Ultrasound Daily Digest Fri Jun 25 00:42 Volume 4: Issue 24 Today's Topics: [GUS] It's here - GUS AIL/DigPak Games List [24/06/93] Answers to Tech Questions on Gravis Ultrasound (GUS) DIGEST ADMIN: Users on the list... EPAS Mirrors FAQ GUS and MIDI MIDI digest OS/2 drivers...not anytime soon patch probs with t7g/AIL (2 msgs) SB16 ASP and(!) GUS anyone WC2 Install Problems WCII WCII install 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: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 08:30:32 GMT From: int757n@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Mr. Thaddaeus) Subject: [GUS] It's here - GUS AIL/DigPak Games List [24/06/93] Message-ID: ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard Here is the list of some games that are currently using the Miles Drivers. Latest version of GUS AIL/DIGPAK BETA 0.97. [24/06/93] (archive.epas.utoronto.ca /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit/gusail97.zip) SECTION I Games that have been tested and "works" with the GUS AIL/DIGPAK/MIDPAK drivers. Asterisk at end of line means there are some extra info on the game in Section ]I[. SECTION ][ Games that reportedly use the Mile Drivers but have not been tested with the GUS AIL/DIGPAK/MIDPAK drivers as yet. SECTION ]I[ Some hints/comments on "stubborn" games, and the driver version used. SECTION I ========= Product Name Publisher Use --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Buzz Aldrin's Race To Space AIL * Eye Of The Beholder ]I[ Strategic Simulations Inc. AIL * Hong Kong Mahjong Pro Nine Dragons Software AIL Legend Of Kyrandia Westwood Studio AIL * Monopoly Deluxe Virgin Games DigPak+AIL * Terminator 2029 Bethesda Softworks AIL The 7th Guest Virgin/Trilobyte DigPak+AIL Ultima Underworld I Origin AIL Ultima Underworld ][ Origin AIL * Wayne Gretszky Hockey ]I[ Bethesda Softworks AIL * When Two Worlds War Impressions AIL SECTION ][ ========== Product Name Publisher Use --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Animal Quest Alive Software DigPak+MidPak ATC/Tracon Wesson International DigPak Battle Chess 4000 Interplay DigPak Battle Cruiser 3000AD Three-Sixty Pacific DigPak Beyond Shadowgate ICOM Simulations DigPak+MidPak Bilou Concepteva DigPak BodyLink Stragem DigPak Chess Maniac 5,000,001 Spectrum Holobyte DigPak+AIL Chessmaster 3000 The Software Toolworks DigPak Contraption Zack Presage Software Co. Inc. DigPak+MidPak Creepers Destiny Software DigPak+MidPak Cribbage Master Ninga DigPak Cyberstrike Simutronics DigPak Dinosaur Adventure Knowledge Adventure DigPak DNA Parrot T&t Research DigPak Fun Univ Ntwk Intfc Fun Univ Netwk DigPak+MidPak Gateway to the Savage Strategic Simulations Inc. DigPak Gateworld Trilogy Home Brew Software MidPak GemStone III Simutronics DigPak Grandmaster Chess IntraCorp DigPak+MidPak Great Naval Battles Tony La Rusa Baseball II Guardians of Eden Access Software MidPak Guzzle Puzzles Redwood Games DigPak Inspector Gadget: Azeroth Publishing DigPak+MidPak KidDesk Edmark Corporation DigPak Layout for DOS Objects, Inc DigPak+MidPak Le Ponctueur C.R.A.P.O., Inc. DigPak Magic Crayon Alive Software DigPak+MidPak Mario Teaches Typing Interplay Marvin The Moose Milliken Publishing DigPak Math Sequences Milliken Publishing DigPak Math Zone Milliken Publishing DigPak Mechwarrior II Activision DigPak Microleage Cards Microleage Sports Assoc. DigPak MicroLeague Baseball IV Microleague Sports Assoc. DigPak+MidPak MicroLeague Football II Microleauge Sports Assoc. DigPak+MidPak Millie's Math House Edmark Corpoartion DigPak Milliken Storyteller Milliken Publishing DigPak Mutanoid Math Challenge Legacy Software DigPak+MidPak Mutanoid Word Challenge Legacy Software DigPak+MidPak My Paint Saddleback Graphics DigPak NFL Challenge XOR Corporation DigPak Oregon Trail Deluxe MECC DigPak+MidPak Pickle Wars Redwood Games DigPak+MidPak Places to Play Magnetic Images DigPak Pools of Darkness Strategic Simulations Inc. DigPak PuttPutt Joins Parade Humongous Entertainment DigPak+MidPak Ragarok (Valhalla) Norsehelm Productions DigPak Realms of Avarton Kram DigPak Return to Zork Activision DigPak Shadow President DC True DigPak Sights & Sounds Macmillan/McGraw Hill DigPak Solitaire's Journey Quantum Quality Productions DigPak+MidPak Space Adventure Knowledge Adventure DigPak Space Chase 1,2,3 Safari Software MidPak Spaceward Ho PC Presage Software Co. Inc. DigPak+MidPak Spell Caster 2000 Stepping Stones Bonus Compu-Teach, Inc. DigPak+MidPak Stickybear Townbuilder Optimum Resource DigPak Switch Progressions Cooper, R.J. & Assoc. DigPak+MidPak Switch Quik Cooper, R.J. & Assoc. DigPak+MidPak T-Zero Dennis Cunningham DigPak+MidPak Tom Landry Football Merit Software DigPak+MidPak Trump Castle III VGA Jigsaw