Some Clarification Needed from the Mods

BigMakatak

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_GinaBruno

If someone were to use programs such as ReShade, ENB, RivaTuner, nVidia Inspector, or their web browser while playing ESO, would they be breaking the Terms of Service?

belial5221_ESO

It is possible it could flag,cause you are injecting with some programs.Web browser fine,as long as you don't goto PVP and stream snipe using a streaming site.

BigMakatak

belial5221_ESO wrote: »

It is possible it could flag,cause you are injecting with some programs.Web browser fine,as long as you don't goto PVP and stream snipe using a streaming site.

...

TaSheen

The devs don't post here much - just an occasional sticky.

@ZOS_Kevin, could you check on this for the OP?

CoolBlast3

They once featured a screenshotter who used reshade and mentioned they use reshade in the spotlight itself. So you're likely fine.

" I saw fellow ESO screenshot artists on Twitter using “reshades” to achieve various aesthetics, and I decided I would implement this technique into my work. "

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/62549

Rogue_WolfESO

"Stream sniping" lol
If someone decides to stream to the world their gameplay, they should be fully expecting their competition to watch said stream to see where they are at. Especially PVP streamers. It's amazing how much information pvp streamers freely give away during their streams. Trying to control the negative impact of that decision through game moderation is laughable

BenTSG

Well, I myself have been using ReShade for a good few years now at least with no problems at all. Even added ESO into Steam for the overlay with no issue there either. I am not sure about the other items on your list, though.

BigMakatak

@BenTSG It's recently come to my attention that ReShade, et al., are NOT allowed (even enhancements available via one's graphics card control panel might be against the TOS & COC); however, web browsers should be fine.

RicAlmighty

BigMakatak wrote: »

@BenTSG It's recently come to my attention that ReShade, et al., are NOT allowed (even enhancements available via one's graphics card control panel might be against the TOS & COC); however, web browsers should be fine.

Going to need a cite or a link for that please.

I have been using both ReShade and RTSS with ESO for years. That goes for a ton of folks in my guilds as well. So, if you have something that backs up what you are saying then please post it here.

BigMakatak

@RicAlmighty Here you go.

Off topic, but what's RTSS? I've never heard of it before. I think.

RicAlmighty

BigMakatak wrote: »

@RicAlmighty Here you go.

Off topic, but what's RTSS? I've never heard of it before. I think.

This says absolutely nothing about ReShade OR RTSS. The commenter adds their own assumptions by saying

Reshade probably isn't either.

But the linked help article says nothing at all about either of those. Daybreak works very differently than ReShade does and is explicitly called out. Nothing else is, so any further speculation or assumptions are invalid.
Moreover, like i said, I have been running ReShade and RTSS for years and have never received that error, nor has anyone else I know.

bantamguar

Been using rivatuner for years with no issues. In other mmos too

Dr_Con

BigMakatak wrote: »

belial5221_ESO wrote: »

It is possible it could flag,cause you are injecting with some programs.Web browser fine,as long as you don't goto PVP and stream snipe using a streaming site.

...

100% legit player POV btw. same guy jumps around cyrodiil on his horse going 100mph

BenTSG

BigMakatak wrote: »

@RicAlmighty Here you go.

Off topic, but what's RTSS? I've never heard of it before. I think.

I swear I heard somewhere that someone official even said ReShade was fine to use which I think is why I started, but this would have been years back so I could very well be wrong and misremembering. Still though, I've not had any issues, seemingly neither has anyone else, so either they don't actually care dispite it being in the ToS, or the system just can't detect it that well. In any case, that's my experience with using it, and that's all I can give, be down to the OP to decide what they'd like to do!

Dr_Con wrote: »

BigMakatak wrote: »

belial5221_ESO wrote: »

It is possible it could flag,cause you are injecting with some programs.Web browser fine,as long as you don't goto PVP and stream snipe using a streaming site.

...

100% legit player POV btw. same guy jumps around cyrodiil on his horse going 100mph

That is both amazing that the game can even be made to look like that, and horrifying to see.

Edit: Should also mention I've started using Daybreak as well about a few weeks ago, still no problems there too.

BigMakatak

Like @BenTSG said, they don't really seem to have any way to detect such things, so I think we're fine to use nearly whatever we want to.

kyatos_binarini

so, no answer?

Toanis

Tools like Rivatuner or Nvidia Inspector provide access to settings that aren't available in the official driver tools, usually because they're unsuported, very niche, outdated, or only work with certain cards. Aside from using extra low graphics settings to gain a FPS boost on a potato there isn't much a cheater can do.

Tools like Reshade pretend to be the DirectX driver and modify the render data before it's processed by the GPU, that's iffy, because while the intention is to make stuff even prettier, the tech can also make textures transparent so you see enemy players behind walls. Still you would need to be caught in the act, (i.e. streaming) or ZOS would need to be actively spying on our PCs and a Microsoft subsidiary doing so would alert all 3 letter agencies in the western world.

As for browsers... Don't you guys have phones? But yeah, using Discord/TS3/Skype does give a team an unfair advantage, let's go one better: ZOS banning a couple for playing together while sitting in the same room would make for some funny memes.

