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The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 is among the cards which Daniel_K improved the Vista functionality of, which Creative says is "stealing".  (Source: Creative)
Creative is not a fan of its fans

Many Creative soundcard users are enraged by the company's latest corporate tactics.  In the past, many high-end PC components have been almost synonymous with custom drivers.  Whether it be NVIDIA, ATI, or Creative; graphics and sound chip makers have large fan bases who write custom mods both out of a desire for performance and out of necessity.

However while most hardware manufacturers have cast a blind eye on the driver modding community or even encouraged it, Creative has taken a hard-line stance that has many users crying foul.  Creative on Friday posted a notice on its message board, threatening driver maker "Daniel_K" with legal action.

The notice, posted by Phil O'Shaughnessy, vice president of Corporate Communications at Creative, reads as a terse cease-and-desist.  O'Shaughnessy states:

We are aware that you have been assisting owners of our Creative sound cards for some time now, by providing unofficial driver packages for Vista that deliver more of the original functionality that was found in the equivalent XP packages for those sound cards...By enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, you are in effect, stealing our goods.  When you solicit donations for providing packages like this, you are profiting from something that you do not own.  If we choose to develop and provide host-based processing features with certain sound cards and not others, that is a business decision that only we have the right to make.

The origin of this driver controversy stems from the transition from Windows Vista from XP.  When Creative rewrote the drivers for its Sound Blaster Audigy series, it left off a number of features.  Among these features were DVD-Audio support, DD/DTS decoding, an equalizer, CMSS2/CMSS Stereo Surround support, and THX Options.  Many alleged that Creative purposefully crippled its older Sound Blaster cards to push sales of its flagship X-Fi cards.  Others point out that all the Vista drivers for Creative cards, including the X-Fi drivers, are filled with glitches and frequently crash and stop working, indicating that the problem is more a general lack of success in driver writing.  Some users have even reported that they've experienced crashes and have been unable to restore their soundcards to working order, even after numerous driver reinstalls.

Amid all these problems, Daniel_K stepped into action and released a set of custom drivers for the Sound Blaster Audigy series.  These drivers re-enabled the crippled functionality from XP, improved stability, and improved general performance.  Daniel_K, having spent many hours programming the drivers, solicited contributions from supporters as is-oft done in the custom driver community.

An enraged Creative is now battling to squelch the spread of the drivers online, unhappy that the drivers enable features that it intended not to allow.  However, it is now facing an uprising from its former supporters, as indicated in the forum thread in which Daniel_K was put on notice.  The forum thread features over 1,600 messages, nearly all angry blasts against what is perceived as Creative's draconian assault on the modder community.

User "Eggchaser," a "trusted contributor" writes, "He does something that Creative are either not capable of doing or refuse to do.  If you are not capable then I suggest you sack your software writers and employ ones that can ... Incidentally you flagship products (X-FI) STILL do not run properly on Vista with YOUR drivers ... Shame on you for doing this, actually I laugh at you for doing it because what you have done is lost yourselves customers ... One customer lost and counting."

Another contributor, "includeao," writes, "daniel_k must be praised has a hero ... Creative IS stealing MY goods with bad marketing, services and drivers."

Many users are suggesting a boycott of Creative.  Creative is already sagging under sinking sales of sound cards and its stock price dove steeply enough for it to voluntarily delist itself from NASDAQ last year.  For an interesting read on the business side of Creative's woes, refer to AnandTech's analysis of the company.

While daniel_k's posts on the creative forums advertising the drivers may have been deleted, the O'Shaughnessy memo does indicate that daniel_k intends to keep up his modding. 

Says Shaughnessy, "Although you say you have discontinued your practice of distributing unauthorized software packages for Creative sound cards we have seen evidence of them elsewhere along with donation requests from you.  We also note in a recent post of yours on these forums, that you appear to be contemplating the release of further packages."

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Creative
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 3/31/2008 10:40:44 AM , Rating: 5
They had their day but will eventually crumble. It will be a good day when that finally happens. Maybe whoever buys them out will put their IP to better use. I haven't seen anything out of them in a number of years.




RE: Creative
By Chadder007 on 3/31/2008 10:46:56 AM , Rating: 5
Ive been tempted to replace my onboard sound for a long time with a Creative card. This kind of crap from them is exactly why I haven't done so. Good Bye Creative.


RE: Creative
By dgingeri on 3/31/2008 11:05:08 AM , Rating: 5
Try an HT Omega card. They have great Vista drivers, with very little fluff to them. Actual working, memory-efficient drivers! What a concept! It's something Creative gave up on back in the Windows 95 days.


RE: Creative
By Chadder007 on 3/31/2008 11:32:06 AM , Rating: 2
Thanks. :)


RE: Creative
By Golgatha on 3/31/2008 11:59:27 AM , Rating: 5
What they haven't given up on is throwing an AOL trial shortcut on your desktop along with the default driver install.

They also haven't given up on requiring the original driver CD drivers being installed, before installing full-package web driver updates.

I just checked the Steam stats, and aggregate Creative chipsets make up right at 6% of all users. 2.8% being their flagship X-Fi chipset. Creative has been irrelevant for years.

Dear Creative,

Please start supporting your products for longer than one year after release. Also, please release drivers more than once every 2-3 years for you $100 flagship X-Fi series. Oh, how about getting with the times and making a PCIe version of your products too.

Thanks,
Your paying sheeple.

(I'm just as guilty BTW. I own an X-Fi Gamer card currently, and I'm nearly certain this is my last Creative purchase ever.)


RE: Creative
By StevoLincolnite on 3/31/2008 1:41:55 PM , Rating: 2
They have a X-FI Xtreme PCI-E card.
http://guru3d.com/article/sound/505/


RE: Creative
By dgingeri on 3/31/2008 1:49:09 PM , Rating: 5
That has been around a little while, but if you look at the reviews, it has worse driver issues than the PCI cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

I sure wouldn't buy one.


RE: Creative
By Omega215D on 3/31/2008 3:49:33 PM , Rating: 3
That card (Xtreme Audio) is not a true X-Fi card since it doesn't use the X-Fi chip. You just have a more advanced Audigy2 card.

Plenty of publications and sites state this as well as just taking a look at the specs alone. The X-Fi Xtreme Gamer card ($80 - 100) is the true low end X-Fi. So in essence Creative should really release a PCIe X-Fi.


RE: Creative
By therealnickdanger on 3/31/2008 2:54:32 PM , Rating: 2
If I understand the Steam stats properly, they identify your hardware based upon drivers used - so if everyone is using hacked drivers...? I know I used a hacked driver for my GF GO7800 because neither Dell or NVIDIA would support it and Steam couldn't identify it beyond its manufacturer... :/


RE: Creative
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 4/1/2008 8:29:29 AM , Rating: 2
Steam tracks hardware and drivers separately. Scroll all the way down the steam page and you will see driver tracking as well. It actually grabs from the msinfo32 menu.


