Ultrasound Daily Digest Sat Jun 19 00:40 Volume 4: Issue 19 Today's Topics: AIL and Strike Commander be aware of cache challenges on floppies day of the tentacle DISK IN ITALY!!! some questions... Disk shippings Disks in S.A. Got 2.06/How to install quickly GUSAIL96 - BUGS (2 msgs) GUSAIL96 BUG!!! READ!! GUS and Windows NT; 2.06 disks in Europe GUS disks received in Ontario, last week! Help with F15 II Lost Registration... MOD files in Windoze.. More X-Wing (but wait! this is a solution!) OS/2 os/2 2.x and gus RELEASE OF AIL/DIGPAK FOR (2 msgs) Samples and Midi, an idea for Dave sampling noise- does it happen to you? To the person in Italy... ULTRASOUND DAILY DIGEST V Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #18 Xwing (once more) XWING, Excellent MID/WAV player for Win 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, 18 Jun 1993 21:22:23 -0700 From: Eric N. Liao Subject: AIL and Strike Commander Message-ID: <199306190422.AA25815@aerospace.aero.org> Congratulations and cheers, Gravis for your AIL drivers. So far, I've tried (v0.96B) with the Ultima Underworld demo (03/92), and it works fine if I turn off sound-effects. For some reason, if I have sound effects enabled, the music will cut-in and cut-out (as if someone was yanking on my speaker cables.) Now for my main question...is there a way to make it work with Strike Commander? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 14:45:37 EDT From: rjw@genrad.com (Rod J. Wittmier) Subject: be aware of cache challenges on floppies Message-ID: <9306181845.AA17832@animal.genrad.com> I was asked (thanks DDA) to let you know of the challenges one may find if they use cache software on a floppy. Since the typical cache software does a delayed write-back of data to the drive be aware that you need to work differently. The challenges that follow do apply to hard drives as well as floppies. Even with these challenges the improvement in performance that a cache gives you is well worth it, if you're aware of the challenges. With cache turned on you will notice the DOS prompt return before the files are completely written out (i.e., COPY *.BAT B:). If you watch the disk activity light it will come on, go off and later come back on when the cache does its final write. Here are the things to do to protect yourself from data loss on drives that are cached: o If copying files to cached drive, don't shut off the computer until the cache is written to the disk. I typically shut off the cache for that drive (SMARTDRV B-) or issue a flush command to write all data in the cache to all drives (SMARTDRV /C). I have a batch called OFF that does a SMARTDRV /C and then says "OK to power off". o Don't remove the floppy until the cache is emptied. Again do a flush or just wait 10 seconds or so. Hope this helps you to avoid data loss to cached drives. Please note that I didn't invent the cache software so "Don't Shoot The Messanger" Rod Wittmier ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 15:43:44 -0500 From: "A. Jeff" Subject: day of the tentacle Message-ID: <199306182043.AA28117@Menudo.UH.EDU> Has anyone found out how to prevent day of the tentacle from locking up? It has prince of persia - like symptoms, it goes a while perfectly and then locks up, but it locks at different points in the intro. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 09:40:52 EDT From: dulimart@cps.msu.edu Subject: DISK IN ITALY!!! some questions... Message-ID: <9306181340.AA22346@calumet.cps.msu.edu> Date: Thu, 17 Jun 93 10:52:42 METDST From: matteo ugolini I've read the little booklet with the GRAVIS offers for the registred GUS users. I' dont understand what mean "2 256k for 15$". 1st impression: 2 chips of 128kb each (total 256kb) for a total of 15$ (no shipping included). No. 2nd impression: 2 chips of 256Kb each (total 512kb) for a total of 15$ (idem). Yes. But the sockets carry 128kb chips (my 256kb board has only 2 chips), so... Each socket carries 256k nibbles (a nibble = 4 bits). When you put two memory chips in one bank you have 256k bytes on that bank. Can anybody tell my how much should I pay for upgrade my GUS from 256kb to 1Mb? (shipping not included). I guess you have to pay $45. Hans. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 09:53:43 -0400 (EDT) From: elminstr@hudlink.hoboken.nj.us (J.J. Pierson) Subject: Disk shippings Message-ID: <94ec6B1w165w@hudlink.hoboken.nj.us> For all you people who haven't got your Ultrasound update disks yet, you might want to call Gravis. I never recieved mine when my friend already did so I called. I've had my Gravis since it came out and it turns out they never recieved my registration card. (I sent it out the day after I got my Ultrasound.) Now I actually have to send in the UPC symbol from my Ultrasound box (I lost the reciept from the store. If you have that use that instead). So I'll have to wait for that to get to Gravis. Wait for processing time, then wait for the disks to get to me. Anybody have the address for Gravis? I don't want to send it to the adress in my manuals because my last card didn'y get to them. --- J.J. Pierson Internet EMail: elminstr@hudlink.hoboken.nj.us Prodigy Email: TVFF82B ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 14:40:22 GMT+0200 From: Walter Prins Subject: Disks in S.A. Message-ID: <9306181240.AA11285@itu1.sun.ac.za> Hi, I just thought I'd join the chorus of 'Disks received' and say that the update disks have actually reached South Africa as well. Well done Gravis. I'm mighty pleased as well. I'll have to wait until next week to try the things out though... :( (Just BTW Fiddling with all the SBOS'es and stuff, I've found that in general SBOS 1.20 or 1.22 still *works* the best and almost always sounds pretty good, and in some cases SBOS 2.04/2.08 (I prefer 2.04) sounds better but does not work with so many programs. Almost all proggies I have that doesn't like the 2.x versions like the 1.2x versions.) Ciao. ------------ Walter Prins Email: prins@cs.sun.ac.za Third year Computer Science prins@itu.sun.ac.za University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. 'So little done, so much to do' -- Cecil John Rhodes ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 12:54:06 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Re: Got 2.06/How to install quickly Message-ID: <9306181654.AA21728@magick.tay2.dec.com> > From Windows the \ultrasnd\winsetup utility starts but gives me > an error about not being able to change directories (doesn't say > what directory) and exits. Somehow the SYSTEM.INI file got updated > though. WINSETUP consistently failed for me, mostly because it couldn't find my system.ini and win.ini. After John Smith pointed me to the winsetup.inf file, I found where it searches for these files and got it to display the results. It finds the partition where WINDOWS lives, but not the directory and file name. So I had to do it by hand which was totally trivial. Re: Caching floppy drives. Be VERY careful when you cache floppies that you don't end up write-caching them with any kind of writeback delay. SMARTDRV normally does delayed writes to the disk which can cause all kinds of havoc, since most folks are in the habit of just turning the PC off when they are done. So files get corrupted, etc. Well, even more folks are in the habit of yanking out the floppy when they get the DOS prompt back. So if you do cache a floppy (and it's generally a good idea to cache reads), don't set it up for write caching... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 16:43:07 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: GUSAIL96 - BUGS Message-ID: <9306181643.A7022wk@gravis.com> We have found two bugs in GUS AIL V0.96. Both of which are being worked on but won't be available until Monday. Here is what they are: 1) If you try to load ULTRAMID with -C and you have 512K on your UltraSound card you will get an 'eror on patch load' msg. Because the 512K library is the same as the 768K one. We are redoing ULTRAMID.INI so that the 512K library will properly fit. 2) If your program has digital audio that is cut off half way through ULTRAMID may screw up. From that point on you'll only hear a pop when digital audio is to be played. Both problems are being fixed. You can expect a GUS AIL V.97 on Monday. Have a good weekend. John --- ~ QMPro 1.02 05-8925 ~ Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 16:43:05 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: GUSAIL96 - BUGS Message-ID: <9306181643.A6998wk@gravis.com> We have found two bugs in GUS AIL V0.96. Both of which are being worked on but won't be available until Monday. Here is what they are: 1) If you try to load ULTRAMID with -C and you have 512K on your UltraSound card you will get an 'eror on patch load' msg. Because the 512K library is the same as the 768K one. We are redoing ULTRAMID.INI so that the 512K library will properly fit. 2) If your program has digital audio that is cut off half way through ULTRAMID may screw up. From that point on you'll only hear a pop when digital audio is to be played. Both problems are being fixed. You can expect a GUS AIL V.97 on Monday. Have a good weekend. John --- ~ QMPro 1.02 05-8925 ~ Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 16:29:09 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: GUSAIL96 BUG!!! READ!! Message-ID: <9306181629.A6992wk@gravis.com> I am trying to fix this problem right now. But it looks like the -C will only work if you have 1Mb on the UltraSound card. If you have 256K, 512K or 768K you WILL get an "error on patch load" error msg. There is nothing you can do about