h20.nfo wrote:
Special Note :
H2O/DELiRiUM on Rampage.........!!!
We couldn't let this one pass us by. It gave us the opportunity to
improve on the Emu by adding lots of new applications. This time
it was alot quicker. Although the prior release took a lot of
man-hours (1500), this wasn't due to the copy protection itself,
but merely writing the emu on driver level (try to figure out the
driver model from microcrap...dooh).....
We hope u enjoy this release and the motto " TRY BEFORE BUY (tm) "
still counts!!
PS1:
Note to Steinberg/End-Users:
It seems that our prior Release Note stirred something in the
Audio Community (Yes, we can read). To get some of the facts
straight we're going to reveal some secrets about the copy
protection itself, and why we stated that it severely impacts
performance.
Info from Syncrosoft website:
"Syncrosoft's protection solution is different from
mainstream software copy protection methods. It is based on a
secure executer, the eLicenser, and the patented MCFACT
technology" "At runtime, the transformed program code does not
reveal its semantics. The eLicenser's crypto-services are called
from time to time by the transformed program code." The
transformed program code is represented as tables in the computers
memory. An adversary can not reverse-engineer or debug the tables,
because a reverse transformation from the tables to original
program code is not feasible. If the tables are manipulated, the
transformed program code will crash or produce invalid results."
So its not crackable?...
Now here is the explanation for what really goes on:
Transformation is based on replacing ordinary machine code into
tables representing results from calculations
Example:
Adding 2 numbers Normal machine-code would look something like :
Add eax, ebx
This will take 1 CPU cycle to execute.
Now comes MCFACT :
1) Transform the first number into a table
2) Transform the second number into a table
3) Do allot of manipulation of these tables
4) More manipulation
5) Transform the Tables back to the numbers
6) Add the 2 numbers
This entire piece takes up hundreds of machine code lines and a
lot of loops inside this code...estimated CPU-cycles <insert>
No performance loss? We don't think so..........
And this code runs all the time!!......The dongle in fact is only
called 1 out of 10 times inside these scripts.........
A good example is the protection build in the midi-part. This is
entirely wrapped in the script-crap. Try moving a note and swirl
it around.....you should notice a sluggishness in the movement.
In fact u will notice an improvement in version 3.1 prior to the
3.0 release. This is not due to improvements made by Steinberg
(the midi-engine is still the same) but improvements made by
Syncrosoft! (They optimized the script engine)!!!!!!!
To give the end user some peace of mind: the scripts aren't built
into the real-time audio-engine.....this is impossible because of
the performance loss u would have from the MCFACT.
PS2:
For those of you who where observant, you should have seen the
blinking red light on the tray icon dongle when dongle activity
was present. We now added a nice new feature to the tray icon: The
ToolTip will show how often the dongle is called during a session.
PS3:
Currently the emu doesn't support Cubase SX 1, the effort to
support this one is too high. Besides the older emus from
ARCTIC/ZONE work perfect.For more info check the Readme on the Emu
PS4:
For all the lame crackers out there who try to remove the H2O
splash or the dongle tray icon : give respect to the effort and
don't do that,perhaps u could be in for a surprise who knows ...
End-users: If you don't have the H2O-splash and trayicon...do not
complain that the application in time will crash and you will
never know why it does.