Uploaded May 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
[LONG READ, BUT USEFUL IMO]
EDIT: 8:54:52 onward is where the extent of VAC's reach is actually demonstrated, at least in the confines of Team Fortress 2.
I've been very suspicious about whether VALVe is being completely truthful about when VAC is in effect, based off of a recent VAC ban, and the word that supposedly even messing around in itemtest isn't safe. To see if this is true or not, I have rigged up an experiment that will test 2 hypotheses.
Question 1:
Does Valve Anticheat (VAC) ban merely for having the process opened, and not for having the process open AND hooked into the hl2.exe process?
Question 2:
Does Valve Anticheat (VAC) ban merely for using cheats in itemtest, which has no VAC-secure indicator, and is meant to be singleplayer in nature?
Hypothesis 1: Yes, VAC Will ban merely for having the process open, irrespective of if it is hooked into the game's hl2.exe process or not.
Hypothesis 2: Yes, VAC Will ban merely for using cheats in itemtest, which has no VAC-secure indicator, and is meant to be singleplayer in nature.
How am I to test this:
Create 3 steam accounts: vacctest0, vactest1, and vactest2.
vactest0: "control" account - play normally, then demonstrate getting a VAC ban for using cheat engine in game (hooked into the hl2.exe process.
vactest1, vactest2: Test to see if merely having it open, but not hooked into the hl2.exe process, will trigger a ban, and then see if having it hooked into the process while in itemtest will trigger a ban or not.
First, run vactest0, play a little bit, then hook CE into hl2.exe, track length of time before VAC ban for using CE in game.
Finally, use vactest1, vactest2 (sequentially), have Cheat Engine running, but not hooked into the hl2.exe process, then go from playing in a multiplayer game, to playing in itemtest, hooking CE into the process.
The results of using vactest1, vactest2 like this will answer the initial question, prove or disprove the hypothesis.
[LONG READ, BUT USEFUL IMO]
EDIT: 8:54:52 onward is where the extent of VAC's reach is actually demonstrated, at least in the confines of Team Fortress 2.
I've been very suspicious about whether VALVe is being completely truthful about when VAC is in effect, based off of a recent VAC ban, and the word that supposedly even messing around in itemtest isn't safe. To see if this is true or not, I have rigged up an experiment that will test 2 hypotheses.
Question 1:
Does Valve Anticheat (VAC) ban merely for having the process opened, and not for having the process open AND hooked into the hl2.exe process?
Question 2:
Does Valve Anticheat (VAC) ban merely for using cheats in itemtest, which has no VAC-secure indicator, and is meant to be singleplayer in nature?
Hypothesis 1: Yes, VAC Will ban merely for having the process open, irrespective of if it is hooked into the game's hl2.exe process or not.
Hypothesis 2: Yes, VAC Will ban merely for using cheats in itemtest, which has no VAC-secure indicator, and is meant to be singleplayer in nature.
How am I to test this:
Create 3 steam accounts: vacctest0, vactest1, and vactest2.
vactest0: "control" account - play normally, then demonstrate getting a VAC ban for using cheat engine in game (hooked into the hl2.exe process.
vactest1, vactest2: Test to see if merely having it open, but not hooked into the hl2.exe process, will trigger a ban, and then see if having it hooked into the process while in itemtest will trigger a ban or not.
First, run vactest0, play a little bit, then hook CE into hl2.exe, track length of time before VAC ban for using CE in game.
Finally, use vactest1, vactest2 (sequentially), have Cheat Engine running, but not hooked into the hl2.exe process, then go from playing in a multiplayer game, to playing in itemtest, hooking CE into the process.
The results of using vactest1, vactest2 like this will answer the initial question, prove or disprove the hypothesis.
