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Apparently-To: john.smith@gravis.com Ultrasound Daily Digest Wed, 13 Oct 93 0:07 MDT Volume 7: Issue 12 Today's Topics: 7th guest and gus Am I registered? a OS/2-GUS digest? Apogee's Halloween Harry Assault, Mixer, etc. Count me in DOOM Even more questions (2 msgs) FC 2nd Reality in Surround Game Companies Get a life! GUS + PAS16 configuration GUS Support, Missing end messa Happy user tells all (2 msgs) Instruments on epas JPIERSON & ID software? Mail Inundation... More deep thoughts (2 msgs) Origin/UW2 ,The Assault, Updated Patches Quoting! Re-post from comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard Software Companies... Staying on Track The future of sound... the future of soundcards Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #11 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:37:33 EST From: pscs!perry@uu3.psi.com (Perry B. Walker) Subject: Re: 7th guest and gus In Regards to your post to the ultrasound digest: > Date: Mon, 11 Oct 93 20:38:36 +1000 > From: Peter William Sureda <peter@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU> > Subject: 7th guest and GUS > Message-ID: <9310111038.AA00946@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU> > > I'm trying to get 7th guest to work with my Gus , I have t7gfix3 and have installed it , but there is no option for Gravis.. > What do I have to do ? > > peter@ariel.its.unimelb.edu.au > > ------------------------------ I was also a bit dissapointed when I tried the t7gfix3 and did not find the GUS in the install list. After searching the t7gfix3 files I found a file called audio.dat. This is the file the install program reads to obtain the configs for the sounds cards. If you look at this file (it is an ascii text file) you will see the general format of the file is: Name=???? Groovie_name=??? Pcm_adv_name=??? Midi_adv_name=???? --- ... So I created a section for the ultrasound as shown below: Name=Ultrasound & Ultramid Groovie_name=Ultrasound Pcm_adv_name=gf1digi.adv Midi_adv_name=gf1midi.adv --- The game started and was working very well. I did find that if I pressed a key on the keyboard my system would lock-up (reset or power-cycle to restart)! T7g does not need the key board so I tried again. The game seems to work fine as long as the keyboard is not used. Then I quit the game and the system locked-up again. I tried this again just to be sure and it locked-up again. While restarting the game several times I did notice something different. When I used the groovie.ini from the previous fix the game would start by saying "Please wait while MIDI drivers are loaded". This was not the case now. So I whent back to the audio.dat file and created an entry for the Ultrasound as shown below: Name=Ultrasound & Ultramid (General Midi) Groovie_name=GeneralMidi Pcm_adv_name=gf1digi.adv Midi_adv_name=gf1midi.adv --- This setup works great with my system and to date I have not had any problems. Try adding the second config to your audio.dat (make a backup first) and give it a try. Hope this is of some help. --------------------------------------------------------- Perry Walker perry@pscsys.com or pscs!perry@uu3.psi.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 14:22:42 -0700 (PDT) From: David Hoang <dhoang@eis.calstate.edu> Subject: Am I registered? To whom this may concer, I was wondering if there was in any way I may be able to find out if I have been a registered GUS user. I have sent my registration card out for almost 2 months now. I have got no response. I'm not sure if the address was the new or old one. Will there be a list of avaliable registered users out soon? Thanks. |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| \* David Hoang : dhoang@cal.state.edu */ \* !I LOVE! Student at San Jose State University */ \* !MY GUS! 386sx-25,4megRAM,SpeedStarPro1Meg */ \* 80MegHD,GUS1Meg */ |=================================================================| ------------------------------ From: Alex Balazs <alex@four-lab2.berkeley.edu> Subject: a OS/2-GUS digest? Does a GUS-OS/2 digest exist? if so where could i write to to be put on it? Thanks, Alex ------------------------------ From: Larry Larraga <larry@fiesta.cns.udel.edu> Subject: Apogee's Halloween Harry Well, the shareware episode of Halloween Harry came out yesterday, and of course there's no native GUS support, but what's worse is there's a note saying even SoundBlaster compatibility via SBOS doesn't work at all - you have to turn off the music and settle for the PC speaker for FX. Whadda crock! They blame it on SBOS of course. Great looking game, too. poop... ------------------------------ From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: Assault, Mixer, etc. > > Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 10:32:12 -0600 (MDT) > > From: jknepley@nyx.cs.du.edu (Jim Knepley) > > Subject: Shelling Origin with Email > > Message-ID: <9310101632.AA05055@nyx.cs.du.edu> > > > > Sierra now has GUS support, but I doubt it was from our efforts. Remember > > folks, the people on the 'net are TECH SUPPORT. They're not PR, they're > > not programmers. They could CARE LESS if a product from their company > > supports just one more soundcard. They'd probably prefer to not support > > the GUS because installation can be kinda' tricky if you're not good with > > a PC. > > I imagine that even tech support would have to report to higher up about the types of mail they get. That's what every responsible company would have done. So yes, I do think that pressure by email can be effective. > > Do what you want, I don't presume to be a moderator, but just know that > > your efforts will not have the effect that you want. Snailmail is a lot > > better, that way you can address it to a PR person. At best, email will > > get you a canned response. > > Now, a real pen-and-paper letter (with stains of sweat and blood) would be even more effective. > > ------------------------------ > > > > Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 10:35:40 -0400 > > From: Bill Norton <wbn@merit.edu> > > Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #9 > > Message-ID: <9310101435.AA13482@fox.merit.edu> > > > > Do any of you know how to make the GUS come up automatically with Line > > and Mic input enabled? I currently have to invoke the UltraSound Mixer > > and turn on Line input to play CDs on my system and it is a pain! > > For Windows, go into the driver setup (via the Control Panel--I trust you can navigate the rest from there) and configure the default mixer settings. For DOS, add the -l -o flags to your ultrinit line in your autoexec.bat. > > Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 21:01:00 BST > > From: f.graham@genie.geis.com > > Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #9 > > Message-ID: <9310102017.AA25357@relay2.geis.com> > > > > I recently got EA's Seal Team and MAN! Even tho its miles drivers, > > it sounds friggin' _fabulous_! And it's a great game, so ta hell with Origin > > and their 20th century mentality. Look for Seawolf by EA to also have > > Ultrasound support. Thanks Electronics Arts! > > You said Seawolf will _also_ have Ultrasound support. So Seal Team does ship with GUS drivers? > Date: Mon, 11 Oct 93 13:23:52 CDT > From: Fitzgerald Jr Steele <fjsteele@icaen.uiowa.edu> > Subject: Help with Sierra Drivers > Message-ID: <199310111823.NAA24564.4828F@icaen.uiowa.edu> > > I downloaded the new Sierra Drivers and tried to