Is GShade allowed?

[Kolsykol]

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 ).

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


Cheers

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.

[Packetdancer]

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 Why would they say that the 7 year old post is no longer applicable?

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.

[Packetdancer]

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

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.)

[Larirawiel]

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

No Gshade for you sorry se whiteknight^^.

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

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.

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

[LuluLavender]

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.

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

[Welsper59]

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

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.

[Larirawiel]

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.

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

[InkB]

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.

[Welsper59]

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.

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.

[InkB]

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.

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".