X-Spectate
Latest Version: 1.0 [download]
Current Steam status: WORKING
Last updated: 22 October 2004
Screenshots
Screenshot 1 - enabling the ESP while spectating in TFC
Screenshot 2 - viewing the players' rate settings in the console
Screenshot 3 - all visual aids enabled
Screenshot 4 - entering spectator mode with some visual aids already on
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.
Counter-Strike for Steam or Team Fortress Classic for Steam.
A 3D accelerator card with OpenGL graphics support, and Counter-Strike or Team Fortress Classic running in OpenGL mode.
Changes:
1.0
Gave up on the stupid beta numbering system :)
Should now support Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Updated the use of engine and studio functions so that X-Spectate will (hopefully) require much less updating. You should be able to use this version for the foreseeable future. Thanks to dom1n1k for his help here.
Added an additional security feature to help ensure X-Spectate can't be used to cheat. This change should be invisible to the user.
Turning features on and off now results in the information text appearing in the centre of your screen as well as in the chat area. This is so that you can keep track of what features you are toggling on servers that mute people for chatting too often.
Removed the WON version of X-Spectate from the zip file, since WON is no longer online. If you have old versions of X-Spectate, you can still use them to watch offline WON demos.
Beta 6
Added early version of the new player database (Steam only). Currently it will automatically record players while you play, and will tell you the three most common aliases for each player (that you have seen thus far) when they join a server. Future versions will include tools to search and merge databases with other users, as well as logging player Steam IDs to the database for future reference. The database is operational both while watching demos and while playing live games.
The source code to the database class and file structure is available in case anyone wants to develop tools for searching or manipulating the player databases. It can be found in the src_playerdb folder of the zip file. You may distribute object and source code resulting from these files freely.
Fixed offsets to work with Steam as of 22 July 2004.
Beta 5
Added a new feature to Steam version: player rate viewer. See the features question below for usage.
Fixed offsets to work with Steam as of 23 June 2004.
Beta 4
Support for the final versions of CS and TFC on WON (use the executables in the WON folder of the zip).
Fixed offsets to work with Steam update of 2 June 2004.
Beta 3
Added announcement of activated features whenever the player becomes a spectator (even if that is through dying in CS).
Fixed a crash bug associated with using ESP.
What is X-Spectate?
X-Spectate is a client-side anti-cheat tool for Steam (currently only TFC and CS mods are supported). X-Spectate assists you in catching suspected cheaters by allowing you to use a wallhack and similar visual aids while spectating or viewing demo playback only.
Is X-Spectate a cheat?
No. X-Spectate cannot be used to cheat. When you are playing the game, all visual aids are turned off automatically, and you will not be able to turn them on again until you return to spectating or viewing demo playback. When you turn one of these features on while spectating, you will automatically announce your use of X-Spectate to the rest of the server. This is done in case any leagues or servers wish to restrict the use of X-Spectate by players during matches and want to be able to tell if anyone is using it.
Who will benefit from using X-Spectate?
Anyone that suspects another player of cheating, or who has to keep watch on a server or league in order to prevent cheating can benefit from using X-Spectate. When trying to see if another player may be wallhacking it is often necessary to use a wallhack yourself so that you can see what the suspected cheater may be seeing and judge how they react to this extra information. League admins especially have had to download actual cheats in order to use a wallhack when watching demos or spectating matches and, since the arrival of VAC, this has put them at risk of being banned if they fail to remove the cheat completely when they join a secure server. Clan leaders will also benefit by being able to do a more thorough check of their new recruits for any possible cheating before playing them in matches.
X-Spectate can also be used by match broadcasters who may find the ESP information on player names and weapons useful.
Where can I get the latest version of X-Spectate?
The latest version of X-Spectate is always available at http://www.m0ng.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/x-spectate
Will X-Spectate get me banned due to Valve's anti-cheat measures?
No. X-Spectate is not, and never will be, a cheat. Valve's Anti-Cheat system only bans known cheat programs, so X-Spectate will not cause you to be banned. In the past, VAC has erroneously detection non-cheat modifications such as HLAmp as cheats, but this is no longer an issue since the basic operation of VAC has changed drastically since then (and all those erroneous bans were removed). If I do become aware of any VAC bans caused by using X-Spectate on secure servers, I will remove the download and post a notice to that effect on this webpage as soon as possible.
Does X-Spectate have the approval of any leagues?
I have received positive feedback from the administrators of several of the main TFC leagues on the potential of X-Spectate. X-Spectate is currently used extensively by the administrators of the ETAC leagues.
How do I use X-Spectate?
Download the zip file and extract it into any folder you like. Run x-spec.exe and while the X-Spectate window is on the screen, start TFC or Counter-Strike normally (either through the Steam server list or through loading them from the games menu). When the game loads, the X-Spectate window will disappear and you should see the X-Spectate welcome text in the console (you may miss it if you joined a server immediately). Once you are in game and spectating or watching a demo, you can use the toggle buttons on the row of function keys to turn the features on and off. Be warned that toggling the features while on a server will result in you telling everyone that you are using X-Spectate -- and if you toggle the features too fast, you may be kicked off the server for chat spamming.
