First of all, thanks deeply to Omegadrive for making time for this interview. So, in the interest of time, let's get right to the questions. Q: Let's start from the beginning. For the benefit of those that are not familiar with your work, please explain a little about your specialized drivers. A: The purpose of the Omega Drivers is to provide gamers with an alternate set of drivers, ones that have more options and features than the original sets. The drivers contain optimizations, extra features (like OC capabilities), more resolutions and internal tweaks that can give them the edge in a gaming environment over the normal drivers, which are often tailored for synthetic benchmarks. Q: And what was it that inspired you to begin providing your own specialized versions of ATI's and Nvidia's video drivers? A: The ATI driver modifications just came naturally. You see, when I decided to change my old Voodoo 3 3k video card for something more powerful, at first I bought an Nvidia GfMX200… bad choice. I had all kinds of problems with games and no single driver version worked with all the games I had, so I sold it after a month and bought an ATI Radeon VIVO 64MB. That totally changed my view on ATI hardware. From there on I decided to continue my modding hobby using ATI drivers. As for the Nvidia drivers, many people, after seeing my work on the ATI drivers, begged me to make a set for Nvidia cards. So, I exchanged cards with a friend of mine and put a GfTi500 on my PC for 3 months so I could develop the drivers. Q: I realize that you have many fans who admire and appreciate your efforts to freely provide optimized drivers (I know; I'm one of them). However, have you encountered any who are opposed to your work? A: Yes, but just a few. Most of the time their only argument is, "everybody can do that on their own with a tweaker". Well, in fact this is true, but why bother if I already do this for you? Q: You have many of us wondering - what process goes into the average Omegadrive optimization? How long does it typically take to release a signature Omegadrive-optimized driver? A: What I usually do is: (not exactly in this order) a) Make a list of the problems found on my previous set so I can fix them on the new set. b) Compare the original files (INIs, INFs, etc...) from the previous and new drivers to look for changes. c) Modify the original INF, adding all my settings and tweaks to it. d) Modify the DLLs to remove the overclocking protection (ATI), add the softmods to individual files (ATI) and remove other types of protections (Nvidia). e) Compile the Omega installer with new options (if any). f) Test the setup and ATI drivers on 2 PCs - one with a 9700 Pro and one with an 8500. g) For Nvidia cards, I used to test them on my wife's PC with a GeForce1 DDR 32MB, but since the card broke some months ago I haven't been able to work on the Nvidia drivers for a while. Q: In a project of such detailed complexity as device drivers, there's bound to be some kind of problems along the way. What troubles have you come up against since you began working on drivers? A: There are two different problems, one with the ATI drivers, the other with Nvidia ones. The problem with the ATI drivers is adding custom resolutions; it"s a pain in the neck. You have to add the resolutions with a specific refresh rate. If you want to add additional refresh rates for each resolution, you have to add them using an entirely different set of parameters. Just to add my 5 custom resolutions along with 4 refresh rate values for each (60, 75, 85, 100) takes about 67 x 258 lines of INF code. With Nvidia you only have to add the resolution and the refresh rate range (about 20 characters max), that's all. The Nvidia drivers have a different problem, the D3D tweaks and the automatic setup they use. The problem with D3D tweaks is that they are numerical, not verbal like ATI ones. You have to guess what the numerical values do unless you already got their meaning from somewhere else. That makes it very difficult to tweak the D3D part of the drivers. As for the setup, the program they use to automatically install the drivers just refuses to correctly install the drivers if you add any COMMENT lines to the INF file. And, as you may know, I use a lot of comments on the INF files to keep them organized. If I try to use their setup file with my INF files, it usually corrupts the video drivers part of the registry. That's why I have to specify that my drivers MUST be installed through the device manager, not like ATI's. Q: You've been providing Omega drivers for quite a while now, especially to fickle Internet standards. What is it that keeps you motivated to provide that steady stream of driver releases? A: The reward of satisfaction, or like I said in my website: 'I want to leave a mark in the world and let Him (God) know that I did something good and noble for the world... make people happy ' Q: One final question for you friend, if you have the patience. Why should owners of ATI and Nvidia cards use Omega drivers rather than somebody else's tweaked drivers, or OEM drivers straight from the companies? A: Well, I don't force people to use my drivers, it's up to them to try them and see for themselves if the driver satisfies their needs. The only thing that I can say to recommend them above OEM drivers is that the Omega drivers are made with love by the heart of a gamer for gamers. Not like most companies; they just focus on PR stuff and benchmarks to increase their sales/profits. Sometimes they cheat in benchmarks to beat the opposition and show a totally false "picture" to corporate investors (read: old people that know nothing about games). Thanks again for the interview, and thanks even more for your fantastic drivers. As long as you keep making 'em, we'll keep using 'em.
