Sunday, June 8th 2008
Creative Software Modder Daniel_K Gone for Good
Driver modder Daniel Kawakami or better known as Creative's Daniel_K is backing off his deal with providing modded software for all Creative sound cards for free. After receiving second warning mail from Creative threatening him with legal actions, he is finally "gone for good". He has posted a message over at the Creative forums informing everyone for his decission. Leave your thoughts here, and tell us what do you think.
Source:
Creative Forums
Daniel KawakamiI've received another cease and desist e-mail.
I'm done with Creative, enough is enough.
Don't even bother asking me for the files.
126 Comments on Creative Software Modder Daniel_K Gone for Good
If Creative is limiting features unfairly, then yes, you should be be getting what you payed for.
I've been using an HT-Omega Claro+ for quite a while now, no problems whatsoever, software is lightweight and functionaly, sounds great. I recommend it to anyone, or an Auzentech X-Meridian, which is based on the same C-media chip and uses the same software.
Plus, their tech support is stoopid - every once and a while I throw an email their way with some BS dumb issue I've made up just to see what kind of responses I'll get - all I can say is that they are 100% predictable at this point, and even if you come across as being tech knowledgable, they respond to you like your a tech illiterate n00b. Like I mentioned earlier, their poor support was what drove me to start the X-Fi thread here, so that users out there could have somewhere they could look up typical issues and ask questions and get real answers. From what I've seen over the last couple of years, you couldn't go asking questions on the Creative forums due to the number of trolls that hang out there, so . . . a little of both, most of the driver issues I've seen usually resulted from an improper/corrupted install, or something similar.
I can say, though, that their driver download links aren't always labeled correctly. I don't think their driver team does enough support testing, either. For example, I've found for the longest time that all of the X-Fi update drivers for the XP Media Center Edition are all incompatible, as much as the drivers list the OS as being supported. That turns into a headache for the customer, and for those trying to help the users. I see your point, as I think it wrong as well - but we'll never know if it was just meant to be a temporary thing, and the ongoing debacle with the dan_k drivers just blew up during the middle of it.
I also see your point with the VGA adapter argument - but at the same time, they'd never have to worry about dropping support like that. If you want to keep up with the newest games, you've got to upgrade the video card sooner or later, y'know? It's rough to be able to keep going with current games on a video card thats 3-4 years old, much less 5-6.
I had mentioned in other threads a while ago, the audio card, from any manufacturer, outlasts just about every other piece of hardware in a rig (unless you're an audiophile and constantly wanting the newest thing :p). They're not subjected to the same rigors as other pieces of hardware, and for 90% of users, as long as it still sounds alright, there's nothing wrong with the card. I mean, hell, just for example, I just finally convinced my father last month to upgrade from his . . . ENSONIQ PCI!! That's right, the first sound card that got away from the ISA standard . . . the first PCI soundcard, and one of the first true multi-channel cards. That thing is 12+ years old at this point, but still works fine (even in Vista . . . surprisingly). He just didn't see a point considering the card still worked.
IDK, I guess I just think the notion of people wanting to hold onto an audio card for more than 5-7 years, and expecting it to function properly in the most recent WIN OS to hit shelves is kinda unrealistic. I'm just curious as I'm not sure . . . those are the official drivers? C-Media doesn't always keep up with updating their site, as the most recent driver release for the 8738 based cards is dated 2002.
TBH, I don't really keep up with C-Media chipsets too much, as they like to do little "tweaks" here and there for different manufacturers . . . makes it hard to keep up when 3 different card manufacturers are using the CMI8788 chipset, but each one has a version that's "tweaked" just for them yep - sad, IMO. DMCA is a load of crock, IMO, and doesn't nullify the original copyright act of 86 . . . which is dumb becasue the two acts contradict each other.
I still go by the old school rule, though, and will backup my software, CDs, DVDs, etc as I see fit - even if I have to break copy protection to do so. By the old act, I'm within my rights as long as I don't make numerous copies and/or distribute copies. my initial impression of the whole issue when it erupted a couple of months ago, was that it could be an issue with Creative and Auzen - as Auzentech had Dolby encoding enabled, Creative didn't (although their cards were capable). Dolby encoding was a big selling point with the Prelude . . . but, based on Creative's reaction then, I had gotten the feeling that they were being pressured to act.
But, it's very true, though, that hardware manufacturers will sometimes kill or disable features as time goes on . . . they just don't trip over themselves and publicly admit to it like Creative did. That little incident right there, IMO, will go down in the list of top-10 biggest tech blunders. Partly why I think they were pressured to act, if it was of their own accord, you think they would've at least reviewed it a little better . . . s'all good - I'm just trying to shed some light on the other sides of the argument, that's all. There are a lot of Creative bashers out there who go on without any real definitive argument, and there are also many who just enjoy the mob-mentality. But, in trying to show the other side of the argument, I realize I'm going to come across as being a fanboi (and it helps that I can stay reasonably level-headed as well :laugh:), especially to those who are fed up with the companies practices, and even moreso when the subject matter is as heated as the issue with the dan_k drivers has been.
Many times, even on this forum iv'e told people that creative dont support daniel_k and his drivers, and never did - and heres the proof (again)
I'll be getting the HDMI xonar as my next card, and never going back to creative until they start supporting older products.
