Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios has worked hard to stop exploits within its multiplayer game, even going as far as to set exploiters on fire within the extraction shooter. However, one of the easiest exploits in the game has originated from outside of the developer’s own software.
PC players using Nvidia GPUs have been using the external Nvidia App to gain an unfair advantage within the extraction shooter. The game—which recently topped Steam’s Christmas best-sellers list—could be altered within the app to make use of a large number of filters that drastically changed its look.
Using the Nvidia App filters, players could tweak the look of the game to make night scenes look significantly brighter. By changing contrast, brightness, colour and saturation values, PC players with Nvidia hardware were essentially making the darkness of night a non-factor, allowing them to see rival players much easier than the game naturally allows.
In the latest driver update for Nvidia GPUs, the Nvidia App filters have been disabled for Arc Raiders, removing the unfair advantage from the multiplayer game. This had led to some upset from fans that were using the exploit to massively decrease the darkness and shadowed areas of the game that allowed players to sneak within its various maps.
However, as with many exploits, there’s always a way back, and some fans have found that rolling back their Nvidia drivers allows the old filters to be used again. On the other hand, some players who have rolled back their drivers to earlier versions have found the filters still unavailable.
Nvidia App filters are not a problem isolated to just Arc Raiders. In fact, the filters have been used in games like Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends and other competitive games to gain an unfair advantage against other players.
However, with the use of shadows and lighting so paramount to the gameplay style of Arc Raiders, the use of Nvidia filters does offer a much higher advantage than in other titles. Few multiplayer games are so focused on the use of light and shadow. Imagine if a Splinter Cell multiplayer game—if Ubisoft ever graced us with one—was exploited in a similar way—it would be a huge issue for a game like that.
At the time of writing, Embark and Nvidia have not commented on whether the removal of filters in Arc Raiders is intentional. Although, with filters still available for a large number of multiplayer titles, it does seem that Embark’s popular extraction shooter has been specifically targeted.