RE: Creative
By omnicronx on 4/1/2008 12:12:36 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
It actually grabs from the msinfo32 menu.
Many custom drivers leave the name blank, or have it set to unknown unless maker of the custom driver specifically sets it..
Infact I have even in the past installed an unauthorized xp driver on windows vista, and it came up as - under under the name field in msinfo32..


RE: Creative
By SiliconJon on 3/31/2008 5:43:39 PM , Rating: 2
I quit buying Creative over four years ago for almost the identical gripes you stated. I am not surprised they still do their same 'ol crap, coupled with fraudulent specifications and software practices, but I am surprised enough people still patronize them to keep them alive.


RE: Creative
By Gravemind123 on 4/1/2008 12:15:20 AM , Rating: 2
It's sort of ironic that they have software issues with their soundcards as I bought a Creative Zen over and iPod or Zune because it didn't have need any proprietary software, and thank god it doesn't since Creative seems to be the company I would trust least to make working software.


RE: Creative
By robinthakur on 3/31/2008 12:05:30 PM , Rating: 5
I think what's most revealing about this uncharacteristically frank statement from someone at Creative is their pretty blatant contempt for people who've bought their products and oh so unreasonably expect them to work on Vista. They clearly gambled on Vista being a big success and everybody running out to buy a new card because their old one 'stopped working'. However, they haven't abandoned the hardware as orphaned cards, they are deliberately crippling the functionality in Vista!! What's mildly amusing is that the newer 'designed for Vista' cards have very spotty drivers too...

That they could purposefully inconvenience their paying customers like this with bold-faced impunity is disgusting and really speaks to their lack of respect. I've avoided Creative like the plague since I realised a while back that their software is some of the worst around while conversely, their hardware is top notch. Weird. The situation has been the same for many years and a smarter company would have wised up by now to the user feedback. No wonder they're getting worried about the Asus cards and threatening legal action etc, they're clearly cornered.

I hope this gets a lot of publicity and that people really stop buying their products. Its nasty, cynical anti-consumer practice and frankly so many other options exist which are just as good as or are better than creative, why would you voluntarily pay to be treated like this?


RE: Creative
By omnicronx on 3/31/2008 12:54:20 PM , Rating: 5
Vista has a reworked sound api, in which it no longer supports direct sound with hardware acceleration. As creative pretty much exclusively used direct sound, creative decided to take the cheap and easy path of creating a driver work around for this problem. This is why old and new cards alike are crashing all over the place, they both still use direct sound, without hardware acceleration, and instead rely on alchemy drivers to do the work.

Before people bast on MS, directsound was an inefficient way of producting sound, and was the cause for many sound issues within previous versions of windows. Creative was notified long ago about these changes, and instead of creating a new driver for a product that was never marketed as 'Vista', they decided to make a money grab, create a crappy work around, and sell it to those who would be in dire need of sound once they installed vista.

Best part is this move shouldnt surprise anyone, creative has always tried to get every penny they could. One of the greatest blunders I have seen is all of the original cards higher than 2channel, had better dacs(digi to analogue converters) on the rear channels than on the fronts. They didnt want to change the design process, so they used the same parts for the front dacs, and decided to use a superior dac for the rear. Lucky for those that knew, there was a custom drivers that switched the front channel to the rear dacs, resulting in what i thought (at the time) was much better sound..


RE: Creative
By Samus on 3/31/2008 1:57:50 PM , Rating: 5
Poor Aureal. Creative never did anything with A3D.

At least when nVidia purchased 3Dfx's IP, they did stuff with it.


RE: Creative
By TheDoc9 on 3/31/2008 2:31:42 PM , Rating: 3
yep, and creative is getting it back now. Forcing Aureal out delayed advancement in sound technology until very recently. There company should fail.


RE: Creative
By dilz on 3/31/2008 3:29:36 PM , Rating: 3
Creative's treatment of Aureal really soured my opinion of them as a (then) market leader. Since then I've owned a SBLive! Value... The drivers were okay, though difficult to find and apply, but I was never as much of a fan of CL's reverby EAX as I was of Aureal's A3D. Like many other posters have remarked, I've stuck to onboard solutions for most of the last decade. VIA's Envy and the more recent OxygenHD are clearly the future of PC-based sound solutions.

I couldn't be more pleased by CL's difficulties.


RE: Creative
By Spacecomber on 3/31/2008 7:52:47 PM , Rating: 2
All the creative fanboys got what they deserved when they spread fudd about Aureal. The vortex cards never got enough of a toe-hold in the market to survive, leaving Creative to do as it wished.

I finally caved and at one point bought a Audigy 2 ZS, which seems to have been one of Creative's better efforts of late, but clearly it will be left behind whenever I upgrade to Vista.


RE: Creative
By Cherish on 4/4/2008 5:07:41 AM , Rating: 2
There's nothing wrong with going to Vista with Audigy 2 ZS. Daniel's driver + ALchemy works pretty nice.


RE: Creative
By Belard on 4/1/2008 7:23:12 AM , Rating: 2
Sigh.... the Aureal was a kick-ass card... but I haven't had one since.. well, many many years. The drivers worked very well, installed without the bs, not so much bloat.

Now, I admit I grew up on Creative Sound cards when I was forced into the PC market (Amiga = dead, need modern PC - no lik-ie-them macs) So I've owned Sound Blasters, Live and an Audigy1 card (my last) - but I think an upgrade in hardware is what caused me to no longer use the A3D card.

Anyways - since using NForce Chipsets with onboard audio, I've not bothered with an add-on card. I hope there will always be for a HIGH end audio card for those who want or need it.

I've seen others with problems with SB cards lately - so without A3D and who wants to replace an onboard audio with a $10 junk card? It's been onboard for me and others.

Creative: Nothing much left.


RE: Creative
By robinthakur on 4/1/2008 6:44:10 AM , Rating: 3
Amusingly, Creative signed their own death warrant by not getting their Vista support up to snuff. It could be argued that since the sound part is handled almost entirely in software in Vista (apart from DAC's etc) that there's no need for a dedicated sound card any more like there was on XP. Hopefully the Asus Card will bring something nice to the table with its Xonar range though.

With the fact that the drivers aren't working, which isn't going to annoy the mass market as that uses on board Realtek based sound mostly, its annoying those people who actually chose to buy Creative's sound cards against its competitors offerings. That's really dumb.

