GUS Daily Digest Wed, 18 Jan 95 9:37 PST Volume 18: Issue 17 Today's Topics: Digital Sound on the GUS Disney Software & GUS FAQ, Mega-EM EMM Incompatability, Warcraft, GUS/AWE Emulator GUS & AWE 32 GUS Daily Digest V18 #14 GUS Daily Digest V18 #16 (2 msgs) Megarace and gamepad Myst stuff. perl script to split the digest Pinout arrangements on MAX pops and crackles quarantine and warcraft Still problems with Strike Commander MIDI Problems UltraSound emulator for AWE32 UMC chipsets and NMI question 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: Wed, 18 Jan 95 16:40:22 MET From: (Martijn de Jong) Subject: Digital Sound on the GUS Hi Gussers, The last three months I asked some question here with regard to a project I and a friend were working on. The project was about giving a digital input and a digital output to 16-bit soundcards. The project is finally finished so I thought I'll give a brief summary so that people who are interested can send me an e-mail. Gravis told us that there were separate DAC's and ADC's on the Gravis Ultrasound MAX. I owned a normal gus myself which indeed had a separate dac and adc, but the adc was only 8 bits. We needed a 16 bits so we took the MAX as our card to work on. Regretfully we discovered that the adc on the MAX was integrated in a big ic: the CS4231 CODEC. This meant that it was not possible to make a digital input to the MAX. We thought out a new concept to get the digital data through the ISA-bus. It's only a design, so we ain't sure if it really works, but we have good hope. The output was almost ready except for one little transformer, which took 3 weeks to come to us, but regretfully the project time was up at that time, so I can't tell you if it would work. I'll try to finish it sometime after my exams, so that I can tell you if it is possible to connect your gus to a digital amplifier. If someone wants the final report, just mail me. I want to thank all people who helped me with the project by giving some vital information. Martinus. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 14:39:05 -0500 (EST) From: DBEAL@delphi.com Subject: Disney Software & GUS I recently purchased "Mickey's Jigsaw Puzzles" (distributed by Word Perfect Main Street) but cannot get any sound. I have tried all the various options but the game hangs. The only way to get the game to work is without sound. My 4 year old daughter would like to hear the voices as well. Can anybody help ? System: IBM 486sx-25, 8MB, GUS purchased Nov-Dec 93. Thanks, Dave & daughter Sarah ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 20:12:54 -0500 (EST) From: Ryan Baker Subject: FAQ, Mega-EM EMM Incompatability, Warcraft, GUS/AWE Emulator I'm not sure of the status of the FAQ but I'm starting to see the same questions repeated alot here, such as Warcraft and this EMM Incompatability thing. It would be nice if either the posters would check the FAQ first, or if they did the FAQ would contain these answers. Anyway, to get Mega-EM to work QEMM 7.5 on computers that give EMM Incompatability errors, you must add the "PENTIUM:VME:N" command to the QEMM386.SYS device line (this command is v7.5 only). BTW, I was the first poster of this question (I think) (2 months ago). Next, to fix Warcraft download the files CD115.EXE or FLOP115.EXE from the GUS Submit directory on archive.epas.utoronto.ca. Obviously CD115 is for the CD version, and FLOPP115 for floppy. Also makes the copy protection a little nicer. Last, I'm not sure so don't shoot me for being wrong but I think this GUS Emulator everyone is talking about is actually for the normal old SB, and doesin software what the GUS's DSP does. I saw it once and downloaded it thinking it was the other way around (SB emulation for GUS). As far as I know it is supposed to use huge amounts of processor time and doesn't support, patch caching or samples better than 14Khz, 8bit. Anyway it doesn't make a good statement to say that anything has won a major battle because something emulates it. If something emulates it there must be something good about it but it also means something else can do everything it can and possibly more (ie. GUS emulates original SB). Of course emulation often is imperfect (can anyone say SBOS or Mega-EM :) and has costs such as processor time or loss of quality. Ryan Baker /\ /\ |~| /\ /\ rynbaker@ / \ / / | | \ \ / \ freenet.columbus.oh.us / /\ \/ / | | \ \/ /\ \ /_/ \__/ |_| \__/ \_\ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 21:47:52 -0500 From: adu@freenet.vcu.edu (Andrew Du) Subject: GUS & AWE 32 When you mentioned a "GUS emulator for AWE 32", did you mean an "AWE 32 emulator for GUS"? If there is ever an AWE32 emulator for the GUS, that would be awesome! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 17:51 -0500 From: DANTONIO@PROCESS.COM (Momentary Language, Sexual Situations) Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V18 #14 jase@nedlog.demon.co.uk (Jason Nedlog) writes: > All gus functions (wav and midi) appear to work perfectly from both DOS and > Windows except MIDI-IN which does nothing. > However I suspect that I can reject hardware/connector/wiring failure as if I > use the midifier.exe, MIDI-IN works OK. Most likely is that your new motherboard doesn't support NMI. It is used by SBOS and by Windows for MIDI IN. If possible, bring your system back as it's not really an 100% IBM PC Compatible...I'd check it out via SBOS to be sure... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 14:41:43 -0500 (EST) From: lalancej@JSP.UMontreal.CA Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V18 #16 > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 17 Jan 95 8:50:15 EST > From: jcossin@pgt041.cpd.ford.com (Jon Cossin) > Subject: GUS/MegaEM Problem > > Help. I recently upgraded my motherboard from a 486DX2/66 to > a 486DX4/100. When I try to load MegaEm, it complains that > I have an EMM compatability problem and suggests that I use > EMM386, QEMM386 or 386 to the max. Problem is that I am already > using QEMM386 v7.5. Anybody know what this error is about? > > Thanx, > Jon Cossin > jcossin@pmsa28.pms.ford.com > > ------------------------------ > Add PENT:VMB at your qemm386.sys in your config.sys. It worked for me! -- Jose Lalancette, Dept. Informatique Universite de Montreal e-mail: lalancej@jsp.umontreal.ca ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 08:32:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Harry C Pulley Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V18 #16 RE: qemm trouble with DX2-66 I think there is a flag like VME:PENTIUM which allows qemm to work with megaem. RE: Tie Fighter problems It sounds like you don't have sufficient base RAM available. You should have about 600000 bytes free to run general midi and soundblaster. Also make sure that you don't run Tie Fighter with Stacker using EMS. It will mess up your FAT very badly (Stacker 4.0 and Defender of the Empire sure messed up my drive). With EMS usage of Stacker turned off it works fine for me. RE: SB MIDI working on GUS I have an SB Pro MIDI cable and it works fine connected to my Kawai FS750 keyboard. I'm not sure about the 'Sb midi box' but I expect that it will work. AMS format: Does anyone know what the .AMS format is? It seems to be some sort of MOD like format but I can't find a program which recognizes it. Does anyone know of a program that plays AMS files well on the GUS Max, or of a converter to MOD, S3M, MTM or some other common format? Harry <:-{} hpulley@uoguelph.ca |This message released|It takes all kinds, \ Harry C. Pulley, IV |to the PUBLIC DOMAIN.|and to each his own. ---------------------------------+---------------------|This thought in mind, Ultra-Violence with Ultrasound | Ultraverse |I walk alone. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 14:20:58 -0700 (MST) From: Ignatius Tam Subject: Megarace and gamepad Forwarded message: > Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 16:44:01 -0600 > From: Terry Lee > Subject: Megarace > > I didn't see Megarace in the G-List. Does anyone have it working > with a GUS? Thanks! > > Terry Lee > terry@uivlsi.csl.uiuc.edu I can run Megarace using sbos with no options, but the bad part is ultraclicks. Megaem works fine. > ------------------------------ > > Date: Mon, 16 Jan 95 13:02:20 PST > From: scott@mirage.nsc.com (Scott McCoy) > Subject: Q. What is Gravis "Gamepad?" (digital joystick) > > Hello Mr./Mrs./???. GUS-General (and John Smith ;-) > > I've heard that Advanced Gravis makes a digital joystick (the "GamePad?") > for use with PeeCee's. I have been surfing for the last 30 min and have not > been able to come up with the desired info on this device. yup, the gamepad was out for a long time. didn't you see it in your neighbour computer store? it has 4buttons connected to the buttons of joystick 1 and 2. the control is like a super nintendo pad. -iGnatius -- Marto Piggus(tm)!! Your dreaming pig-meat is here! Contact your local dealer e-mail: tam@cs.ualberta.ca ^..^ ___^ My home page: phone: (403) 433 3187 | <||> | } http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~tam/ -----------------------------\_____/ --------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 10:02:06 +0500 From: schreibe@felix.kodak.com (Richard Schreiber) Subject: Myst stuff. Well, I posted a while ago about problems with Myst and the latest windows drivers (ultrasnd.drv and grvsultr.386 - the extenstions may be reversed) Some responses said to decrease the playback buffer size, some said to increase it, but neither improved matters. I'm still having lots of problems, unless I use old drivers. My ultrasound configuration params for the 5.45 windows driver are: Base port220 GF1 IRQ11 Midi IRQ7 Playback DMA1Fixed1024 Record DMA1Fixed1024 Voices32 High Fidelity (System is: 486/33, 8 meg ram, Ultrasound+1meg, quad-speed CD-ROM) I get lots of pops and buzzes when playing Myst. Anyone see a problem with these values? Would someone using 5.45 drivers and Myst send their configuration parameters? - Richard Schreiber ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 17:09:41 +0100 From: Mark