GUS Daily Digest            Fri, 10 Mar 95  9:37 PST     Volume 20: Issue  10 

Today's Topics:
					  ACE / Mail Server / Pmode
						 CD Audio programming
				   Dark Forces - works fine for me!
						 Dark Forces and GUS
					   Dark Forces and the GUS
						DARK FORCES disaster!!
						   Dark Forces info
				  Dark Forces supports GUS... kinda
						 GUS & Pentium 90/100
						GUS and DF works great
				   GUS and GUS MAX with Darkforces
				   GUS Daily Digest V20 #9 (2 msgs)
					 GUSMAX: MIDI In not working
					   Help! GUS Stuttering...
					  How to decompress ADPCM ?
					   Lucasarts joystick drift
						 Memory (RIGHT ON!!)
				  MIDI In doesn't work in windows...
			Motherboard that has NMI enabled or vice versa
			  Proposed solution to the PC sound problem

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: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 10:41:43 -0500
From: jday@bank-banque-canada.ca (Jim Day)
Subject: ACE / Mail Server / Pmode

Hi all,
	For those wondering about ACE availability.  I have seen
it here in Ottawa, Canada.  The price was about $160 Cdn (~$114 US).
It seems to be bundled with the same software as the GUS (Max).  So
if it's available here, it should be available almost everywhere.

Also just a few small points that maybe some one can help me with.

	Can you explain how I can get files on epas through
the GUS mail server (mail-server@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de)?
Can they be uuencoded (binaries) ? I have no FTP access.

	Also could someone UUENCODE me a copy of pmw116.zip?


	Any help would be appreciated.
						Thank You
						Jim Day
				

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 16:15:14 +7516517 (MET)
From: majo@shmu.sk (Majo Fukasz)
Subject: CD Audio programming

Hi there,

	I'm trying to get some info about how 2 program a CD Audio
player under DOS but none of my friends knows a solutions so I'm trying
this. Please don't get upset, I know this doesn't belong here but this
is one of the last chances so please give your best ...

THANX IN ADVANCE ...

						Majo Fukasz ...

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 00:33:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Tommy Lee <darkguy@io.org>
Subject: Dark Forces - works fine for me!

Before people start freaking out over "spotty" GUS support in Dark 
Forces, let me say this...

I just got the game today and have played for about an hour and have had 
*NO* problems whatsoever.

I have a 486-33 with local bus video and GUS, and the game with sound (8 
channels) and music runs at virtually the same speed the demo did without 
sound or music.  I even tried my gamepad for a bit and it didn't seem to 
be drifting at all (then again, I turned off speed compensation with 
ultrajoy 31).

The music is awesome, the sound effects are awesome, and now I'm REALLY 
looking forward to LucasArts games since they should all support the GUS 
natively now.

Get this game, it's a great way to show off your GUS... Not to mention 
your high-powered CPU...  And fun.

Tommy.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 09:28:05 +0000 (GMT)
From: Marc Goldman <marc@comp.lancs.ac.uk>
Subject: Dark Forces and GUS

Hi,

I read the comments in the readme with dismay too. But all that
dissappaered when I played the game It sounds great and I've gotten no
slowdown at all on 486/66 full screen with 8 channels of sounds.

The joystick thing would be annoying except that I think joystick is
possibly the worse way to play games of this genre. Mouse and keys is
the only real way.

A very happy DF player.

Cheers
Marc

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	  **     **      *  ****** ***    *   |             On the net,
	 ** *    **     *** **     ** *   *   |     no-one can hear you scream!
	**   *   **     *** ****   **  *  *   |------------------------------------
   **     *  **     *** **     **   * *   |  email   marc@comp.lancs.ac.uk
  **       * ******  *  ****** **    **   |      marc@computing.lancaster.ac.uk
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Mar 95 13:44:40 GMT
From: Martin Shaw <shawm@cs.man.ac.uk>
Subject: Dark Forces and the GUS

Hiyup,

	I don't know what all the complaints are about.. I have my standard GUS
	with all 8 channels, and no slowdown at all. And why would you want to 
	use a joystick? The keyboard and mouse give better control anyway!!

Martin


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
								 |     
 Martin Shaw,                    | "Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem"
 Dept. Computer Science,         |  
 Manchester,                     |                    - Virgils Aeneid
								 |
 E-mail Shawm@cs.man.ac.uk       |  
								 |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 9 Mar 1995 20:42:20 +0000
From: Samuel Audet <samuel@gmgate.vircom.com>
Subject: DARK FORCES disaster!!

