Is GShade allowed?

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Originally Posted by Scott

No it isn't allowed. But..... Just don't talk about it and nobody will know

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Discord isn't allowed. But..... Just don't talk about it and nobody will know

it is a grey area but notice that grey area does not mean its totally fine and legal

It's impossible for SE to make a clear line about this. We know GShade doesn't change the game files, it runs along side the game such as anything else you have open on your computer, and in fact other software not specifically made for FFXIV, such as software from Nvidia, does exactly the same thing as GShade. SE will not dictate to you what you can and can't install on your PC while you run the game, because they can't detect that without privacy issues.

During recent photo contests, there was catagory where photoshopped and entries with GShade were accepted. There were vanilla categories too, to make it fair...this should show you what SE's stance on the matter is.

The problem is, there's no way they can come out to you and say "yes this is acceptable, you won't be banned". Accepting means acknowledging that players on console are at a disadvantage, which means they would have to address that or risk anger from console players (which to be fair, they already deal with).

So as usual, don't ask, don't tell, should apply here. I feel like the video of YoshiP talking about 3rd party tools and how it's such a grey area needs to be pinned on the lodestone or something...

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Originally Posted by LuluLavender

they can't detect that without privacy issues.

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Just to clarify, they absolutely can. SE chooses not to.
At least at this time, that is. If people keep pushing boundaries they're going to do something more than making a statement and gaoling a few players.

I mean, assuming that was from a GM, that more recent response is basically all players need to go on to understand that it supersedes the old post nearly a decade ago. Plus, keep in mind, the post was specifically referring to a specific enb injector, something that Gshade (specifically Reshade) uses I think... but it does other things as well lol. Thus you can't take what was said even in that post and apply to a different thing, even if they function similarly.

With how things are currently just do as you always do and move on. Nothing has changed for anyone but (mostly) streamers who openly used addons/plugins. Expecting them to actually say Gshade is perfectly fine in this climate is foolish. They'd be essentially begging for people to be bad about testing the waters on what they deem to be okay.

The reality has always been that players who use unofficial tools that directly interact with this game (basically everything) has violated ToS. Severity differs obviously, but that's the reality of a blanket ToS. Not exactly a big deal. Remember how Yoshi-P directly addressed how Discord is technically a 3rd party program, but isn't something they can prove you're using exclusively to undermine FFXIVs systems, so they won't even bother with that? That's an effect of a blanket ToS. There are going to be nonsense stuff that qualifies, but that doesn't change the necessity of it for when it is more applicable. That's just for them, not for you.

Honestly, this whole thing about addons/plugins with XIV players freaking out about the ToS is so entertaining and fascinating to me, as an FFXI player. Practically everyone uses 3rd party tools in that game and the ToS is very similar lol. An overwhelming majority of players outright recognize what they're doing and try not being stupid about it. If you were unlucky and got caught, it was usually your own fault, but very bad luck could have happened as well.

Something like posting pictures using GShade is not going to get you banned, simply due to the fact that it just cannot be proven and that it's just not a big deal. That said, people need to realize its a matter of give and take. They're giving players some leeway and they always have been. Take too much however (i.e. start going overboard with addons and such) and that's when the crackdown happens. Regular players are nowhere near that yet and even further for Gshade users. Just like FFXI, the only rule regarding 3rd party tools is to not be stupid about what you're using or doing with it.

if Gshade isn't allowed then neither is Geforce Experience, since it has Freestyle built in.

This just in: NVIDIA Gamers banned for LIFE, Buy AMD here! sponsored by newegg

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Originally Posted by HollowedDoll

This just in: NVIDIA Gamers banned for LIFE, Buy AMD here! sponsored by newegg

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Too bad. Because AMD Adrenalin has also some image altering functionality in it. :)

Just in: Buy Matrox and Kyro- and Bitboys Oy-GPUs!

Cheers

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

Gshade does not modify the game files. The people have no clue what Gshade is and how it works. It is nothing more than an API redirector. It is similar to DXVK or Creative ALchemy.




Cheers

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But it's still third party tool just like ACT does not modify game files aswell.

Cheers

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Originally Posted by Stasya

But it's still third party tool just like ACT does not modify game files aswell.

Cheers

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But ACT reads and analyzes the game data. And this is not allowed. :) Gshade however does not do anything in that direction.


Cheers

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

But ACT reads and analyzes the game data. And this is not allowed. :) Gshade however does not do anything in that direction.