Ruys Subject: perl script to split the digest I've written a perl script to split the digest into separate messages. The output is in, what I think is called, maildrop format. It can be fed into a program that incorporates mail. This is it: ====================================================================== if ($n = 1 ... /^-{70}$/) { if (/^From /) { $From = $_ } elsif (/^Reply-To:/) { $ReplyTo = $_ } elsif ($n > 100) { print STDERR "ERROR: ", $_ } } elsif ($n = /^End of GUS Daily Digest/ .. eof()) { if ($n > 100) { print STDERR "ERROR: ", $_ } } elsif ($n = /^Date:/ ... /^-{30}$/) { print $From, $ReplyTo if ($n == 1); print unless ($n =~ /E0$/) } elsif (! /^$/) { print STDERR "ERROR: ", $_ } ====================================================================== Save it as 'refgus.prl'. You have to add the -n flag to perl, eg "perl -n refgus.prl 12" (assuming the digest is saved in a file called 12). If you use the MH command inc, the next sh script can be helpful as an interface. ====================================================================== #!/bin/sh tmpfile=${TMPDIR:-.}/refgus for msg in `pick "$*"` do file=`mhpath $msg` if perl -n `dirname $0`/refgus.prl $file >> $tmpfile then rmm $msg else echo Error in $file fi done || exit inc +`folder -fast` -file $tmpfile -truncate if test -s $tmpfile then echo Error in $tmpfile else rm $tmpfile fi ====================================================================== Save it as 'refgus', make it executable. The syntax is the same as the pick command. refgus stands for 'refile gus-digest'. Good luck... Mark Ruys. -- Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen Internet: markr@cs.kun.nl Faculteit Wiskunde en Informatica UUCP: uunet!cs.kun.nl!markr Toernooiveld 1 finger: markr@omega.cs.kun.nl 6525 ED Nijmegen, The Netherlands Telephone: +31.80.652647 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 12:53:32 -0500 (EST) From: Will race for food Subject: Pinout arrangements on MAX Question: Had a GUS, but that went south and I picked up a MAX as a replacement. I was using the CDROM audio-out on the GUS....there's only one CD pin connection that will match the old GUS connection- the four bent pins. What are the pins (ie, GND, Left, Right) looking at the card with the bus slot on the upper left? Jeff ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Social Rule #14: __ /()\ Never badmouth NASCAR in a |============================| seedy bar that has sprint |#28 #28| car hoods nailed to the walls... |=============[]=============| __________ |=============[]=============| __________ / \ | ____/_______[]_______\____ | / \ | | /_____/~~~~~~[]~~~~~~\_____\ | | | |~~~~~~~~| |~~~~~~~~| | | |~~~~~~~~|_____ _____|~~~~~~~~| | | | _|_____/OO OO\__/OO OO\_____|_ | | \__________/ \__________/ ~~ '~~~`'~~`~~~~'~~~'~~`~~'~`~~~`~~`'~~'~~`~~`'~'`~`~'~~`~~~`~~`~~`~~~`~~~~~~' Jeff Salzmann, JKS4675@RITVAX.ISC.RIT.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Jan 95 12:14:25 GMT From: Martin Shaw Subject: pops and crackles Hiyup! I too have pops and crackles with my Ultrasound card, but only when I run games in SVGA (Like WC3 or Nascar) and also only when I select to have digital sound. There is no noise when I just select music. I have rearranged my video card (Kelvin 64 VLB), and sound card numerous times to no avail, and also experimented with anti interference barriers (you know tin foil and card job). any ideas? I also recently purchased the Collectors edition of X-Wing, and it says in the readme file that they have included a custom version of megaem, does anyone know where it is? `Cause it 'aint on the C.D. Is it any different from the version included in Tie Fighter? Cheers Martin P.S. Is the new protected mode Megaem out yet? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Martin Shaw, | "Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem" Dept. Computer Science, | Manchester, | - Virgils Aeneid | E-mail Shawm@cs.man.ac.uk | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 10:45:21 +0000 (WET) From: ragnar@bsp.is (Finnbogi Ragnar Ragnarsson) Subject: Re: quarantine and warcraft Few comments on Quarantine: 4 megs is absolute minimum for this game. If you want sound you'll need more than 3MB of XMS. This means that upper memory needs to be allocated as XMS. If it isn't you won't get sound. Sadly the games doesn't complain about lack of memory but just runs silently. Some machines have an option in the bios about allocation of the upper memory as XMS. (note emm386 and qemm do this also, but eat up memory which can result in not enough memory for your game). Ami Bios has this option, I don't remember what it says excactly but it should be easy to find out. How I can load Quarantine: Use the GUS HMI drivers. The option mentioned above set in AMI Boot with left-shift down (dos6.