Ultrasound Daily Digest     Thu, 25 Mar 93       Volume 2 : Issue  80 

Today's Topics:
					dynamically loading patches..
					 General MIDI emulator (GMOS)
				   GM driver/interesting question.
							 Hidden files
				   More on Windows drivers problems
						   Muzic in Zone 66
							 NetNews??? 
		 NEW PLAYER FOR GUS, SB, SBPRO, SB16 AND COMPATIBLES
						 New windows drivers
							Origin's reply
						  POINTS OF INTEREST
						SBPro / GUS comments 
				  The Wave Utilities 2.1 are here! 
			 Tsr to redirect speaker peeps to GUS ot SB?
	  Ultrasound FTP Sites - New files validated - March 23, 93
					Xwing, World Curcuit with SBOS
				 Xwing slowdown - Lucasarts' problem?

	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: Wed, 24 Mar 1993 11:26 MST
From: Dustin Caldwell  <DUSTIN@gse.utah.edu>
Message-Id: <9303241830.AA01674@u.cc.utah.edu>
Subject: dynamically loading patches..
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I have been reading with some interest the idea of emulating general MIDI for
SB and others. I would like something that will let me select General Midi in
XWing, and get _quality_ sounds from the card. A GUS emulating a SB is like a
486 DX50 running DOS.  WHAT A WASTE!!!! I realize that right now we have
little alternative, but it is still frustrating. :-( Anyway, back to midi,
Why not make a sort of midi file compiler or interpreter that reads the file
ahead a bit, and has the computer load the patch before it will actually need
it? I realize that if the patches are all big, that 1Meg may be insufficient,
but this would seem to work in general. Of course, this would only be valid
where the midi is stored as a file-no good for video games or things that
cannot tell the GUS ahead of time what they will need, but maybe this could
become a standard thing for games to do. The other alternative would be (not
especially practical) to have a RamDisk set up (since few games even use all
the computer's memory) with the patches. Ram to Ram transfers would at least
be better than HD to ram transfers.

My half nibble (2 bits, get it?) :-)

Dustin

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

Date: 24 Mar 1993 23:12:15 +0800
From: TC <SH7126146@NTUVAX.NTU.AC.SG>
Message-Id: <01GW7CJ3OQO2A9LGFW@NTUVAX.NTU.AC.SG>
Subject: General MIDI emulator (GMOS)
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hi everyone,
 
Seems that my earlier posts sounding out the possibility of writing a GM
TSR ourselves for the GUS is getting some support. Would anyone like to
combine efforts on this? I had attempted to obtain some information on
this, and it is getting exciting :)
 
Some suggestions/answers:
 
> that matter), calls an interrupt or I/O port.  There are already FM MIDI
> emulators, and there is absolutely NO reason why a MIDI emulator can't be
> made for the 32-voice WTS GUS.  Whether the GUS intercepts the output destined
 
Yes, this is my thoughts exactly. While I was researching on this topic
of whether it is indeed possible with a purely software program (rather
than the hardware/software combo I suggested with the serial port) I
read about FM MIDI MPU401 emulators for some cheapo soundcards. Now,
what I would like to know is, will games which program the MIDI port
*TRAP* the MIDI interrupt themselves. Because if that is so, our MIDI TSR
will not work.
 
> IF you'd like to route the MIDI output of the GUS, you might as well route
> it to another computer, which has a GUS on it and is running Windows with
 
This is kinda expensive :)
 
> THIS is a method a MIDI emulator could use, notably preloading the patches
> required for the specific application, ideally 1 MB of various patches.
 
Along this line, I have thought about several methods. The GMOS ideally
should have three modes of operation. 1) Dynamic patch loading (with the
slowdown when reading patches), 2) loading of extra patches into XMS/EMS
for faster switching, 3) a special mode in which GMOS will *COLLECT* all
the patch changes that occurs during a game for example and record this
to a .CFG file at the user's request. On the next run, it can be asked
preload the patches with these CFG file, based on frequency of usage for
example.
 
