From gus-general-request@gaia.ucs.orst.eduThu Apr 13 17:46:29 1995 Date: Thu Apr 13 09:37:04 PDT 1995 From: GUS Server Reply to: GUS Daily Digest Subject: GUS Daily Digest V21 #13 GUS Daily Digest Thu, 13 Apr 95 9:37 PST Volume 21: Issue 13 Today's Topics: 3.59 Upgrade probs dos games in OS/2 GUS Daily Digest V21 #12 (3 msgs) GUS working with Win95! InterWave and GF1 compatibility No MIDI in Windows - No sounds for Dark Forces. Origin and the gus Origin GUS Support (was: Bioforge) OS/2 and DOS Games Problems with the Digest? VFW v1.1e Why hasn't this been implemented yet? 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, 12 Apr 95 11:31:11 PDT From: "Jeffrey B. Bonner" Subject: 3.59 Upgrade probs I am a new digester to GUS (this being my 3rd issue) so please forgive if this question has been asked before. I just upgraded to 3.59 from AOL and everything works o.k. except that when I play my avi files under windows (3.1) the sound pulses in and out on a regular basis. I noticed this shortly after I installed 3.59. Any ideas? -- Jeffrey B. Bonner - BWR Nuclear Engineering SIEMENS POWER CORPORATION-NUCLEAR DIVISION Engineering and Manufacturing Facility 2101 Horn Rapids Road, PO Box 130 Richland, WA 99352-0130 Office: (509)375-8741 Fax: (509)375-8006/8402 email: jbb@fred.nfuel.com (work) nukebrewer@aol.com (home) Current Project: WNP-2 Cycle 11 It often shows a fine command of language to say nothing. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Apr 95 13:24:38 EDT From: gary.schrock@ssc.msu.edu Subject: Re: dos games in OS/2 Message-ID: First off, sorry that this is sort of off topic for this list, but I figured other people MIGHT be interested in my response to the question someone asked yesterday. About Doom under os/2: I wouldn't recommend even trying to get digital sounds working under OS/2. It's a known problem, and I sincerely doubt it'll ever be fixed. On the bright side, it appears that a beta of Doom/2 was finally released, so if decent drivers for the GUS ever appear for OS/2, that might be a viable alternative (Doom/2 was too fast to play in a 640x480 window in 800x600 mode on the Pentium 90 I tried it on). I've only tried the alpha drivers from Gravis under OS/2, and well, they were pretty disappointing. Course, I've just bought my GUS last night, so I haven't had much of a chance to try drivers out yet. And more of a general comment about running Dos games under OS/2: I maintain a list dealing with how to change your settings to run Dos games under OS/2. It's posted regullarly (or at least will be once problems with the local news server are resolved) to several newsgroups, including comp.os.os2.games and comp.answers. You can also always grab the latest copy off my ftp site, ftp://eyelab.msu.edu/os2/games21e.zip is the current version. Like I mentioned above, I just bought a GUS last night, so hopefully as time passes I'll be able to make notes about whether various games work with it under OS/2. Gary Schrock gary.schrock@ssc.msu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Apr 1995 13:48:46 -0400 (EDT) From: Lance Kalzus Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V21 #12 On Wed, 12 Apr -1, "Jeffrey K. Salzmann" wrote: > 1) What program can I use to directly sample CDs to the GUS? I have a NEAT > binaural recording I might just upload.... "CDINFO v1.4" is capable of directly reading CD-audio data into a sound file, provided that both the MSCDEX API, the CD-ROM driver, and the CD-ROM drive all support reading the data (CDInfo14 will tell you when it cannot). Be aware that transmission of the data afterwards to another person's machine, or for mass distrib. is a copyright violation (HAH!:). ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Apr 1995 13:53:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Lance Kalzus Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V21 #12 On Wed, 12 Apr -1, h0mi wrote: Heheh. Nice name ;) > I've had a few problems, however. Doom used to work for me, but without > sound. Now, it crashes on me after a few seconds, but does have sound. > The sound does get munged after sounding "normal" for a brief moment or so. Well, a friend of mine can run DOOM with an AWE32... I assume you aren't using any drivers for GUS use in OS/2, so there should be no conflict there... I'll ask the guy and get back to ya ;) > I also want to run Pirates Gold under a dos session, but since apparantly > the dos session doesn't have/emulate EMS ram emulation>, emuset/megaem don't work (and my serial mouse has yet to work > under a dos session despite using the mouse driver in my os2\mdos