Wow, I can't believe it... this is really... a Disaster, just from what I 
saw from yesterday's digest, I just don't catch why they made the GUS 
codes so bad.  Maybe CL intentionaly paid them to make REALLY poor GUS codes 
or what?  This really sucks, WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!

And what about Nascar?  Is there a way to make the joystick work with 
it?  Anybody knows if we plug the joystick on a seperate controller if it 
would work?

Thanks, Bye!

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 09 Mar 1995 13:03:14 -0500 (EST)
From: All Hail Brak! <JKS4675@ritvax.isc.rit.edu>
Subject: Dark Forces info

Got the game last night....at least as good as DoomII, probably better.

Anyway, native (!!) GUS support was indeed provided. There are some caveats
in the README.TXT file....the excerpt appears below:
9)      SPECIFIC SOUND CARD ISSUES

	a) ADVANCED GRAVIS ULTRASOUND AND ULTRASOUND MAX

		Dark Forces supports the Ultrasound in native mode.

		IMPORTANT-In order for the Ultrasound to work properly with Dark
		Forces, you must NOT have SBOS installed (Gravis' Sound Blaster
		emulation driver).  If you have SBOS installed and do not know how
		to remove it, you may use our boot disk utility to make a boot
		disk, as it will remove SBOS for you.

		Due to the way that the Ultrasound interacts with your CPU to
		generate sound and music, you may notice slowdowns and occasional
		stuck notes while playing the game, especially on slower machines.
		The game may even become unplayable on a 386DX/33 with sound
		enabled.  Selecting 'No sound' from the 'Sound board
		configuration' will allow the game to run at normal speed. (See
		+USING 'SET SOUND BOARD' TO MANUALLY CONFIGURE YOUR SOUND CARD+).

		If you are using a joystick plugged into the Ultrasound's game
		port, you will get a consistent joystick drift.  It is not
		recommended that you use a joystick connected to the Ultrasound's
		game port.

		NOTE:  When using the Ultrasound MAX, you may occasionally hear
		corrupted instruments.


-----> I have a MAX, the sound is perfect, better than TIE because there are a
LOT more music files. As far as drift goes, unlike TIE and XWING, no problem.
The game is 4GW (no surprise there) and is about 70MB total, the DF demo and
Full Throttle are also included. The demos do not support the GUS. Also, the
game allows almost all files copied onto the HDD but the docs say the game
won't work unless the CDROM is present. No copy protection. Digital audio fine,
and the installation program set the channels to 8. I have a DX/2-80, if that
matters.

Jeff

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 00:03:46 +0200 (EET)
From: Saari Anssi <s106275@cs.tut.fi>
Subject: Re: Dark Forces supports GUS... kinda

>Date: Wed, 8 Mar 1995 16:11:43 +0000
>From: "Chris Bolin" <cbolin@teleport.com>
>Subject: Dark Forces supports GUS... kinda
>
>Read it in the readme...  Does anyone know why they claim the GUS 
>slows your system down?  I thought the DDSP took most of the load off 
>the CPU????

As a guess, I'd have to say the text should read 'due to our dimwitted
programmers who are unable to grasp a different concept in sound
programming you may notice slowdowns...'

Undoubtedly, they are using the GUS like they would a soundblaster: cram 
the CPU mixed samples to the DAC. But there's no DAC, the samples have to
be DMA'd to GUS first and then the GF1 told to play it. Of course, storing
the samples in the RAM aboard the GUS could not be used, because of the
abovementioned dimwitted programmers.

Just guessing, of course.

Anssi

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 9 Mar 1995 16:01:53 -0500 (EST)
From: Lance Kalzus <kqy5125@is.NYU.EDU>
Subject: GUS & Pentium 90/100

This may be more a matter of the chipset on the motherboard.  Anyways, 
all I can say is that I've had no trouble because of the GUS on a 
P54-100Mhz, w/ a Neptune PCI chipset on the motherboard.

