Is GShade allowed?

Way back there was a thread about it and a GM said it was ok. That was few years ago, so I don't think it has changed. If so, that would mean graphic card programs also would be against toss since they can do some of the same effects.

They have never been "Okay". They have been more or less stating.... WE FORBID IT... But we dont want to spy. So IF you do use it, we likely wont know and dont care.... but... if you start posting it online and it offends people then you will be banned. (referenced to NSFW mods especially).

The ELUA say none. They also address by done do you really really really mean no 3rd party tools? And they said... well technically then we could peg you for using excel to calculate some numbers... or for using a mouse with more buttons.... And we aren't going to do that because we don't want to know what you have we dont want to spy...

Its all very clear... Not Allowed.... We don't want to make FFXIV a police state.... Don't harass people... If you use them, do so at your own risk and risk of being banned.

They also had a bit in a live letter that cover it... like 3 years ago?

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/414393

don't ask, don't tell, and don't show (on twitch).

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Originally Posted by GaiusDrakon

Literally no one is saying it's cheating.

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I can if you'd like.
It can most certainly give an unfair advantage in the retina burning P3S.

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Originally Posted by GaiusDrakon

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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I don't think SQEX is going to give us an official answer, because every time they say "all third-party software is forbidden except..." they open the door to people trying to find loopholes ("Look, I embedded ACT into GShade!"), or hundreds of emails going "Well this should be allowed, too!"

So I think you have to make your mind up for yourself about your comfort zone, and what you're willing to do. I wouldn't recommend streaming yourself using GShade, because that just seems like bait/catnip for trolls who want to get people banned. But if you're using it just for yourself, or using it to take shots that you post on, like, DeviantArt or Twitter or Instagram and where they could shrug it off and go "maybe they just did artistic stuff in Photoshop before posting", maybe that's within your comfort zone as far as "risk" goes.

I personally don't think they're going to bother putting in the effort to enforce TOS against the latter scenario; someone who uses GShade to make artistic screenshots that look like an oil painting is probably a lot lower-priority target for the TOS than someone who uses a tool that modifies the game and draws giant "GO HERE" diagrams in Ultimate fights or whatever else.

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Originally Posted by Packetdancer

I don't think SQEX is going to give us an official answer, because every time they say "all third-party software is forbidden except..." they open the door to people trying to find loopholes ("Look, I embedded ACT into GShade!"), or hundreds of emails going "Well this should be allowed, too!"

So I think you have to make your mind up for yourself about your comfort zone, and what you're willing to do. I wouldn't recommend streaming yourself using GShade, because that just seems like bait/catnip for trolls who want to get people banned. But if you're using it just for yourself, or using it to take shots that you post on, like, DeviantArt or Twitter or Instagram and where they could shrug it off and go "maybe they just did artistic stuff in Photoshop before posting", maybe that's within your comfort zone as far as "risk" goes.

I personally don't think they're going to bother putting in the effort to enforce TOS against the latter scenario; someone who uses GShade to make artistic screenshots that look like an oil painting is probably a lot lower-priority target for the TOS than someone who uses a tool that modifies the game and draws giant "GO HERE" diagrams in Ultimate fights or whatever else.

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IM SORRRY WHAT PART OF ALL THIRD PARTY TOOLS VIOLATE THE ELUA/TOS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL ANSWER?

In videos and in blogs they have even said mice can count as 3rd party tools. Including Razor Nega Mice.

But their enforcement policy is based off reports and evidence. They are not hunting for reasons to ban people and would rather people just play the game. If they judge that it violated the rules after they review the evidence then it does.

If you think SE is going to have someone go down a list of what each addon does in order to decide if this give an advantage or not you are delusional. To then say "yes this one is ok and this one is not okay"

"so what does this one do" oh it changes the shades "anything else?" We don't know we did not create the mod.
"perfect lets look at the next mod"

For ... Every ... Single ... Mod ... and addon.

Rule of thumb ...
was it created to be used for FFXIV specifically? Yes, prolly should not run around yelling you use it.

Half the forum acts like they 100% constantly share their screen, its client side, use what you want and be quiet about it.
There is no grey zone and there is no slippery slope its all "forbidden". You have 3 options,

1: Be a saint and use nothing
2: Use what you want and be quiet
3: Cry on forum

Oh, I also found a list of approved 3rd party hardware and software if you are interested:

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/system_requirements/

Gshade is a different beast than ACT and plugins. Because you can now control your own graphics card if you want better colors. NVIDIA control panel lets you do this. Theyre both 3rd parties but colors dont help you achieve anything in the game. Heck I can also just change my monitor contrast if I want to.

People who care about other peoples add-ons are cringe.

I haven't heard a single good argument for why you care. "T-t-t-t-the TOS" isn't an argument. Why do you care?