In order to do it, we can't work with 256K GUS, a 1MB GUS will be
required. A suggestion is to reserve 64K of RAM for the emulation of
SB's DAC ports for GM/SB combo, and the rest for GM patches. We would
then have the best of both worlds by being able to select GM + SB in
games.
 
> Yes we are talking of writing one.  Gravis has no plans to make a GM
> driver or TSR for GUS.
 
I read that Forte is making a Miles driver (just about time), but that
only makes compatibility with the 50%-70% of games using the Miles
driver. It certainly is great news, but we could do with the GMOS for
the remaining 30%-50% :)
 
> What I need now is info on IRQ and DMA usage.  Also, any info on the
> MPU401 DUMB mode emulation would be great!
 
I have obtained a bunch of example MIDI programming files off the net.
For those who are interested, look at MMADP36.ARC (or e-mail me to get
the files), at louie.udel.edu under /pub/midi/software/misc.
 
> (Is there any possibility of releasing specs without development tools
> for free?  I'll code stuff myself, but I can't afford the SDK.)
 
I would get the SDK if only Gravis would respond to me :(
 
.tc
--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
	 Lee Teck Chee        Internet: sh7126146@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg (155.69.1.1)
	 NTU, Singapore                 Lee.Teck.Chee@f408.n600.z6.fidonet.org
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 93 13:37:08 PST
From: Anthony K. Tang <aktang@ocf.Berkeley.EDU>
Message-Id: <199303242137.AA04164@headcrash.berkeley.edu>
Subject: GM driver/interesting question.
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Now that there's talk about someone (if not Gravis, then someone) writing a GM driver (possibly), here's a potential (?) problem.  I ALREADY have an MPU-401 type MIDI card in my system.  You'd think if there was a driver making the GUS
emulate another MPU-401, games (or whatever is trying to utilize the MIDI) would become confused as to which port to dump to, unless IRQs and what nots are
explicitly defined.  Most software just tries to figure out where th MIDI port is on their own.

I _know_ that no such driver exists yet for the GUS, and it might not even be
a problem, but I'm bored, and  thought I'd bring it up.

-Anthony Tang
aktang@sdcc13.ucsd.edu

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 93 13:36:46 EST
From: timkwan@Athena.MIT.EDU
Message-Id: <9303241836.AA29676@m11-116-8>
Subject: Hidden files
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Can someone who knows exactly what those hidden files are please provide
a list of those files so we don't have to cd into the suspicious directories
to hunt for them?

Personally I think the new disks and the setup sucks.  I don't think the
new patches are great at all...in fact, I find the added vibrato makes
most of the sounds somewhat 'manufactured' and unrealistic.  Also, the media
player in Windows doesn't work anymore (complaining that the MIDI device is 
not found or some such thing) after I ran the new install program.  I haven't
had time to read the "fine print" in the GUS digests about how to fix the
problem but I think there is still too much 'hacking' that needs to be 
done to make things work.  How long will this go on?  I feel that many of us
are 'thriving' on the quirks and the software deficiencies.  I'd rather have
something that works the first time!  But yes, for the price, the GUS does
sound good, but the technical support and the software it puts out sure leaves
much to be desired.

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1993 09:52:49 -0600
From: ken@austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach IBM)
Message-Id: <9303241552.AA27236@daedalus.austin.ibm.com>
Subject: More on Windows drivers problems
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Well, I'm still getting EMM386 exception error #06 with the Windows drivers.

The old software works fine, BTW.

I think the driver file may be damaged. The reason is because wingus.exe also
doesn't work! I get 8 successive errors about the first 8 lines of the program,
and then it doesn't seem to do anything. (I've also installed everything "by
hand" with no success).

I ran Norton Disk Doctor on the install disks of the files I ftp'd over, and
they didn't have any bad sectors.

So I guess I will run the old code until I get official disks from Gravis, then
start this hellish process again.