Add in Creative's very dodgy financials (they only made a profit in the last finiancial year because Apple gave them $100m to get lost from the IP dispute on MP3 player menus), NASDAQ delist and this company is going down pretty soon. Take away sound cards and what do they make? Inferior portable media players, webcams that often just don't work and passable speakers. Consider the writing to be on the wall. Consider this karma smiting them for how they treated Aureal, I'm glad nobody forgot about that sordid little affair. Talk about killing progress...!


RE: Creative
By Nik00117 on 3/31/2008 2:06:02 PM , Rating: 2
I agree 100%. This is a patheic move on Creative part.

Quite frankly I swithced from Vista to XP due to issues outside of sound. gotta telly ou in vista my volume was always around 80-90% for me to hear it on my speakers. Which always did puzzle me but I Never develed into find out why. Now with my XP install my speakers are set at roughly 10%, with the volume on the physical box at half mast. I hear my music nearly as loud as sometimes it was with vista. Strang uh?

O BTW i'm not a vista basher, it has its good points, it has hits bad points. Companies like creative are the majority of its bad points.


RE: Creative
By Cheapshot on 3/31/2008 1:12:30 PM , Rating: 5
I too have an HT Omega Claro SC. And I purchased it to not only get away from Creative products, but the offerings from HT were right on par if not better than Creatives...

And at a lower price.

Initially I had problems with the Claro and vista, but an email to customer service was replied to within 2 hours from the support staff. After 2 days of back and forth with them we discovered the problem.

The point being that the staff at HT never stopped until they had resolved my issue. I was never at want for a reply from them as they continuously kept me informed.

HT has pride in thier product and wants you to know it.


RE: Creative
By dgingeri on 3/31/2008 1:46:54 PM , Rating: 2
I got my Striker 7.1 for 2 reasons:
1. it was better sounding audio than the on-board
2. it had 64-bit Vista drivers (beta at the time) that didn't crash

With my old Audigy 2zs and Audigy 4 cards, I had neither. The drivers I had for XP didn't even work right. (Those who suffered through Creative's passing the buck on the popping and hissing due to 'memory bandwidth issues' know exactly what I am talking about.)

My on-board sound pretty much sucks in any case. Too much noise, missing/partial sounds, and general incompatibility makes it totally unusable.


RE: Creative
By gamefoo21 on 4/1/2008 1:52:10 AM , Rating: 2
You'll be happy to know when Creative hacked together a Vista driver for the X-Fi cards, in the Beta notes it said, "Due to unknown low-level driver issues that have been revealed due to Vista's more efficient sound system, there are the following issues with playback:"

And in the list was the popping and cracking issue. lol


RE: Creative
By darklight0tr on 4/1/2008 12:21:41 PM , Rating: 2
I agree there. I bought a HT OMEGA Claro Plus after I got fed up with my X-Fi XtremeMusic and its contant issues with Vista.

I am amazed at how great the card is, and the support from HT OMEGA is awesome! Plus, the Vista support is vastly superior to the crap that Creative is trying to pull.

When I first heard DTS Interative using my Logitech Z-5500 Digital speakers I knew I made the right choice.

Creative can rot for all I care.


RE: Creative
By retrospooty on 3/31/2008 11:10:56 AM , Rating: 1
Yup, I am still on an old audigy 2, and if this type of narrow minded bully boy mentality doesnt change it will be my last creative card.

It would be a bit different if they supplied thier own working drivers, but they arent... Daniel K is making something they should have done a year and a half ago.


RE: Creative
By eye smite on 3/31/2008 12:06:35 PM , Rating: 2
Well.......does anyone think Creative just shot themselves in the foot with no first aid around. They've had a crumbling customer base for sometime now, this looks like it might bring down the whole house of cards. lol


RE: Creative
By tedrodai on 4/3/2008 4:27:52 PM , Rating: 2
Well, they've obviously stirred up a hornet's nest, and they know it, but this was definitely the straw that broke the camel's back for me...I'll never buy another Creative product again, nor will anyone I have any amount of influence over in this regard*.

* As I quickly read over what I type (something people should do more often), I noticed that 'never' is a strong word...stranger things have happened, so a massive change of policy and perhaps management might make them worth considering sometime in the future, but not the near future.


RE: Creative
By P4blo on 3/31/2008 1:16:06 PM , Rating: 2
Ok so some of the money may go to Creative for the X-Fi chipset license but I strongly recommend people get an Auzentech X-Fi Prelude. I love this card. Everything works under Vista (32bit at least) and it has Dolby Digital Live BUILT IN. Creative run the same chip on their X-Fi's but..... no DD Live. Why? You could argue it's due to the same cynicism they're displaying to this poor driver modder, they wanted people instead to buy their daft 5.1 analogue to digital DD Live converter box that costs another £100 and sucks for quality. It doesn't stop there, when I had a Creative X-Fi I had to buy a separate breakout box because they give you very few useful connectors on the back fo the card. The Prelude does the lot, no problem. I can run an optical in, optical out, analogue line in, mike in and headphone out, all from the back of the card.

It does totally look like they've had their day, Masher's right. They've gotten wayyyy too lazy, have sucky driver coders and are trying to squeeze the market beyond that which even their standards monopoly can handle.

Selling their X-Fi chipset off is the cleverest thing they could have done if you ask me.

Go Auzentech!


RE: Creative
By omnicronx on 3/31/2008 1:51:23 PM , Rating: 2
DDlive is an integrated chip on the card, and is not in the drivers. The X-FI merely does not contain a DDlive chip, and the Prelude does. The question i would like to ask is, if you are using DDlive, why on earth are you paying a bunch of extra money for analogue outputs?

I have an Auzentech X-plosion, but you will never catch me buying a Prelude. It has DDlive, and DTS encoding and costs half the price.. and for the record, the analogue driver portion of the card uses almost the same drivers as creative X-Fi alchemy drivers which is still a workaround.

It sounds like you are using the DDL portion of your soundcard, probably the reason why you are not having troubles. But once again i beg the question, why buy a card that does both analogue and digital? The digital inputs and outputs on your card are almost identical to my sub 100$ card.


RE: Creative
By RubberJohnny on 3/31/2008 9:53:54 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe cause the Prelude has the x-fi chipset and the x-plosion doesn't?


RE: Creative
By P4blo on 4/3/2008 5:07:36 AM , Rating: 2
Spot on, gaming performance was a big issue and the X-Fi chipset is unrivalled there. The reason I use several inputs and outputs is that I guess I like everything in easy reach and ready to go. I have a wireless 5.1 headset which is my preferred choice but when the batteries go flat I can just pick up my usual analogue headset and it's ready to go from the ports at the front of the case. I also like to do stuff like watch TV while I game so mix in an optical input. Lastly the Creative X-Fi has some stupid intel compatible front audio connector socket so I had to mod a plug together to get it working. No doubt they sold out to Intel on that one. The Auzentech on the other hand plugs straight into my Lian Li front interface universal connector. I think your Xplosion has a DDLive chip because it doesn't have the grunt of the X-Fi to handle it all. That's also why it's a cheaper card.