Cheers

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You think that ff14 saves your entire combat log in some secret files?

No Gshade for you sorry se whiteknight^^.

If you advertise that you use it then don't cry when you get banned when Yoshida has specifically stated before to NOT do that.
That simple ( or wait for the graphical update that is coming anyway ).

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

But ACT reads and analyzes the game data. And this is not allowed. :) Gshade however does not do anything in that direction.


Cheers

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So does a virus scan tho.
ACT can do a lot of things so it depends, but using it to parse is tolerated so long as you don't make a huge spectacle about it or harass people with it.
I mean people are openly advertising it in PF and don't get in trouble.

The devs don't approve of it tho but that's just what they have to say officially if they said they were fine with it then you'd probably see it normalized way more and have it be a common thing talked about ingame.
You'd probably see a pretty big increase in harassment and the general toxicity that comes along with it if it was officially okay:d by the devs.

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Originally Posted by GaiusDrakon

Ok, but what does the GM response mean then? Why would they say that the 7 year old post is no longer applicable?

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Because the ToS has changed -- more than once -- in the past nine years since that post was made. What was true in 2013 may not be true in 2022.

Obviously I would prefer if they'd say outright that ReShade/GShade is still permitted, given that I have done a lot of artistic screenshot work in the past using GShade. (And I write shaders that are included in GShade.) But I am not surprised that they won't; explicitly stating exceptions at this point is just asking for headaches on their part.

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Originally Posted by HollowedDoll

if Gshade isn't allowed then neither is Geforce Experience, since it has Freestyle built in.

This just in: NVIDIA Gamers banned for LIFE, Buy AMD here! sponsored by newegg

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Freestyle actually does not function in the same way.

ReShade (and GShade) actually modify the FFXIV game process -- they replace DirectX at the time FFXIV tries to load it, so FFXIV ends up using GShade (pretending to be DirectX) which basically sits in the middle and loads the real DirectX on behalf of the game; GShade's code is thus loaded into FFXIV (and in so doing, does technically modify the game process and state).

Freestyle, however, does its modifications to graphics down in the Nvidia driver layer itself; it doesn't touch the game process at all and is functionally no different than something like monitor color calibration (at least from the point of view of the game). (AMD Adrenaline works similarly, I believe, though I've not tinkered with Adrenaline at all.)

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Originally Posted by Stasya

You think that ff14 saves your entire combat log in some secret files?

No Gshade for you sorry se whiteknight^^.

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I am not a whiteknight for SE or Gshade. ;) But i know how Gshade works.

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Originally Posted by Kolsykol

So does a virus scan tho.
ACT can do a lot of things so it depends, but using it to parse is tolerated so long as you don't make a huge spectacle about it or harass people with it.
I mean people are openly advertising it in PF and don't get in trouble.

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This is true. Antivirus software scans and analyses the game data too and would technically violate the TOS. And this is a reason why i mentioned it in another thread, that the "new" TOS created 30 light years² of new grey area. :)

It seems to me, that the creators of the new TOS have absolutely no clue what they are talking about and what the consequences are of it. I can grasp the intention of it. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions.



Cheers

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Just to clarify, they absolutely can. SE chooses not to.
At least at this time, that is. If people keep pushing boundaries they're going to do something more than making a statement and gaoling a few players.

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While you are technically correct, I really don't belive it's something that will ever happen, no matter how much "boundary pushing" occurs. They themselves have made it clear that it would be a very invasive move, and that there would be massive privacy concerns. The japanese take privacy very seriously

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

I can grasp the intention of it. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

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What exactly do you think the intention of it is? I can tell you that it has literally nothing to do with protecting players, if that's what you meant by good intentions.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

What exactly do you think the intention of it is? I can tell you that it has literally nothing to do with protecting players, if that's what you meant by good intentions.

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They do not want game modifications and parsers. This is the intention. With game modifications you can easily create cheats. But if you do not want to white-/blacklist software explicitely then you have to formulate some unsharp rules in a TOS. But if you formulate the TOS relatively unsharp then it will happen, that other software falls also into that category, although the software has nothing to do with FF14 like antivirus scanners or Discord etc. ;)



Cheers

This is what everyone wanted from their gaming experience: To live in fear of some whiteknight SE drooling fanboy to report people on social media because their gposes might have used gshade to improve depth of field in 2022.

