lowGuard - THE AntiCheat-Solution

When GT Legends was released in it's initial CD/DVD version back in 2005 the developer counted entirely on the security of the "Starforce"-copy protection
This system use(d) encrytped game files and check(ed) with every Start if the Gamefiles on harddisk still match(ed ) to the original files.
In case of modified files there where replaced automatically by the original files on the CD/DVD
So nobody was able to use modifications of the original files.

This was boon and bane!

On one hand this copy protection prohibited cheating by using modified physic files, but on the other hand it also prohibited the clear & structured implementation of vehicle-MODs because no modification of the car classes was possible.

This copyprotection was a time bomb!
Since it was working with 32bit operation systems only, it leaded to the situation that GT Legends did not run anymore with more current 64bit operation systems.
This situation would have become death by a thousand cuts for this amazing simulation.
Luckily the vendor reacted by releasing a new version on GT-Legends without the problematic starforce copy protection.
We call this verison the "CBS"-version since it arrived to us via the magazine "Computer Bild Spiele".

With this version it was possible for us to modify the underlying structures and define our ABB-car classes for the first time.
So the clean & structured integration of vehecile-MODs became possible.
Bute the unencrypted version offered also opportunities not in the sense of our community.....

Since the physic data of cars & tracks are open to everybody with this version, some folks are trying to compensate lower driving abilities with tuned cars and sticky tarmac.

Unfortunaletly some bestlaps in our databases may be highly questionable due to this circumstances.

But there's an end of it now!

lowspeed, who's also well know due to his lobby replacement, has developed a handy solution.
This solution will be used at Altbierbude from now on ... the lowGuard.

lowGuard is a small&handy program wich need to be started in conjunction with GTL, it will check if physics are untouched with every join to a game server and reports the result to the other drivers and our Altbierbude.

By using lowGuard every driver can see in realtime if some other drivers are using tuned physics as long as they are using lowGuard too.
Furthermore the result of the physics check will be booked to our databases with our bestlap records, so they will become much more reliable.

So: "only lowGuard-verified laptimes are good laptimes!"
All future bestlap records in our databases without "lowGuard-verification" will have a bad taste for the other drivers, so we claim all our drivers to use loadGuard from now on.

This bulletin board here was implemented for questions, critics and ideas regarding lowGuard, pls. feel free to use it frequently.

We say "thnky ou so much" to lowspeed, without his efforts this amazing fucntion would never has been come true!

cheers,
Uwe

Highly appreciated - thank you very much for your efford, Andreas!

If someone wants to start both programs with a single klick, a small batch-file comes in handy and can be done in 3 steps:

1. Create new text-file
2. enter the following:
@echo off
start "" "D:\path to GTL\gtl.exe" /B
start "" "C:\path to lowGuard\lowGuard.exe" /B3. Rename the file extension to .bat (e.g. GTL+lowGuard.bat)

If you want to start GTL via the new link from the autoupdater (for several cores or 4GB-patch), code has to be like this:
@echo off
start "" "D:\path to GTL-link\name of the link.lnk" /B
start "" "C:\path to lowGuard\lowGuard.exe" /B

Cheerio
Georg

Perhaps the best news in a long time, good work, but...

lowspeed wrote:
lowGuard - THE AntiCheat-Solution

By using lowGuard every driver can see in realtime if some other drivers are using tuned physics as long as they are using lowGuard too.

cheers,
Uwe
...if cheaters are fine with cheating, I think unfortunately, they don't care whether they are on the record list with a cheat time.

A new problem:
If you use (affects me) ALT + TAB to look at lowGuard...XD disappears

I'm not very good with computers, can someone tell me what to do once I've downloaded the files?

Many thanks,
Maurice.

I just put all files in one map folder, created by myself and named LowGuard, after that I started lowGuard.exe, clicked on Settings and showed program where game is (in my case: "D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\GT Legends" ) and finaly clicked on Start GTL.
That`s it, you don`t even need to run Autoupdater.

koi wrote:
I'm not very good with computers, can someone tell me what to do once I've downloaded the files?
This is also, in my opinion, it is too troublesome to get to work...not all are PC experts.