	"Invisible airwaves crackle with life
	 Bright and tender, bristle with the energy
	 Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength
	 Bearing a gift beyond price that's almost free" -- Rush

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 9 Mar 95 22:57:20 MET
From: Broderdue <iqivar@hp1.cbs.dk>
Subject: GUS and DF works great

Dunno what Lucasarts were talking about when mentioning that
the GUS makes Dark Forces slow down, I sure as hell can't notice
anything, and I am playing on a humble dx2/66.

Damn, the sounds in this game and the game itself simply rocks.. :)

Using and ordinary gus though, does the sound really get screwed at
times when used with MAX ?

Greetings,
Ivar
--
	\////
	|. .|
	( - )   Broderdue
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 09 Mar 95 13:08:12 EST
From: Greg <BGUZ@MUSICB.MCGILL.CA>
Subject: GUS and GUS MAX with Darkforces

Its official. I just purchased Darkforces and it supports the
GUS in native mode. However, support is not perfect. The readme
file says that the GUS can cause slowdowns in movement and may prevent
the game from running on  486-33. But, the game works fine in my
DX2-66. I also find that the music is too loud and the sound too low.
Overall, a great game.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 9 Mar 1995 16:19:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Buddy <cs3mh3dn@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V20 #9

> From: Paul Conroy <tetsuo@daemon.apana.org.au>
> Subject: Memory
> 
> ....... The same day I bought my GUS 3 years ago i ripped the 
									   ^^^^^^^^^^^

Not likely, the GUS wasn't out three years ago! 

;-)

Good point about the memory though. Even 1 meg isn't nearly enough 
anymore. Look at the Bosendorfer piano patch....

Kev

------------------------------

Date: 10 Mar 95 07:37:16
From: Jyri Ruut <jyri@ttkt.tartu.ee>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V20 #9

Hi!
>

>
> this is how i have my setup.  i have an external CD player.  and i would
> connect the output to the input of the GUS (the mic input because my
> audio input don't work for some reason) and i have the amplified GUS
> output to my stereo.
>
> everytime i want to use my cd player in DOS, it would make a loud noise that
> sounds like the noise that comes from the HD noise.

The problem seems to be that you're operating a 1 mV mic input with a
250 mV external signal, the result is a huge distortion, since
you're far out from the linear response range...:-(  The best thing to
do is to try to repair the audio input, or just to use a variable
resistor to take the greater part of the potential off...


Ju"ri Ruut


 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Ju"ri Ruut                             e-mail: jyri@ttkt.tartu.ee     
									   ph. (372) 7 434272
Tartu Tervisekaitsetalitus             fax (372) 7 430685
Tartu Public Health Service            Private:
Veski 47                               ph. (372) 7 477930
EE2400 Tartu
Estonia              
__________________________________________________________________________

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 13:17:25 GMT
From: Clarke Brunt <clarke@lsl.co.uk>
Subject: Re: GUSMAX: MIDI In not working

>Once upon a time I owned a 486DX/33 computer with a regular Ultrasound (with 1M 
>RAM) and the Gravis MIDI adapter and an old Yamaha DX9 synth that I used 
>happily to mess around with MIDI in windows.  Then I upgraded my mother board 
>to a DX2/66 and suddenly the MIDI in port stopped working under Windows.
> [Loads more snipped]

Could this be the 'NMI not supported by this motherboard' syndrome?
I think that the 'Non Maskable Interrupt' is used by both SBOS
and by MIDI-in. I haven't observed the problem myself, so sorry
to be a bit vague. Try installing SBOS and see if it complains,
or doesn't work.

If the motherboard indeed doesn't support this Interrupt, then I
don't think there is much you can do, other than complain to the
supplier, and attempt to get a proper PC compatible board.

-- 
Clarke Brunt (CCB), Principal Software Engineer, Laser-Scan Ltd, Science Park,
Milton Rd, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 4FY, England. Tel: (+44) (0)1223 420414; Fax: 420044
Email: CLARKE@LSL.CO.UK (via BRITAIN.EU.NET)

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 9 Mar 95 15:14:15 MST
From: Stuart Yoshida <yoshida@elektra.fc.hp.com>
Subject: Help! GUS Stuttering...