And what of Nvidia Freestyle? XIV is on approved, official list of games supported. A company as big as nvidia wont just randomly add games to that list without approval, surely. SE has therefore approved XIV - they must've. But if we take what its said by random GM or parts of TOS, its not allowed despite being approved by SE??

We need to know is reshade/gshade allowed before we get another witch-hunt hatecrew going ham.

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

But if you formulate the TOS relatively unsharp then it will happen, that other software falls also into that category, which has nothing to do with FF14 like antivirus scanners or Discord etc. ;)

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Why is this a problem for people though? Are people that unreasonably afraid of even the very idea that they could be violating ToS? I would say this whole ordeal should be a learning experience for people. That context factually matters.

Yoshi-P himself has addressed why things like Discord and other unrelated programs are not of concern, even if they do, under technical circumstances, fall under 3rd party programs. They are not directly intended to affect FFXIV. They are not designed to do that. They can't prove you're using these things in a way that proves the programs use is to undermine the rules (e.g. it's on your computer because its for non-FFXIV reasons).

I don't think people fully realize how often many of us violate a services ToS or even real world laws themselves and may not truly know it. Ever used someone else's Netflix or shared yours with another? What about downloaded something from an unofficial source simply out of convenience, even if you otherwise paid for it? You'd be (generally) breaking some ToS. What about driving even 1 over a speed limit? You're literally breaking the law.

SE turning a blind eye in many cases for minor infractions is basically a reflection of reasonableness, akin to why a cop typically will not pull you over for just going slightly over the speed limit... in most areas. Basically they're trying to be nice about it because it's not a big deal in most cases... though it's primarily to do with the fact they can't reasonably prove it without applying some sort of tracker onto your computer. It becomes a big deal when people start abusing that blatantly and abundantly, which is unfortunately why this is being addressed again and seemingly acted upon. The bottom line is to just understand what you're doing and don't be stupid about it.

The kicker about that though? It's business as usual for everyone that isn't streaming addons/plugins that don't give yourself away. Go ahead and use Gshade, ACT, etc. Your risk has not changed for the time being. If you were using it responsibly before, there's no reason you should rethink it now... unless you stream lol. Though Gshade is still probably gonna be given some leeway.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Why is this a problem for people though? Are people that unreasonably afraid of even the very idea that they could be violating ToS? I would say this whole ordeal should be a learning experience for people. That context factually matters.


(.....)

The kicker about that though? It's business as usual for everyone that isn't streaming addons/plugins that don't give yourself away. Go ahead and use Gshade, ACT, etc. Your risk has not changed for the time being. If you were using it responsibly before, there's no reason you should rethink it now... unless you stream lol. Though Gshade is still probably gonna be given some leeway.

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Current issue is not that "it only affects streamers". If we dont get official response, this will affect literally everyone who posts their screenshots on any social media (discord included). With current witch-hunt (which is against TOS too but guess we can ignore that part of TOS) it doesnt take much - you could have edited your screenshot with photoshop (which many do) but they dont give a damn. They will report and make up you used gshade.

Before this, you could go back to the 2013 post and say "look, they said its allowed". Now? Just report literally everyone because they mightve used reshade. because their photo has deep-green grass instead of washed out green.

There was already someone posting (not sure which site, saw just snippet of it) that they will go thro social media and report people using gshade "as revenge for the streamer hunt".

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Originally Posted by InkB

Current issue is not that "it only affects streamers". If we dont get official response, this will affect literally everyone who posts their screenshots on any social media (discord included). With current witch-hunt (which is against TOS too but guess we can ignore that part of TOS) it doesnt take much - you could have edited your screenshot with photoshop (which many do) but they dont give a damn. They will report and make up you used gshade.

Before this, you could go back to the 2013 post and say "look, they said its allowed". Now? Just report literally everyone because they mightve used reshade. because their photo has deep-green grass instead of washed out green.

There was already someone posting (not sure which site, saw just snippet of it) that they will go thro social media and report people using gshade "as revenge for the streamer hunt".

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Yes and without clear rules on this front, it comes down to GM discretion. Even if the GMs have clear rules they abide by behind the scenes, the ambiguity won't stop (will encourage) the brigading. No appetite to deal with the brigading? Not hard to see where it'll go.

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Originally Posted by Kolsykol

You'd probably see a pretty big increase in harassment and the general toxicity that comes along with it if it was officially okay:d by the devs.