Ken

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 93 7:10:41 EST
From: "The Wombat" <mfrazer@skidmore.EDU>
Message-Id: <9303241204.AA08559@scott.skidmore.edu>
Subject: Muzic in Zone 66
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

	Sorry if this bothers y'all but I thought it might be of
general interest. I'm looking for a way to turn off the muzik in Zone
66. It's cool and all, but I'm a wee bit tired of it now. There is an
option to turn of sound effects, but not music (Muzik). Soo.... To the
guys at Renaissance, is there a way this can be done?
If you don't think this is worth having on the digest then reply
directly to me.
Thanks, esp for making such a neat game, it reminds me of a game I
used to play a long time ago in the arcades. Like when I was 12 or so
(Thats 8 years ago)
Anyone remember the name, I'm drawing a blank, You flew around in a
little ship, with a site just like that shot at other ships and bombed
bases, man I used to love that gae, now I've got something with better
music right here in my own box.

-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-This message was brought to you by Matthew Frazer-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"With the pinched eyes of a gourmet sampling perfection, he chewed. He chewed
 a bit more. Then he swallowed the dogfood.
He sat for a while. Well, he thought, now I know why dogs lick their testicles.
 It's to get rid of the taste of the food.  -Dave Lister, Last Human Alive
				   Finger mfrazer@scott.skidmore.edu for more
--------------------------------=Be Seeing You=--------------------------------

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 93 10:24:44 -0500
From: "It's your hand, Buckaroo" <dantonio@magick.tay2.dec.com>
Message-Id: <9303241524.AA17701@magick.tay2.dec.com>
Subject: NetNews??? 
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

> A while ago I heard someone mentioning the possibility of having
> A GUS conference on the NetNews (whatever its called).
> Has anyone heard anything more abnout this. Not to say I don't like
> having this Daily digest thing. But The SIZE of the emails are getting
> rather HUGE and if I let them stack up a few days, my QUOTA starts 
> becomming overdrawn...

It takes a while to get a new newsgroup passed and I certainly hope that
someone will post the CFD and CFV notices here as well. I think we'll all
know if a GUS-specific newsgroup gets created.

> One more thing. I havent downloaded the new disk set and I plan
> on waiting till everything seems ok with them (after hearing of all
> the problems others are having).. but I would like the new patches and
> the new SBOS 2.04? anyone know what disk those are on (so I dont have to
> download them alll??????) 

The new SBOS (2.04) is at epas in:

pub/pc/ultrasound/gravis/patch/gus0022.zip

And while I'm at it, I want to say "good job" to Thomas Wong for the epas
re-org...

DDA

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1993 15:05:29 GMT
From: waardenb@cs.utwente.nl (Jerry van Waardenberg)
Message-Id: <1993Mar24.160529@cs.utwente.nl>
Subject: NEW PLAYER FOR GUS, SB, SBPRO, SB16 AND COMPATIBLES
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

NEW PLAYER FOR GUS, SB, SBPRO, SB16 AND COMPATIBLES

JMPROTR is a module and oktalyzer player written by Josha Munnik
of Ultraforce. The player's main features are:

* Support for Gravis UltraSound, Soundblaster 1.5 and 2.0,
  SoundBlaster Pro, SoundBlaster 16, and compatibles.
* Plays 4, 6 or 8 channel mod and 2-8 channel oktalyzer files.
* TSR option (also works under Windows).
* Plays a batch of files.

Read the documentation that comes with the archive if you want to
know more. The archive is compressed with ARJ version 2.30.

I've uploaded it to

  archive.epas.utoronto.ca  /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit
  ftp.uwp.edu           /pub/incoming/modplayers
  garbo.uwasa.fi        /pc/incoming
  (I could not connect to wuarchive. Will try that later)

You can send info, remarks, bug reports, etc. to UltraForce or to
the email address below. WHEN EMAILING, PLEASE START THE SUBJECT
LINE WITH "JM:".