HELP!  I'm appealing to all you GUS'ers:

For some unknown reason, my GUS has started "stuttering" when I use it
as the Wave Output device.  Here's my configuration:

GUS with 1MB RAM (board v 2.4, I believe)
GUS 16-bit daughter board
Turtle Beach Monterey (Tahiti + Rio)
v5.50 Windows Drivers (problem existed before updating)
MS-Windows for Workgroups v3.11
QEMM v7.5
Hyperdisk v4.7

So far, I've experienced the problem in these configurations:

* 32BFA/32BDA enabled
* 32BFA/32BDA disabled
* Turtle Beach Monterey drivers enabled
* Turtle Beach Monterey drivers disabled
* GUS input buffer set to 0
* GUS input buffer set to 512
* GUS input buffer set to 1024
* GUS input buffer set to 4096

The "stuttering" can be described as the endless looping of a "sound
byte," which seems to correspond to the size of the input buffer that I
specify.  If I set the input buffer to 0 (zero length), it will stutter
with a very small chunk of sound data (which produces a "chirping"
sound).

BTW, the Wavetable portion works just fine when I use it to play MIDI
files.

The frustrating part is that at one point I had the GUS Wave Output
working just fine.  And then something changed, and I'm at a loss to
figure out what it was that changed!

Any help, suggestions, comments, ideas, etc. would be appreciated!

--

  Stuart Yoshida

Internet: yoshida@fc.hp.com
   Voice: (303) 229-2324

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 09 Mar 1995 16:50:14 GMT
From: Clarke Brunt <clarke@lsl.co.uk>
Subject: Re: How to decompress ADPCM ?

>does someone know of a program that is able to decompress ADPCM rcording
>made by GUS-MAX ?

Do you want to just play the files, or to convert them into an
uncompressed file?

CoolEdit will read them in and output them as whatever you like
(and will of course play them).
For just playing them, sound drivers which do this (CODECs) come
with MicroSoft CD products, such as Encarta and Dangerous Creatures.
Possibly these drivers might be available on ftp.microsoft.com - they
sound like the sort of thing you wouldn't be expected to pay for.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 09 Mar 1995 15:37:13 -0500 (EST)
From: bill.hyman@ccmail.bsis.com
Subject: Lucasarts joystick drift

I noticed in yesterday's digest some complaints about joystick drift when 
using the GUS joystick port in Dark Forces.  I found this to happen when I 
play Tie Fighter with GUS sound.  Interestingly enough, I get the joystick 
drift even when my joystick is in an add-on gamecard, and not just when 
plugged into the GUS.  When I switch to my SBPro, the drift goes away.  No 
other game I have that uses native GUS support causes drift (USNF works 
fine).  What's the deal with Lucasarts?  They seem to have very talented 
programmers, but can't they get rid of the drift?

Bill Hyman
bill.hyman@bsis.com

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 9 Mar 1995 19:40:10 -0800 (PST)
From: Dave Woldrich <davew@uofport.edu>
Subject: Re: Memory (RIGHT ON!!)

You know.. some of you people are pretty cool.. like Richard Wyckoff, this 
guy is cool..  RIGHT ON RICHARD!!

> Date: Wed, 8 Mar 1995 00:59:36 -0500
> From: rwyckoff@biddeford.com (Richard Wyckoff)
> Subject: Memory
> 
> I don't know why everyone ignores a 2MB solution - after all, it doesn't
> have to be only 1 or 4 MB.   Unfortunately, the proper solution will have to
> be what others have mentioned and other companies have done: a combination
> of ROM and RAM.  I say unfortunate because it will go a long way to killing

You have a great point here Richard.. why NOT 2meg?!  Its much more comfy 
than 1meg, and lots cheaper than 4!  Since everybody hates my idea to 
have 4megs shipped with the Interwave/whatever.. I now change my vote to 
2megs to be more agreeable with the rest of the populous..  :)

> 
> Furthermore, this "entry-level" notion has got to go.  I paid nearly $200
> for my 512k Ultrasound MAX last summer, and I don't consider that
> entry-level (of course, the MAX wasn't really meant to be entry-level, but
> ends up being considered that by many, since it only provides features the
> regular Ultrasound should have had).  I'd be willing to pay $250 for a board

Another good point..  hmmm..  I agree that the GUS is marketed, and
perceived as an entry level sound card.  Although I think most here would
agree that that distinction is more aptly left to all of the (un)Creative
Labs crap.  And I was allowing myself to think it more of a card than
others thought it to be.  (Can you blame me?  What a great card!) Anyhow,
with one or two megs of RAM you could perpetuate that perception.  But,
how would this situation strike people here?  Gravis/AMD offering two
configurations to the interwave, one with 1-2 megs RAM only, the other
with 2-4 megs RAM PLUS the needed ROM patches!  COOL!  Anyhow, one could
always add roms/more ram to the minimal configuration so that they could
be up to snuff with the people who spent the extra cash in the beginning!