install them into King's > Quest 6. I tried to install ultramid, it told me that all my midi patches > were old and needed to be updated. It also told me that it might not work > if I have changed any of the original midi patches, which I haven't. So > anyway, when I try to load ultramid (using the command line lh ultramid -c > -m100) the computer stalls, and I have to reboot. Was there an update to > the midi patches that Gravis didn't send me? Where can I get the new > patches? Also, how much memory does ultramid take -- I know I only have > like 40k UMB free, maybe that had something to do with it...) > What disks do you have? If they are not at least 2.06, then download the 2.06L disks from Epas, as well as the zip to upgrade the 2.06L disks to 2.06a. The index file in /pub/pc/ultrasound should help you locate the files. Epas is archive.epas.utoronto.ca (128.100.160.36). Ultramid 1.03 (the one with the Sierra drivers) takes up about 53k in total, but is smart enough to fragment itself into smaller pieces so that some of it will load into the available UMBs. > Date: (null) > From: PWRJAM01@Uctvax.UCT.AC.ZA > Subject: Some good responses from game companies > [...] > others are going to use AIL - I would post the reply's > but I am sure someone else will and we don't need > to read them over and over ! > Good news can never get too repetitive! Please post the replies you received. I don't think anyone else did. > Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 13:16:00 PDT > From: n4zfd!@emsr0.emsr.att.com:frodo > Subject: The future of sound > Message-ID: <2CB8DB96@kodan.n2idf.ampr.org> > > I've been watching for awhile now as people keep making noises about games. > Folks, although many of you may have bought your GUS to play games with, DOS > based games are not where the future of sound cards lie. Although I agree that Gravis should get cracking on OS/2 and NT/Chicago drivers to get a foothold in the future of PC audio, I strongly feel that, for the present, game support is what is needed to sell GUS cards. The GUS is priced too low to be profitable for Gravis in niche markets. Phat. ------------------------------ From: Ben Leamy <LEAMY@dhmain.east-london.ac.uk> Subject: Count me in 1. Just to say that I Emailed a few lines to the addresses given to request that GUS support is taken seriously! 2. I 'love' my GUS and have had no major problems. My bigest problem has been memory problems when emulating the S*** B****** but that is because I have DBLSPACE (Argh! DOS6) and problems with EMM386. I wonder what GUS ownership without INTERNET would be like but I have no complaints. 3. Anyone who has had their head in the sand and hasn't already heard this.... G E T S E C O N D R E A L I T Y ! Its not bad! : ) 4. Anyone else on here got a CYRIX 486 SLC 25? (mail me!) 5. Anyone know how to get the DOTTDEMO to work with MEGAEM? I know the demo (and MONKEY ISLAND 2) support ROLAND but there is no setup or configuration and it doesnt seem to autodetect a ROLAND when MEGAEM is used. 6. Has the slow down of XWING/SBOS when music and FX are on been solved? 7. I use the DUNE2FIX but why can't all the sounds/music play without halt through just the GUS without using the internal speaker? 8. Is it safe to take the internal speaker connection of the PC to the line in or CD in on the GUS? 9. Everyone is waiting for the 16bit daughter board, what is the one out in the UK (for the GUS but not by GRAVIS), it was metioned a month or two ago in PC FORMAT? 10. Don't I ask a lot of questions? BEN. A LURKER! _____________________________________________________ Ben INTERNET = LEAMY%uel.ac.uk@earn-relay.ac.uk (the Bastard) JANET (UK) = LEAMY@UK.AC.UEL ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:53 EDT From: marius@io.org (Marius) Subject: DOOM All right. I am glad GUS is going to be supported in the commercial version of DOOM but IT MUST BE SUPPORTED IN THE SHAREWARE VERSION TOO!!!! Even an add on file that you can get later, like it is in Zone66. Here's why: This happens every year. I go to Computerfest, the most popular computer show in Toronto, and I see always a large number of vendors trying to draw the crowds by running games on their computers. One game especially, in fact. WOLFENSTEIN. Hmmmm...... Now what do you think is going to happen when DOOM comes out? Yes, that's going to be their little jewel in catching the buyer's eye! Now if the shareware version had GUS support, DOOM would also catch the buyer's EAR! I don't think the vendors would think twice about demoing DOOM with A GUS !!! It would bring in a lot of people and that way the vendor (as well as the GUS) would get a lot of attention. Often in the past, whenever a vendor put up an AMIGA or a MultiMedia system showing T2, a crowd would gather instantaneously without fail. This is what I propose: forget Origin. Start an e-mail campaign to ID (be nice, they are including it in the commercial version, we are just asking them nicely to somehow have it in shareware too) to show how great a demand there is for GUS support in that version. This is the big chance guys! If this works out, we should see A LOT MORE readers of this digest. P.S. Does anyone know if DOOM is gonna use 3D sound??????? I'm praying for it! --- ~ QMPro 1.50 11-1111 ~ Your E-Mail has been returned due to insufficient voltage ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:53 EDT From: marius@io.org (Marius) Subject: Even more questions 26) Here's one on a different note: I just read the CGW review of the GUS: Now, THIS GUY REALLY CRACKS ME UP. Especially the FM emulation part: 'not an adequate solution'. (LISTEN UP ALL YOU GUYS WITHOUT GUS) ..... WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT FM ...... It's gonna be a memory VERY soon. You don't really think that it's going to be more popular than wave table synthesis, DO YOU? I would say that in about half a year, if a game has support for only FM sound cards, it's not gonna be worth the money (sort of like cheapo games that come out right now with PC speaker music only). All the other games that will have wave table synthesis support, you won't need SBOS at all! And it is my belief that GUS will be THE wave table synthesis card being supported, seeing how it is a much less expensive yet much better card than all the others out there. Somebody made an EXCELLENT point. If you think that GUS will die because of its imperfect support of the Sound Blaster, ponder this: Roland MT32 is still around, and I still have to see it emulate a Sound Blaster! The only reason that it didn't overtake the SB is the heavy price tag. 27) Ok, I hope GRAVIS is listening. The GUS needs some serious 'WOW' programs to be bundled with the card. Something that will take away the viewer's breath. Yes, the music part of the demos that come with the GUS are amazing BUT THE VISUALS SUCK! Most people tend to place more emphasis on sight rather than sound. In games and most applications that use sound cards, the graphics come first than the sound. If you ask someone whether they would rather be blind or deaf, the will choose deaf. The way the GUS demos are setup are purely to show off sound. This would be OK if you had JUST ONE amazing visual program. Something that I can call up all my pals in residence and go: 'Watch guys, this is why I think you should get a GUS' and run the program. Without visual stuff most people will lose concentration and interest. I mean there's only so much you can