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Except you wouldn't because the rules on harassment don't magically disappear just because some plugins are okayed. They've also already been in use for nearly a decade, so they are already a part of the culture and identity of the game whether anyone likes it or not. I really feel like a lot of people are being super dishonest by conveniently forgetting these facts.

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Originally Posted by InkB

Current issue is not that "it only affects streamers". If we dont get official response, this will affect literally everyone who posts their screenshots on any social media (discord included). With current witch-hunt (which is against TOS too but guess we can ignore that part of TOS) it doesnt take much - you could have edited your screenshot with photoshop (which many do) but they dont give a damn. They will report and make up you used gshade.

Before this, you could go back to the 2013 post and say "look, they said its allowed". Now? Just report literally everyone because they mightve used reshade. because their photo has deep-green grass instead of washed out green.

There was already someone posting (not sure which site, saw just snippet of it) that they will go thro social media and report people using gshade "as revenge for the streamer hunt".

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Even the old post wasn't accurate in relation to Gshade though. It was about a specific ENB injector tool. What they say about that does not equate to a different tool or program, even if they function similarly. So realistically, you're still in the same position as you were before lol.

Legally at this point in time, SE would be the biggest idiots to tell you an unofficial 3rd party tool is okay. They'd be opening the flood gates so widely to people trying to validate the limits of what is crossing the line. I'm pretty sure they don't want to annoy their legal department, who likely also report to the higher ups about changes, that the XIV team wants to do something objectively stupid by increasing risk by not having blanket statements to cover their own asses.

The intent may he to kill all visibility of the game. Maybe the devs liked it better when the game was less popular?
No more streamer, no more screenshots, no more bard music. Kill all word of mouth praise for the game to the point the population goes back to 2012 levels.

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Originally Posted by Necrotica

The intent may he to kill all visibility of the game. Maybe the devs liked it better when the game was less popular?
No more streamer, no more screenshots, no more bard music. Kill all word of mouth praise for the game to the point the population goes back to 2012 levels.

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Potentially. I do think they probably see what sort of player created 'content' the game is known for on Twitter. I know multiple people who don't even play the game but are well aware of the shady reputation the weirder portions of the community are known for on Twitter.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Why is this a problem for people though? Are people that unreasonably afraid of even the very idea that they could be violating ToS? I would say this whole ordeal should be a learning experience for people. That context factually matters.

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It is in this case not clear whether you violate the TOS or not. But if it is a violation then using Windows or Linux or MacOS would also be a technical one. :)

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

The kicker about that though? It's business as usual for everyone that isn't streaming addons/plugins that don't give yourself away. Go ahead and use Gshade, ACT, etc. Your risk has not changed for the time being. If you were using it responsibly before, there's no reason you should rethink it now... unless you stream lol. Though Gshade is still probably gonna be given some leeway.

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It does not only affect streamers. It also affects screenshots, which you could have altered with Photoshop/Gimp. If it does look like Gshade then someone could report you. Even if it was Photoshop. And if a GM comes to the same conclusion then your account could be banned.




Cheers

Personally I think GShade should be a default thing in the game I personally don't use it but I've seen some incredible stuff come from it. The way I see it is if you don't advertise that you are using the mod you should be fine. Like don't put #GShade whenever you post a picture using GShade on Social Media as that could be considered as advertising the mod.

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Originally Posted by Kolsykol

The devs don't approve of it tho but that's just what they have to say officially if they said they were fine with it then you'd probably see it normalized way more and have it be a common thing talked about ingame.
You'd probably see a pretty big increase in harassment and the general toxicity that comes along with it if it was officially okay:d by the devs.

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If the alternative is the current "improvement is for nerds, you don't pay my sub! Now heal me through this enrage; it's not my low damage doing it." toxic casual playerbase, is it truly an improvement?

Ummm, there's already a new ToS last year

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Originally Posted by JepMZ

Ummm, there's already a new ToS last year

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They updated one section, a process that isn't as simple as just slapping some words on a document.

There's nothing to update regarding these tools, as everything is spelled out.

Here. Just watch this explanation of the situation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nublKg6R1tY

it's basically no, however as long as it doesn't infringe on other players experience or give you an outright advantage.

Don't go around saying that you use Gshader while also streaming your Gshader, and you'll be fine.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Even the old post wasn't accurate in relation to Gshade though. It was about a specific ENB injector tool. What they say about that does not equate to a different tool or program, even if they function similarly. So realistically, you're still in the same position as you were before lol.

