet to be patched or changed. So at this point, you can pretty much bet on that it never will be fixed.
Scout - VRChat Head of Quality Assurance
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