endure of looking at a screen full of scrolling arcane alphanumeric codes or equalizer bars jumping up and down. Here's what I propose: seeing how you guys managed to rake up so many greets from the Future Crew in their 'second reality' demo, I think you should ask !!!! THEM !!!!!! to make you one so you can ship it with every GUS! IF THERE'S ANYBODY ON THIS PLANET THAT KNOWS HOW TO DO WOW SOFTWARE, IT'S THEM! Not to mention that you would have their name associated with your product! JUST THINK OF THAT!!! Anyone out there who has seen one of their demos knows who they are! If I showed such a demo to a bunch of my pals who are really into computer music, they would go out and buy the card the very same day, just because it has the Future Crew label on it. The guys from Future Crew are viewed as gurus and anything they put their name on is a token from the Gods. As far as I remember, if you read the text screen at the very end of all their demos, if you want them to make a demo for your product then you should contact them. I guess they have a price, but boy, it sure would be worth it. 28) Just flipped through a bunch of computer game mags. I commend Gravis on the amount of advertising (an add in almost every magazine I looked at) but GET A BETTER ADD! The one of a charred guy with messed up hair in front of a computer and with an orange background kin da lacks any eye catching aspects. The 'eyes of disbelief' picture has become sort of a cliche now. You can't even tell from the picture what the add is for. A sound board, graphics board, operating system, or a spread sheet. I don't know much about advertising so I can't really improve on their design but I would suggest that they put something that symbolizes the GUS and some symbol for sound so that a person knows the add is for a sound card without having to read any of the darn text. Most people flip through mags only looking at the pictures! The packaging of the GUS is pretty cool. Why not use that (the ear thingy). That picture, at least, is very familiar now, and it serves kind of as an logo for the GUS. If somebody reads the ad and likes the card they are more likely to remember the picture than the name when they go shopping. BTW is there an official logo for the GUS? 29) That about does it for me. Just an overall evaluation of the GUS: see 1) Good job GRAVIS! ....Any comments, queries, email campaigns, etc. welcome...... +---------------------------------+ | ESPECIALLY ANY ANSWERS !!!!!! | +---------------------------------+ --- ~ QMPro 1.50 11-1111 ~ System halted....Smash any screen to continue. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:54 EDT From: marius@io.org (Marius) Subject: Even more questions 26) Here's one on a different note: I just read the CGW review of the GUS: Now, THIS GUY REALLY CRACKS ME UP. Especially the FM emulation part: 'not an adequate solution'. (LISTEN UP ALL YOU GUYS WITHOUT A GUS) ..... WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT FM ...... It's gonna be just a memory VERY soon. You don't really think that it's going to be more popular than wave table synthesis, DO YOU? I would say that in about half a year, if a game has support for only FM sound cards, it's not gonna be worth the money (sort of like cheapo games that come out right now with PC speaker music only). All the other games that will have wave table synthesis support, you won't need SBOS at all! And it is my belief that GUS will be THE wave table synthesis card being supported, seeing how it is a much less expensive yet much better card than all the others out there. Somebody made an EXCELLENT point. If you think that GUS will die because of its imperfect support of the Sound Blaster, ponder this: Roland MT32 is still around, and I still have to see it emulate a Sound Blaster! The only reason that it didn't overtake the SB is the heavy price tag. 27) Ok, I hope GRAVIS is listening. The GUS needs some serious 'WOW' programs to be bundled with the card. Something that will take away the viewer's breath. Yes, the music part of the demos that come with the GUS are amazing BUT THE VISUALS SUCK! Most people tend to place more emphasis on sight rather than sound. In games and most applications that use sound cards, the graphics come first than the sound. If you ask someone whether they would rather be blind or deaf, they will choose to be deaf. The way the GUS demos are setup purely to show off sound. This would be OK if you had JUST ONE amazing visual program. Something that I can run, call up all my pals in residence and go: 'Watch guys, this is why I think you should get a GUS' and run the program. Without visual stuff most people will lose concentration and interest. I mean there's only so much you can endure of looking at a screen full of scrolling arcane alphanumeric codes or equalizer bars jumping up and down. Here's what I propose: seeing how you guys managed to rake up so many greets from the Future Crew in their 'second reality' demo, I think you should ask !!!! THEM !!!!!! to make you one so you can ship it with every GUS! IF THERE'S ANYBODY ON THIS PLANET THAT KNOWS HOW TO DO WOW SOFTWARE, IT'S THEM! Not to mention that you would have their name associated with your product! JUST THINK OF THAT!!! Anyone out there who has seen one of their demos knows who they are! If I showed such a demo to a bunch of my pals who are really into computer music and told them Future Crew made it exclusively for GUS, they would go out and buy the card the very same day, just because it has the Future Crew label on it. The guys from Future Crew are viewed as gurus and anything they put their name on is a token from the Gods. As far as I remember, if you read the text screen at the very end of all their demos, if you want them to make a demo for your product then you just contact them. I guess they have a price, but boy, it sure would be worth it. Maybe to distribute Second Reality with every GUS is overkill, but at least a 1 MEG best of the best, part of it would do the trick. 28) Just flipped through a bunch of computer game mags. I commend Gravis on the amount of advertising (an add in almost every magazine I looked at) but GET A BETTER ADD! The one of a charred guy with messed up hair in front of a computer and with an orange background kinda lacks any eye catching aspects. The 'eyes of disbelief' picture has become sort of a cliche now. You can't even tell from the picture what the add is for. A sound board, graphics board, operating system, or a spread sheet. Only after 5 different magazines did I realize that was an add for Ultrasound!!!!!! I don't know much about advertising so I can't really improve on their design but I would suggest that they put something that symbolizes the GUS and some symbol for sound so that a person knows the add is for a sound card without having to read any of the darn text. Most people flip through mags only looking at the pictures! The packaging of the GUS is pretty cool. Why not use that (the ear thingy). That picture, at least, is very familiar now, and it serves kind of as an logo for the GUS. If somebody reads the ad and likes the card they are more likely to remember the picture rather than the name when they go shopping. BTW is there an official logo for the GUS? 29) It would be nice if GRAVIS had more official BBSs in Toronto but that would be favoritism. BUT!, the board that GRAVIS chooses should be at least a free one. The SuperSONIC BBS that is the official Toronto BBS is a pay BBS. Most people, including me, won't touch it. It's really annoying for some people to find that they need to dish out more money to get some GUS files! 