Connecting to dota 2 network steam

Connecting to dota 2 network steam

Hi,
I am not sure for how long exactly as I didn’t play much Dota the last few months but at least since Version 9.17 Dota 2 has a special compatibility issue with Special K.
The game launches normally and runs fine, but it can’t connect to the Dota 2 network. So basically you can’t join a game or invite friends to play with you as long as the injection is activated. I don’t think logs are helpful here as the game is not crashing and Special K also works properly, but if you need them I will provide them later.

It is not a big deal to close Special K whenever I launch Dota 2 but I would like to use some of Special K’s features in it and in the long term, I don’t think closing one application to launch another is a handy workaround.

That’s probably an anti-cheat measurement implemented by Valve to prevent users from potentially using some of Special K’s features to grant themselves an advantage over their opponents. If such a thing is possible, I do not know, but games typically take a safety first approach when it comes to things that could potentially affect their online ecosystem. It’s also likely that they’re simply flagging Special K’s DLL file as unknown and acts accordingly.

I highly recommend just closing Special K down whenever you play a competetive online game that utilizes anti-cheat protection. It’s probably for the best.

I don’t think Kaldaien will spend much time looking into this as anti-anti-cheat measurements are a sure way of the whole project getting kicked off the Steam Community and flagged as a tool meant for cheaters, which isn’t the case.

Hmm, it might be related to the MinHook rewrites in that version, or the CBT hooks which the global injector relies upon: https://gitlab. com/Kaldaien/SpecialK/tags/skk_0_9_17

Nice find though. Hopefully that will allow Kaldaien to better investigate what’s going on.

Although I still recommend not using Special K in online based games, obviously 😀 Now at least you know the cause of it, and a workaround. Just choose to not update next time the global injector finds an update, and you should be fine with using that older version for a while.

I think I’m going to come across as an ass for saying this, but what do you need Special K for in Dota 2? 🙂

I mean, it’s interesting that it seems to break with that version but I don’t have this game or understand what use my software would be in a multiplayer game. I could be convinced to look into compatibility in some multiplayer games but I like to assume they have anti-cheat stuff that doesn’t like me anyway 😛

I genuinely am curious what features in particular would prove useful, because I have been tossing around ideas for stripping down the software into modules, some of which might not be a huge anti-cheat taboo.

You are not coming across as an ass at all. Honestly, I am mainly using Special K for the same things in all applications which is far from using its full functionality but it is the only tool combining these things.

I love knowing the time and the frame rate in an overlay. I am using the frame limitation so that some applications are not running with 5 times my refresh rate and only let my video card go berserk. I also love the steam achievement view. Well, it is not helpful in Dota, but in other games. And, most importantly it helps to enforce borderless window in games which do not provide this option. And in a few games I “fix” the input or “mute while in background” behavior.

I know it is a very powerful tool, but for me, it mainly is a “small toolbox of convenience features”.

I just had an interesting find, which might be related to this topic. I just bought the game “Everything” which launches normally, but then gets stuck at the “synchronizing achievements” window it shows up. This seems related to the issue in Dota two as both games get stuck while communicating something with steam. I tried the compatibility settings as well without success. Didn’t check out the old version though, as I just switched to close the application whenever I launch Dota 2.

I just wanted to let you know that this might affect a few more games than just Dota 2.

I just had an interesting find, which might be related to this topic. I just bought the game “Everything” which launches normally, but then gets stuck at the “synchronizing achievements” window it shows up. This seems related to the issue in Dota two as both games get stuck while communicating something with steam. I tried the compatibility settings as well without success. Didn’t check out the old version though, as I just switched to close the application whenever I launch Dota 2.

I just wanted to let you know that this might affect a few more games than just Dota 2.

From what I can tell, the game doesn’t even use the SteamAPI before it hits the “Syncronizing Achievements” screen. At that point the SteamAPI kicks in as is shown by the Special K overlay (the SteamAPI frame counter starts moving and Special K starts fetching achievements).