*). Set the general parameters for gus Run loadpats (you need it even though there is no midi music) run the game Warcraft: Grab the usail drivers from epas. They are absolutely fantastic! You can also get the patch for warcraft at the same place, but the drivers in usail.zip are more advanced, among this is the patch caching everyone's been dreadming about. Just read the readme.txt file. Some of my problems: I haven't tried much to fix it (that is tried other drivers) but this is the problem: I recently (well, before Christmas) changed the sound drivers in Windows to 5.47. I didn't notice anything strange until I played an avi file..... I get absolutely no sound in avi files. Not just choppy (I had fixed that) but now I get absolutely nothing. Also, I installed the midas drivers, it didn't find the GUS card but offered the standard wav support only. And again no sound. I wonder if it is connected to one of the fixes in 5.47 drivers When I am using a midi keyboard in windows (midi in) I get dropouts from time to time. This is not connected to any specific Windows program, it happens in all those I have tried. I think that some settings in system.ini or win.ini might fix this (I vaguely remember of such fix long time ago). I am using 66Mhz 486 with no known NMI problems (SBOS and the works are fine). I will try other drivers so the problems might disappear (at least the avi problem) Happy Gusing! ragnar@bsp.is ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jan 95 15:28:52 +0200 From: kormilainenu@hermes.ncp.fi Subject: Still problems with Strike Commander I still have problems with Origins Strike Commander. When I load Mega-em and start game, I can hear some music but there is strange instruments, and when SFX-starts it locks up my machine. Game works with Sbos but I prefer midi more. Do I need some kind of patch and where can I find it (FTP). If someone can solve my problem, I would be very happy!! PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME !! ukormi@freenet.hut.fi -UPI- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 14:43:36 +0000 From: "Salvador Macip" Subject: MIDI Problems I've just bought a GUS MAX and I have some trouble with the software, because it is too new for me (I used to work with an old Amiga...). I can't find answers in the manuals (they are so incredibly short!), so...can anybody help me? I have a US MIDI adaptor connected to a keyboard (IN/OUT) and 1MB of memory in the card. The question is: how can I play MAX's drums from the keyboard? In Midisoft Recording Session I can play all patches via MIDI, but I can't access the drums. I have MIDI channel 10 set to "1024 Drums" in the MIDI mapper, channel 16 to MIDI OUT and the rest to MIDI synth. In the demo song of RecSession they sound great. I can also play them writting directly the notes on the pentagram, but not from the outside. There must be an easy way that I just can't find... By the way: in the MIDI mapper, what's the difference between chosing Ultra 1024 and Ultra 512? Is it just a name for the bank or it loads different patches? Finally, I am really interested in the seventies keyboard sounds (old mini Moogs, analog synths, real Hammond-Leslie efect...). Are there any patches reproducing these instruments? How can I get them?Are there some in the net? Tell me please wich are the best sound libraries available (either in the net or CD-ROM or diskettes), with all kind of patches, from oldies to rave. Any review, suggestion or recomendation sould be appreciated. Thanks a lot. GUS rules! "It is only Rock'n'roll but I like it" (Stones). Sal.- _____________________________________________________ Salvador Macip, M.D. Dept Physiology Faculty of Medicine. University of Barcelona Av. Diagonal s/n. Pedralbes (Annex Farmacia) 08028 Barcelona SPAIN Tel (voice): 34-3-402.45.18 FAX: 34-3-402.18.96 E-Mail (Internet): macip@clinic.ub.es _____________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 10:41:49 -0800 (PST) From: George Subject: Re: UltraSound emulator for AWE32 --- I don't know much about this rumoured emulator, but I would laugh really hard if they ever release it. A $300 AWE emulating a $120 GUS? Sheesh, that'll make AWE look kinda bad if you ask me. -George ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1995 10:52:56 GMT+0100 From: "Krzysztof Hyrlik" Subject: UMC chipsets and NMI question Hi all GUSers 1. Info about uncompatible mainboards - I have 486 VLB mainboard with UMC 491 chipset - I had big problems with it's incompatibility with S3 801 based video cards (noname card and SPEA/V7 Mirage ISA), often it hanged games & windows, when I replaced to S3805 card and thought all should work ok now, but now 2. About 3/4 games that uses HMI drivers and GUS selected as sound/music device hang very quickly after running, with no sound or SBOS used to emulate SB, they work OK (I was talking with some friends, that have GUS cards and they have no problems) 3. I need info how to check mainboard for NMI presence without GUS (some kind of program/tester or similar) 4. Will new MEGAEM be released on Christmas'95, any ideas why Gravis is delaying release of his true new Ultrasound card (GF2) ? Thanks and happy GUSing, Krzysiek ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V18 #17 *******************************