[Don Sanchez]

[L4D1/2] Thirdpersonshoulder Block

My first plugin. :3



Description:

This plugin will kick clients who use the "thirdpersonshoulder" command to engage in thirdperson in Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2.

While VALVe has tried to patch this in an earlier update (making the thirdpersonshoulder command having no effect in competitive gamemodes), there is still a way around to use it with a custom *.vkp addon.

This is bad, because there are numerous ways how thirdpersonshoulder can be used to gain advantages in Versus and similar gamemodes, so to say, cheat.
Using thirdpersonshoulder, it is possible to look around corners without exposing yourself, generally being able to see what is around and behind you all the time, letting you defend yourself a lot more efficiently, and in the worst case, manipulating the thirdperson camera position. It is possible to look on the map from above, spotting hunters on rooftops before they initiate their highpounce, looking around in the map searching for items without even going there, and even look straight through walls and shooting infected behind it, pretty much wallhack. It is also possible to bypass the fog/rain on the Hard Rain campaign for example that normally stops snipers from shooting targets at a far range.

To prevent stuff like this:

• Kicks clients on the survivor and infected team who have c_thirdpersonshoulder set to 1, which is a side-effect of using the thirdpersonshoulder command.
• Clients are informed in the kick message how to change the cvar to be able to rejoin the server (in the case of the start of a competitive match for example).
• All other players in the server will be notified if a client is kicked and why.

http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=t...der_kijm46.jpg

Note: It is possible to land back in firstperson without the c_thirdpersonshoulder being set back to 0, for example when you die. Such a client will still be kicked when he joins the server, but he can fix the cvar once and will be able to play without problems afterwards.
Unfortunately there is no other way to check for thirdperson, and there is no easy way anymore for servers to execute commands on clients (such as resetting the cvar for the client).


Console variables:

Just the version cvar so far.

• l4d_tpsblock_version - Version of the Thirdpersonshoulder Block plugin

Credits:

Special thanks to ProdigySim, psychonic and CanadaRox for helping me with all my coding questions.
Also thanks to Mr. Zero, whose plugins' code I took a look at a few times to learn some things. The same applies for ProdigySim's and CandaRox's plugins. ;)


Changelog:

September 11, 2011 (1.3) * Code optimizations July 31, 2011 (1.2) * Minor change of the kick notification message. June 19th, 2011 (1.1) * Truncated the version cvar. June 19th, 2011 (1.0) * Initial release.

[adrianman]

nice find,gonna use this

[xioSlayer]

I bet its extremely rare for this to be abused, and even when it is, its not like they can shoot you once they've messed up their view...

and third person mode has its drawbacks, such as not being able to shoot perfectly straight, no matter what the parameters are set to.

Still useful if you dont like thirdperson at all, but i dont mind it

[Don Sanchez]

Originally Posted by xioSlayer I bet its extremely rare for this to be abused, and even when it is, its not like they can shoot you once they've messed up their view... and third person mode has its drawbacks, such as not being able to shoot perfectly straight, no matter what the parameters are set to.

Yes it is rare to be abused now that you need a custom vkp addon to use it, but it is possible, I have already seen people who played with it, and quite a lot of people use it for creating fragmovies etc. with thirdperson.

Also, their view won't be messed up, you can change a few variables to set how the thirdpersonshoulder camera is positioned, and it's very well playable.
There are drawbacks like the crosshair normally not being 100% accurate, but it's negligible when you adjust the variables correctly, and the advantages are quite huge. And keep in mind that on top of that, they can manipulate it to wallhack etc... hm maybe I should make an exemplary video of that.

[Zbeer]

Thank you!

[checkster]

nice plugin.
Anyway to make it temp ban ?
Maybe add a cfg ?

[checkster]

Originally Posted by xioSlayer I bet its extremely rare for this to be abused, and even when it is, its not like they can shoot you once they've messed up their view... and third person mode has its drawbacks, such as not being able to shoot perfectly straight, no matter what the parameters are set to. Still useful if you dont like thirdperson at all, but i dont mind it

This plugin actually kick's an average of 30 people each day on my server.

[matrixmark]

Haha this caught a person on mine last night... he swore blind he wasnt using it so I asked him to send me his autoexec conf and there it was right at the top

Either he didnt know or he was just playing dumb but in anycase pretty awesome plugin

[Simca]

Instead of being kicked can the plugin force the cvar onto the client? or disable something so thirdperson can't be used? Because people don't understand the kick message. They're not fluent in English.
Or can you allow us to change the kick message?

[canadianjeff]

it is now 2021 and for the past several years my server has been catching people with this and they all claim stuff like

-i dont know how to hack
-how do I fix this
-i dont hack you just suck

.....etc