>   [Microsquish and AWE32 stuff deleted..]
I agree that these guys are some cocky s.o.b.'s when they market their lame 
ripoffs of cool originals..  :) 

Hey, I got a crazy idear.. wouldn't it be neat if the Interwave could use
the main system RAM for playback/sampling?!  That way, everyone is happy
(me and the RAM deficient Aussies!)  Heck, I rarely use all the ram on my
machine up --> why not put it to work with sound!  WHOA!!  The patch
caching everyone wants so badly could be worked right into the PAGING
MECHANISMS of all of our favourite OS's!!  That would be slick and smart 
and very efficient (under OS/2) (if it could even be pulled off!)  Kinda 
unrealistic, but that seems to be what I'm all about!!  heheheheheh!! 

I hope someone doesn't come back and say that IS how the Interwave will
work .. that would mean this whole discussion I've been leading
would have been folly anyways!  Oh well!  Wouldn't be the first time..

David Woldrich    (davew@wally.uofport.edu)  |  Majoring in Computer Science 

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 11:01:42 +0000 (GMT)
From: Sam <Samuel.Marshall@durham.ac.uk>
Subject: MIDI In doesn't work in windows...

> I sent originally sent this to Gravis a few weeks ago (both tech@gravis.com and 
> tech1@gravis.com) and got no response (If you're reading this, Gravis people - 
> non-existent tech support is NOT A GOOD THING).  I hope someone on the digest 
> can help.
> 
> Once upon a time I owned a 486DX/33 computer with a regular Ultrasound (with 1M 
> RAM) and the Gravis MIDI adapter and an old Yamaha DX9 synth that I used 
> happily to mess around with MIDI in windows.  Then I upgraded my mother board 
> to a DX2/66 and suddenly the MIDI in port stopped working under Windows.  The 

Are you using either Stacker or other utilities that use Novell's special 
method (some initials that I have forgotten) to load into 386 RAM?

Our midi in stopped working, and the prompt reply from Gravis told us it 
was Stacker 4's take-up-no-memory feature that was causing the problem. 
(We had installed this a while back and forgotten about it, it worked so 
well. Hadn't used midi in for a while).

So if you use disk compression, the solution is NOT to use this special 
feature, but instead to load into normal memory. It sounds like you've 
already tried this kind of thing, but I thought this might possibly help 
anyway.

Sam

--> Home Page <-- ** Go on, try it! ** --> http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d405ua <--
  --> [1mLatest Feature[m:  BUGFIX: realtime fractalzoom in 3K (486/P5).. <--

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Mar 95 16:43:29 HKT
From: fma@VNET.IBM.COM
Subject: Motherboard that has NMI enabled or vice versa

Hello,

I seem to see someone is pulling together a list of GUS
compatible motherboard/chipset, ie, those with NMI not-diabled,
or a list of NMI-disabled motherboard which GUS users should
avoid.  Has it been finished?  Can anyone upload the list
to epas ftp?

Mine one is NMI-disabled,  manufacturer: Leo VIP board (Taiwan)
						   chipset     : VIA

I am actually thinking of buying another motherboard to make
my gus happy. I tried the debug method in the FAQ to try to
make SBOS works but failed.

Cheers! Happy GUSsing!

Fermat Ma
fma@vnet.ibm.com
fma@hk.super.net
// YMO: Ready to lay on you!

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 01:27:10 -0500
From: rwyckoff@biddeford.com (Richard Wyckoff)
Subject: Proposed solution to the PC sound problem

  Since several people wrote basically agreeing with my theory that custom
instruments would make for more interesting games, here's my proposal:  the
next generation of soundcards for GAME PLAYING, (rather than music
production), ought not to emulate General MIDI at all.  Instead, they should
offer hardware assisted multichannel sample mixing, nothing more.  These new
cards should most definitely not include patchsets of their own, especially
not the General MIDI set.  Recent issues of magazines like Next Generation
seem to indicate that game designers prefer older computer's sound systems,
such as the 8-bit, 4-channel (in its earlier incarnations, anyway) Amiga to
16-bit single-channel DAC+General MIDI.  Heck, when Sid Meier writes in the
latest Next Generation that "10 to 12 years ago...the Atari and Commodore
computers...actually had better sound systems with which to work," I'm
inclined to believe that there is something seriously amiss with the current
state of sound on PCs.

