The GUS Daily Digest Friday, 16 June 1995 Volume 23 : Number 016 Today's Topics: Re: Descent settings, other stuff... Re: The GUS Daily Digest V22 #34 Re: GUS with SB and megaem; Myst volume Triad and GUS, Manley Drivers? Mortal Kombat question Any Win95 GUS MAx drivers? Strike Commander guspro - distgtr.pat Dark Legions and GUS Max? Re: The GUS Daily Digest V22 #18 Re: The GUS Daily Digest V23 #14 Standard Info: - Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest. - Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael Brinks Date: Thu, 15 Jun 95 12:41:44 WETDST Subject: Re: Descent settings, other stuff... bbaskin@mail.utexas.edu (Bryan K. Baskin) wrote: >> fact that my GUS IRQ's are set high may also help as they have a >> higher priority than most of the lower ones. This comes from them >> being cascaded off of IRQ2 (i think). Priority: 0,1 ,2/9, 10, 11, >> 12, 13, 14, 15, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. I dunno, but that might help some >> infinetesmal little bit. I fact the IRQ priority is: 0, 1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (you got 8 wrong - doesn't really matter since IRQ8 isn't available on the bus. Neither is 0,1 and 13 for that matter). "Henry Timmerman" replied: > r u sure about that stuff ? r u saying that u r using higher irq for > better sound quality? so when u r using modem on com1 (irq4) and gus > on irq11 then the gus is getting more attention from the system and > you r hearing better sound ? sounds really lame to me... "More attention" isn't the right phrase - both the com1 and sound driver gets attention - the question is who gets it *first*. If the GUS is on IRQ11 and COM1 is on IRQ4, and a interrupt request occurs at the same time - then the GUS driver will get called first, because IRQ11 has the highest priority. The COM1 (modem/mouse/etc.) driver will have to *wait*, until the GUS driver is finished (or at least clears the interrupt in the interrupt controller). If a GUS interrupt occurs while the COM1 driver is servicing an interrupt, then the GUS driver will get immediate attention (assuming interrupts are enabled), and again the COM1 driver will have to *wait* until the GUS driver has finished it's work. Of cause it works the other way around if the COM1 has the highest priority (e.g. COM1 on IRQ4 and GUS on IRQ7). To summarize: The hardware that uses the IRQ with the highest priority, gets the fastest response time. Whether or not that affects sound quality I can't say - it will depend on the specific system and setup. Michael P.S. Halloooo Gravis.......... Still alive ? - just testing. ------------------------------ From: Yossi Oren Date: Thu, 15 Jun 95 19:51:34 +0300 Subject: Re: The GUS Daily Digest V22 #34 X-Wing sounds: Get the file xwngsnds.zip (duh) from a big archive (say EPAS) and look for the sequel (something like xsnds2.zip). These files update Megaem's patch set and give you effects in GM mode. About the NMI/Parity mess: A parity error causes a non-maskable interrupt. If you don't have parity, then a parity error would do nothing. This STILL doesn't imply that NMI is not supported, in OTHER cases. Think about it. Jason and Where Have My Files Gone: EPAS maintains a submit subdirectory, and a set of the most recently validated files. That's all. They're running out of disk space, you see. If you want an older file, turn to a mirror - any mirror will do. Check the bottom of the digest for more info. Neal Pitts' info: Nononono! The Interwave will NOT support the SB in hardware. It will do so by a program called SBOS (gulp). General MIDI support will be supported to some extent by the Interwave but most of it will come through a shim which sounds amazingly like Megaem to me. As for GUS support - if a game is going to use the Interwave-equipped card as a MOD player with under 14 channels and some simple effects, I see no reason for the GUS to sound different on it. Now if the app gets heavy, gives you a 28-channel soundtrack with reverb and the AMD Mix, Move and Modify feature, and uses 2MB of patches and so on, the GUS will sound strange. Bottom line - the register-level support is there, but there's a whole new bunch of registers. Haydn's MIDI keyboard: Try using Microsoft MIDI Mapper as your device. It saves a lot of hassle. Also make sure your keyboard's not set to some wierd channel or something like that. As for authentic MIDI files - it's all in the hands of the man who does the sequencing. Can be amazingly similar or sound like a $20 Casio. The GUS Card Feature is called the Ultrasound ACE. It costs $100 in the US. Very simple to use. Damian - Check out x2ftp.oulu.fi. It's the Internet programmer's place. Lots of cool things you're not supposed to do but look amazing anyway. Also look around rec.games.programmer and comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos. Wanna go Windows or something? Just buy a book. Kong, the Interwave support 16 megabytes of RAM (plus 16 of ROM), which is exactly 8 times as much as 16 megabits. Let me just tell you that you're not the first one to fall for the old "Mb" trick. The GUS/Interwave story - Gravis claim, on the MSN Soundcard forum, that a driver for Windows 95 will ship when Windows 95 will ship. Only it's done using dimplomatic grammar. You know. It can also be read as "The GUS drivers will be released some time after Windows 95 ships". We just have to hope on this one. Mike Landers, look for wc2_gus.zip, mom_gus.zip and... huh? Bioforge should have native GUS? Oh well, just old me. Anyway, both or these files are up at archive.orst.edu and friends under ~/patches or something like that. Jason, stop befuddling. Using the same IRQ will cause problems in some cases, but usually it won't. Trust me. My GUS is set up for 5,5,11,11 too. I use IRQ 7 too when I have to. I think it just comes to show that unless you print and GUS at the same time (or try and play MIDI and record WAV) using a single IRQ won't hurt. As for the problems - I'd say try slowing down the bus. Works on so many problems it won't mind another one. Giora, a file called the "Address Tome" is posted biweekly to comp.sys.ibm.pc. games.announce, in both a software and hardware firm compilation. If there's enough of a need I'll post it up here, but note it's a bit big. Michael, when I got my GUS a year ago and couldn't get it going I was pissed off. When I read the FAQ (which was up to date then ;) and a few posts to here and csips I slowly got on track. So you can say a non-networked GUSser's a very poor soul indeed. But things are changing - everything's plug play and up the wazoo. Since everybody's using unified libraries (although a lot of different ones - missing the point a bit here) GUS support is very common now. Maybe it's matured. HTH Y'all, until my next leave, Yossi. lioren1@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il / Visit . Currently serving somewhere in / Politically correct my ass. the Israeli Defense Forces. / Gravis Ultrasound - you'd better buy one - --------( "ObKibo" )--------- or I'll hit you (like my slogan?). ------------------------------ From: Harry C Pulley IV Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 08:51:16 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: GUS with SB and megaem; Myst volume I have a GUS MAX and an SB clone. To use megaem and the SB you just need to tell megaem to NOT do SB emulation and to leave the line-in enabled. For megaem 3.04b (and maybe 3.03b, I can't remember now) you can run the mesetup program to tell it to turn off SB emulation. Then run megaem -L to enable line in for 3.04b or run ultramix -le after running 3.03b. With older versions, run megaem -sboff and emuset -l (I think) or ultramix -le again to enable line-in. This works great for most games. Myst's volume is supposed to change with every step you take. It is supposed to give you the impression that you are getting closer to whatever is causing the noise. The music is included as part of the FX. If you run Myst on a card (like my SB clone) which doesn't have mixer control under Windows except from the mixer program included then the sound is constant throughout the game. It neither overdrives or goes so quiet that you can't hear it. If you have the latest GUS drivers and the latest video for windows then the GUS doesn't distort too badly but overall I think I enjoyed the constant volume of the SB better. I got the GUS before I finished the game so I played half of it one way and half the other way. Harry <:-{} hpulley@uoguelph.ca | This message released to the PUBLIC DOMAIN \ Harry C. Pulley, IV | Mind/Matter=Communication/Transportation - ---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------- Real programmers don't drink Zima|Read Melissa Scott's Trouble_And_Her_Friends ------------------------------ From: rhs@pobox.com (Richard H. Stenson) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 95 10:01:41 EDT Subject: Triad and GUS, Manley Drivers? Have the shareware version of Triad, I get music but no effects. Is anyone using the Manley drivers? If so what kind of support do you get in Windows and DOS boxes? Rgds...Rick [rhs@pobox.com] ------------------------------ From: Farhan Thawar Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 10:12:02 -0400 Subject: Mortal Kombat question Sorry about the repeat question, but does anybody remember the command line option to load up mortal kombat II on the pit stage every time? Thanks, l8r Farhan ------------------------------ From: Chua Jen Chian Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 00:30:44 +0800 (SST) Subject: Any Win95 GUS MAx drivers? Hi, Just wondering if there are native 32-bit Win95 drivers for the GUS Max? If not, are those Win95 beta users out there using the real mode drivers. If there are, I would be most appreciative if someone can post the ftp site here. Also, what is the best ftp site for the latest GUS Max drivers/pathces/demos/MIDI files? Went to the 3 ftp sites (wuarchive, epas, orst) suggested but the Index files listed a lot but the directories are empty, probably the files were too old. I heard form my local agent that a new sound card from GUS might be released by