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While it wasn't about GShade -- which I'm not sure actually existed in 2013; I'm pretty sure Marot forked ReShade after that point -- the 2013 thread was asking about shader injection in general. There is another later thread referencing that one which does confirm that would cover ENB, ReShade, GShade, etc.

(Sadly, this forum's search tool is terrible, so I can't find the second one to link it.)

None of which is super relevant, because it's been nine years since the original thread. And like... 7? ...since the one that referenced it and elaborated on it. The TOS has demonstrably changed multiple times since then, so we can't really rely on that thread being a current answer any longer.

Obviously, as someone who contributes to GShade and uses it extensively for artistic work, I would prefer that it could be taken as an authoritative and still-applicable answer. I like being able to turn the game into a pencil sketch, or an oil painting, or a flat-shaded cartoon, or slice it apart into layers to do complex operations and overlays/underlays, etc.

I just know that realistically, we cannot treat that thread as still being current/valid information, as it's very old.

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Originally Posted by InkB

And what of Nvidia Freestyle? XIV is on approved, official list of games supported. A company as big as nvidia wont just randomly add games to that list without approval, surely. SE has therefore approved XIV - they must've. But if we take what its said by random GM or parts of TOS, its not allowed despite being approved by SE??

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Again, while Freestyle is very similar to ReShade/GShade from the end-user viewpoint -- and you can even add your own custom shaders to it, albeit with some effort -- under the hood it functions in an extremely different manner.

ReShade/GShade rely on injecting their code into the host program by hijacking DirectX; as a result, they do modify the actual game process. GShade doesn't run as a separate program, in other words; GShade is contained in a DLL which FFXIV is tricked into loading instead of DirectX, and from a technical standpoint all of GShade's code thus executes as though it were part of the FFXIV client code.

Freestyle does all of the shader modifications down at the Nvidia driver level; it never interacts with the FFXIV client in any way. From the game's point of view, it's basically the same as monitor color calibration -- something that affects the final graphics output between game and screen, but which happens at an operating system level and which the game has no direct interaction with. (The hotkeys to enable/disable Freestyle are not handled by the game being post-processed, either; they're handled by GeForce Experience, which is why Freestyle does not work when GeForce Experience isn't running.)

This is not something GShade et al can do. As they do not, y'know, control the Windows graphics drivers, as Nvidia does.

To put it another way: GShade et al are shader injection, because they inject the code that actually executes the shader post-processing logic into a host process. Freestyle is merely shader-based post-processing, minus the injection. And the injection is the real problem, as that's the portion which directly interacts with the FFXIV client (and modifies the program's execution once it's running).

So even if they wanted to strictly enforce the letter of the law, Freestyle would still almost certainly remain fine to use; from FFXIV's viewpoint it's basically akin to changing your Windows display settings.

(I believe the same is true of AMD Adrenaline -- that the processing happens at the driver level -- but I haven't ever played with it to confirm that.)

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

It is in this case not clear whether you violate the TOS or not. But if it is a violation then using Windows or Linux or MacOS would also be a technical one. :)

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How is it not clear though when there is a blanket statement? You would factually/legally be in the wrong to think it isn't. Remember, this is legal text. Feelings and misinterpretations do not apply here lol. Harassment is harassment, assault is assault, etc. There are no degrees to violating legal text that literally makes things broad. The only people who, at their discretion, can decide to not enforce something is SE here.

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

If it does look like Gshade then someone could report you. Even if it was Photoshop. And if a GM comes to the same conclusion then your account could be banned.

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Right, but how is that any different than it is now? Literally nothing has changed. I wasn't aware about that post before this ordeal, but even after reading it, it literally changes nothing about what people have been doing up to now. If anyone takes an objective look at the thread, they'd know this. That post was factually not about Gshade. It did not detail exactly what was approved either, other than that specific ENB injector. People are in the wrong if they think approval of one thing automatically approves another without them specifically saying it does (which they haven't).

Again, nothing has changed from back then till now. Even if people were always unaware of it till now, that doesn't change the fact they were risking things by posting. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it at all. It's the exact reason why posting admission of use of 3rd party addons here wouldn't cause you to be banned in the game. Text admission is not good enough to actually ban someone. Similarly, they can't prove it was specifically you that did anything to get the screenshot, even if you did admit to it in a post. Actions in the game are separate from actions on the forums or Reddit or Discord or whatever. Your terms of service are different using the forums than they are playing the game, which is something I think a lot of people don't realize.