Greetz,

Jerry

*------------------------------------------------------------------------------*
 Jerry van Waardenberg                             _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/
 Tele Informatics and Open Systems                  _/     _/   _/  _/ _/
 Department of Computer Science                    _/     _/   _/  _/   _/
 University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands  _/     _/   _/  _/     _/
 E-mail: waardenb@cs.utwente.nl                  _/   _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/

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

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1993 12:50:13 -0500
From: akwong@uuisis.isis.org (Adrian Kwong)
Message-Id: <e3LV1B1w164w@uuisis.isis.org>
Subject: New windows drivers
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

On 22 Mar 93 7:15:07 Lee Bollard <bollard@hpspkma.spk.hp.com> writes:

[Some text replaced by colon for brevity]

 > All seem to go away when I switch from using DASHBOARD as the Windows
 > shell, and go back to Program Manager.  This problem was nonexistant
 > until I installed the new disk set.
								  :
 >       a.  "MidiOutCachePatches: This function is not supported.
								  :
 >       b.  "MidiOutCacheDrumPatches: This function is not supported.
								  :
 >       c.  "The Ultrasound MIDI Synth is being used by another application."
								  :
 >   The PatchManager then minimizes itself.
								  :
 > 2.  WinJammer doesn't load patches anymore.  The only Windows app that
 > works is Media Player.

I am also using Dashboard for Windows, and I have also installed the new
Patch disks set.  The exact same problem occurs.  However, albeit a pain in
<place derrogatory anatomy part here>, heres what I do to solve the problem:

	   1.  Unmimimize the Patch Manager.
	   2.  Load in a patch (use the 0 Acoustic Piano) Any patch will do.
	   3.  Unload the patch you just loaded.
	   4.  Go try playing your music again under WinJammer.  It should work
		   again.

/---------------------------------------------------------------------------/
Adrian Kwong                CIS:70702,2357   Internet: akwong@uuisis.isis.org
Bald Mountain Enterprises   (613) 230-1439   Fido-1:163/272 SBCNet-18:813/101
/---------------------------------------------------------------------------/



---
akwong@uuisis.isis.org (Adrian Kwong)
UUISIS - Nepean, Ontario (613) 823-6539

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 93 8:33:25 CST
From: ckalin@kelvin.cae.uwm.edu (Christopher Allen Kalin)
Message-Id: <9303241433.AA02899@kelvin.cae.uwm.edu>
Subject: Origin's reply
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

> 
> I just got this from Origin customer service:
>  
> >The reason the the GUS is not supported is do to the fact that it is NOT
> >an industry standard sound card (SOUND BLASTER is an industry standard).  If
> >it were, there would be more software companies that would support it.  The
> >GUS does not even come with a silicon FM chipset, which is required to host
> >most of the digitized sound/speech fx.  The GUS is a bargain basement sound
> >card.  It is less expensive, and show it with its incompatibility with the
> >industry standard.
>  
> I suggest we flood origincs@aol.com with mail, this guy (Rik Packham) is
> way off base about the GUS being a bargain basement sound card.

Yeah, but don't immediately assume that this is the "official" position of Origin.  Remember, a few months ago, the Compuserve rep for LucasArts said that the GUS "sucks" and got himself fired as a LucasArts rep for his troubles.  This could just be another guy at AOL who doesn't know squat about ANY soundcard, and is just trying to cover his butt.
 
I'm going to Summer CES this year, and I'll be able to talk to whoever is manning the Origin booth.  I'll get this straightened out once and for all. (Warren Spector, Richard Garriot, and/or Chris Roberts should be there.)
 
Chris Kalin

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

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 93 13:44:31 
From: john.smith@gravis.com
Message-Id: <9303231344.A1981wk@gravis.com>
Subject: POINTS OF INTEREST
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Points of Interest
------------------

I've been reading some of your reviews in the last few digests...

1) Why 188 patches instead of 192?  According to Forte 4 of the patches
   where so close they simply remapped them.

2) The Windows setup defaults to 8bit mode for patches simply because
   most users run the UltraSound with the standard 256K.  If 16bit
   was enabled by default then they may run into problems loading
   too many patches.  The new addendum which will go out with the mail
   out talks about this.