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Originally Posted by Voidedge_Ragna

1: Be a saint and use nothing
2: Use what you want and be quiet
3: Cry on forum

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Unsurprisingly we're the largest community I can think of that has a problem with that, particularly #2 lol.

It's really funny to me that most people are accepting of the idea that while Discord and the like are 3rd party tools, they're clearly not applicable to the ToS in context. Yet, when it comes to GShade, despite their defense about how it doesn't do anything to the games files/folders, they're extremely hesitant. Almost as if they DON'T know as much about GShade as they claim if its drawing so much hesitation. Normally in other communities, such things are left to following #2 on that list, but not here lol.

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Originally Posted by Klytania

People who care about other peoples add-ons are cringe.

I haven't heard a single good argument for why you care. "T-t-t-t-the TOS" isn't an argument. Why do you care?

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Was there ever an argument? It was a question, is it allowed or not. Official stance stated multiple times by SE is: ALL THIRD PARTY TOOLS VIOLATE THE ELUA/TOS

A debate is pointless.
We could argue about how it could cause problems...
but SE has address that too.
They do not make the program so they do not control what is in it.
They can not ensure that it is currently and will remain safe in the future.
Additionally they can not go through every piece of software out there to determine if it is safe, not safe, if it hacks, if it gives an unfair advantage.

So the answer is... ALL THIRD PARTY TOOLS VIOLATE THE ELUA/TOS.
The punishment... is on a scale and based off internal policy that does not need to be disclosed and can change as needed to address new and changing issues facing the business.

So how should you handle it? Well SE also addressed that too.... They said use at your own risk, both to computer/privacy and to potential ban. Do you feel lucky?

I do not know what can be made any more clear about this. If you want to know, read the producer letter ummm 57? where this was addressed like 3 years ago.

We could argue about if it is fair or not...
But you signed an agreement saying you would follow SE's rules so... Its fair.

We could argue if it effects the game unfairly by giving the users of it an advantage...
And... well... we cant be sure one way or another... There are so many variations on it... and clearly some make AOE skills easier to spot, so that's an advantage... There are some changes that lower the details so that the computer can process the information faster or that cut out physics or reduce them so it can work faster... and that too could be advantageous... So... while some use may be less of an advantage and can even work to your determent its not 100% clear. So... best to just leave it up to the GM.

And we have gotten a lot of feed back from SE... Don't show and tell, and we wont know....
Seems like a pretty decent way of saying, we got more important things to worry about, leave us be and let us focus on development work.

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Originally Posted by Oopsy

Was there ever an argument? It was a question, is it allowed or not. Official stance stated multiple times by SE is: ALL THIRD PARTY TOOLS VIOLATE THE ELUA/TOS

A debate is pointless.
We could argue about how it could cause problems...
but SE has address that too.
They do not make the program so they do not control what is in it.
They can not ensure that it is currently and will remain safe in the future.
Additionally they can not go through every piece of software out there to determine if it is safe, not safe, if it hacks, if it gives an unfair advantage.

So the answer is... ALL THIRD PARTY TOOLS VIOLATE THE ELUA/TOS.
The punishment... is on a scale and based off internal policy that does not need to be disclosed and can change as needed to address new and changing issues facing the business.

So how should you handle it? Well SE also addressed that too.... They said use at your own risk, both to computer/privacy and to potential ban.

I do not know what can be made any more clear about this. If you want to know, read the producer letter ummm 57? where this was addressed like 3 years ago.

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None of this answered my question. Why do you, or anyone care?

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Originally Posted by Klytania

None of this answered my question. Why do you, or anyone care?

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What was the title of the thread?
Is it why do we care "Is GShade allowed?"? Nopes.

Why do you care? Who is saying they care about anything?

The answer to the question for the thread requires no emotional debate. The answer is in ink and video.

A person asked a question. I like answering questions that I know the answer to. That is why I care enough to respond.

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Originally Posted by Oopsy

What was the title of the thread?
Is it why do we care "Is GShade allowed?"? Nopes.

Why do you care? Who is saying they care about anything?

The answer to the question for the thread requires no emotional debate. The answer is in ink and video.

A person asked a question. I like answering questions that I know the answer to. That is why I care enough to respond.

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Clearly people care. Especially those that report harmless add-ons that don't effect them in any way shape or form.

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Originally Posted by Skiros

That's all well and good until you see the massive discrepancy: why would they host screenshot contests where they feature GShade screenshots? Why does the official Twitter retweet GShade screenshots on occasion? They're not keeping their own guidelines consistent even on their own website and Twitter.