1 Those who can not get it to work...people will probably think they are cheaters.

2 For this to work 100%: It must be in Auto Update & as with cars and tracks, no one can join the server without the correct files.

Pelle wrote:


2 For this to work 100%: It must be in Auto Update & as with cars and tracks, no one can join the server without the correct files.

Of course, but when Autoupdater is updated with the latest tracks and cars, there is no need to run it, because LowGuard starts GTL without any problems.

Sriple Tix wrote:
Pelle wrote:


2 For this to work 100%: It must be in Auto Update & as with cars and tracks, no one can join the server without the correct files.

Of course, but when Autoupdater is updated with the latest tracks and cars, there is no need to run it, because LowGuard starts GTL without any problems.
...but still too complex if it is to work 100%. I always start AutoUpdate & when the download finished, I start GTL up with AutoUpdater (I think most do it this way)...but now you need to find lowGuard.exe to start GTL.

Maybe I ask too much, the program is only V1.0...there may come a better V1.1

Pelle schrieb:
it is too troublesome to get to work...not all are PC experts.Not a big deal to get to work:
*download
*unzip to a folder of your choice
*run lowguard.exe (as administrator)
*go to settings and enter the correct path to your GTL-installation
*hint: GTL can be started as always, *no need to start it from within lowguard!!*

Issues so far:
*if you have been starting GTL without admin rights so far and you want to start it from within lowguard, you probably have to enter your game-key once again (as now it starts as admin). One user experienced wrong screen-resolution due to this, too.
*if you want to assign more than 6 cpu-cores to GTL from within lowguard, you will get a error-code.


Those who can not get it to work...people will probably think they are cheaters.

Those who can not get it to work, are welcomed to the forum to solve their issues...

As GTL doesn't have to be startet out of lowguard, there is not much that can go wrong (see above).
Just unzip in a separate folder, run lowguard and start GTL as you have started it always - should give no problems...
All problems so far resulted from starting GTL from within lowguard, as far as I can oversee it...

Cheers
Georg

Edit: Koi has it already up and running...

Edit2: If you want to start several programs together, you can just make yourself a batch-file as described above. Prferably you let the autoupdater create a link to start GTL with assigned cores and start this link together with lowguard, as suggested... you can even add autoupdater to start, if you want to...
*GTL doesn't have to be started from within lowGuard!* If you want, you can start your GTL from within autoupdater as you wrote that you're always doing - just start low guard seperately.

Edit3:
Maybe I ask too much, the program is only V1.0...there may come a better V1.1Why should that be, as V1.0 stands for final? Any real issues so far?

Yes thank for the help, it was not needed if only I tried to run it!

Georg, I also had minor problem when starting from in Low guard. I run GTL in windows mode, but in Low Guard it started in full screen, so have to shut down GTL to do anything else.

No problem, I just start both

Thanks,
Maurice.

@Pelle
do you got your XD- Tool problem fixed?

Alex

ok so now i have Lowguard.

Trying it out, i know that i cannot start GTL within Lowguard but can start GTL normally from my icon on desktop.
Everything works as normal. Got on a track in server 5 and ran a few laps.

my question is how do i know that Lowguard is working? or does the Bude servers only knows that it is working?
If the servers detect that i do not have Lowguard or the program is not working, will it still let me on the servers or will it just boot me out till i get Lowguard working?

Does Lowguard have any effect on single player?

Curious question: After everyone is on Lowguard, is the Bude going to reset or erase all laptimes from all tracks and only record laptimes with Lowguard?