  What developers would want would be a system allowing a decent number of
channels (16 stereo as a mininum, I think) 16-bits, a high sampling rate,
and a few signal-processing effects like delay and reverb.  Then they would
have enough channels for both music AND sound effects, and the music could
be made up of whatever instruments they want, which they could design
themselves, and ship with the game.  A cheap but USER programmable (unlike
the SB ASP) DSP would also unleash the kind of creativity that hasn't been
seen since people first started to hack the C64 sound hardware.
Additionally, if one of those me-too "interactive multimedia" companies who
rely on General MIDI (to allow them to hire contract musicians who record
tunes in a studio somewhere and later plop them into the product as MIDI
files) wanted to use one of the channels to play pre-recorded 16-bit music,
that too would be an option.  In fact, these people would be happy, as they
could then use truly studio-quality, profesionally mixed music, rather than
the pale imitation of that which is GM.  (Other companies might even have
legitimate excuses for using pre-recorded soundtracks: Lucasarts' Full
Throttle demo includes a surprisingly non-cheesy rock soundtrack, and you
just don't do guitars with a keyboard. Especially a GM keyboard.)

  All of this is, of course, feasible right now, using  software mixing.
However, despite the phenomenal success of Epic Megagames'
semmingly-gazillion-channel MASI system, many other game companies can't
even manage to write 4-channel mixing systems which don't bog processors
down tremendously.  The GUS could, of course, do most of this, if it were
programmed to do it, rather than treated (as usual) as a DAC+General MIDI
device which just happens to patch cache those old GM patches.  The
Interwave will probably be a natural at this, in whatever form it finally
takes (on a motherboard, on a soundcard, direct neural interface, whatever).
But developers won't support one card's special features at the expense of
twelve others, naturally.  

  As consumers what we ought to do, then, is inform the industry (especially
soundboard manufacturers) of our desires.  It's been a tough battle for us
GUSsers to get support added for our soundboard, but perhaps that's because
we've just been talking to the wrong people: begging particular companies to
take notice of us rather than speaking as customers to hardware companies
and suggesting features for their new products.  Most of us still believe
that the GUS is a superior card: wouldn't it be more in our interest to have
other cards become more like the GUS rather than have it remain a unique,
but never fully exploited product in a field of SB+GM clones?  If you've
been continually losing while trying to argue the GUS's merits, change
tactics and instead describe how good hardware-assisted mixing would be.
Mention, for instance the in-game slowdowns in Wing Commander III when four
effects trigger simultaneously, and state that if Creative Labs were to
design a soundcard which did mixing instead of concentrating on RAM-based
samplers like the AWE32, we'd never have to deal with those again.  Talk
about the advantages of the Sony Playstation, and how its developers have 32
16-bit channels to play around with (then if you want, mention the 512k of
sample RAM, making it basically a slightly souped-up GUS Max, heh heh heh!).
If you, by any chance, have contacts at a game company, convince them that
their job would be a lot easier if they knew their soundtrack would sound
exactly the same on any IBM using hardware mixing, so that they, too, will
begin to demand this type of solution over the vagaries of GM.  We already
know GUSsers have some power, otherwise our soundcard would have dried up
and blown away instead of becoming increasingly well supported (and I
occasionally see games which support only two options: SB or GUS!).  If we
were to turn our lobbying in this new direction, perhaps we could make a
change which would not only make our gaming better, but also that of
EVERYONE else with a PC.

I've got plenty more to say on the subject, on topics such as the threat of
Win95 to this plan (Microsoft plans to make a software mixing system
available to games developers, and unless they screw it up as only Microsoft
can, you can kiss hardware-assisted mixing goodbye and instead say hello to
GM+Win95-mixed SB...STILL generic, STILL poor quality, STILL a bit of a
processor drag only somewhat alleviated by multitasking) so if you're
interested e-mail me directly.  And start that nagging that GUSsers do so well!

		Richard Wyckoff
--
Please register this product now to avoid uninterrupted use.

------------------------------

End of GUS Daily Digest V20 #10
*******************************