30) That about does it for me. Just an overall evaluation of the GUS: see 1) Good job GRAVIS! ....Any comments, queries, email campaigns, etc. welcome...... +---------------------------------+ | ESPECIALLY ANY ANSWERS !!!!!! | +---------------------------------+ --- ~ QMPro 1.50 11-1111 ~ System halted....Smash any screen to continue. ------------------------------ From: tmcreek@eos.ncsu.edu Subject: FC 2nd Reality in Surround Somebody asked about hearing Second Reality in Dolby Surround. Well, I ran about 20 feet of cable from my computer to my Sony Pro-Logic reciever. I've been using some cheesy Pioneer surround speakers, but they work well enough. I used a standard home-theater EQ setting: Lots of bass, low midrange, medium highs with a 30 ms delay (but that is sort of room-specific). So, I cranked up the demo, and sat down to listen. The only place I caught a hint of a true surround effect was the starship sequence at the beginning. The ships fly overhead (or so it feels), and the explosion comes straight back through you. Not bad. Not as noticable as a movie effect, but what do you want? Through the rest of the demo, the surround speakers cranked out the music. Effective use, I would say. Now, anybody know where I can get an NTSC converter for real cheap, so I can watch AND hear this thing? :) -- tmcreek@eos.ncsu.edu \ "Sir, can I help you with your bag? Senior Operator, NCSU CSC Dept. \ No, I can handle her, thanks." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- No one besides me would be caught dead claiming the views expressed here ------------------------------ From: WADLEIGH@PROCESS.COM Subject: Game Companies I won't participate in a net assault. I won't give up my GUS music for the sake of games. I won't buy any games in the future unless they specifically have native GUS support. I think that there are a lot of people out there like this, and the numbers are growing daily. That's why the game makers will add native GUS support. If they don't, they've given up on a growing segment of the market--and they can't afford to do it. Don't bomb their tech support mailboxes, just don't buy their products. ------------------------------ From: deraud@power.amasd.anatcp.rockwell.com (Robert Lee DeRaud) Subject: Get a life! It's been THAT kind of week, and it's only Tuesday: >From: ddebry@grue.dsd.ES.COM (Dave DeBry) >Subject: DIGEST ADMIN: TRUNCATED DIGESTS (yesterday, in particular) > Heya, folks. > As most of you know, the digest yesterday got truncated. I >said it once, I'll say it again: NEVER, EVER, ON ANY PIECE OF MAIL ON >THE INTERNET, SHOULD YOU PUT A PERIOD AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LINE. IMNSHO, it is EXACTLY this kind of bullshit that makes people computer-phobic: "If you want your email to work, make every line exactly 72 columns wide and send it at midnight during the full moon. Oh, and don't forget to spread the goat entrails on the keyboard...". In the real world, tools are fixed/evolved to better serve the needs of their users, NOT the other way around. > Ok, I've said my peace. Now I'll go fix the code to handle it >the next time some @#%&* goes and enters a message exactly like I just >told them not to. About bloody time. (No smileys, implied or explicit.) >From: int341m@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Mr K.S. Yap) >Subject: GUS Assault - Disappointing Responses. >Greetings, > As of the time when I write this, I had only received e-mails from 20 >people telling me that they are in the Assault. 20 people ! Come on! I am >sure we can do better than THAT! Gee, which would you rather have: people sending email to the game companies or people sending email to pat you on the back? I'm sure a few of us out here have jobs, families, and/or lives. (Actually, you probably got several hundred replies... all with periods in the first column of the first line.) I feel much better now :-) *********************************************************************** Lee DeRaud Will program Windows for food. Rockwell Int. AESD (Hey, I'm easy but I'm not cheap!) DoD #985 - Fast and ugly beats slow and cute any day of the week. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- My own opinions only, not those of Rockwell International. (Yeah, right: like anyone around here cares what *I* say...NOT!) *********************************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 0:04:24 EDT From: Angelo Catovic <jello@info.polymtl.ca> Subject: GUS + PAS16 configuration Hi, I recently bought a PAS16 to complement my GUS. I would like to know if anybody else has both cards and what is the configuration (address, dma, irq) you have for the cards. Also what are your config.sys and autoexec.bat files. Did any problems occur while having both cards in the computer? Thanks in advance Angelo jello@info.polymtl.ca ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 02:57:00 BST From: b.williams44@genie.geis.com Subject: GUS Support, Missing end messa 1>+dCont, missing from 7n11 digest, a missing file here or there. Which doesn't make the GUS a bad choice as a sound card, just a solvable problem. In my opinion, the trouble is software companies like Origin, who don't seem to care about their customers beyond selling software and supporting FM Synthisis, which in my Humble opinion again will very soon go the way of the Dinosaur, not the GUS. Wavetable is the future mark my words well, and the GUS supports more channels to be played at once, than any card on the market that I've seen advertised. Not to mention not using any CPU time to do it. Granted I think that Gravis should be seriously thinking about making a new card, using proven GUS ideas and adding more memory on the card, as well as the next GF chip to come out.Some time within the next 2 yrs. A card offering more memory, 16bit recording and playback,SCSI CD interface built in and more is the future for the GUS card. For now tho we as Loyal GUS owners need to do as we are trying to do, by pressuring Software companies like Origin to really take this advancement in sound card technology seriously. Lets make this year the YEAR OF THE GUS. Soon tho as Companys like ID , start releasing games using Native Ultrasound Drivers, we will see a greater ground swell of support.To hear a GUS playing Native Sound next to a SB16's FM synthisis, which would you choose as the better sounding card??? Hopefully Software companies will make the Right Logical decisions SOON!. MAY THE GUS BE WITH YOU!!! ***StarHawk*** " Wielder of the GUS " " Slayer of the SB " ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:53 EDT From: marius@io.org (Marius) Subject: Happy user tells all So, here I am, with my GUS. Bought it two weeks ago now. After reading this digest for a month. In spite of the negative posts. AND I AM GLAD I DID! I have an enormous amount of questions and thoughts to post so bear with me if this gets long. Here we go: 1) WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2) Is there a DOS (non-Wind$ws) PATCH viewer, player, info displayer? 