3) There is now an SBOS 2.04 (GUS0022.ZIP).  This version of SBOS
   will fix the problem of XWing not working on some computers.  It
   also properly supports multiple digital channels which will help with
   digitized sounds being cut off.

   Some of the others problem you may have experienced with SBOS 2.02
   is no digital sound capability if EMM386 is installed.  This has
   also been fixed.

4) Keith Smith asked about a GUS 3D demo (Digest #72).  There is no
   publicly available 3D demo as of yet.  Let us get the software
   out first <grin>.

5) The problem with the temporary directory not getting deleted after
   the new windows install has been fixed in V2.04.  V2.04 looks
   like it'll be our shipping version (we hope).  The main differences
   between V2.02 (which is available on Internet) and V2.04 is
   the Install and SBOS.

6) New MIDI Demo.  I'll be putting a file on our BBS tomorrow which
   will contain some tweaked MIDI files for the new patches.  I'll
   probably call it GUSMID1M.ZIP, or something like that.  Most
   of these MIDI files REQUIRE more than 512K of GUS memory or more to
   work properly.  In it will be a new HIDNSEEK.MID (Digest #72)

==== I tried to post these points last week and have just realized that
	 they never made it into any of last weeks digests.

7) (#76) I didn't say that we "Don't know how to support SBOS in a DOS
   box in Windows" but that we can't do this due to the limitations
   Windows imposes on us in their DOS box.

8) (#76) You should leave both your DMA settings in your SET ULTRASND
   the same.  Different DMA's won't be usefull until the 16 bit
   recording card is available.

9) (#77) The easiest way to handle volume is via an external source.
   The GUS volume control is all handled by the software.

10) XWING: I'm going to do some more work on this but here are some
	things to try:

		- Disable the background music if you are having slowdowns
		   during the digitized sequences
		- Make sure you have PLENTY of EMS available
		- Read the XWING README!  There are some very usefull pieces of
		  information in there.

11) FPS: Football - Because of the way Dynamix handled digital speech
	you will always get a constant echo effect.  For example:
	"First, down, down, down".  There is currently no way for us to
	fix this.

12) Our Windows install program does not like Windows program manager
	shells, such as NDW.  We are looking into this but for the time
	being you'll simply have to disable your shell.


Enjoy.

That's all folks...

John
---
 ~ QMPro 1.01 05-8925 ~ It's not hard to meet expenses, they're everywhere.

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 93 10:28:23 -0500
From: "It's your hand, Buckaroo" <dantonio@magick.tay2.dec.com>
Message-Id: <9303241528.AA17718@magick.tay2.dec.com>
Subject: SBPro / GUS comments 
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

> Bingo. NO problems. The ONLY game I have mild problems with now is X-Wing that
> is very slightly jerky when I fire lasers or a TIE goes by. The MIDI demo

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1993 09:57:43 GMT
From: ittschir@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de (Tim Tschirner)
Message-Id: <C4E108.Hq9@hermes.hrz.uni-bielefeld.de>
Subject: The Wave Utilities 2.1 are here! 
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hi,

The Wave Utilities 2.1 are out!

You can get them at the following FTP sites:

 - WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil, OAK.Oakland.Edu and their mirrors
   in the msdos.windows3 directory as WAVUTL21.ZIP

 - FTP.UWP.EDU and it's mirrors in the pub/msdos/proaudio directory
   as WAVUTL21.ARJ
   (might be found in the pub/incoming/proaudio directory first)

 - FTP.CICA.INDIANA.EDU and it's mirrors in the pub/pc/win3/sounds
   directory as WAVUTL21.ZIP
   (might be found in the pub/pc/win3/uploads directory first)


Enjoy,

Tim

ittschir@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de


Here's a description of it:


						The Wave Utilities 2.1
						----------------------

					 Copyright (C) 1993 by TASsoft

		   Written by Tim Tschirner and Christoph Sundergeld


The Wave Utilities 2.1 consist of Looper and Player, two Windows sound
applications.