RE: Creative
By Chaser on 3/31/2008 1:53:52 PM , Rating: 5
I think the point is "soliciting donations". I'm sure this driver mod guys has the most sincere intentions but when money gets involved with a product Creative developed, markets and supports they have a right to protect the IP they paid to develop.


RE: Creative
By Alexstarfire on 3/31/2008 11:15:13 PM , Rating: 2
Soliciting donations and requiring users to pay are two completely different things.


RE: Creative
By Belegost on 4/1/2008 1:01:23 AM , Rating: 3
The only way they can make any real claims against him is if they can prove he used part or all of their driver code in his drivers.

However, if he personally coded a completely new set of drivers, then Creative has nothing.

Once the hardware is sold, what the consumer does with it is none of Creative's business. If the consumer chooses to interface with the hardware with a different software than the Creative provided - that's the right of the consumer to use the item they purchased. This is no different that running any other software on any piece of hardware - the hardware vendor has no right to prevent the sales of that software provided the software author has written the code without taking from protected sources.

Without that protection for consumers, I can imagine what the PC market would look like - a whole lot of proprietary boxes with locked in software that can only be purchased and upgraded by the manufacturer.

Of course if this guy has lifted code from the Creative drivers, then he does need to take down the current driver packages, redevelop those sections completely separate from the creative code, and then he can release a new version.


RE: Creative
By ViroMan on 4/1/2008 4:27:12 AM , Rating: 2
Im guessing 40%~ of it is copied code. You can't just reverse engineer EAX in such a short time and come up with a new way to mimic it.


RE: Creative
By Mitch101 on 3/31/2008 1:58:43 PM , Rating: 2
Yup with all the problems I am having with my current onboard sound I was thinking of getting a creative sound card. Now I will just replace the receiver instead. My problem is the optical out wont work on my mobo for some reason.

This is so poor of creative. Its not like they have a monopoly on any market any more.

Bring back NVIDIA sound storm!


RE: Creative
By dgingeri on 3/31/2008 3:41:55 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Bring back NVIDIA sound storm!


Ain't that the truth. That was the one sound solution I have never had any issues with. That system is still around, too.

With as few problems as I've had with my current HT Omega Striker, I'm pretty happy with it, but it still isn't 100%.


RE: Creative
By Omega215D on 3/31/2008 3:50:47 PM , Rating: 2
Auzentech and Asus make pretty good sound cards that are up there with Creative. The Auzentech uses custom X-Fi drivers and hopefully they will keep up with releasing new ones, unlike Creative taking their sweet time.


RE: Creative
By omnicronx on 3/31/2008 5:45:45 PM , Rating: 2
Auzentech uses almost identical drivers for the analogue portion of the card, (X-FI part), the only thing that makes these drivers 'custom', is the added support for the DDlive/DTS:i chips.. in otherwords (Alchemy + DDlive driver = auzentech drivers)


RE: Creative
By Polynikes on 4/1/2008 7:19:55 AM , Rating: 2
This is exactly why I'm still on XP with my good old Audigy 2.


RE: Creative
By mikefarinha on 3/31/2008 10:56:49 AM , Rating: 5
I agree that they will eventually crumble. It looks like their management had, and has, no clue as to who their customers are. Unless they go through some sort of massive management reorganization they'll be circling the toilet bowl sooner rather than later.

On the plus side of this, ASUS couldn't have picked a better time to release their own soundcard offering.


RE: Creative
By daftrok on 3/31/2008 12:12:54 PM , Rating: 4
I doubt the entire company will crumble. They DID sell over 25 million Creative players and their new Creative ZEN and ZEN Stone are really good players. I'm pretty sure they'll rethink things on this sound card driver issue once this becomes more public.


RE: Creative
By feraltoad on 3/31/2008 9:57:28 PM , Rating: 2
Drop CL a line and tell them what you think.

poshaughnessy@creativelabs.com
katie_simpkins@creativelabs.com
Susie_Hayne@creativelabs.com

I have had nothing but a good experience with my Xfi exreme Music. It made my z5300s sound like a different set of speakers, and my z5500s sound amazing now. I've never had any glitchy noises or driver conflicts; just great sound. The CMSS3D with headphones is uncanny. Unfortunately, I have seen far far too many on forums reporting problems and some with the exact same mobo as I had (asrock dualsata2 back then) so for once I seemed to have gotten lucky. I still wrote them and advised them to stop harassing someone who is only picking up their slack, or I wouldn't even think of purchasing another product from them. It really is insanity for a company to punish someone who is bringing value to their products. Perhaps Creative had planned on taking a page from Apple's book and was going to charge for complete/updated drivers for some of its products.


RE: Creative
By feraltoad on 3/31/08, Rating: 0
RE: Creative
By RamarC on 3/31/2008 10:58:14 AM , Rating: 2
yeah. i can't see any reason to upgrade my audigy 4 since none of the x-fi 'improvements' are noticeable.


RE: Creative
By kextyn on 3/31/2008 11:01:41 AM , Rating: 3
I've been waiting for them to lose their grip on the market. I've been fed up with their driver support for years. Even on XP you can't just go to the site and download a driver. They will give you a driver update but it will only work if you had already installed the original driver from the CD. Maybe they've changed it in the last year or so, but I refuse to use their cards.

Why can't Creative offer drivers like ATI or Nvidia does?


RE: Creative
By threepac3 on 3/31/2008 12:57:10 PM , Rating: 2
They lost there grip once integrated sound became the norm.


RE: Creative
By The Jedi on 4/2/2008 2:21:05 PM , Rating: 2
Unfortunately there's a bit of a precedent with that. Long ago when Cyrix was bigger, and trying to grow, Compaq (for example) came out with a Cyrix based PC with 'Sound Blaster Pro compatible' integrated audio. For drivers they just downloaded a copy from Creative and used those. So, Creative made it so you had to have a genuine Creative product with a genuine driver CD. Ancient, ancient history.

Last I heard was that after months of aggravation their latest Vista X-Fi drivers were actually useable and decent.


RE: Creative
By BMFPitt on 3/31/2008 11:02:57 AM , Rating: 3
If there was a chance that I would actually have bought a Creative card in the future, I would boycott them for this asshattery.


RE: Creative
By MrBlastman on 3/31/2008 11:05:27 AM , Rating: 5
Ok, now THIS is a reason I was looking for to hate Creative.

Thank you for sharing this info with us.

If I were creative, I'd view this as a PR disaster.

Perhaps they should have instead, quietly offered the man a job on their drivers rather than admonish him publicly.