Hi MoeZee,

how do i know that Lowguard is working?first possibility: there should be some text within the lowguard window. You can click on "switch view" for a better overview. Sometimes it needs a few minutes to show all information correctly.
second possibility: on the abb-homepage at gameserver-info, there are now icons showing the status of lowguard for the participants of the race. Sometimes it needs a few minutes to show all information correctly.
will it just boot me out till i get Lowguard working?Server will not boot you without lowguard.
Does Lowguard have any effect on single player?It has no effect on sigle player, as it is a seperate program - why do you want to run it when playing offline?
is the Bude going to reset or erase all laptimes from all tracksHave a look at the laptimes list. No times are erased, but you are given the choice to filter them...

Cheers
Georg

DFAlex wrote:
@Pelle
do you got your XD- Tool problem fixed?

Alex

Unfortunately, no...I don't know where I need to change in XD config.
I'll start GTL with lowGuard & keeps me far away from ALT + TAB when I'm on the servers...I'm not a judge of people who cheat anyway

Hi Pelle,

if you started your GTL previously not "as Administrator" and it works fine for you, you should not start GTL from within lowGuard.
This is just a convenient option for all, who has to run GTL in admin mode.

Regards
Andreas

lowspeed wrote:
Hi Pelle,

if you started your GTL previously not "as Administrator" and it works fine for you, you should not start GTL from within lowGuard.
This is just a convenient option for all, who has to run GTL in admin mode.

Regards
AndreasHi Andreas
I tested immediately with this tip...unfortunately with the same effect

This was the order I tried now:
1. ABB Auto Update & waited, no new files.
2. Started lowGuard
3. Back to ABB Auto Update & started GTL here
4. On the server I test XD works on the track.
5. Jumps out of the car and press, ALT + TAB, lowGuard works.
6. Jumps in the car again...XD is gone

Help

Oops, I forgot to tell, my XD is v2.1.12 from this link: http://www.vitumo.de/

Hi Pelle,
maybe you try it with a different key to toggle on/of for XD...
here is a list with possible values:
http://www.vitumo.de/files/XD/keyStroke.en.txt

VLG
Alex

Hi all.
Is lowGuard automatically downloaded by Autoupdater, or is it a manual download?

Thanks.

Manual download.
Just follow the instructions at the beginning of this form

Moorhuhn wrote:
Highly appreciated - thank you very much for your efford, Andreas!

If someone wants to start both programs with a single klick, a small batch-file comes in handy and can be done in 3 steps:

1. Create new text-file
2. enter the following:
@echo off
start "" "D:\path to GTL\gtl.exe" /B
start "" "C:\path to lowGuard\lowGuard.exe" /B3. Rename the file extension to .bat (e.g. GTL+lowGuard.bat)

If you want to start GTL via the new link from the autoupdater (for several cores or 4GB-patch), code has to be like this:
@echo off
start "" "D:\path to GTL-link\name of the link.lnk" /B
start "" "C:\path to lowGuard\lowGuard.exe" /B

Cheerio
Georg

Hi Mo,

I have been starting GTL through LowGuard, with the option to use all cores in my CPU. But what is unclear about your tips is if this method will start GTL with the 4GB patch.
I have the 4GB patch installed a long time ago through autoupdater, and I was convinced that every time i started it it was with the 4GB patch - that is, that once the GTL exe file was patched for the first time through the autoupfdater, it would remain patched thereafter.

So, what I'm asking is if when I start GTL through Lowguard the 4GB patch is already applied or not?

Now my lowGuard doesn't work anymore...

Even if I download it again an run it from a folder in desktop, the red error message is still the same..

"The destininy of an invocation has triggered an exception."

The game works normally through the GTL.exe shortcut and autoupdater...and my firewall is disabled.

Any ideas?

Hallo zusammen,
ist schon verwunderlich wieviele immer noch ohne LowGuard fahren "müssen"


Sonnige Grüße

Hello Alucard,

which Version of Windows do you use?

rdjango

Hi rdjango,

I use Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) - Build 7601.win7sp1_gdr.130828-1532.

But today lowGuard seems to be working ok again, as it was before, despite the fact that I didn't change anything... I don't understand what could have happened, because yesterday, when I wrote m last entry here, I restarted the Pc a number of times, and still had the same error starting lowGuard. Today, everything went back to normal.