Looper is a Windows application that plays digitized audio files in
wave format (files with the .wav extension) continuously in the
background. It can handle all the types and formats of Wave files that
your sound card is capable playing of. With Looper, you can have a lot
of fun. It can almost turn your computer into a Sampler, a Beat Box or
a drum machine.

Player is a sound player for Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher, which can
handle all the types and formats of Wave files that your sound card is
capable playing of. There are no limitations to the length of the Wave
file to be played. You are now able to play Wave files by simply
doubleclicking them in the File Manager. Normally, this isn't the case
- launching a Wave file calls up the Sound Recorder with the Wave file
loaded in memory. If you have a Pro AudioSpectrum 16 sound card, you
can use it's feature to play back two Wave files simultaneously together
with Looper and Player. Player can also play Wave files while you're
playing .mod files and much more. Once you installed Player, launching
a .WAV document from the File Manager will play the sound. This allows
greater flexibility for organizing and playing sounds. For example, you
can now install all of your sounds in a Program Manager group.
Doubleclicking their icons will then play them. By installing a Wave file
in your Autostart Group you are now able to play a sound of unlimited
length when Windows starts up.
When you use Norton Desktop For Windows 2.0 or later as your Windows
Shell, you can make easy use of Player's feature to play back several
Wave files after another.

To let the Wave Utilities run on your system, you must have either
Windows with Multimedia Extensions or Windows 3.1 or above installed on
your system. You will also need at least 1 Megabyte of RAM and a sound
card that is capable of playing back digitized sounds (such as a Sound
Blaster card).

If you find some bugs or have any comments, questions or problems,
you can contact us at the following Internet E-Mail addresses:
  
 1) Tim Tschirner
	ittschir@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de

 2) Christoph Sundergeld
	icsunder@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de


A special note for Pro AudioSpectrum 16 owners:
-----------------------------------------------

If you have a Pro AudioSpectrum 16 sound card installed in your system,
you can use it's special feature of playing back two Wave files at the
same time together with the Wave Utilities.

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

Date: 25 Mar 93 00:31:36 GMT
From: ddebry@itchy (Dave DeBry)
Message-Id: <ddebry.733019496@itchy>
Subject: Tsr to redirect speaker peeps to GUS ot SB?
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

In article <7084@pdxgate.UUCP>, abdu@rigel.cs.pdx.edu (abdel-hadi h bukres) writes:
> I am looking for a TSR that redirects the speaker's beeps to the GUS
> or SB. Anyone knows of any site that might carry it?
> Please reply thru email. Thanks.

	I don't think that such a thing *can* exist as a TSR, with how
the BIOS is setup to do the beeps.

	However...

	The GUS has several input lines on the card.  You might be
able to run the wires to the internal speaker to the GUS instead.
Then write a TSR for the GUS so that when it gets a signal from those
lines, it could play a sample or whatever.

--
Dave  ddebry@ debry@   \
DeBry dsd.    peruvian. | "Now let's measure our swan candleholder."
	  es.     cs.utah.  | 
	  com     edu      /

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

Date: 24 Mar 1993 08:46:29 GMT
From: twong@civil.ubc.ca (Thomas Wong)
Message-Id: <1op755INNsmr@iskut.ucs.ubc.ca>
Subject: Ultrasound FTP Sites - New files validated - March 23, 93
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

					GRAVIS ULTRASOUND FTP SITES NEWS
==========================================================================
Ftp Site: archive.epas.utoronto.ca     Directory: pub/pc/ultrasound
		  wuarchive.wustl.edu                     systems/msdos/ultrasound
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello all. Now that we are back to normal running order, my volume of
files to validate is small enough to be quite manageable. Therefore, I
will now actually post a brief posting each time (note the word brief)
telling you all what I validated. Much like the "new files uploaded to
yay and yay site" you see in the other newsgroups. So that you know what
files are new.