My Auzentech X-Meridian is absolutely stunning. Gaming performance is not as good as the X-Fi but sound quality I put to the X-Meridian any day. The design of this card is second to none.
I see no reason to go to Creative unless you are dedicated to needing true EAX support and even then the ASUS cards emulate that very well.
But as far as this email to D_K, even if it is a fake, I don't blame him for throwing in the towel. No matter how you look at it, Creative is treating their customers unfairly. The EULA be damned. "An unjust law is no law at all." -St Augustine
imperialreign,
FYI automakers do have EULA. When you buy a car and you sign all them little papers it states in the fine print you wont do anything unlawful in the vehicle. Now I ask you how many times have YOU went over the speed limit or did a U-turn and got a ticket from your cars manufacturer?
Creative are fools... ATI has not been supporting some of the newer video cards that come out for AGP, but thanks to the Omega drivers these cards work fine with the new drivers. If ATI/AMD forced Omega to stop releasing these drivers then a LOT of people would be angry and ATI would suffer with less sales. If anything, ATI should thank him for helping them out. Creative should be thankinig Daniel K, not threatening him.
I do not own any creative sound cards. I do not desire much from audio since my PC has a simple 2 speaker setup, so I just use onboard sound. But, if I ever buy a sound card it will NOT be one from Creative. For the price you pay, they should support their products for a long time by releasing updated drivers. I am glad they got caught in a lie... they deserve to have their name tarnished for that!!! :shadedshu
support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=31542
Also most games ive played Omega Drivers tend to screw them up, thats the risk you take onto your own, reason The big companies dont support the Creators is because they dont want to be answering questions when the person that created the drivers is the one that is supposed to know.
read that to get a good definition of how ReactOS was created.
Anyone remember NVIDIA and unlocking shaders? They are smart company! People unlocked shaders and loved NVIDIA cards for that! NV didn't sued RivaTuner's author. They changed their way of disabling shaders and no one complained, everyone were satisfied with what they had before, even if they couldn't have it with newer GPUs.
I won't discuss who is right and who is not, because there is allmost nothing else to say, but i'll have to say that, as a proffesional overclocker and amatuer modder, i'm 100% by daniel_k's side!
Stupid move, creative, stupid...
I just have one question for everyone that has decided that this incident is the last straw . . . what if, per chance, this little message to dan_k from "Creative" does turn out to be a hoax?
I'm only mentioning based on the fact that over the last couple of months, since the first incident with the dan_k drivers hit the i-net, Creative seems to have been making changes here and there back in the right direction . . . considering the fallout of the last incident, there's a good possiblity they might be trying to clean up their PR - for how long they'll stick with it is questionable - but what if they are trying to turn around and that message was just a hoax?
Perhaps this incident will prove if their PR department has actually learned anything
daniel_k KokChoy-CL
Administrator
06-08-2008 06:25 PM
nice! :toast:
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After years of taking Creative's excuses, and total lack of caring for the consumer of thier products, I could care less if this is a hoax or not. I honestly don't care that this Daniel_K person has a run in with them. I don't use 3rd party modded drivers anyway.
What has been MY last straw is thier lack of support for a card that is NOT EOL. And the final showing of thier true colors.
try to fire up the X-FI in Linux some time. Try firing up CrossfireX in Vista and listen to the noise that comes out of the card.
Until this card is replaced by the rumored X-Fi 2 it is STILL thier flagship card [X-FI Elite Pro] and yet there has only been 4 updates to the drivers the entire time I have owned it. Yah it has been well over 2 years now but still, do they expect people to buy a new sound card every 6 months like ATI or nVidia does?. Except that when ATI or nVidia release a new card it normally SMOKES the cards before AND they release drivers every month that actually GIVE improvements in Speed and Functionality, but not Creative. In XP it is just NOW stable and usable, and it still FREAKS in Vista from time to time. The Beta drivers for Vista were as bad as any driver I have ever had the misfortune to use. So bad where they, that I refused to use Vista after the Beta was over. Driver release 1 was only mildly better, still was bad enough to keep me in XP. This newer driver released last month "works" and things like CMSS-3D finally work [pretty much] and I am finally able to ditch XP and run Vista full time, but funny thing is, Vista has been out over a year and a half now and they are JUST NOW usable. If ATI or nVidia had tried that, wow the yells would be heard around the world. Stocks would dive and heads would roll. But not creative. To them it is just business as usual.
I still can't get decent 5.1 playing DVD's. I still can't get ANY sound in Linux. And don't start me ranting on how bad the mic jack works. I had to enable the onboard sound just to use my mic in Team Fortress 2.
They are constantly complaining that people are complaining in thier newsgroups er forums, what ever. And this hasn't changed 1 bit in the last 8 years. They don't learn from thier mistakes, they blame others and wonder why everyone is so irked with them.
The real problem is thier hardware oh so rocks and thier software oh so sucks. But until recently there hasn't been anywhere else to go. Oh sure you could get a Fortissimo 1 2 or 3 or a cmedia based unit which again until recently sucked worse. Maybe Asus will finally teach that old dog a new trick and they start listening to the very people they are trying to get money out of.
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