Ultrasound Daily Digest Sat, 20 Feb 93 Volume 2 : Issue 48 Today's Topics: Game support GUS 3D release date requested and other questions GUS support for games! Midisoft Stuff Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #47 (3 msgs) Information about the UltraSound Daily Digest (such as mail addresses, request servers, ftp sites, etc., etc.) can be found at the end of the Digest. *** HEY!!! *** Before you ask a question, *** READ THE FAQ ***. It's available on the request server and the ftp sites, or check the newsgroup archives. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1993 07:46:11 -0500 (EST) From: "Adam K. Rixey" Message-Id: Subject: Game support To: Ultrasound Daily Digest In regards to companies supporting the GUS in their games - I think it is still a bit too early to tell for many of the big companies. However, shareware-wise, I know the GUS is starting to gain support (Epic MegaGames and Renaissance [distributed by EM] are working on making GUS games, for instance). A lot of the big software companies [I know Sierra and Origin do] watch the shareware market to see what's going on, and if they see the GUS gaining support there, they'll probably take notice. I'm also working on something and I'd like to add sound support, but since I don't have enough free time during the semester to work on programming it, don't look for anything from me soon. - AkR - ar2w@andrew.cmu.edu ___ Hey, kids, now there's a free shoggoth in every box of Sugar Coated Cthooloops! ------------------------------ Date: 19 Feb 93 10:17:08 EST From: "Joseph R. Granto" Message-Id: Subject: GUS 3D release date requested and other questions To: Ultrasound Daily Digest About a month or so ago the GUS 3D was announced. I was about to buy a standard GUS, but decided to wait for the 3D. How much longer will I have to wait? Has GUS given an official release date? I had heard "sometime in February/March." One of the things I want to do with my GUS is to hook up a keyboard. I have heard that CakeWalk is a good program. Can anyone recommend a decent, _not_ outrageously expensive keyboard? I have been told that the GUS has a built in synthesizer, so I do not necessarily need a synthesizer. What I am looking for is a keyboard that I can do some nice MIDI stuff with but won't cost me over $300... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Joe Granto GLOCK@chip.cba.ufl.edu "When the going gets tough, the tough get a GLOCK!" --Guns & Ammo "Don't clock'em, GLOCK'em!" --Miami Dade police officer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1993 09:35:50 -0600 From: ken@austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach) Message-Id: <9302191535.AA24273@daedalus.austin.ibm.com> Subject: GUS support for games! To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Darran Edmundson (dedmunds@sfu.ca) wrote: >Let's get out there and lobby!!!!!! Let's start a list of email >addresses for developers and game production companies, and flood >them with email!!!!! >I just heard from Microprose. They have been working on an >upgrade to World Circuit that will provide modem capabilities >and fix some existing joystick problems. They have NO plans >of supporting the GUS. >Are we starting to sweat yet? I agree - time to lobby. We need a list so we can harass people! Does anyone have any idea of the number of GUS cards sold? That might be a good thing to point out - "XXX people have bought GUS cards, and they want support for these cards. That's a sizable market, and since they will be more willing to buy a game that has direct GUS support instead of using the SB emulator, you're pratcically guaranteed a high percentage of sales to these folks." We can always threaten a boycott! Ken ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Feb 93 16:27:09 -0500 From: cs012043@cs.brown.edu (Brendan Miller) Message-Id: <9302192127.AA28027@cslab0a.cs.brown.edu> Subject: Midisoft To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I am looking for good composition and sequencing software that will ru n on my Ultrasound without jurry-rigging. I have heard something about a Midisoft offer, but I don't have the details. Can someone help me out? Also, there seems to be a problem with my configuration and Wav2Pat. I converted a wav to a pat and then tried to use it in place of another pat in a MID file I have and I got a #6 patch loading error. Does anyone know what the problem is? And finally, if I want to change the patches that are available to be in Windows how is that done? Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: 19 Feb 1993 02:43:30 -0500 (EST) From: STU_JABIRCHE@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU Message-Id: <01GUW1V01XQQ91X2MB@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU> Subject: Stuff To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I keep forgetting to send in my registration for the Gus. From the sound of it, it doesn;t much matter, does it? I some general questions: Is there a reason that 90% of the Mods I get are techno and 90% of the 669s I have gotten are non-techno? I found that very strange. Also, is there a plce (besides epas) that I can get some more 669s? I really like 'em. Also, I have yet to get Wolfenstein 3-d to work with digital sounds. All flags and a clean system were tried. The voices just repeat. Same with every sierra game. Annoying, but I bought my GUS for composition, so it's not that bad. Of course, I have yet to find a decent composer, but that's not the fault of Gravis. -=Marc=- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1993 06:44:44 -0500 From: "Anthony Green" Message-Id: <2b8481de.roboco@roboco.UUCP> Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #47 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > Is your port from the latest beta? in 32 bit? Yes. > > Csound generates a single wavetable suitable for playing on > > your GUS with playfile. > > But most importantly you can use that for patches. I've been trying to go the other way. i.e. create AIFF files from the patches. Is there a more complete reference than patinfo.bas? Is anybody reading this using Csound? I had no idea there was another port. -- Anthony T. Green 343D St. Clair Ave W, Toronto, Ontario M5P 1N3 Home (416) 968-0817 Internet: green@roboco.uucp Office (416) 340-0887 UUCP : ...!uunet!utai!roboco!green ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Feb 93 09:56:46 EST From: sbm@pt.com (Steve McGowan) Message-Id: <9302191456.AA09103@pt.com> Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #47 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Whoaaaa! >d91-sme@nada.kth.se writes: >I have been thinking a lot about the 3D sound driver Gravis is about to >release. I have been working on a theory of how the driver actually manages >to produce such a sound. So, do you think the following sounds reasonable? I can't believe the confusion that I have seen on the net about 3D sound. Gravis's 3D sound is binaural sound (definition = relating to, or involving both ears), which has been around as long as I can remember. 