New files validated on March 23, 1992: (for both ftp sites)
===========================================================

Directory: ..../sound/669/files

aminor.arj, ascream.arj, awakngn.arj, centref.arj, corehop.arj,
corpse2.arj, element.arj, hardp.arj, out-run.arj

Directory: ..../sound/midi/files

marcii.zip, nicemids.zip

Directory: ..../sound/voc/util

gvoc10.zip - VOC player for the Ultrasound

Directory: ..../demo

diftro2.arj - 2nd Digitial Infinity demo with GUS support
in3demo.zip - In Cube demo for voice recognition execution of Windows apps

Directory: ..../game

booter15.zip - allows to choose between 2 configuration for DOS boot
			   (useful for Zone 66)

Directory: ..../util

2s.c - C code to convert unsigned to 2's complement GUS .snd file
combine.c - C code to convert 2 mono to 1 stereo GUS .snd file
split.c - C code to convert 1 stereo to 2 mono GUS .snd file

NOTE: Can someone test these codes out? And let me know if it works.
	  If not, then it better be fixed or I'm taking them off.
	  For obvious reasons. Thanks in advance.

Directory: ..../util/dos

gustest.exe - Latest version of GUSTEST (version 1.1)


NOTICES:
========

QUESTION FOR UPLOADERS:

Who keeps uploading every version of the Digest up into the submit
directory? If you don't have a reason, I'm going to start deleting them
as soon as I see them. We don't want to see them submitted especially
since Dave (owner of GUS Digest) has his own format for the ftp site
hence he does all the uploading himself. So please stop uploading them.
And if you have a reason, let us know. Otherwise I'm going to start
deleting them. I'll wait for a couple of days for replies before I start
to delete them.


Well, that's it for now. Happy GUSing!

Thomas.

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 93 10:19:58 MET
From: fischer@tmpmbx.netmbx.de (Axel Fischer)
Message-Id: <m0nbRct-0002fgC@tmpmbx.netmbx.de>
Subject: Xwing, World Curcuit with SBOS
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Axel Fisher writes:
>> However XWing is still unplayable due to the slowdown when you shoot
>> your lasers or fly very nearby a ship. I would like to see that slowdown
>> (also noticeable with Tristan) bug fixed. Maybe Gravis gets it sometimes
>> to a playable level.

From: waardenb@cs.utwente.nl (Jerry van Waardenberg):
>The readme file of X-Wing says that it is a SB related problem. It has to
>do with some chip on certain SB's, that cause the slowdown. SO it is not
>really a GUS problem (although there may be a way to fix it). Just don't
>use digitized laser sounds.

Well, with a real Soundblaster there is no slowdown at all! Absolutly fast
and ok. 
Also Tristan (pin-ball flipper that also uses a lot of digitized effects) 
slows down too, when lots of sounds can be heard and it slows down
noticable. Others games also have that problem.
It is defenitly a SBOS problem. The softwareemulation is not fast enough.
(I have a DX-2/66 and a DX-33 and both have the same problem.)

>Has anyone tried SBOS 2.04 (or 2.02) with Formula One Grand Prix (or World
>Circuit)? The engine sounds are *very* noisy on my system. I've tried other
>IRQ/DMA combinations, but that did not help.
Yes, and it sounds superb! Its louder than with the SB, but the engine sound
sounds MUCH better. Much more realistic.

-Axel

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

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1993 09:38:51 -0600
From: ken@austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach IBM)
Message-Id: <9303241538.AA28174@daedalus.austin.ibm.com>
Subject: Xwing slowdown - Lucasarts' problem?
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

DEATH BEFORE DISCO <JKS4675@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> writes:

>2) The X-Wing slowdown is a pain...but after lengthy discussion with
>the tireless wizards at Forte, I consider the problem to be caused by Lucasarts 
>and not Forte.


I believe this to be the case because some people posted to
the Internet soundcard newsgroup that they were getting
delays with other soundscards (Soundblaster Pro?) as well.

So now what - contact Lucasarts?

Ken

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #80
******************************