By seeking his employment, they could contractually bind him to cease creation of further drivers and eventually profit off of his endeavors by bringing their existing drivers in-line.


RE: Creative
By retrospooty on 3/31/2008 11:12:34 AM , Rating: 3
"Perhaps they should have instead, quietly offered the man a job on their drivers rather than admonish him publicly."

Exactly... This gut is writing the drivers and fixing the issues Creative should have done a long time ago.


RE: Creative
By mattclary on 3/31/2008 2:36:41 PM , Rating: 2
You're assuming the drivers weren't behaving exactly the way Creative wanted them to.


RE: Creative
By AntiM on 3/31/2008 11:10:39 AM , Rating: 4
It's really a shame. Having a product with so much potential only to have sales hampered by poor drivers and customer service. They virtually created the discrete sound card market and then systematically destroyed it. I suppose Daniel_K would have been ok if he had not asked for donations. However, it does seem apparent that for some reason Creative chose to deliberately disable some functionality. Maybe Nvidia will buy them and put them on the right path.


RE: Creative
By walk2k on 3/31/08, Rating: -1
RE: Creative
By RonLugge on 3/31/2008 12:49:21 PM , Rating: 2
Excuse me?

Having custom drivers for improved performance is hardly "cheating" in games!


RE: Creative
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 3/31/2008 1:14:13 PM , Rating: 2
Heh, in his defense the original "wall hacks" in FPS games were due to custom drivers on specific video cards. Granted sound won't do you much good....


RE: Creative
By JoshuaBuss on 3/31/2008 1:54:54 PM , Rating: 4
actually, tweaked sound configs are notorious in several first person shooters for being way too advantageous..

in HL1DM especially a good a3d card and config could give the player god-like knowledge of the enemies' positions..


RE: Creative
By Samus on 3/31/2008 2:03:23 PM , Rating: 2
A3D and a set of good headphones was total pwnage


RE: Creative
By dvinnen on 3/31/2008 6:28:16 PM , Rating: 3
Haha, in CS 1.6 A3D had to be banned from competition. The right soundcard/driver/config would mean you could hear people almost across the map with prettying good accuracy of location. Huge advantage because almost all walls are spamable.


RE: Creative
By Chris Peredun on 4/1/2008 8:39:28 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Haha, in CS 1.6 A3D had to be banned from competition. The right soundcard/driver/config would mean you could hear people almost across the map with prettying good accuracy of location. Huge advantage because almost all walls are spamable.


Guilty as charged. I bought an A3D card back in my CS days just for the obscene advantage it gave me.


RE: Creative
By jtok202 on 3/31/2008 1:09:59 PM , Rating: 2
This is exactly what is being talked about by scholars and so many others, Why sue a person who is providing a service that is satisfying the customer and you are failing to do. Asking him to stop adding in features that are not intended you might have some legal right to do. Asking him to stop providing functional drivers is backassward retarded. If the Pirates are providing a functional product that the consumer wants you should put them out of business by providing that service not trying to sue them. You prevent this backlash and you better service your customers.
Jacob


RE: Creative
By Ammohunt on 3/31/2008 3:10:50 PM , Rating: 3
I agree i use on-board sound it meets my needs 100% I used to specifically buy Creative cards. Now i avoid them like the plauge since i demand system stability.

Overall Creative's business practice sucks ass! they EOL my 4 year old webcam (of which the drivers would hork my machine). Where as my ancient logitech webcam works is still supported. I will never purchase another Creative product i urge others to stay clear too.


RE: Creative
By darkpaw on 4/1/2008 11:06:01 AM , Rating: 2
Whats really funny about this is Logitech's drivers generally blow too, but compared to Creative they actually understand the meaning of customer service.


RE: Creative
By Omega215D on 3/31/2008 3:46:56 PM , Rating: 2
Creative is charging $10 for the Alchemy drivers for Audigy users who want the card to work on Vista. I guess this is where the theft is supposedly occurring. MaximumPC went on to defend their charging for the drivers since it is a 3 yr old product that they're still supporting and that $10 isn't really much.

Creative pisses me off till no end what with their crippling of the SD slot on the Creative Zen and their piss poor drivers for my X-Fi Xtreme Music card.


RE: Creative
By Bruneauinfo on 3/31/2008 11:35:55 PM , Rating: 2
Creative X-Fi Pro never has worked right here. their remote for the external unit is a joke. and i'm still running xp. i'd hate to see what would happen if i installed Vista on this machine.

X-fi is one of the two things that has kept me from switching this machine over to Linux. with this b.s. i now only have one reason - if they stop making games XP compatible.


RE: Creative
By Gerbil333 on 4/5/2008 5:07:08 PM , Rating: 2
Indeed, Creative will fall. I run a small business designing and selling headphone amplifiers and I personally will not buy, nor recommend another Creative product. Great job, Creative!


On the flip side
By FITCamaro on 3/31/2008 12:23:58 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
We are aware that you have been assisting owners of our Creative sound cards for some time now, by providing unofficial driver packages for Vista that deliver more of the original functionality that was found in the equivalent XP packages for those sound cards...By enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, you are in effect, stealing our goods.


On the flip side, one can argue that Creative, by not supporting the functionality is robbing its customers of features that it advertised. The card is capable of the features and they are choosing to deny those features after already providing them. It'd be like Nvidia removing SLI support from its 7xxx series graphics cards on Vista because they want you to upgrade to an 8xxx series.

I have an Audigy in my gaming PC that I've had for years. Honestly I don't know if I'll ever buy another dedicated card. I like as much to be offloaded from a CPU as possible. But these days, is it even worth it. Onboard sound has gotten a lot better. You were basically paying for EAX stuff with a creative product. And now there's an Asus card out there thats relatively cheap.

Creative isn't the only manufacturer guilty of bloated software though. Install an HP printer lately? Why does my printer software need to be 150MB when I just want the driver?




RE: On the flip side
By DarkElfa on 3/31/2008 12:30:02 PM , Rating: 2
I've owned every generation of SoundBlaster for the last 12 years and because of this show of customer abuse, this is my last. I'm officially through with Creative, they're software and drivers are buggy and do not work and their policies are anti-consumer, screw you and please go the way of the dodo, EAX sucks anyways.


RE: On the flip side
By mmntech on 3/31/2008 1:19:02 PM , Rating: 2
Isn't EAX pretty much on the way out anyway? Most game developers seem to be opting for Dolby Digital or OpenAL instead. I have an X-FI XtremeMusic and I don't plan on upgrading it anytime soon. Still, I agree that driver support is less than spectacular. How long as the X-FI been out and we still don't have official Linux drivers and the Vista ones are still garbage.
C-Media long ago mopped the floor with the X-FI when they came out with the Oxygen HD chipset. It's a shame that Auzentech discontinued the X-Meridian, which used to be one of the best sound cards around. It was cheaper than the "high end" X-FIs with the "X-RAM" and a far better card.


