Ultrasound Daily Digest     Thu Jun 24 00:42     Volume 4: Issue  23  

Today's Topics:
                7th Guest/AIL working thanks to DOS 6
                                  Hi
                              subscribe
              Tech Questions on Gravis Ultrasound (GUS)
                        Tetris Classic w/GUS?
                           ultrabots and EA
                   Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #21 
                    Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #22
        Ultrasound FTP Sites - Discussion on new arrangement 
                          Wing Commander II

Standard Info:
	- Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest.
	- Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ.

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

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 11:42:01 -0500 (EST)
From: sjm@se01.elk.miles.com (Scott Mark)
Subject: 7th Guest/AIL working thanks to DOS 6
Message-ID: <9306231642.AA19958@se01.elk.miles.com>

7th Guest is working with AIL/Miles now.  Thanks go to MS-DOS 6 and memmaker,
I guess.  Funny thing was that I tried several combinations of active TSRs
and others that were commented out and there didn't seem to be any way of
knowing which combinations would work.

I got several suggestions, and tried them all, and I tried 386MAX 6.0, but
nothing worked until now.

Anyway, the sound is indeed much better.  I'm not all that far along so I
think that I might start over.

Scott

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

Date: 23 Jun 93 08:34:03 EDT
From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Hi
Message-ID: <930623123402_71333.2166_DHQ58-2@CompuServe.COM>

Hi! I'm the author of Power Chords, and I've just started monitoring the
digest. I'm new to Internet, and have no direct access, but you can e-mail
me on CompuServe.

If you have any questions, support issues etc. I'll be happy to field them.

Eric Bell
Top Dog
Howling Dog Systems

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

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 14:00:13 EDT
From: dulimart@cps.msu.edu (Hansye S. Dulimarta)
Subject: Tech Questions on Gravis Ultrasound (GUS)
Message-ID: <9306231800.AA17906@pixel.cps.msu.edu>

   Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 17:04:34 GMT
   From: tjr@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (thomas.j.roberts)

   ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard


   1. I understand the GUS can play 32 simultaneous samples. How is this
      implemented? Does the Windows 3.1 driver implement 32 waveform
      output devices? Does it use "driver custom messages"? How does
      my program access the GUS to play multiple simultaneous samples?
      Does it cache them on-board? Can my program control the cache (i.e.
      indicate "keep this one" but "delete that one") ? Can it change
      the pitch and/or sample-rate of the playback?

You can upload/download you samples from/to GUS DRAM to the PC's memory.
For each voice (sample) there are a number of registers you can use for
controlling how the sample is processed by the GF1 processor. The
controllable parameters include the frequency, volume, envelope,
panning, looping, etc.

   2. I believe there is a programmable DSP on the board. What chip
      is it? What tools are available for it? I am an experienced DSP
      programmer.

The GF1 has a pipeline architecture and it cycles through all active
voices that you download to the GUS board.  I guess it doesn't have any
DSP capability.

   3. I know that an SDK is available from the FTP sites. I did not pick
      it up because it is so large (I probably will do so if I purchase the
      board). What capabilities does the SDK provide? Is there a DSP
      assembler/downloader in it? If there are DSP tools, is there enough
      documentation on the overall hardware/software environment to make
      it useful? Is the SDK necessary to use the GUS under Windows 3.1, 
      or do the MIDI and waveform drivers suffice for the following?
	   playing multiple waveforms
	   using its internal synthesizer
	   using its MIDI I/O ports

You can use the GUS under Windows 3.1 w/o the SDK.  In my opinion, the
documentation is not comprehensive enough.

   4. Does playing waveforms interact with the internal synthesizer?
      In particular, does playing multiple waveforms reduce the number
      of synthesizer voices (simultaneous notes)?

No, but as the number of voices increases the cycle time required by the GF1
processor to visit a voice increases, which means that the GF1 visits a
voice less often.

   5. I understand that the GUS emulates a SoundBlaster via a TSR called
      SBOS (this question is for usage under DOS). Is the emulation
      good enough to work with most games? How likely is it that a given
      game will work with the GUS (if it works with the SB)? I know this
      depends upon the specific game; I am looking for a general "feel" -
      is it useful for games, or do many/most games fail to use it?

I don't use SBOS, so I won't answer this one.

   Thanks in advance. If you know any of these answers, please send email
   and I will summarize to the group.

   Tom Roberts	tjrob@ihlpl.att.com

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

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 08:53:19 EDT
From: "Burns Fisher, VMS Engineering  23-Jun-1993 0853" <fisher@skylab.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Tetris Classic w/GUS?
Message-ID: <9306231253.AA16248@us2rmc.bb.dec.com>

Does anyone have any guesses as to how one might get Tetris Classic to work with 
GUS?