3) I noticed a big change in the amount of time it takes now to load Wind$ws. It takes a lot longer now. Why and is there a way to fix it? 4) Are there any other FTP sites with GUS stuff? ( I think I saw addresses somewhere in the states but I can't find it again) 5) Does anyone have any recommendations about newer patches? I would like to get a better violin and muted trumpet, and others (NOT THAT MOST OF THE INITIAL ONE ARE BAD! THEY"RE GREAT) Are there any violins out there? 6) !!!!!!!! I installed my GUS + software as well as upgraded MEM to 1Meg -----> withOUT any problems at all <-------- I just couldn't believe how easy it was!!! 7) I tried DUNE2 with UltraMID. Works wonderful except it crashes always somewhere in the third battle when there's a lot of digital stuff. It displays a message at the top : "Ultramid already loaded" and screen freezes while the last digital sound effect, usually 'Reporting' echoes about 10 times and then white noise / static / hell breaks loose on the GUS. If I turn Sound effects off in the game, it runs no problem. 8) Hey somebody mentioned SBOS v2.10!!! Where the heck is it, I can't find it!!! 9) Second Reality demo!!!! See 1). BTW, nice move Gravis!!!! Check and mate in 2! Win the hearts of hackers first, then let them conquer the world for you! My, my, you did get a lot of Greets from the Future Crew! I'm impressed. 10) Does anybody know of a better MIDI (DOS only) player?? With a more pleasing play interface? 11) How do I use PUPDATE from ULTRAMID and when, and why? 12) What are all, I mean, ALL the switches for SBOS? I saw -x1 -x2 and they never show up when I run 'SBOS /?'. Can someone enlighten me? And what's the difference between the different -o's? 13) Did anybody get Stunt Island going with GUS? I don't want MEGAEM! I want sound effects first, then music. Any and all answers will be greatly appreciated! --- ~ QMPro 1.50 11-1111 ~ Your E-Mail has been returned due to insufficient voltage ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:53 EDT From: marius@io.org (Marius) Subject: Happy user tells all So, here I am, with my GUS. Bought it two weeks ago now. After reading this digest for a month. In spite of the negative posts. AND I AM GLAD I DID! I have an enormous amount of questions and thoughts to posts so bear with me if this gets long. Here they are: 1) WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2) Is there a DOS (non-Wind$ws) PATCH viewer, player, info 3) I noticed a big change in the amount of time it takes now to load Wind$ws. It takes a lot more now. Why and is there a way to fix it? 4) Are there any other FTP sites with GUS stuff? ( I think I saw addresses somewhere in the states but I can;t find it again) 5) Does anyone have any recommendations about newer patches? I would like to get a better violin and muted trumpet, and others (NOT THAT MOST OF THE INITIAL ONE ARE BAD! THEY"RE GREAT) 6) !!!!!!!! I installed my GUS + software as well as upgraded MEM to 1Meg -----> withOUT any problems at all <-------- I just couldn't believe how easy it was!!! 7) I tried DUNE2 with UltraMID. Works wonderful except it crashes always somewhere in the third battle when there's a lot of digital stuff. It displays a message at the top : "Ultramid already loaded" and screen freezes while the last digital sound effect, usually 'Reporting' echoes about 10 times and then white noise / static / hell breaks loose on the GUS. If I turn Sound effects off in the game, it runs no problem. 8) Hey somebody mentioned SBOS v2.10!!! Where the heck is it, I can't find it!!! 9) Second Reality demo!!!! See 1). BTW, nice move Gravis!!!! Check and mate in 2. Win the hearts of hackers to conquer the world! My, my, you did get a lot of Greets from the Future Crew! I'm impressed. (Keep it up) 10) Does anybody know of a better MIDI (DOS only) player?? 11) How do I use PUPDATE from ULTRAMID and when? 12) What are all, xcuse me, ALLLL the switches for SBOS? I saw -x1 -x2 and they never show up on when I run 'SBOS /?'. Can someone enlighten me? And what's the difference between the different -o's 13) Did anybody get Stunt Island going with GUS? Don't want MEGAEM! I want sound effects, preferably with music. Any and all answers will be greatly appreciated! --- ~ QMPro 1.50 11-1111 ~ Your E-Mail has been returned due to insufficient voltage ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 01:41:43 -0400 (EDT) From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Subject: Instruments on epas Hi, i've reuploaded on EPAS the church_o file under the name churcho.zip. It corrects a problem which i have no idea how it got in the file. Anyway, this patch now plays the correct frequency. Also on epas are 2 percs: one snare and one kick under the filename wimedrms.zip Same drums as on "all she wants is" by Duran Duran. Also, the 909 patches are there under 909drums.zip. Note that if you let them playing, they will steal the voice for longer than the actual sound. This is intended to mimic a drum machine under Powerchords drum editor. Playing with a keyboard or trigering from an octapad will yield the correct result too. Kick 8 and 9 are ok. I call them the 909 final drives kick :) They are not that bad for your speakers, so dont worry... Some other kicks are actually much more powerfull (more energy). If there are some problems, do tell me. I have not had any, but you never know. BTW, the 909kick8 and 909kick9 are what you'd obtain by running a 909 thru a distortion filter (like on "nachste station konstablerwache" by Smash, for example) but is actually faked with the 2's complement flag... Ciao, -- Francois Dion ' _ _ _ CISM (_) (_) _) FM Montreal , Canada Email: CISM@ERE.UMontreal.CA (_) / . _) 10000 Watts Telephone no: (514) 343-7511 _______________________________________________________________________________ Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-... ------------------------------ From: JPIERSON@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU Subject: JPIERSON & ID software? Ummm.... This is to John Smith. Somehow, you read my message and confused it with another. I am not from ID. Also, the address i sent mail to was john.smith@gravis.com. I have also sent mail to matthew@gravis.com and have prompty got a response from him. I'll send you another piece of mail to see if you get it. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 19:46:17 -0600 (CDT) From: ddebry@grue.dsd.ES.COM (Dave DeBry) Subject: Mail Inundation... The idea of a big letter writing campaign to software companies to get them to support the GUS is a good one, but I still think it should be done via snailmail instead of email. For most people, snailmail is still much more important than email, and snailmail is also harder to get rid of. Sooooo.... If you know of the snailmail address for these companys, could you please post them? I would like to send a letter to all of them with something like this: ] To Whom It May Concern: ] ] I represent a very large number of Gravis Ultrasound ("GUS") ] users. I run a mailing list (called the Ultrasound Daily Digest) on ] the Internet with direct readership now exceeding 1300. The digest is ] also copied out daily to other networks, such as America OnLine and ] Compuserve, as well as distributed to hundreds (if not thousands) of ] bulletin board systems around the world. ] ] As you can see from the above figures, the user base for the ] GUS is very large. If your company is not already writing software to ] support the GUS, we highly encourage you to do so. If you already ] are, we thank you very much, and assure you that we plan to buy your ] products in the future, primarily because of your GUS support. ] ] Unless