this year end? Is that true? If so, what new features will it have? Sorry to bombard everyone with all these questions but I am a very new but proud user of GUS Max. :) TIA, Richard ------------------------------ From: bbaskin@mail.utexas.edu (Bryan K. Baskin) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 95 00:10:51 EDT Subject: Strike Commander A friend got SC working by using MegaEM 3.03b. He has a Max, so it might not work with your 3.4 GUS. Privateer and a few others also worked this way. Baskin UT Austin Team OS/2 ------------------------------ From: adu@ix.netcom.com (Andrew Du) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 10:37:51 -0700 Subject: guspro - distgtr.pat Good day! Could someone possibly send me the file "distgtr.pat" from GUSPro? I lost it by accident. Thanks! ------------------------------ From: Evan_Mullaney@brown.edu (Evan Mullaney) Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 13:53:09 -0400 Subject: Dark Legions and GUS Max? I've installed the patch, but it doesn't seem to do anything, and doesn't have a readme. I've tried ultramid, which is supposed to work, but I must be doing something wrong. Would some kind soul tell me exactly how to get it going? My GUS is at port 260 (can't get 220 or 240), if that matters. Thanks!! - --Evan ------------------------------ From: s106275@cs.tut.fi (Anssi Saari) Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 01:29:22 -0400 Subject: Re: The GUS Daily Digest V22 #18 :>From: Sam :>Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 15:06:50 +0100 (BST) :>Subject: SB+GUS, why you should; music notation, how you could. (If you felt , the urge to fill paper with dots and squiggles :> ) :> :>> Get real! Sure every game works with the damned Sound Bastard but :>> who the heck wants one? And on top of it I'm sure that every other :>> GUSer on this digest doesn't want to here an advertisment for the SB! :> :>It makes it easier to run games. Correction. It makes it possible to get sound in certain games. Magic Carpet comes to mind. Maxsbos works maybe one time in ten for me, other times I get no fx. :>Don't knock it. Since in all probability :>you can get one second-hand, it's a great way to make sure everything :>It also doesn't add to creative labs profits, if you :>are concerned about this :) There are also cheaper and better clones available, in case one wishes to have a CL free computer. :>From: hastings@gasp.dseg.ti.com :>Date: Fri, 19 May 95 10:06:12 CDT :>Subject: Joystick problems with ACE :> :>Help!!! :> :>I bought an ACE to go with my SB16. Now my Flightstick pro buttons :>no longer work (any of them). If I disable the joystick port on the :>SB16 card, microsoft's MSD still detects a game port. If I remove :>the ACE card, the problem disappears. Obviously the ACE has no game :>port. I understand that the ACE actually does have a game port but you can't plug a joystick to it because there's no connector to plug to... The port needs to be disabled by ultrinit -dj. Anssi ------------------------------ From: ekadish@cris.com (Eugene Kadish) Date: Sun, 06 Feb 94 19:49:30 EST Subject: Re: The GUS Daily Digest V23 #14 RE: Strike Commander I just got Strike Commander last night and got it work fine with my Ultrasound Max using Megaem 3.04b. Selected General Midi for music and Soundblaster for sound effects. - -------------- Eugene Kadish ekadish@cris.com - -------------- ------------------------------ End of The GUS Daily Digest V23 #16 *********************************** To post to tomorrow's digest: To (un)subscribe or get help: To contact a human (last resort): FTP Sites Archive Directories --------- ------------------- Main N.American Site: ftp.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/ibmpc/ultrasound Main Asian Site: nctuccca.edu.tw PC/ultrasound Main European Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound Main Australian Site: ftp.mpx.com.au /ultrasound/general /ultrasound/submit South African Site: ftp.sun.ac.za /pub/packages/ultrasound Submissions: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound/submit Newly Validated Files: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound Mirrors: garbo.uwasa.fi mirror/ultrasound ftp.st.nepean.uws.edu.au pc/ultrasound ftp.luth.se pub/msdos/ultrasound Gopher Sites Menu directory ------------ -------------- Main Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound WWW Pages --------- Main Site: http://www.xmission.com/~grue/gus.html Main European Site: http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/ultrasound/ Main Australian Site: http://ftp.mpx.com.au/archive/ultrasound/general/ http://ftp.mpx.com.au/archive/ultrasound/submit/ http://ftp.mpx.com.au/gravis.html Mirrors: http://www.st.nepean.uws.edu.au/pub/pc/ultrasound/ GUS Digest Archives: http://gpu.srv.ualberta.ca/~itam/digest.html http://www.student.adelaide.edu.au/~godfathr/gus/gus.html MailServer For Archive Access: Email to Hints: - Get the FAQ from the FTP sites or the request server. - Mail to for info about other GUS related mailing lists (programmers, musicians, etc.).