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I would honestly be surprised if the intern/social media guy/ whoever was picking the screenshots even knew they had gshade. And because of this blowup I imagine his job just got more troublesome because now he has to waste time filtering/trying to discern/sorting through screenshots to try to remove the Gshade ones (assuming they would disqualify them), or decide gshade is fine to use, which would be unfair to people who can’t or don’t use it with “less pretty” shots.

End result, they just stop having screenshot contests entirely or just decide shaders in general are fine because I can’t imagine they want to waste time trying to figure out if a shot is doctored or not.

Personally, I think they should just allow shaders/stuff tied to your video card, because a lot of people have things like the GeForce experience or Gshade or whatever. Like people said it’s similar to adjusting a monitor.


Clarity would be appreciated; even something like “any software that modifies, reads or interacts with game files is against ToS. We don’t care if your video card is altering colors, or if you have other software you use to play as long as it doesn’t modify the actual game.” Aka Discord is fine if you are just doing voice chat.

The problem comes in that people simply don’t read. If anything this past week has shown me people are incredibly ignorant of the ToS/prohibited actions despite screaming how unfair they are. Any inch the devs give would become feet upon feet of “well they said discord was fine, so every function it can do is fine”.

And this is the perfect example of why we don't see any CM posting stuff on the forums.

People will dig out post's from the beginning of time and take them as argument or proof of something.

Thing's change with the time and so it is on what is allowed and what not.

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Originally Posted by Curisu

And this is the perfect example of why we don't see any CM posting stuff on the forums.

People will dig out post's from the beginning of time and take them as argument or proof of something.

Thing's change with the time and so it is on what is allowed and what not.

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Maybe if they posted more than once a decade people wouldn't have to dig out posts from the beginning of time to find answers to their questions?

Nowadays it seems like all the w-word people left wow for this.

Witchhunters and pjw's are unique to this community now, seemingly.

Let's meet up in IF and share mods~

Treat it like fight club. It has only two rules:
Rule #1 You do not talk about fight club.
Rule #2 See rule #1

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Originally Posted by rxantos

Treat it like fight club. It has only two rules:
Rule #1 You do not talk about fight club.
Rule #2 See rule #1

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How many pages you had to go back to necro this?

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Originally Posted by Renalt

How many pages you had to go back to necro this?

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Bookmarked lol

Gshade is absolutely fine because it in no way interacts with any FFXIV file, it interacts with Direct X. Works under the same premise as Discord. Discord is also a 3rd party program but no one wants to bring that up in discussion because common sense would tell you it is able to. Despite of course Discord giving users an unfair advantage in clearing content. Honestly with how this community is I'm suprised people aren't banned for using Discord with FFXIV.

It's different from those other mods out there that directly interact with the game that aren't allowed, even though they all should be but that's another discussion altogether.

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Originally Posted by Asako

Gshade is absolutely fine because it in no way interacts with any FFXIV file, it interacts with Direct X. Works under the same premise as Discord. Discord is also a 3rd party program but no one wants to bring that up in discussion because common sense would tell you it is able to. Despite of course Discord giving users an unfair advantage in clearing content. Honestly with how this community is I'm suprised people aren't banned for using Discord with FFXIV.

It's different from those other mods out there that directly interact with the game that aren't allowed, even though they all should be but that's another discussion altogether.

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It's actually not fine and nowhere near the same as discord. You operate it in-game and it manipulates the scenery. Files are stored in a different space from normal shots. If you submit a modded shot to one of those screenshot giveaways, you could get yourself in trouble.

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Originally Posted by Deveryn

It's actually not fine and nowhere near the same as discord. You operate it in-game and it manipulates the scenery. Files are stored in a different space from normal shots. If you submit a modded shot to one of those screenshot giveaways, you could get yourself in trouble.

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That's literally not how GShade works. You have no idea what you're talking about.

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Originally Posted by Deveryn

It's actually not fine and nowhere near the same as discord. You operate it in-game and it manipulates the scenery. Files are stored in a different space from normal shots. If you submit a modded shot to one of those screenshot giveaways, you could get yourself in trouble.

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You have literally no idea what you're talking about. Which seems to be a common trend with you, honestly.

It's fine to not know something, but you shouldn't act as if you have any knowledge in those situations.

I've been wondering this for a very long time too. We have answers from Square, and Yoshida himself on the matter that it *is* okay, but I'd like to stream with it on (and use it in general, tbh) and seeing that literally no other streamers (as far as i can tell, i've heard Asmongold uses it) use it, it makes me a bit nervous. I'd love to be able to use it :C so whats the verdict?

Burn the Gshade users, burn them, burn them!!!

I don't think that's necessary, or reasonable..

I guess it's changed. If I'm wrong, show me some proof.

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Originally Posted by Deveryn

I guess it's changed. If I'm wrong, show me some proof.

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It hasn't really changed. It's never worked the way you are implying lol. You're thinking of another forbidden third party tool.

lol. must be.