RE: On the flip side
By omnicronx on 3/31/2008 2:01:55 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Isn't EAX pretty much on the way out anyway? Most game developers seem to be opting for Dolby Digital or OpenAL instead.
Ever whoised openal.org?

'Registrant: Make this info private
Creative Technology Ltd
31, Intl Business Pk
Singapore, Singapore 609921
SG '

creative bought out the rights to OpenAL a while ago ;)

Theres no better way to slow down progress, than buying out the competition ;)


RE: On the flip side
By TheDoc9 on 3/31/2008 2:34:43 PM , Rating: 2
yet another example, along with Aureal, of why this company should fail.


RE: On the flip side
By omnicronx on 3/31/2008 1:13:44 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
On the flip side, one can argue that Creative, by not supporting the functionality is robbing its customers of features that it advertised.
Technically, no they didnt, all cards that were released as WindowsXP cards have fully supported drivers, which legally is all they are required to do.. Also the fact the features were once supported means little to nothing from a legal standpoint.

But.. I see no reason that making custom vista drivers that enable features that are already enabled in windowx XP, features that we as customers paid for would be illegal.
He is not going over and beyond the spec of the device, he is merely accessing features, that he paid for.

In my opinion Creative can not have a two way street here.. Either the card was designed for Vista with a specific feature set for Vista in which they should be forced to provide drivers for free.. or it is not designed for Vista at all, in which anyone should be able to freely develop drivers to enable features that they paid for.

Either way, I really doubt this is much more than EA knowing things are going downhill, and they are trying to get a foothold before things fall much further.


RE: On the flip side
By FITCamaro on 3/31/2008 1:31:13 PM , Rating: 2
You'd think that Creative would instead hire this guy to write drivers for them.


RE: On the flip side
By omnicronx on 3/31/2008 1:41:49 PM , Rating: 3
Once again, it is in Creatives best interests to keep the sound card market stagnent. Once soundcards card market goes mainly digital and leaves analogue for the onboard systems, creative's current business strategy will be useless.

Furthermore their cashcow EAX is designed and only works with analogue audio. Creative makes money on every game, or any other product for that matter that makes use of EAX via licensing. Now to put that in perspective, almost any game released in the past 10 years that has multichannel surround makes use of EAX.

My favorite question in the world about EA is 'but how do they direspect their customers and stay in business'... thats easy, 1# they are a monopoly, and #2 as my above paragraph describes, soundcard purchasers are probably not their biggest source of income..


RE: On the flip side
By Screwballl on 3/31/2008 2:07:20 PM , Rating: 3
I am just waiting for someone to start a class-action lawsuit. They state themselves that the capability is there on the card but they chose not to enable it within Vista.
Right on the box and website it says: "Supports A, B, C and D"....
Not: "Supports A, B, C and D in WindowsXP and only A in Vista"

Example: That is like selling and advertising a video card to have 32 shader pipelines but only enabling 20 of them in Vista.


RE: On the flip side
By mcturkey on 3/31/2008 6:59:46 PM , Rating: 2
That's not at all how it works. Where are the BeOS drivers for these cards? Where are the MacOS drivers? Huh? Creative is under no legal obligation to support every feature they offer under all operating systems.

If this were a case of XP SP3 breaking functionality, then there might be grounds for a lawsuit if drivers didn't show up after a certain time, but Vista is a totally different version of Windows. Show me where they promise full feature functionality in Vista, and then I will support your class-action lawsuit recommendation.

All that being said, Creative just destroyed whatever positive reputation they still had in the end-user community. Very few OEMs install discrete sound solutions in PCs anymore, as onboard audio does a good enough job for 99.99% of the population. So really, Creative can either walk away from the sound card market, or treat the enthusiasts who will buy sound cards with a whole lot more respect.


RE: On the flip side
By Screwballl on 3/31/2008 10:15:41 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Summary of Software Features

------------ Entertainment - Audio Creation - Game
3DMIDI Playback Yes Yes Yes
3DMIDI Interaction No Yes No
EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0 Limited Limited Yes
EAX ADVANCED HD 4.0 Limited Limited Yes
EAX ADVANCED HD 3.0 Yes Yes Yes
Number of Auxiliary Effects 2 4 4
Maximum Number of Reverbs 1 2 4
Insert Effects No 4 No
ASIO Out Channels: Dry 1 Pair 5 Pairs 1 Pair
ASIO Out Channels: FX No 4 Pairs No
ASIO In Channels: WUH 8 8 8
ASIO In Channels: Basic 2 (1 Pair) 2 (1 Pair) 2 (1 Pair)
ASIO 2.0 Support Limited Yes Limited
ASIO 2.0 Direct Monitoring 0 12 (6 pairs) 0
Bit-Matched Playback No Yes No
Bit-Matched Recording No Yes No
CMSS-3DSurround Yes No Yes
CMSS-3DHeadphone Yes No Yes
CMSS-3DVirtual (2 Speakers) Yes No Yes
CMSS-3DVirtual (4 Speakers) No No Yes
CMSS-3DInteractive Yes Yes Yes
24-bit Crystalizer Yes Yes Yes
Graphic EQ 10 Bands 10 Bands 10 Bands
Smart Volume Management Yes Yes Yes
Bass Management Advanced No Advanced

Note
Sound Blaster X-Fi supports Dolby Digital and DTS bitstream out at 48 kHz only.


This is the full list... yet below it shows some of these items are not working properly in Vista...

quote:
These changes had a number of unfortunate side effects.

kMixer dependency issues
First, while all efforts were made to work with all legacy XP audio drivers, the global graph communication to the audio driver does differ from the way kMixer communicated to the audio driver, in terms of timing and processing blocks and demands for more precise reporting of sample position.

As a result, any legacy XP audio driver whose behavior depended on kMixer specific behavior could break in Vista, if Vista subjects the driver to an unexpected condition. This was ultimately the root cause of several bugs found in Audigy and X-Fi drivers for Vista, such as audio dropouts, distortions that only happen once a while, constant distortions, or audio/video synchronization drift that only happens after several hours of watching movies. These bugs are being addressed now.

Pre-mixed Audio
Second, with the way this new emulation structure, all "MME" and "Direct Sound" applications will ultimately result in pre-mixed PCM audio that is sent to the driver in one and only one format (in terms of sample rate, bit depth and channel count), and that format is governed by a Control Panel setting that Microsoft would prefer be configured only by the end user.