What features does X-Spectate have?
All features can be toggled on and off while spectating or watching a demo only. The exceptions to this is are the rate viewer and name database which can be used while playing since they do not provide any advantage. Use the following keys to toggle each feature:
F12 - Toggle wallhack. The wallhack works very much like the "XQZ-style" wallhacks in many current cheats.
F11 - Toggle ESP. ESP will show a tag above all players' heads (visible through walls) with their name and current weapon.
F10 - Toggle Lambert. Lambert shows all players at full brightness even when in completely dark areas of the map.
F9 - Display player rate settings. Pressing this will print the netcode settings for all players to your console, along with their friends name and friends id if available (the friends id is unique among players and can be cross-referenced with those in your friends database file). After pressing F9 you can use the standard Half-Life condump command to save the output to a file. Note that cl_cmdrate is not displayed since it is entirely internal to each player's client. See the question below for an explanation of what these cvars mean.
F8 - Display player database information. This will print to the console the three most common aliases of each player in the server right now. The lists of player names are built up as you play, and will probably be limited to a single name for most players -- most likely the one they are using at the moment. However if you see a player several times, with different names, pressing F8 (or reading the message when that player joins the server) will let you see what other names they have used. This is useful if you play mainly in the clan community and want to keep track of players that may not be using their "real" name when they play on pubs.
What do the cvars displayed when I press F9 mean?
The following are rough descriptions. They may be incorrect and if you believe my description is wrong, please email me so I can update it.
cl_updaterate - The number of updates the client wishes to receive from the server per second. Setting this too low will result in inaccurate prediction on that client. Setting it too high will result in choke when the game gets busy.
rate - The maximum data rate from the server to the client. I am unsure exactly how this is measured but it could be in bytes per second.
cl_lc - Can be either 0 or 1 to indicate on or off. Default is on. When on, the client will perform prediction of various game elements (I am unsure exactly which elements this affects).
cl_lw - Can be either 0 or 1 to indicate on or off. Default is on. When on, the client will perform prediction of weapon animations and effects, such as bullet holes, tracers and nail projectiles in TFC. This is important because setting cl_lw to 0 when playing HWGuy in TFC could be considered a form of anti-conc cheat and is illegal in many leagues.
*fname - The player's name on the Friends network. This is often blank, in the same way that the friends name of players often fails to show up in the player list. I'm not sure if this is a bug in Steam or if it means they aren't signed in to friends.
*fid - The player's ID number of the Friends network. There is unfortunately no way to add people to your contact list through their ID number, but the *fid number still serves as a unique method of distinguishing players when Steam IDs are not available.
Can X-Spectate be modified or hacked in order to turn it into a cheat that uses X-Spectate's reputation to hide from VAC?
No. While any client-side software can, of course, be hacked in order to change its behaviour, this has certain implications in terms of X-Spectate. If you modify X-Spectate, its standing with VAC will change. VAC scans programs in order to obtain certain signatures that can be compared to a list of known cheats. If you modify X-Spectate in order to cheat then you are not really any safer, in terms of avoiding VAC-detection, than you would be if you used a regular cheat. This is because in order to modify X-Spectate you would have to either edit the files on disk (which is one of the main things VAC scans) or run a separate program in order to modify X-Spectate in memory. Both of these methods of modification can be distinguished from legitimate use of X-Spectate by VAC.
Furthermore, X-Spectate itself contains some basic protection to prevent itself from being altered, though this is not flawless.
X-Spectate doesn't work for me. Is there a way to fix it?
X-Spectate requires Windows 2000 or Windows XP minimum. It will not work on Windows 95, 98 or ME. If X-Spectate has never worked for you, then I'd be happy to try to solve whatever problems you have via email at the address below.
In addition to this, X-Spectate will not load if you are using any other OpenGL wrappers. Usually, you can solve this by renaming or moving any opengl32.dll you find in your game folder (do not remove the opengl32.dll from your Windows system folder, as this is needed for the normal operation of your computer).
Does X-Spectate work with Windows XP Service Pack 2?
I don't have SP2 installed myself, but after a little trial and error and thanks to the efforts of a couple of testers, I am quite confident that versions of X-Spectate from 1.0 upwards will work properly with SP2. If you're having a problem with X-Spectate that didn't occur before installing SP2, drop me an email and I'll see if I can do anything. If you are running an AMD 64 machine, you probably won't be able to use X-Spectate with SP2 because of the limitations in executing code from certain areas of memory.
Why aren't all mods supported by X-Spectate?
The main reason that X-Spectate only supports a very limited set of mods is that I personally haven't tested and verified that X-Spectate's methods of checking that you're a spectator are effective in other mods. Also, some mods use radically different code to the main SDK and mods such as TFC and CS and this would prevent some of X-Spectate's features from working.
Who created X-Spectate and how can I contact them?
X-Spectate was created from scratch by Niall FitzGibbon. The author can be contacted via email at m0ng-at-blueyonder-dot-co-dot-uk.