you say otherwise, I will forward any responses to this ] letter back to the Ultrasound Daily Digest. If you are interested in ] subscribing to the digest, please contact the email address below. ] ] (signature and contact info, etc., etc.) Sound good? -- Dave ddebry@ debry@ \ DeBry dsd. peruvian. | "Your hands and feet are mangos, es. cs.utah. | You're gonna be a genius anyway." com edu / ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:53 EDT From: marius@io.org (Marius) Subject: More deep thoughts 14) What's the story with MEGAEM and digital audio sound effects? Is it going to be implemented soon? And what's the story with MEGAEM distributed soon by Gravis? Yes, No? Will it come with the card or will you have to buy it? If so then what's the difference who we buy it from? 15) Has anyone at Gravis or abroad thought of / wrote a program or TSR that would redirect sound going to PC speaker to GUS digital output? I've seen something like this before for another card (Pro Audio Spectrum I believe) and BOY, it comes in REAL handy!!! Hell, then GUS would also have a PC speaker emulator (call it MEGAPCEM ;) ) and then that's another thing the GUS can emulate for a grand total of 3 (is there more?) Talking about enhancing a game's experience, this would improve some of the older classical games like Golden Axe, etc. 16) Are there any programs out there, besides the demos on epas, that support the 3d sound? 17) JUST A THOUGHT: Hey, you guys! If you want GUS to become popular and you got a modem then how about calling up some of your bigger local BBS and uploading some GUS stuff so that the world in general can learn more about it! You know, not everyone has access to Internet. You could upload stuff like the GUS FAQ as well as the SDK so that people can see how easy it is to program the GUS and allow some of the lesser shareware game writers to support the GUS. Where do you think they get their programming information? Also, some of the people out there, like me, and I believe a lot of others, watch the BBS scene to watch what boards get support. If a potential buyer sees that there's a whole bunch of stuff for the GUS on a normal BBS than he might be persuaded to go out and buy a GUS. I started seeing on some boards MOD players for the GUS and a GUS FAQ and also (I think) a copy of our digest: hmmm, I think to myself, looks like the GUS's reception, interest, and support are starting to pick up. It looks like now's the time to buy! Now I've actually made a quite wonderful discovery. You know how some BBSs have ul/dl ratios and its a drag because they keep forcing you to upload stuff. I made myself a little rule: in my upload directory I only have GUS stuff. Every upload is something for the GUS. Notice that stuff for GUS usually takes a lot of space (players, SDK, etc) so you get a lot of ul/dl credits! Anyways, that's how I see some of us could help spread the word!!! 18) Is there a utility where you can view/edit/play stuff that's in the GUS's memory directly? Is there a way to load a single patch into memory? I'm looking basically for a slightly more low level more flexible, 'see everything' utility for the GUS. 19) Are you reading, and thinking of getting a GUS? You wondering about getting the extra 756K on it? Are you wondering if its worth it? IT IS!!!!!!!!! 20) Somebody mentioned it already, but let me throw this in again: can someone give me a list of 'MUST HAVE IF YOU OWN A GUS' files on epas or anywhere else? I would hate to lose out now that I have a GUS with a full MEG! Stuff like MEGAEM, ULTRAMID, etc. 21) BTW, what's the story with that MEGAEM v1.015 or something (bigger than 1) sitting somewhere in sound or util subdirectory? (not in submit) 22) How do you use the .CFG files in playmidi? Are they for playmidi? 23) In ULTRAMID.INI and either *.CFG or ultrasnd.ini after the patch number and before the patch name you have a set of numbers, one for each possible memory setup. What do these numbers mean!!!???!!!??? 24) In SEAL TEAM they use MIDI for sound effects, partly. I tried the demo and the music is great but the sound effects are mixed up. I got GUNS.ZIP from epas and fixed up patch 127. Now the guns sounds all right half the time. When you fire the sound is too high or just a different bad instrument. When there's an explosion it sounds OK now. The most anoying thing is the chopper sound. It uses something like an organ. I got peeved so I changed a whole bunch of instruments to helicptr.pat and now can't hear nothing for the chopper because helicptr.pat has a very LONG fade in period. DID anybody have a better setup for this game? 25) Is there a patch editor so I could edit helicptr.pat long fade in period (see 24)? Please, if you're going to quote me in your responses, limit it to just the relevant parts, not the whole thing! --- ~ QMPro 1.50 11-1111 ~ (A)bort (R)etry (P)ee in drive door ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:54 EDT From: marius@io.org (Marius) Subject: More deep thoughts 14) What's the story with MEGAEM and digital audio sound effects? Is it going to be implemented soon? And what's the story with MEGAEM distributed soon by Gravis? Yes, No? Will it be bundled with the GUS or will we still have to register it, except to Gravis? If so then what's the difference who we buy it from? 15) Has anyone at Gravis or abroad written a TSR that would redirect sound from PC speaker to GUS digital output? I've seen something like this before for another card (Pro Audio Spectrum I believe) and BOY, it comes in REAL handy!!! Hell, then GUS would also have a PC speaker emulator (call it MEGAPCEM ;) ) and then that's another thing the GUS can emulate for a grand total of 3 (is there more?) Talking about enhancing a game's experience, this would improve some of the older classical games like Golden Axe, Gauntlet II, etc. 16) Are there any programs out there, besides the 1 or 2 demos on epas, that support the 3d sound? 17) JUST A THOUGHT: Hey, you guys! If you want GUS to become well supported and you got a modem then how about calling up some of your bigger local BBSs and uploading some GUS stuff so that the world in general can learn more about it! You know, not everyone has access to Internet. You could upload stuff like the GUS FAQ as well as the SDK so that people can see how easy it is to program the GUS and allow some of the lesser shareware game writers to support the GUS. Also, some of the people out there, like me, and I believe a lot of others, watch the BBS scene to watch what sound boards get support. If a potential buyer sees that there's a whole bunch of stuff for the GUS on a normal BBS than he might be persuaded to go out and buy a GUS. I started seeing on some boards MOD players for the GUS and a GUS FAQ and also (I think) a copy of our digest: hmmm, I think to myself, looks like the GUS's reception, interest, and support are starting to take off. It looks like now's the time to buy! Now I got this cool idea how we can make it work. You know how some BBSs have ul/dl ratios and its a drag because they keep forcing you to upload stuff. I made myself a little rule that you could use too: in my upload directory I only have GUS stuff. Every upload is something for the GUS. Notice that stuff for GUS usually takes a lot of space (players, SDK, etc) so you get a lot of ul/dl credits! Anyways, that's how I see some of us could help spread the word!!! 18) Is there a utility where you can view/edit/play stuff that's in the GUS's memory directly? Is there a way to load a single patch into memory? I'm looking basically for a slightly low level, flexible, 'see everything' utility for the GUS. 19) Are you reading, and thinking of getting a GUS? You wondering about getting the extra 756K on it? Are you wondering if its worth it? IT IS!!!!!!!!! 20) Somebody mentioned it already, but let me throw this in again: can someone give me a list of 'MUST HAVE IF YOU OWN A GUS' files on epas or anywhere else? I would hate to lose out now that I have a GUS with a full MEG! Utilities like MEGAEM, ULTRAMID, etc, or some cool demos or MODs. 21) BTW, what's the story with that MEGAEM v1.015 or something (bigger than 1) sitting somewhere in sound or util subdirectory? (not in submit) Is this a new version or what? 22) How do you use the .CFG files in playmidi? Are they for playmidi? 