Alive Software DigPak+MidPak Waterford Mental Math Waterford Institute DigPak+MidPak Wheel of Fortune Gametek DigPak+MidPak WorldAtlas The Software Toolworks DigPak+MidPak SECTION ]I[ =========== Buzz Aldrin RIS - The Miles drivers are named SDRV*.BIN. Eye Of The Beholder 3 - EOB3 "hardcoded" the intro sequence, the ending sequence and 2 inter game sequences. These sections will give you errors. Monopoly Deluxe - Hangs at the start of the game with digital speech. [GUS AIL/DigPak BETA 0.97] Legend Of Kyrandia - Replace MT32MPU.ADV, better result if sounds are disabled. No applicable for CD-ROM version. Ultima Underworld ][ - Drum beats are too loud and some speech is cut short. Look for DD*.ADV (digital) and DM*.ADV (music). [GUS AIL/DigPak BETA 0.96] Wayne Gretszky ]I[ - The game dies after 2-3 minutes. [GUS AIL/DigPak BETA 0.97] General Information =================== If you have something to contribute to this list, e.g i) new games using the Miles drivers ii) tested the games from Section ][ iii) workarounds for games in Section ]I[ iv) comments / suggestions / corrections please mail me at teddy@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au. If possible, please state the publisher and what to use (AIL/DigPak etc) and if there are problems and/or workarounds please comment on it briefly. Last, but not least, thank you to the people who mailed me these info. Happy GUShing. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Why is it that everytime I write out an answer the question is wrong? - Thaddaeus Kong a.k.a int757n@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 18:47:39 GMT From: ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Phat H Tran) Subject: Re: Answers to Tech Questions on Gravis Ultrasound (GUS) Message-ID: ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard In article deanaj@elec.canterbury.ac.nz (A. J. Dean) writes: > >I've got a SBPRO, and find the FM synthesis pretty useless. It does get used >for games, but the MIDI port and to some extent the Windows sounds are what >I use it for. I'd hoped to use it more like a sound module - even a MIDI >capable mod player would be a good start, but no can do. Even an 8 bit MIDI >drum machine 'can't' be done. I've just read the GUS FAQ, item 24 in >particular which is a bit of tech info about the GUS. To me it sounds as >though it could be my dream soundcard/synth/sound module - programmable DSP >on board, proper sample rate conversion for each voice to 44.1k (mentioned >something about antialiasing and oversampling), and all the extras like AM >and FM mod, envelopes, looping, etc. If the quality is that good it would >warrant a spdif digi out connector hack. > The GUS does not have a programmable DSP. Its GF1 chip is a "pipeline processor" which cannot be reprogrammed. Each of the GUS' voice is really just a pointer in memory. The data that each voice points at is summed into two channels for the left/right DACs, with appropriate calculations to handle volume and panning. I hear the DAC is capable of 8x oversampling. Can anybody check? With 14 active voices, all of them can be updated at a rate of 44.1kHz. With 28, the rate is 22.05kHz. At each update, each voice is advanced by a step size contained in its Frequency Control register. The neat thing (for me, anyhow) is that the step can have a fractional component so that a voice can be moved in increments of, for example, 0.12 or 1.76. Each voice pointer also has a fractional component so that voices can point "in between" data values. When a voice is in between data points, a new data point is calculated for the voice through linear interpolation. The interpolation always produces a 16-bit result, even if the data are 8-bit, so 8-bit samples tend to sound better than you might expect on the GUS. Each voice has sample start, loop start, and sample end parameters. A voice can play samples forward or backward, and can loop forward, backward, or bidirectionally. Envelopes are done using the GUS' onboard volume ramping facilities. Volume ramping lets you determine the start and stop volumes for a voice, and how steep to make the ramp. Interrupts can be generated at the end of the ramp so that more complicated amplitude envelopes can be created. For an attack, decay, sustain, release envelope, four ramps would be used sequentially. Volume ramping can also be bidirectional so that the volume oscillates between the start and stop settings. This feature is used for amplitude modulation. Frequency modulation requires that the Frequency Control register for a voice be changed on the fly. Hope that helps. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 18:07:55 CDT From: ddebry@itchy (Dave DeBry) Subject: DIGEST ADMIN: Users on the list... Message-ID: <9306250007.AA12257@itchy> As of a couple days ago, we now have 1000+ email addresses 'officially' subscribed (ie: actually on mailserv's user list) to the Ultrasound Daily Digest. Many of these are aliases to reflect the Digest off to several different people. Also, the digest is being grabbed, condensed, and sent to people on America Online, Compu$erve, and many BBS's. All of this makes it very hard to estimate 'real' readership. Essentially, there's a Heap O' Readers (tm) now. Just to let you know... -- Dave ddebry@ debry@ \ DeBry dsd. peruvian. | "Try a banana in your shoe and you'll know es. cs.utah. | what a day is." com edu / ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 14:51:06 PDT From: Scott.Jordahl@Eng.Sun.COM (Scott A. Jordahl) Subject: EPAS Mirrors Message-ID: <9306232151.AA06020@klinger.Eng.Sun.COM> Dave: I have been getting frustrated beyond belief trying to download stuff from EPAS. I am constantly getting timeout/disconnects. Is there a west coast mirror site I can connect to? Thanks for the help.... -- Scott ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 19:38:34 +1000 (EST) From: Andrew See Subject: FAQ Message-ID: <199306240938.AA21899@arthur.st.nepean.uws.edu.au> I need the GUS FAQ BAD! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 17:52:54 +0100 From: zccaj19@ucl.ac.uk (Mr Stefan Magdalinski) Subject: GUS and MIDI Message-ID: <9306241652.AA128876@link-1.ts.bcc.ac.uk> james@sol1.uel.ac.uk and others write: >> My guess is that there must be a large number of people besides Jack >> and me reading this newsgroup who want to use their computer for MIDI >> record/playback sampling. If you are doing this with GUS I'd very much >> appreciate learning more about what it can do, what limitations it >> has, etc. Thanks. >Me too. Lets here more about the gus's shortcomings in this department.. ME TOO. There seem to be a lot of us posting questions to the digests about this but no-one with any replies... I've posted at least two with zilch comeback. Does anybody Know anything? Has anyone succeeded in producing a song using their own patches? I've posted a message to Dave Debry suggesting that we set up a digest or mail round thingy for this subject. This would allow those interested to xchange info and work it out for ourselves without making ultrasound digest even bigger and leaving the gamers to do their thing in peace. If anyone else is interested in this, mail me with suggestions. Stefan zccaj19@ucl.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 18:01:14 +0100 From: zccaj19@ucl.ac.uk (Mr Stefan Magdalinski) Subject: MIDI digest Message-ID: <9306241701.AA134166@link-1.ts.bcc.ac.uk> seems to me that there are a lot of people interested in using the GUS for MIDI music using custom patches and advanced thingies (See many recent digests for details). We seem to be having a lot of communication problems and I was wondering if it would be possible to have a digest or Mail Round thing (like GMOS) so that we could thrash out the problems without hassling the gamers and making the general ultrasound digests any bigger (That two day one was huge!). What do you think? MidiMusic might be a good name. yours, Stefan Magdalinski zccaj19@ucl.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 18:35:39 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: OS/2 drivers...not anytime soon Message-ID: <9306242235.AA04663@magick.tay2.dec.com> Having just installed OS/2 2.1 and playing around with MMPM/2, I naturally wondered if Gravis had drivers available anytime soon. So I called 'em and asked and was told, you guessed it, "Not for anytime soon." It appears they have limited resources and those resources are commited elsewhere (my guess is Windows and NOT a standard mode driver, either). Actually, I called Tech Support and spoke with someone who told me flat out, "The offical policy is that we don't support OS/2." However, I also called Sales and was told the above and that the Tech Support guy was wrong, they will be supporting OS/2. Apparently not in my lifetime, but hey... FLAME ON! Ok, what's the deal here? Has all of Advanced Gravis been hypnotized by Bill Gates? Do they walk around going, "Windows rules, Windows rules"?? It's not enough that their competition has drivers that shipped WITH OS/2. It's not enough that we've been asking for this since the card shipped (before, actually). They SAID they would write drivers. They sent someone to OS/2 Driver School. IBM sent them copies of OS/2 2.1. What's it take to actually GET the bloody drivers?? Money? Guns? Lawyers?? FLAME OFF Well, anyway, you get the idea. Anyone who likes OS/2 certainly isn't going to be buying a GUS anytime soon, either. DDA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 21:55 GMT0BST-1 From: Paul Kokis Subject: patch probs with t7g/AIL Message-ID: OK, I've got GUSAIL96.ZIP and installed everything, but if I run ULTRAMID with the -C option, it says 'error loading patch'. I have the patches from the V1.21 disks. I also ran pupdate.exe, which took ages to go through all the pats - I still get the same message. I also noticed that ULTRINIT is 'terminating early' or some such message. I *have* had t7g running, for a while, and heard some of the music - much better, but then I get a 'memory error' crash. I'm loading ULTRAMID high *without* -C, coz I can't get it to work *with*. Help! Paulus the Scratch person. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 21:55 GMT0BST-1 From: Paul Kokis Subject: patch probs with t7g/AIL Message-ID: OK, I've got GUSAIL96.ZIP and installed everything, but if I run ULTRAMID with the -C option, it says 'error loading patch'. I have the patches from the V1.21 disks. I also ran pupdate.exe, which took ages to go through all the pats - I still get the same message. I also noticed that ULTRINIT is 'terminating early' or some such message. I *have* had t7g running, for a while, and heard some of the music - much better, but then I get a 'memory error' crash. I'm loading ULTRAMID high *without* -C, coz I can't get it to work *with*. Help! Paulus the Scratch person. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 17:38:01 GMT From: kresge@lims.lockheed.com (Jim Kresge) Subject: Re: SB16 ASP and(!) GUS anyone Message-ID: <1993Jun24.173801.21191@lims.lockheed.com> ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard Why I bought the Soundblaster 16 ASP instead of the Pro Audio 16 or the Viva Maestro 16VR, OR THE GUS: (I will refer to the Viva card as M16) (I will refer to the Pro Audio Studio 16 as the PASt16) (I will refere to the Sound Blaster 16 ASP as the SB16) Keep in mind that I don't have the fastest machine. I evaluated the cards on a 386/SX16 with 4 mb of RAM Voice Recognition M16 was the most versatile--you could program your own commands to be executed. The speed of the commands was slow on my machine, but I guess that it would be OK on faster machines. The PASt16 speed was unnacceptable--took up to 7 seconds to acknowledge your command. The SB16 has VR as a send-away option for $14.95 (they said it was free and this was shipping?). I received the "Voice Assist" from Sounblaster and it is faster than the other two packages. It is the best of the three in my opinion Voice Recording Creating wave files with the microphone or input was acceptable with all of the cards. I liked the built-in special effects of the PASt16 the b SENTRY!CPS#A1B2CP6/ O ! e recording to half its normal pitch and then maintain normal speed, or speed up to twice normal pitch while maintaining normal speed. I understand that there are shareware packages that let you do the same thing with any WAV files, so I guess this is a mute point. Bundled software M16 came with Voyetra sequencing software. I found it to be a little cryptic. The PASt16 came with a note-based software which was much too slow for my machine. In fact, I actually "hung" some of the music when I was playing it. The SB16 played all of the samples fine although good sequencing software is extra (I'm gonna get Cakewalk Apprentice that comes with the Waveblaster). On-board features The SB16 was the only card that had an on-board digital signal processor, which acts as a sound co-processor. The only other card that has a DSP is the Turtle Beach Multisound (priced at $ 599.00). This is one of the features that sold me on the SB16. The other feature that sold me on the SB16 is the ability to add-on the Wave Blaster to get wavetable sythesis for 213 CD quality digitally recorded musical intstrument sounds and waveforms. It is true that one can buy the Gravis Ultrsound and get similar wavetable sounds, but GUS users would sacrifice DSP, audio compression, and FM synthesis. Serious musical people, myself included, may even want to opt for the Roland MIDI interface wavetable boxes rather than the Wave Blaster, so having the Wave Blaster as an option is good. Both the SB16 and the PASt16 have audio compression (I don't recall if the M16 did or not). The M16 has an Adaptec controller (non-bootable) for the CD and the PASt16 has a Tantron controller. Throughput on each is 600 to 750 kb/s. The SB16 has a proprietary controller-- you can only use a certain Panasonic CD. Since I would be getting a full-blown bootable SCSI controller for better throughput, these controllers above are just "gimmies." All of the boards have un-amplified lines out. The M16 and the PASt16 have seperate 1/8" sockets. The