this right now. I am trying to come up with a new ULTRAMID.INI file. John "Why does this always happen at the last minute" Smith ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 15:38:26 MET From: John Vernooij Subject: GUS and Windows NT; 2.06 disks in Europe Message-ID: Hi there, I bought my GUS in December '92 and have been reading this digest ever since, but although I might be wrong, I can't remember seeing anything about a GUS related to (beta-) Windows NT. Lately I've read some reviews about Windows NT and that made me wonder if it would be possible to use a GUS with NT (if I decide I like it; please don't send me messages about how much better OS/2 is, I'm not interested in that discussion). My knowledge about NT is still limited but I suppose that you can't use the Windows 3.1 driver for the GUS with NT. I also read that Microsoft will be shipping (when they start shipping) NT with drivers for various third party-cards (including soundcards), but if the one you need is not included you'll have to depend on your manufacturer. So, does anyone know if a GUS-driver is included (or maybe not necessary) with NT and, if not, is Gravis doing something about it? And now for something completely different: did anyone in Europe who, like me, send their registration card as instructed to Logitech in Switzerland, already receive the 2.06 disks? It's obvious: I didn't and although I FTP'd the 2.06L disks, I would like to receive the additional Recording Studio and Powerchords software. Greetings, John Vernooij + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | J.C.A. Vernooij | voice +31 (0)30 53 50 17 | | Universiteit Utrecht | fax +31 (0)30 53 50 30 | | Faculty of Earth Sciences | e-mail j.vernooij@earth.ruu.nl | | The Netherlands | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 10:43:48 -0400 From: "Stephan F. Jou" Subject: GUS disks received in Ontario, last week! Message-ID: <93Jun18.104355edt.31173@marvin.cdf.toronto.edu> Fellow Red Card Worshipers: To be fair to Canada Post, I wanted to mention that I DID indeed receive the Gravis disks in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada late last week! Rest assured that Gravis has not forgotten you! Perhaps it is just, as it should be, that Canada Post loves delivering to Scarborough more than any other place in Canada. :-) Patience, Canadians! StEpHaN! --- Stephan F. Jou | "The very fact that we remain alive is almost beyond g1pary@cdf.toronto.edu | our control ... Thus, the human being is actually an | automaton, and the fact that we are sensing, feeling, | and knowledgeable beings is part of this automatic | sequence of life..." - A. C. Guyton ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 93 11:50 -0700 From: Thomas Wong Subject: Help with F15 II Message-ID: <3681*twong@civil.ubc.ca> We have a fellow in our dept who just bought an Ultrasound. And of course as luck would have it, the only game that he's ever owned is F15 Strike Eagle II.... version 451.05. And it doesn't seem to work with the GUS. We've tried all the -o and -x parameters and no go. Not a good into for GUS. The game would go through the setup screen and then stuck. Blank screen and nothing. Or, we get a "adlib board no found". Has anyone got it to work? The readme/faq files only talk about f15 I or F15 III, nothing on II. Thanks in advance. Thomas. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 06:40:51 -0700 From: parkerw@CS.UCLA.EDU (Parker Waechter) Subject: Lost Registration... Message-ID: <9306181340.AA04204@lanai.cs.ucla.edu> For those of you (like me) who have not received your disks yet...You may want to call gravis... I was wondering why it was taking so long, and so I called the 800 # to ask when I could expect them etc. It turns out that they have no record of receiving my reg card. *sigh*. So now I need to send them a piece of the box or something to prove I own it. Jeez. Did this happen to anyone else? -- Parker B. Waechter UCLA Biocybernetics Lab parkerw@cs.ucla.edu 4731 Boelter Hall Los Angeles, Ca. 90024-1596 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 13:14:16 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Re: MOD files in Windoze.. Message-ID: <9306181714.AA21799@magick.tay2.dec.com> > There already is...WinMod Pro. It is a bit flakey with some mods, but this is > not a problem with the GUS, it is a problem with the implementation of the > ProTracker bit.Sometimes a MOD will cause the program to have an application > error. It won't happen very often, but when it does, the MOD is probably the > cause of the problem. Make sure you choose "Stereo" from the menu, otherwise it > will sound like a normal SoundBLaster. I believe this is due to the fact that SOME MODs are in 15 instrument format whereas most are in 31 instrument format. UltraMOD also won't play MODs in 15 instrument format. And, of course, my "test MOD" was a 15 instrument format MOD so I thought that UltraMOD was broken for a long time... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 18:51:15 +0100 From: zccaj19@ucl.ac.uk (Mr Stefan Magdalinski) Subject: More X-Wing (but wait! this is a solution!) Message-ID: <9306181751.AA87786@link-1.ts.bcc.ac.uk> 2 posts in one day!! I'm being greedy... Stuart Yoshida writes: >* X-Wing only works in Adlib mode (that sucks!). > > * I'd like to get X-Wing working in Soundblaster mode to get the music > *AND* digitized sounds. >* Here are my settings: MIDI IRQ 7 GF1 IRQ 11 DMA In 1 DMA Out 1 What's your base port address? I had the same problem until I reset the base port to 220h. Then it worked fine. P.S. Has anyone else noticed that if you shoot the two nobbly things on a Star Destroyer's Bridge, the shields collapse. Nice touch that, just like Return of the Jedi. Stefan Magdalinski, "The Games People Play by Vladimir Djura, 29th August - 4th September, Roman Eagle Lodge, Edinburgh Fringe Festival , Scotland" A Plug!! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 08:24:28 -0700 From: jakub@eskimo.com (Jake Cholewczynski) Subject: OS/2 Message-ID: <199306181524.AA17912@eskimo.com> I am about to switch to OS/2, just wondering if anyone knows when thedrivers are coming out... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Jun 93 23:32:43 GMT From: thomasvk@blackhl.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) Subject: os/2 2.x and gus Message-ID: <9sqq6B11w165w@blackhl.hacktic.nl> Is there anybody who has the GUS windows drivers working in os/2 2.x winos/2 3.1? I can get winos/2 in enhanced mode (and it's working very good with matimatica - uses much processor power and memory). I'll get the message like: not in enhanced or not good or so. Thanks, Thomas. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 12:18:06 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: RELEASE OF AIL/DIGPAK FOR Message-ID: <9306181218.A6913wk@gravis.com> Gravis has released the long awaited AIL/DIGPAK/MIDPAK drivers. They are currently at V0.96 and are still in Beta. We have been using them for well over a month and should have worked out all major bugs. What follows is a description of these drivers and a list of places you may download them at. John Smith - SysOp Advanced Gravis PS: The 7th Guest sounds REAL hot with these drivers 1.1.0 Audio Interface Libraries (AIL) - MIDPAK/DIGPAK =============================================== The Audio Interface Libraries (AIL), (we know them as "Miles" Drivers) and DIGPAK are a set of interface drivers which enable software developers (mainly game developers) to integrate sound capabilities into their programs. Once a developer has integrated his program into the AIL drivers the application will work with all sound cards on the market who provide AIL drivers. The AIL's provide support for MIDI as well as the Digital Sound interface of an audio card. These library drivers allow the developers to use UltraSound's wavetable synthesizer and allow them to utilize the UltraSound's digital interface to play 8 or 16 bit audio in either mono or stereo mode. Advanced Gravis & FORTE have recently designed and released to Miles Design and The Audio Solution Inc. the AIL and DIGPAK routines for the UltraSound card which provide the mechanism for developers to easily intergrate with, and use UltraSound's features. Developers who have the AIL's and/or DIGPAK can get the driver updates and intergrate their programs into the UltraSound. The AIL/DIGPAK updates will also be available through the Advaced Gravis BBS or any of our nodes. Please refer to GRAVNODE.TXT for a complete list. Developers who do not have the AILs can get them from Miles Design and/or DIGPAK from The Audio Solution Inc. Developers who want to take full advantage of UltraSound's advanced features; and do not want to pay either Miles Design or The Audio Solution Inc. license fees, Advanced Gravis and FORTE have a stand alone driver as well. These drivers use a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) utility called UltraMID. Developers utilizing this TSR are able to do digital playback at 8 or 16 bits up to 44.1kHz sample rate. Also, this allows programmers to use all of the UltraSound's 32 digital voices as well as the superior wavetable synthesizer. These drivers are another level of support for the UltraSound card developers. Both the AIL and DIGPAK interfaces provide a means for programmers to easily design software for many sound cards using only one API while Advanced Gravis/FORTE's stand alone TSR allows developers to take advantage of UltraSound's more advanced features. . Authorized Gravis BBS Nodes List . as of . June 16, 1993 . June 16, 1993