20 years ago you could buy these goofy headphones that also had microphones built into each side. They were molded to give a (very) rough approximation of the the cartilage that forms the human ear. If you recorded something with them on (using the built in microphones) and then played it back through the headphones it was amazing. I once heard a recording by someone sitting in front of a large frog pond and next to a highway. With your eyes closed you could point to the croaking frogs and tell which direction the cars were passing behind you. At one point I heard a plane fly at a diagonal overhead. All this is due to the fact that binaural recordings preserve the volume, phase and frequency information that you hear. When a sound occurs on your right, it hits your right ear first, wraps around your head then gets picked up by the left ear. The delay or phase shift that is induced due to the longer path to your left ear is subtle, but is one of the queues that your brain uses to determine the direction of a sound. The volume is also attenuated slightly in the left ear. Your brain also uses frequency queues. High frequency sounds are very directional while low frequency are omni-directional. Your right ear hears the full spectrum of the incomming sound while your left ear only hears the the low frequency components. Your head acts as a filter, blocking and absorbing the high frequencies. So I suppose you could work out some FFT algorithim to give you this effect but all you really need is careful control of the volume and be able to delay the sound slightly in one channel. You could probably forgo the low-pass filter on the far ear. This explains why 3D is a software upgrade to the GUS anything more complicated (like real-time FFTs) would require new hardware. All this is lost when you use speakers, you must use headphones for playing back binaural sound. And you must have somthing roughly the size of a human head with the microphones position where the ears are to record it. I have found that a mannequins head and with two regular old microphones mounted in the ears works great (also it is quite the conversation piece). When you listen to a binaural recording of a party, where many conversations are taking place at once you can use the position queues to listen to one convesation one time and another the next. This is almost impossible with stereo recording. Stereo sound can only approximate the effect. But with good binaural (3D) sound you could probably play Wolfenstein with your eyes closed. Steve. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Feb 93 15:06:44 EST From: Phat H Tran Message-Id: <9302192006.AA24776@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #47 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > Date: Thu, 18 Feb 93 23:25:36 +0100 > From: d91-sme@nada.kth.se > Message-Id: <9302182225.AA02356@dront.nada.kth.se> > Subject: 3D sound - the theory? > To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > >[...] > So, the first problem should be how to make that fourier transformation in > real time. But the GUS has 32 voices. What if you made, say, 16 samples of > one single sample. Each of the 16 samples containing their part of the > frequencies in the original sound. For instance, you could have sample #1 to > contain all frequencies between 0 and 100, the next one could hold frequencies > between 100 and 200 and so on. > > If you played all those 16 samples together it should produce the original > sound. Now "all" you have to do is play them all, and change their volumes > individually in real-time, according to a special table. Just like an > equalizer. > Another problem is how to get the right ear to hear only the right channel and the left ear to hear only the left channel when using speakers. I would imagine anti-phase cancellation to be quite tricky to implement. > Date: Thu, 18 Feb 93 0:07:17 PST > From: dedmunds@sfu.ca > Message-Id: <9302180807.AA02146@selkirk.sfu.ca> > Subject: Game developers supporting GUS? > To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > >[...] > Are we GUS owners doing all we can to garner support (how many people > are on the mailing list David?)? > > Let's get out there and lobby!!!!!! Let's start a list of email > addresses for developers and game production companies, and flood > them with email!!!!! (Here I volunteer. Email me the addresses > (both snail mail and email) of every game developer/production > company/publisher you can get your grubby paws on. I'll sort it > out and put it at epas and also the Digest.) Let's get vocal!!! > ------------------------------ Date: (null) From: (null) To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I've done my share of lobbying for the Ultrasound, but to be effective, the effort needs the muscle from new voices, not just the same broken record. I hope new GUS owners will take the time to write to their favourite developers asking for GUS support. Old-fashioned pen-and-paper would be the most effective medium, but email is better than nothing. Hear are the email addresses of a few companies: Origin: origin_cs@aol.com 76004.2612@compuserve.com Sierra: 76004.2143@compuserve.com Microprose: 76004.2223@compuserve.com LucasArts: 75300.454@compuserve.com > Date: Thu, 18 Feb 93 18:37:17 -0500 > From: "It's your hand, Buckaroo" > Message-Id: <9302182337.AA07298@magick.tay2.dec.com> > Subject: Ultramod > To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > > Has anyone had any success with the Ultramod program (proported to be a MOD > player written by Advanced Gravis)? All it does on my system is clear the > screen, write out Ultramod by Advanced Gravis in double-height letters and > exit. I wasn't very impressed to say the least... > Here's a shot in the dark: If you're using EMM386, try adding /d=128 to the line that invokes the memory manager. > Date: Thu, 18 Feb 93 17:05:19 EST > From: jeff@endeavor.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM > Message-Id: <9302182202.AA22953@orca.es.com> > Subject: Unix Drivers for Ultrasound > To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > > I am currently scoping the effort for development of a Unix driver > for the GUS, but the lack of technical information is slowing my > efforts. As more technical specifications are posted to this list I > may decide to undertake this task. > > Anyone out there want to collaborate on this? > You might want to email Josh Jensen (cstrike@gompers.gompers.edu). He's done quite a bit of hacking on the GUS, and has figured out much of what its registers do. You might also want to get the GUS programming docs that Josh has released (udox*.* on epas, in submit). Phat. ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #48 ******************************