output on the SB16 ASP has an easily accessible thumb-wheel volume control so that you can go from no-hiss un-amplified output to 4 watts per channel @ 4 ohms for speakers. If you are still not convinced, read the June issue of Compute Magazine or the June issue of PC Computing. Compute rates the PASt16 to the SB16, and PC computing rates the GUS against both. It comes down to two cards for me--the Gravis Ultrasound or the SB16 ASP. I chose the SB16 ASP because of the DSP, the compression, the FM synthesis capability, and THE NAME. I ALMOST bought the GUS though. The final deciding factor for me was that the GUS needs options to make it acceptable. The price for the GUS options was more than the price for the Soundblaster/Waveblaster combo: GUS 150.00 Additional RAM to make 1 MB 30.00 16 bit sample add-on board for recording 150.00 SCSI add-on board 50.00 Cakewalk software (this would be my choice) 75.00 TOTAL 455.00 Soundblaster 16 ASP (includes 16 bit, DSP instead of RAM, SCSI interface 200.00 Waveblaster (includes Cakewalk and more wavetable instrument presets) 250.00 TOTAL 450.00 Remember that the Soundblaster combo INCLUDES FM synthesis as well as wavetable after the above PS--you should be able to get this SB16 ASP for less than the retail price. I got mine for $ 199.00. Mauricio Fabbri (fabbr001@staff.tc.umn.edu) wrote: : In <1993Jun23.163718.1381@lims.lockheed.com> kresge@lims.lockheed.com (Jim Kresge) writes: : >Gentlemen: : >I have similar interests in using both the SB 16 ASP and the GUS. I would : >like to know why you are going for the GUS addition rather than using the : >Wave Blaster? : Well, if you didn't feel any scrathes on your brain after reading : the amazing ammount of good info and tips about the GUS here, : then I guess the GUS isn't for you. Well, maybe you can wait : until Gravis releases the Ultimate Advanced Hyper-GUS some time : in the future... : Regards. : -- : Mauricio Fabbri - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA : Civil and Mineral Eng. Dept., and | In Brazil: Space Res. Instit. (INPE) : Minnesota Supercomputer Institute | Lab. for Materials and Sensors (LAS) : fabbri@msi.umn.edu | fabbri@las.inpe.br -- Regards, +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | Jim Kresge LOCKHEED ISC | These are my opinions and not legally binding | | Voice: 408-987-4586x2009 | INTERNET = kresge@lims.lockheed.com | | FAX: 408-987-4625 | "If it works, don't fix it! | +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 10:03:38 EDT From: chb@mhcnet.att.com Subject: Re: WC2 Install Problems Message-ID: <9306241403.AA17606@share> > I cannot get Wing Commander 2 to install on my system. Could it be > because of t he GUS? Yes, it's probably the GUS's fault. I ran into exactly the same problems, and the WC2 install program ran fine after I removed my GUS. > I have the GUS set to: 220,1,1,5,3 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 15:03:48 EDT From: jagati1@SERVER.uwindsor.ca (Jason Jagatic) Subject: WCII Message-ID: <9306241903.AA11230@SERVER.uwindsor.ca> Thanks to Roland Theinpont for helping me with getting WCII Install working... One last thing though... Could someone please tell me the correct version of SBOS to use and with which settings. I tried SBOS 1.20 and 2.04 with only a little luck. I had sound, but whenever there is speach, it cuts out after the first syllable.... Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 11:22:10 EDT From: Phat H Tran Subject: WCII install Message-ID: <9306241522.AA25302@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> > From: jagati1@SERVER.uwindsor.ca (Jason Jagatic) > Subject: Wing Commander II > > I have no idea what is wrong. Maybe it is DOS 6 and Doublespace? I dunno. But > the install program won't run. It will load and then blink off right away and say Program terminated because of reason #1. Interrupted by User. > I had the same problem after install DOS6 and DoubleSpace, but was able to install WCII once I removed my multi-I/O card. I tried running the install program several times with and without my I/O card in my machine, and it only worked without. I don't know if doing the same will work for you. I have a very weird motherboard and it's driving me nuts. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: (null) From: (null) > I have no idea what is wrong. Maybe it is DOS 6 and Doublespace? I > dunno. But the install program won't run. It will load and then blink > off right away and say Program terminated because of reason #1. > Interrupted by User. Yup, I experienced the same symptoms. BTW, I'm still using DOS 5 without any compression software. ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #24 *************************************