23) In ULTRAMID.INI and either *.CFG or ultrasnd.ini after the patch number and before the patch name you have a set of numbers, one for each possible memory setup. What do these numbers mean!!!???!!!??? 24) In SEAL TEAM they use MIDI for sound effects, partly. I tried the demo and the music is great but the sound effects are wrong. I got GUNS.ZIP from epas and fixed up patch 127 (put PISTOL1.PAT instead of the whistle). Now the guns sounds all right half the time. When you fire the sound is too high or just some other weird instrument. When there's an explosion it sounds OK now. The most anoying thing is the chopper sound. It uses something like an organ for the swoosh of the blades. It sounds like a little kid playing chopsticks on a piano, and he got stuck. I got peeved so I changed a whole bunch of instruments to helicptr.pat and now the organ is no more. In fact I can't hear nothing for the chopper because helicptr.pat has a very LONG fade in period. This is a pain. I'm hoping somebody already set everything up so I could borrow of them. DID anybody make a better setup/config for this game? 25) Is there a patch editor so I could edit helicptr.pat long fade in period (see 24)? Please, if you're going to quote me in your responses, limit it to just the relevant parts, not the whole thing! --- ~ QMPro 1.50 11-1111 ~ (A)bort (R)etry (P)ee in drive door ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 12:50:58 +0930 (CST) From: Gavin <SCARMAN@hfrd.dsto.gov.au> Subject: Origin/UW2 ,The Assault, Updated Patches > However, they have written one game that I was quite happy with, and still > have not sold, in case I ever want to replay it. That game is Ultima > Underworld II. Using the Miles Drivers, and setup for Roland & SB-combo, > this game requires only 575K free. A definite improvement over the 620K > they usually demand. And the music is quite good as well Yes, Blue Sky, now called Looking Glass Technologies wrote it, amazing what good programmers can do. >int341m@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Mr K.S. Yap) >I had only received e-mails from 20 people telling me that they are in the >Assault I'm sure there are a number of people like me who emailed those companies but didn't email you. BTW, I only received 2 replies from more than 10 companies. Access were positive, Microprose were negative. > I tried to install ultramid, it told me that all my midi patches >were old and needed to be updated. If you got the 2.06a disks sent to you then your patches should be ok, if not you can use the program pupdate.exe that comes with the SDK, but try to get the 2.06 disks. (2.06L ie. disks that don't included Recording Session and Power chords are avail from epas.) >Also, how much memory does ultramid take -- I know I only have >like 40k UMB free, maybe that had something to do with it...) About 50k, but it will split itself between upper and lower memory.This is unlikely to be your problem. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 19:01:09 EST From: jmorris@ace.com (Cuthalion) Subject: Quoting! Please, whoever that was, DON'T QUOTE THE WHOLE ^!!$!$# DIGEST! They're long enough as it is, since all my mail gets broken up into 500ish line blocks, it's REALLY a PAIN! thanx. -jmorris@ace.com ------------------------------ From: dmcintyr@muselab.ac.runet.edu Subject: Re-post from comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard The following is the response I got from the Sierra tech support guy concerning the issue of Quest for Glory I and other games which do not function with the GUS driver from Sierra. This is their official position on the matter (one I'm quite pleased with) and he asked me to distribute this as widely as possible to get the word out to the telecommunity. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Date: Saturday, October 9, 1993 12:37pm Electronic Mail From: Sierra Msg#: 228165 To: Michael McIntyre Re: reminder... (Reply to #227971) (N)ext, (P)revious, or [R]ead this message? r MM|This is a reminder... You said you were going to look into the Quest |for Glory I (VGA) problem with the GUS driver and give me an official |release to post to the Internet... No information has been forthcoming. +----------------------------> Thanks Michael I went up and hounded the design team early this week. QG I DOES NOT WORK. They made a mistake in the README file but QG III is supposed to work. QG I, Laura Bow II (Amon Ra) and several other games do support general midi. The reason they do not work with this set of drivers is because the source code incorporated the General MIDI patch that is available on the Sierra BBS. Although General MIDI is suppoerted in these games, it was a last minute addition. We will be making a second set of drivers for games that did not originally support General Midi in their source code. I am not sure what the time table on the project is but it should be within a month or two. As Sierra continues to offer the highest quality of entertainment software, will continue our support of the newer sound devices. The next round of games as well as future products WILL include native support for the Gravis Ultrasound. I hope we can keep all of our loyal customers happy for a long time to come. Thanks for keeping on top of this! It keeps us on our toes which is exactly what we need. .. mark parker .. * Sierra BBS Sysop * * SLMR 2.1 #1803 * Now shipping - The Even More Incredible Machine for DOS =+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Comments? It's a bummer that QG1 doesn't work, but it would be great if we could retro-fit some of our older games to work with the new retro-driver. At least they didn't give me the run-around the way Origin would have in this situation. --Michael-- --Michael-- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 19:01:12 EST From: jmorris@ace.com (Cuthalion) Subject: Software Companies... Well, I HAVE sent mail off to like 20 software manufactuers... I've gotten three replys. 2 of them were "this is a small company, we can't support everything", and the other one was "we are working on it in future productions" (maxis was one of the "we're small! have pity on us" and microprose was the "we're looking into it". ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 01:58:44 -0400 (EDT) From: gt5543b@prism.gatech.edu (Antonio C. Rodriguez) Subject: Staying on Track There has been some not-too-positive soothsaying lately for those of you who have kept up with the digest. I at least want to HOPE that the Ultrasound has a future and although warnings are appreciated, I thought this digest was primarily for the promotion of the GUS (ie, problems, news on updates, problems, developing support, more problems) Anyway, I'm bringing this up since Gunnar Swanson has been taking some heat from some users. I think there's nothing that would justify the sending of offensive mail (and I hope you get apologies,) but let's try to keep this a "Pro-GUS" digest. Now....On a new note... Someone wanted to start up mic input from boot up. ultrinit -o -m should do the trick. Check the README file in your ULTRASND dir. Has anyone tried out Patch 101 "FX 6 (goblins)"? Pretty cool, eh? I used Patch manager and tapped notes up and down on the keyboard. I can think of a few games THAT could have been used in....just wait till GUS gets native support! Tony Rodriguez, gt5543b@prism.gatech.edu ------------------------------ From: ciabatto@esc.syr.ge.com (David Ciabattoni) Subject: Re: The future of sound... > > Date: (null) > From: rylos.jazz.att.com:frodo@emsr0.emsr.att.com > Subject: The future of sound > > I've been watching for awhile now as people keep making noises about games. > Folks, although many of you may have bought your GUS to play games with, DOS > based games are not where the future of sound cards lie. > > First off, DOS itself has a limited lifetime. This time next year, there > will be basically four personal computer operating systems, two intended for > desktop use, and two intended for server use. How about DOS 7.0? > > The server operating systems are Windows NT and UNIX. Sound support on > machines using these operating systems is not critical, as it would mostly > be used by programmers waiting for compiles to complete. > > The desktop operating systems will be OS/2, and Windows 4.0, (currently > known as "Chicago"). These operating systems provide a wide range of > services to programs, including the standard multimedia API. In common, both > OS/2 and Chicago support the Windows Multimedia API, and this is the common > platform where future sound cards will be used. How about NextStep 486, Solaris 2.0, and NetWare 4.0?? (Three more OS do out soon for Intel) Actually, I feel a little SORRY for many software companies in the near future. They have a tough decision to make, Which platform(s) to support?? All of them?? Which one will be as big as Windows and DOS?? I wonder what Gravis/Forte plans on doing!!!!!?????? As for the consumer, Im glad Im alive to see this. ! (like woodstock, for OS's) Weird and wild things are going to happen in the PC world , soon , maybe even chaos. (mass histeria, cats and dogs living together...) Something to think about!!!! ciao. - Dave ------------------------------ From: james@maths.exeter.ac.uk Subject: the future of soundcards >I've been watching for awhile now as people keep making noises about games. >Folks, although many of you may have bought your GUS to play games with, DOS >based games are not where the future of sound cards lie. As a number of people have pointed out the problem with a lot of games is that they bypass dos and run their own OS-type services in order to get maximum rock n roll out of a tawdry ISA bussed pc. >The server operating systems are Windows NT and UNIX. Sound support on >machines using these operating systems is not critical, as it would mostly >be used by programmers waiting for compiles to complete. Well I dont know about NT but I've certainly heard of people using sound in system administration under unix- swatch triggering sound events >At the same time, the market for multimedia reference software (ie., >Encarta, Cinemania, Mammals, etc.) is rapidly developing. Being multimedia, >the Windows Multimedia API is a given, also. The current windows mm api is less than impressive. The sort of devices it covers are things like soundblaster cards and slow cd roms- the hooks just arent there for a berserko midi controlable sampling card. > >Forget sending hundreds of letters to game manufacturers to add native >support to games. What needs doing is for drivers to be written to support >the multimedia operating systems, and for the game manufacturers to "get >with it", and start writing multimedia, before *they* are left in the dust. > So let me get this right: everyone must drop what they are doing and start writing multimedia applications which only run under some monolithic api, the current incarnation of which is(to be generous) a lowest common denominator? Dont get the games manufacturers to support your soundcard, even though it is using very new technology and leisure is a likely place that it could gain a foothold???? I think your model of the takeup of chicago needs a rethink. >p.s. For what its worth, Gravis needs to come out with/contract for: > >a) Windows drivers that properly interpret the velocity in a MIDI sequence. What about using sysex and bank switching while they are at it then? > >b) Port the Windows drivers to OS/2 MM2, again, with proper velocity >interpretation. They are writing some kind of os/2 drivers at the moment by all accounts. > >c) Port the Windows drivers to Windows NT, again, with proper velocity >interpretation. But you just said it was 'only used for compiling' make your mind up. > >The Windows NT drivers will be portable to Chicago either as-is, or with >minimal changes. The API and driver structure for both are the same. Folks, stuff under windows 3.0 was supposed to be 100% compatible with 3.1- There are lies, damn lies and upgrade promises. Aggh no I've started saying 'Folks' too..... -- James Andrews, Computer Development Officer, Exeter University Maths Dept ------------------------------ From: mbax@cs.uct.ac.za (Michael Bax) Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #11 > Date: Mon, 11 Oct 93 10:40:12 > From: john.smith@gravis.com > > 3) As for emailing us over the Internet and not getting a response, I'd > like to know who you were trying to email? I'm sure everyone here on > the list can vouch that I do keep on top of this. Heck its a long > weekend here in Canada and how did I spend part of my Sat and Mon? Reading > the digest and responding to questions? (I know, sounds like fun <grin>) > But if you had problems reaching us I'd really like to try and fix > it. I know I'm getting my mail ok, who were you trying to address the > msg too? John, I have been regularly trying to contact you and/or Chris for at least 3 months now. I have tried john.smith@gravis.com, chris.yuzik@gravis.com, yuzik@sfu.ca and a few others. June/July was about the last time I got a response. I hope this can be sorted out soon! ;-) Cheers Mike -- | Michael Bax | ,----. | | Email: mbax@cs.uct.ac.za | | X C o m p - L e x C o m p u t e r s | | Fax: +27 21 686-8252 | | L | | PGP: key via 'finger' | `----' "the simple solution." | ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #12 ************************************* To post to tomorrow's digest: <ultrasound@dsd.es.com> To (un)subscribe or get help: <ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com> To contact a human (last resort): <ultrasound-owner@dsd.es.com> FTP sites: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/msdos/ultrasound archive.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis FTP mail server: mail-server@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de Hints: - Get the FAQ from the FTP sites or the request server. - Mail to <ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com> for info about other GUS related mailing lists (UNIX, OS/2, GUS-MIDI, etc.)