I fear I may be SOL, because TC runs under Windows, but apparently is intended 
to work with V3 (no multimedia), since it tries to muck with the SB directly 
rather than using sound drivers.  Any great ideas?

Thanks,

Burns

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

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 01:46:43 -0700
From: dross@ultrix4.csubak.edu (Dean Ross-Smith)
Subject: ultrabots and EA
Message-ID: <9306230846.AA23371@ultrix4.csubak.edu>

Ok, I got Ultrabots yesterday and it works sorta ok with my ancient clone
and SBOS.  This isn't any big deal.
the new is...
The tech rep. that I talked to from Electronic Arts said they WEREN'T planning
on supporting the Ultrasound.  Sigh.  He said there were just too many different
sound cards out there and soundblaster was all they were going to do.
oh well...

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

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 12:43:20 -0400
From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" <dantonio@magick.tay2.dec.com>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #21 
Message-ID: <9306231643.AA01652@magick.tay2.dec.com>

> > Well, as another unlucky X-winger (can only get AdLib sound) I was just
> > wondering if the GUS is unhappy with DoubleSpace (DOS 6.0's hard disk
> > compression software) which I have installed on my machine.  At the risk
> 
> I'm using DoubleSpace as well, and X-wing runs nearly flawlessly with
> SBOS 1.20.  The digital speech only drops out on the rare occasion,
> and the slow-downs when I fire my lasers or a TIE zooms by are eliminated
> by turning the music off.

I'd like to point out again that I get a (slight) pause whenever a digital
sound is played as well. Except that I'm playing the game through a real SB
1.5! So I don't think it's got much to do with SBOS...

DDA

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

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 14:11:56 EDT
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #22
Message-ID: <9306231811.AA11879@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>

> From: sjm@se01.elk.miles.com (Scott Mark)
> Subject: very frustrated with 7th Guest, AIL
>
[...] 
> So I try using 386max.  Which refuses to make it load high, even though I
> take out all other stuff, and have a 57k region in which to load a 56k program.
>

I think I got 386Max to load Ultramid high with "386load prog=ultramid" 
at the DOS prompt.  I also had DoubleSpace, the mouse driver, DOSKey,
and a 64k EMS page frame in high mem, so I couldn't have that much more
free up there than you.

> So when I edit autoexec.bat myself to force it to stuff ultramid into region 2
> (which is empty and has 57k free or so), I get the problem:
> "port address not found"	 (or something close)
> "another program is using the Ultrasound"    (again, something close)
> 
> even though I've got a bare-bones system, and tried it with and without
> ultrinit.
>

I believe ultrinit MUST reset and configure the GUS first before ultramid
will recognize it.  So in your autoexec, remember to put ultramid AFTER
your ultrasnd and ultradir variables and ultrinit. 

I don't have T7G, but just thought I'd add my $0.02.

> From: RTHI%BTMA74@se.alcbel.be
> Subject: Where in the world is my 8k DRAM
> 
> I have made the upgrade from 256k to 1M DRAM.
> 
> I used the diagnostic program that came with the soundcard to test the DRAM
> and... it worked all 1024k passed the test. I was a happy man.
> 
> However, when I started windows and launched the PatchManager, he told me
> that only 1016k was free.
> 
> So my question is where in the world is my 8k...
>

The 8k is very probably reserved as a buffer for the playing of WAVs.
 
Phat.

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

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 12:49:08 -0400
From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" <dantonio@magick.tay2.dec.com>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound FTP Sites - Discussion on new arrangement 
Message-ID: <9306231649.AA01670@magick.tay2.dec.com>

This certainly seems like a reasonable way to handle the problem (although
I DO like the idea of Gravis buying a gig disk...:-). It does seem like
alot of extra work for the site administrator in that they will have to
move files across machines now. If a bunch of MIDI files get uploaded to
epas, they've got to move 'em over to wuarchive...But, given the
alternatives and that they are willing to do the work...

DDA

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

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 17:21:15 EDT
From: jagati1@SERVER.uwindsor.ca (Jason Jagatic)
Subject: Wing Commander II
Message-ID: <9306232121.AA24614@SERVER.uwindsor.ca>

I am not sure if this message is appropriate for this digest, but I need some 
help.

I cannot get Wing Commander 2 to install on my system.  Could it be because of the GUS?

I have the GUS set to: 220,1,1,5,3

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.

Could the gus be doing this?   Please help!

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #23
*************************************