This eliminates any opportunity for hardware to accelerate sample rate conversion or to take full advantage of advanced SRC technologies such as the ones used in Sound Blaster X-Fi products
( http://www.soundblaster.com/products/x-fi/technolo... ) when using standard operating system audio.

Direct Sound 3D HW Acceleration - RIP
In addition, unlike Windows XP, there is no "Direct" path from DirectSound applications to audio drivers or hardware at all. DirectSound is emulated into a Windows audio "Session", as depicted here:
DirectSound Click to enlarge

The diagram below puts this in perspective in the context of the entire audio architecture. Note that DirectSound implementation is circled in red:
Entire Vista audio architecture Click to enlarge

Note that the Vista DirectSound emulation sends mixed audio content to the standard OS audio path, and offers no "direct" path to hardware at all. Since the whole point of DirectSound acceleration is to allow hardware to process unmixed audio content, DirectSound cannot be accelerated in this audio model.

Game Audio Issues
This results in bugs such as loss of EAX functionality in games to complete incompatibility, depending on how the game title was authored and how well the Microsoft DirectSound emulation code works.

In addition, given this model any and all bugs that are exclusive to DirectSound games could not possibly be due to Creative audio drivers or any other IHV (Independent Hardware Vendors) audio drivers.

Custom Audio Effect APOs
Vista does support insertion points for custom audio effects
( http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/audio/sysfx.m... , http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/audio/vista_s... )
depicted above as APO1 and APO3.

Forthcoming Creative audio products will use APOs to implement certain features, but these custom effects do not allow acceleration of DirectSound because as mentioned above they receive mixed content, not unmixed content.

Creative supported hardware acceleration for Gaming and Music Creation
The good news here is that, as depicted above, Vista still permits proprietary user mode to kernel mode driver stacks, which means that Creative products may continue to support non Microsoft driver models and technologies such as
OpenAL (http://www.openal.org ) for 3D gaming,
SoundFont Management System (http://www.soundfont.com )
ASIO (http://www.steinberg.net ) for audio content creation.
As was the case in Windows XP, these audio interfaces will continue to be thin pedal-to-the-metal APIs that allow user mode applications to access hardware features directly.

OpenAL - the key to optimum audio for gaming in Windows Vista
OpenAL continues to be the most widely used API for optimum 3D sound in PC gaming and the direct to hardware path offered by this API is the only way to access the hardware accelerated audio processing offered by cards in the Sound Blaster range.

Combined with Creative's high precision SRC technology, patented 3D audio spatialization and EAX technology, multi-channel / multi-speaker rendering, EAX 5.0 DSP effects, Crystalizer and CMSS technology, Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi continues to be THE ultimate audio solution for Windows gaming.

While the Microsoft architecture works very well for simple multimedia applications such as music listening and moving watching, these technologies will continue to offer optimal performance with minimal CPU impact in gaming and music creation applications for years to come.



This here shows several options that are disabled even though the card has the capability... they may be disclosing this but ONLY after the fact. It does not disclose this on the box or in the manual included with the card... this is the basis for the class action if it takes place...


RE: On the flip side
By mindless1 on 4/1/2008 3:25:48 AM , Rating: 2
I'm no fan of Creative, but they are not obligated to provide any functionality at all for Vista. When the product was marketed and sold, they obligated themselves only to provide the features on the OS listed, which was not Vista.

IMO, they should have provided all driver updates free, not their $10 charge which reeks of greed, and should have just turned a blind eye to Daniel_K, knowing that the cat was out of the bag and the best thing they could do was release an official driver themselves that offers these features, or if not that, at least be happy their past customers weren't jumping ship because once one finds something cheaper that's acceptible they seldom go back to the premium priced alternatives.


RE: On the flip side
By omnicronx on 4/1/2008 12:30:04 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
I'm no fan of Creative, but they are not obligated to provide any functionality at all for Vista. When the product was marketed and sold, they obligated themselves only to provide the features on the OS listed, which was not Vista.
Nobody is arguing this, what everyone is ticked off about is creative is trying to stop authors of custom drivers. Whats more, its not like Vista does not support these features, creative just doesn't want to implement them.

What gets me is creative has the nerve to say Daniel_k is stealing, when technically Creative never released their product for Vista. Now if this were an XP driver then creative would have a case, but as it is designed for an OS that creative technically does not support, I don't see how they have a case at all whatsoever.. You can't play both sides, and i suspect a judge would say the same thing..


RE: On the flip side
By 10cc on 4/5/2008 12:43:49 PM , Rating: 2
quote:

What gets me is creative has the nerve to say Daniel_k is stealing, when technically Creative never released their product for Vista. Now if this were an XP driver then creative would have a case, but as it is designed for an OS that creative technically does not support, I don't see how they have a case at all whatsoever.. You can't play both sides, and i suspect a judge would say the same thing..


Firstly, the moment a buyer purchases the card, it is no longer creative but the buyer who would have full command of what he does with his investment. If the owner of the card decides to abuse his property, then creative can at most withhold support or reject warranty claims.

The real problem is creative is so poor in providing software for their cards to run in Vista. When Vista came out, it took a long while before the cards can run stable without issues. Some outsider got to solve the problem first/a lot better and they cry "cheat". But the new solution helps customers to find value for their branded purchases. The work around should have a positive effect on the creative brand name.

But it has a negative effect for the software team who have been caught off guard. I say some programmer/market strategist would have to go find another job.


RE: On the flip side
By Ajax9000 on 3/31/2008 7:54:33 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
On the flip side, one can argue that Creative, by not supporting the functionality is robbing its customers of features that it advertised.

A bit like HTC, perhaps?
http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=10751


well deserved
By dr4gon on 3/31/2008 10:40:51 AM , Rating: 3
creative definitely had it coming to them for a long time. It'd be interesting to see what they are going to do to repair this situation. their drivers are lousy at best and they offer little to no support.




RE: well deserved
By GoodBytes on 3/31/2008 10:55:32 AM , Rating: 3
I support the Creative ban!
I have an X-fi, it cause me problems since later Windows XP updates and Vista.
Even now, as I wrote this message, my Creative X-Fi driver just crashed, and no sound can be outputted. I need to restart my computer t fix the problem, AGAIN!

I am happy that ASUS released a fine sound card, which I am planning in getting to replace my this product that I have that they laughing call a sound card.


RE: well deserved
By Golgatha on 3/31/2008 12:30:23 PM , Rating: 3
Yeah, CThelper.exe (Helper?!) ironically enough still doesn't close properly when I shutdown or reboot XP. To alleviate this issue I simply rename the offending .exe file. Creative Technologies Helper.exe indeed.


RE: well deserved
By Proteusza on 3/31/2008 11:43:27 AM , Rating: 3
You know, as I see it, in the beginning Creative did well because they had well placed and innovative products at competitive prices.