This is why I firmly disagree that this affects others. People have always been operating under these same circumstances, they were just too ignorant to realize it. This applies to streamers too, it's just a matter of SE finally cracking down on it or not. Live broadcasting of admission is very different from someone simply sharing a photo. As I said, there has always been a risk, people were just falsely believing otherwise. Hence, we probably won't get a confirmation if it's okay or not. It'd be great for people, don't get me wrong, but they would obviously just be inviting more problems if they do, akin to the rise in all those complaints about PvP addons and the fallout that is happening now. Foresight of negative outcomes is not a strength of many people, including the devs.

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Originally Posted by Packetdancer

While it wasn't about GShade -- which I'm not sure actually existed in 2013; I'm pretty sure Marot forked ReShade after that point -- the 2013 thread was asking about shader injection in general. There is another later thread referencing that one which does confirm that would cover ENB, ReShade, GShade, etc.

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Was there an official response in that later thread to cover the broader application? If not, that is of absolutely no help as proof it was okay. The original thread wasn't about shader injection in general, just specifically ENB related to that post. There's a big difference between isolating one example and using that example to apply it across the board lol.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Was there an official response in that later thread to cover the broader application? If not, that is of absolutely no help as proof it was okay. The original thread wasn't about shader injection in general, just specifically ENB related to that post. There's a big difference between isolating one example and using that example to apply it across the board lol.

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There was a second thread... I want to say in 2015? ...which linked back to the 2013 thread asking if Tool X and Tool Y and so on were all okay, where a SQEX rep weighed in to note that their reassurance that graphical alterations via post-processing that didn't alter the actual game files were okay was a blanket statement and that people didn't need to ask individually about every single possible tool that let you make graphical alterations via post-processing without altering the game files.

(Unfortunately, as the forum's search tools are terrible, I cannot seem to find that thread to link it here.)

But that was ~7 years ago (or whatever), and the original thread was 9 years ago; the TOS has changed multiple times since then. And moreover, SQEX support themselves noted in a reply to someone that statements like that were very old and did not necessarily apply any longer regardless.

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Originally Posted by Packetdancer

There was a second thread... I want to say in 2015? ...which linked back to the 2013 thread asking if Tool X and Tool Y and so on were all okay, where a SQEX rep weighed in to note that their reassurance that graphical alterations via post-processing that didn't alter the actual game files were okay was a blanket statement and that people didn't need to ask individually about every single possible tool that let you make graphical alterations via post-processing without altering the game files.

(Unfortunately, as the forum's search tools are terrible, I cannot seem to find that thread to link it here.)

But that was ~7 years ago (or whatever), and the original thread was 9 years ago; the TOS has changed multiple times since then. And moreover, SQEX support themselves noted in a reply to someone that statements like that were very old and did not necessarily apply any longer regardless.

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That is interesting if truly the case. As you said though, the ToS has changed multiple times and they have established further blanket emphasis lol.

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Originally Posted by Packetdancer

There was a second thread... I want to say in 2015? ...which linked back to the 2013 thread asking if Tool X and Tool Y and so on were all okay, where a SQEX rep weighed in to note that their reassurance that graphical alterations via post-processing that didn't alter the actual game files were okay was a blanket statement and that people didn't need to ask individually about every single possible tool that let you make graphical alterations via post-processing without altering the game files.

(Unfortunately, as the forum's search tools are terrible, I cannot seem to find that thread to link it here.)

But that was ~7 years ago (or whatever), and the original thread was 9 years ago; the TOS has changed multiple times since then. And moreover, SQEX support themselves noted in a reply to someone that statements like that were very old and did not necessarily apply any longer regardless.

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So what exactly IS the status of GShade? I think this is the most important question we all want to know.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

It's equivalent to turning the brightness or contrast up on your monitor.
Well, more equivalent to changing the colour space or LUT but I wanted an easy juxtaposition.

I am very prominently anti-add-on, I don't use it myself. But it's a stretch to consider it cheating, it's not even game specific!

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Literally no one is saying it's cheating.

Don't talk about it, don't stream it and you'll have nothing to worry about.

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Originally Posted by GaiusDrakon

Literally no one is saying it's cheating.

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A ton of people are lumping all add-ons together as cheating