Soraka

Hmmm I would like to know now, too. I don't want to be using something I'm not supposed to.

WiseSky

I am pretty sure I would not be able to play one of these ...

kargen27

There are player guides going back to 2014 for SweetFX and other visual enhancements. Player shared their settings and helped troubleshoot installing. If it were not allowed those how to threads would have been closed.

There was an official reply in April (I think that was the right month) 2014 saying mods that changed the field of view were okay to use. Making things brighter or whatever would be less of a game change than that so you are good to go.

Dr_Con

Mathius_Mordred wrote: »

[snip]

I think they want clarification from an official source due to FFXIV's policy.

best answer is somewhere between "we don't know" and "so long as they don't use any program to gain an advantage over other players"

[edited to remove quote]

BigMakatak

@Dr_Con I only play this game, so, please, enlighten me about Final Fantasy 14 and its policies.

Kiyakotari

Considering how notoriously difficult ReShade is to permanently uninstall, and how many ways it can end up on your PC, this would be a pretty big blow to their players. I hate it and it on my personal rig and it keeps trying to sneak back in.

BigMakatak

@Kiyakotari So sorry to hear that! I've never had problems removing ReShades or ENBs, though I doubt I can be of much help over the internet; I'm a very visual person due to the Divine Blessing of Autism.

Toanis

BigMakatak wrote: »

@Toanis What do you mean by 'letter agencies'? The credit-report bureaux (yes, that's the correct plural of 'bureau')? And you do realise just how small phones are, right? Besides, phones and tablets are only optimised for making calls (the former only) and using apps (both the former and the latter); they fail spectacularly at browsing the web, since they need specially-optimised web-pages for browsing the 'net, otherwise the fonts will be way too small.

I'm only half serious, but let's assume a US senator plays ESO, even when it's on their private PC, there will be an investigation when it comes out that ZOS basically installed spy software. And Microsoft's damage control will be quick and radical.

What I'm saying is: you're worrying too much. ZOS has neither time nor resources to police their customer's computers. In that dystopian future where they do, don't you think rather than banning you for making ESO prettier, they'd ban you for also playing WoW?

As for external information, from puzzle solutions to stream sniping: phone, second computer, a printout of the internet, whatever, there are always ways to browse the web without doing it on your gaming PC, so it's pointless to make the ability to do so "illegal", just always keep in mind that they want your business, and as long as they don't lose someone else's business due to your actions, they won't look too close.

If you drive the devs in a corner by demanding a clear definition of what is tolerated and what isn't, they will give one that covers every possibility and then have to act on that. This way you end up with a situation like in FFXIV, where they literally put a streamer's character in a cell, ON STREAM, for using combat-hint addons, right AFTER the devs explicitly said that using such addons is technically illegal but they wouldn't go out of their way to find out.

In the end, whether in gaming or in real life, go with your common sense. If you have to ask yourself whether it's okay to do something, maybe you shouldn't; but just owning something that might be used for illegal means isn't the same as doing that. You may be banned from a club for bringing a knife, but the place would be empty if they banned everyone who owns a knife.

SimonThesis

You can change your display and how you see the game and what information you see all you want. You just can't do anything that gives you a physical advantage ex. cheating or alters someone else's game.

zaria

Toanis wrote: »

Tools like Rivatuner or Nvidia Inspector provide access to settings that aren't available in the official driver tools, usually because they're unsuported, very niche, outdated, or only work with certain cards. Aside from using extra low graphics settings to gain a FPS boost on a potato there isn't much a cheater can do.

Tools like Reshade pretend to be the DirectX driver and modify the render data before it's processed by the GPU, that's iffy, because while the intention is to make stuff even prettier, the tech can also make textures transparent so you see enemy players behind walls. Still you would need to be caught in the act, (i.e. streaming) or ZOS would need to be actively spying on our PCs and a Microsoft subsidiary doing so would alert all 3 letter agencies in the western world.

As for browsers... Don't you guys have phones? But yeah, using Discord/TS3/Skype does give a team an unfair advantage, let's go one better: ZOS banning a couple for playing together while sitting in the same room would make for some funny memes.

See that Reshade might be used for an wall hack.

As for browsers why? For one I use the TTC web site actively, also watching youtube or netflix doing more boring stuff.
And discord in organized groups.

SandandStars

kyatos_binarini wrote: »

so, no answer?

BigMakatak

zaria wrote: »

See that Reshade might be used for an wall hack.

If you mean "allows one to see other players through walls", then yes, I think it can do that. I don't actually know, nor do I care to find out (I don't do PvP 'cause of bad internet and poor skill ).

zaria wrote: »

As for browsers why? [...]

I misunderstood the ToS & CoC: at first, I thought that using a third-party program alongside TESO was bannable, but I just now realised that Zeni must mean that using a third-party program to interact, or that interacts, with the game is bannable. So browsing the web while playing TESO is fine, but running an app that lets one see stealthed, hidden, or otherwise-obscured, players would be inordinately bad.