But Creative doesnt like competition, not even from its own users. They stifled Aurora, there was another sound card firm (cant remember name) that fell victim to legal costs.

Since then, Creative has actively discouraged innovation to remain top dog, and now have started charging to drivers (AlChemy on Audigy) and now this!

Creative deserves its fate - bankruptcy. Let newer and more capable companies, such as Asus and Auzentech, take over.


RE: well deserved
By dijidiji on 3/31/2008 1:48:23 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
They stifled Aurora, there was another sound card firm (cant remember name) that fell victim to legal costs.


Aureal. The really nasty bit is that they went bankrupt while *winning* the legal battle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aureal_Semiconductor

It really pissed me off...A3D always sounded better than EAX to me. Half-Life was a great point of comparison between the two.


Email, anyone?
By Basilisk on 3/31/2008 2:33:10 PM , Rating: 2
I'm certain others can epen a more persuasive note to CL, but here's mine. The three recipients are the listed leaders of their PR depts. If you have something cogent to say, pass it along to them. I'd advise against simple harassment as that could tarnish the lustre of more content-filled eepistles.

quote:
To: poshaughnessy@creativelabs.com
Cc: Susie_Hayne@creativelabs.com
Cc: katie_simpkins@creativelabs.com

Over the years, I've bought a dozen CL products -- mostly audio cards, of course, but video cards in their day as well. I feel comfortable characterizing myself and other audio card purchasers as a touch nerdy -- confident with choosing & installing computer hardware, and reasonably well informed. Over the past three years, I've repeatedly considered buying one of your latest audio cards, and repeatedly stifled that temptation... there being increasing uneasiness from my experiences of CL support and with issues mentioned in forums. The fiasco of CL's Vista issues & "support" have about severed our relationship.

But I'm just one repeat-customer. And "one" can be ignored. How does CL fair in the broader milieu of technically-inclined users/builders? I suggest -- quite strongly -- that you read the details of the reader-responses at the end of the article linked here:

http://www.dailytech.com/Creative+Says+Custom+Driv...

These DT readers are not "fanboys" of some competitor's product. They are not, for the most part, whiners. They -are- your repeat-customers; or perhaps I should write "your EX-repeat-customers"?

About half-way through, I begin skimming the responses. Perhaps, then, I missed someone supporting CL. That's a "one" you'd better find and not ignore: a ONE who is satisfied enough to continue purchasing CL products.

Take care out there... John




RE: Email, anyone?
By omnicronx on 3/31/2008 2:41:07 PM , Rating: 2
Nice! I wonder what kind of response you will receive..

Although when i first read your post i thought you had written "your EAX -repeat-customers" apparently I can not read.. but it was funny while it lasted..

... damn, i'm a nerd..


RE: Email, anyone?
By Proteusza on 3/31/2008 4:47:25 PM , Rating: 3
Thanks for providing the addresses, I decided to email them too:

quote:
Dear Sir/Madam,

I read with interest your actions regarding the Creative forum user Daniel_k. Before I continue, please allow me to summarize some of the facts that I am aware of.

1. ALChemy is a technology developed by Creative, that converts DirectSound calls into OpenAL calls for Windows Vista compatibility reasons.
2. ALChemy is supported on Audigy and X-Fi sound cards, but for the privilege of using such a feature on Audigy cards (and possibly older cards that I am unaware of), the user is required to pay $10.
3. Daniel_k released a modified Creative driver that allowed users to use ALChemy on Audigy cards. For this reason, he was threatened with legal action, and all of his posts were deleted.

Now, this strikes me as odd. Let me recount a similar situation that I heard about a while ago. Have you heard of a company called ATI Technologies? The graphics card company, now part of AMD? They released a product in 2002/2003 that was titled the Radeon 9700 Pro. At the time, it was the best performing card available. Seeking to also tap the middle tier graphics card market, ATI also launched the 9500 Pro. Now, what was the hardware difference between the two cards? Other than the memory chips used, and possibly the cooling technology, there was no difference at all.

Naturally, as such things happen, this fact was discovered, and using either software, firmware or hardware modifications, or a combination of the three, it was possible to convert a 9500 Pro to a 9700 Pro and save yourself a bit of money. Guess what ATI did about it? Nothing.

I hope that you are aware how much more money ATI makes than you. I hope you are aware how much more was at stake. I hope you realize why it was the right thing to do. They artificially crippled a graphics card - they knew it. They did the sensible thing - they introduced a new graphics card, the 9600 card, that used a physically different core, and thus could not be converted into a 9700 Pro. I should hope the sitation is clear - ATI probably lost a lot more than you did, yet they handled it with aplomb. I daresay it might have even gained them popularity. Have you heard of the Omega Drivers? DNA Drivers? These are custom driver sets, which among other things work on ATI graphics cards. Guess what ATI and Nvidia have done about them? Nothing. Do they infringe IP? Probably. Do they contain the modification that allows a 9500 Pro to be converted to a 9700 Pro? Yes I've seen it myself. Yet they exist, and are a mark of the popularity of ATI and Nvidia. They represent the enthusiasts who are willing to tinker, and it seems ATI and Nvidia both realize the value of enthusiasm. I'm surprised to see that Creative evidently only sees the value of money.

I hope its evident what your actions have done to your company. I have never, in all my life, seen users register at a forum for the sole purpose of expressing their disgust, promising never to touch Creative products again, and condeming everything you do. What ever arguments I give, I do not think I could illustrate the point as clearly as the state of your forums. Your customers are disgusted with you. You showed what you really care about - money - and it looks like they showed you the door. I hope it is clear, however important money is to you, that your greed cost you a lot more than lost sales of X-Fis ever could have. Your greed is your downfall - had you realized that without fans you have no chance of doing business, you might be doing better.

It seems to me that it is unfair of some people to blame the software developers who you pay to develop drivers. They do not make the decisions. They do not dictate policy. In fact, I feel sorry for them - your greed may very well cost them their jobs. It seems clear that Creative has, for a number of years, released yearly updates to its products that were often nothing more than a tweak and a name change. That you have the audacity to charge for driver updates, that you buy out competitors rather than compete fairly, that you purchase OpenAL so that any who wish it to use must now go through you, ensuring a monopoly - all of these are the sign of a business that has stagnated, stopped growing and innovating, and must now be allowed to die so that younger and better companies can take over.

I've purchased several Creative sound cards - an SB16, a Vibra 128, a Live! 7.1, and most recently an X-Fi Xtreme Gamer. I hope it is clear from the tone and content of my email that my current Creative soundcard will be my last, and also that that decision is based solely off your poor support, hostility towards your user community, and the attitude that users must pay large amounts of money for artificially locked features. There is a saying I heard - you can't put a price on goodwill. Looks like you found that out the hard way.