EAC, BattlEye, Vanguard
- Runs on every player, always
- Lives in the kernel, the deepest part of Windows
- Bought by the game's publisher
- Blocks cheats on its own
How it works, from scratch.
Never seen an anti-cheat like this? It takes two minutes.
This isn't the anti-cheat you're thinking of.
There are two kinds of anti-cheat. Mixing them up makes everything confusing.
Glimmer
- Runs on one suspect, once
- No driver. Gone when it's done
- Bought by the server's owner
- Gathers evidence for a human
They don't compete. Rust ships EAC, and it guards the publisher's own servers. It does nothing for an admin who has a clip and has to make a call.
What it replaces: the screenshare.
Today, without it: a player gets reported. A staff member drags them into a Discord call, takes remote control of their PC and pokes through their files by hand. That's a screenshare, or SS. On big servers it's a whole job.
So who installs what?
Two different people. Two different things.
Install once
A plugin on your server. A dashboard for your staff, in the browser.
Installed once. Stays.Run once
Pays nothing. Downloads one small program, only when they're being checked.
Asked to run a scan? Read this.Runs once, then it's gone.Ordinary players never touch it. They never know it exists until someone is accused.
But why would a cheater agree to run it?
Because on these servers, refusing is already a ban. That rule exists today, for screenshares. If staff ask you to SS and you log off, you're banned for evading. Everyone already accepts it, and Glimmer just makes it take minutes instead of an hour.
How it starts, on a server with the plugin
Staff freeze the playerone command, on the suspect
Player is frozencan't move, fight, drop items or clean up
Two choices pop upand they come back if closed
I admit itstaff are told at once
I'm legit, scan methe scan starts, right there
Either way, staff know in seconds if the player owned up or asked for the scan. Without the plugin, staff send the link from the dashboard.
The scan, start to finish.
Accusedsomeone reports them
Gets a codeone use, then it expires
Scan runsa couple of minutes
Staff read itand decide
Appealfree, always
Nothing stays installed. It looks once, at one moment, while a kernel anti-cheat watches all day.
What it looks at, and why deleting the cheat doesn't save you.
Files on the disk
The obvious one, and the easiest to beat. Delete it before the scan.
Windows' own receipts
Windows keeps its own records of what has been run. Deleting the cheat doesn't delete the receipt.
Drivers and services
What's loaded deep in the system, where some cheats hide.
The live game's memory
The strongest. For a cheat to work at all, it has to be loaded, unpacked, inside the running game right now.
A cheater can delete a file. They can't easily delete Windows' record that it ran, and they can't hide it from the game's memory while they're using it.
The rule that stops innocent people getting banned.
Every detection has to say, up front, which of these two it is:
Accuses
"This is cheat X."
Specific and identifying. Only these can count toward a ban.
Context
"This file is compressed."
True and useful background, and it can never accuse anyone, no matter how many pile up. A thousand of them still means nothing.
If a detection turns out to match normal software, it moves to the bottom tier. It keeps its value and permanently loses the power to call you a cheater.
Tested before it ships.
Every detection is run against real, clean installs of real games and everyday software before it can ship. The bar is zero wrong accusations. A rule that accuses a clean file doesn't ship.
What the test caught
SteamAccusedClean
Ubisoft ConnectAccusedClean
Adobe AcrobatAccusedClean
OBS StudioAccusedClean
SteamAccusedCleanUbisoft ConnectAccusedCleanAdobe AcrobatAccusedCleanOBS StudioAccusedCleanOne rule matched a web browser engine that hundreds of normal apps carry inside them. The test caught it before it reached anyone.
Why a scan can't be faked.
A screenshare can be gamed. Hand the volunteer a clean laptop, or stall until the evidence is gone. A Glimmer scan is checked on the server, the one place the suspect doesn't control.
- The code is a ticket for one PC. A friend's clean PC can't answer for it.
- The report says which rules it ran, signed. An old or edited rule set is refused.
- A report can be used once. Last week's clean scan can't be replayed today.
- A partial scan can't look clean. Every place it was asked to look is accounted for, and every gap is named.
Download link, already carrying the case
anticheat.lunarwerx.com/download/glimmer-SAMPLE-00000.exe
Frozen in game, link sentWhat it honestly doesn't do.
- It only knows the cheats on its list. That's why the list keeps growing.
- It's not live protection. It can't stop a cheat mid-game. It tells you what was on that PC, at that moment, with evidence.
- No kernel driver means some things are out of reach. On purpose.
- It doesn't decide. Your staff do.
This doesn't replace EAC. It replaces the volunteer with TeamViewer.
Try it on your next report.
Every server starts with a free trial: ten scans or fourteen days, with the same detections a paid plan gets.