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Today, while playing Counter Strike 1.6 on a server, I saw a message at the left corner saying:

Player Name - x.
Permanent Ban.
Reason - "OpenGL" detected

So what is this OpenGL thing in Counter Strike?

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    what if a Microsoft employee is running the server, and is promoting Direct3D by doing this? (afaik, CS 1.6 supports both opengl and direct3d)
    – Display Name
    May 22, 2016 at 4:26
  • @sarge-borsch: it does not support Directx (D3D) in recent versions anymore. I even think that Valve dropped D3D support in recent games all together because OpenGL is cross-platform.
    – Euri Pinhollow
    May 22, 2016 at 8:31
  • but this is 1.6
    – Display Name
    May 22, 2016 at 8:32
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    @sarge-borsch: I did not make any mistake. Valvle DID drop D3D from CS1.6.
    – Euri Pinhollow
    May 22, 2016 at 8:49
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    The description of the ban should be "modified OpenGL files detected" instead of simply "OpenGL detected", as the latter might scare people from using the OpenGL renderer in the future. Many games provide the choice between OpenGL and software rendering, the latter being slower and of worse quality. No one should feel forced to choose software rendering over OpenGL (except if the hardware doesn't support the required OpenGL version, which is exactly why software rendering exists), because of a misleading ban message.
    – vsz
    May 23, 2016 at 10:04

2 Answers 2

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OpenGL, or Open Graphics Library is a programming interface that games use nowadays.

It is essentially a library of code that is used by developers to create software utilizing graphics, which nowadays, is essentially nearly everything.
Examples of other Graphics Libraries are .NET's System.Drawing namespace, Qt and DirectX; the one used and made by Microsoft.

As for what it is programmatically:

The OpenGL specification describes an abstract API for drawing 2D and 3D graphics. Although it is possible for the API to be implemented entirely in software, it is designed to be implemented mostly or entirely in hardware.

Source

As for the cause of the ban, one of the most common reasons is because the user is using a modified opengl32.dll.

However, since your log is very vague (as pointed out by user2357112), the real reason: We'll never know.

What can this opengl32.dll can do to a server?

Nothing.

The graphics library is only used on the client-side so it can render (show) the game on-screen. Without it, nothing really happens on the screen. The best you'll get for a game without it (a graphics library) is a command prompt window.

What you can do, however... Is create a modified version of the OpenGL graphics library which hooks into the game's core code to allow changes to the renderer, such as wall hacks or x-ray, which are in the eyes of VAC - are cheats.

These cheats don't affect the server, but they do give the player an advantage since they can see things that other players cannot see.

Do other games' Wallhack use this kind of thing too?

Well, it depends on the game. Wallhacking involves the removal of textures on a geometry to let you see through it.

There are many ways to do this, including:

  • Swapping the texture on a polygon with nothing (can be done many ways; file swapping, memory hacking, etc.)
  • Changing the opacity of the polygon's texture (can be done many ways; file swapping, memory hacking, etc.)
  • Simply not rendering the polygon (can only be done with injected code/modded libraries/game binaries)
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    That's some pretty misleading terminology in the ban message, if the transcription of the message in the question is accurate. It's like saying a football player is getting banned for Reason: "Helmet" detected when he was using an illegally modified helmet with a camera feed he shouldn't have inside.
    – user2357112
    May 21, 2016 at 17:06
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    @user2357112: gamers' use of IT terms is oftenly misleading. Another example: russian CS1.6 gamers love to whine about somebody climbing "textures" (meaning that one is climbing what one should not climb from PoV of a casual fragger) whilst the only thing visible on most popular maps (like de_dust2) is textures (slapped onto polygons). Also, many gamers call "latency" with word "ping".
    – Euri Pinhollow
    May 22, 2016 at 8:35
  • And how the heck does the server notice this? Since it is in the client machine, how do they know the guy is using a modded version of the library?
    – tfrascaroli
    May 23, 2016 at 8:01
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    @timineutron: the library needs to be placed into CS folder. Server may retrieve every file from CS folder. Server knows hashes of popular cheats. Server computes hashes of all files and searches for them.
    – Euri Pinhollow
    May 23, 2016 at 10:52
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While others used a rather vague explanation of what is the file itself, the modified opengl library would give the player a big advantage over the others such as seeing through walls, computer controlled aim, and so on. In other words he was cheating and got banned for that.

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