directory). You also have to set up your DOS options box: particuarly, make sure that any settings involving "DPMS_API" are _enabled_, _AND_ that you allocate EMS memory. This may not work anyway, since OS/2 EMS services doesn't fully support every service that EMM386 could give (so I've heard, particularly involving VCPI, if I remember correctly.). > If anyone has had any luck in running any of these games in a dos > session, please inform me on the settings that you've had, etc. And if > anyone has ever used Display v1.87, and had sound abilities with the GUS > (it looks for a SB but wont run with sbos or emuset set) let me know. Thanks. I haven't had any luck particularly with this one. It's really annoying since Xing only works on Xing-type MPEGs, so I can't get sound on non-Xing MPEGs which have sound files with them :_(. "Invisible airwaves crackle with life Bright antenna, bristle with the energy Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength Bearing a gift beyond price that's almost free" -- Rush ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 95 11:47:49 -0400 From: "Barrie Rody" Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V21 #12 On Wed Apr 12 09:37:06 PDT 1995, GUS Server wrote: >Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 12:41:21 -0700 (PDT) >From: h0mi >Subject: Games in Dos sessions in os/2 > ----Stuff Deleted---- >I've had a few problems, however. Doom used to work for me, but without >sound. Now, it crashes on me after a few seconds, but does have sound. >The sound does get munged after sounding "normal" for a brief moment or so. > Suggest you try Doom2 for OS/2. Its available via ftp at hobbes.nmsu.edu. >I also want to run Pirates Gold under a dos session, but since apparantly >the dos session doesn't have/emulate EMS ram emulation>, emuset/megaem don't work (and my serial mouse has yet to work >under a dos session despite using the mouse driver in my os2\mdos directory). > DOS sessions can be set for whatever type of memory you need (EMS, XMS, DPMI). Also the memory can be customized for each individual DOS session. Emuset/megaem are VXD's which try to control system resources and since OS/2 is a multitasking OS it retains control of the system resources and won't allow VXD's to run. If your serial mouse is connected to a serial port other than Com1 or Com2 OS/2 has to be told about the appropriate Com port. Type "help com.sys in an OS/2 window. ----Stuff Deleted---- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Barrie Rody RR 6 brody@fox.nstn.ca Kingston N.S. Voice: (902) 765-8362 B0P 1R0 Chicago only promises what OS/2 DELIVERS! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 1995 09:48:50 -1000 From: ndanylcz@Socrates.health.gov.sk.ca (Neil Danylczuk) Subject: GUS working with Win95! Here's what I did: I reset my whole system back to DOS 6.2 and WFWG 3.11. Made sure all was working flawlessly. Re-installed Win95, this time selecting C:\WIN95 for an installation directory. Apparently this is going to mean I have to re-install all my Windows apps and set a bunch of stuff up. The advantage is I now have dual boot, when I can press F4 and start MS-DOS 6.2 and use all my old stuff as it was. Then I copied the files from v5.48 to a directory. Since the .zip file contained only the .386 & .drv files, I had been copying these drivers into a directory containing an .inf file, and numerous other mixer files, etc. This time, I made a directory with just the .inf, .386, and .drv files. The installation went much more smoothly. At the end I still got a RUNDLL32 error, but when Windows restarted, viola, sound! MIDI and .WAV files seem to work now. I got some weird noises coming out when I tried to install fonts, believe it or not. Lots of buzzes & whatnot. Rerunning a .WAV file or two cleared that up. Playing multiple streams of digital sound didn't go too well. I got some crazy sounds when I used Modus & Media Player at the same time. I noticed a couple of other minor glitches, but for the most part I am now using an Ultrasound with Win 95. The only problems? The Windows Volume control is not activated, likely due to the fact there there is no Ultrasound mixing device installed. Patch Manager seems to want to load a bank 11, instead of the 0,1,2,3, or 4 I have set up. Playing .AVI's with Media Player still means infrequent interruption in the sound playback. On the plus side, I can now 'hear' the sound track from an IBM OS/2 .AVI (macaw.avi) that used to be silent. Bootup seems MUCH slower. I wonder if it is loading or verifying patches or something, even though I have that option turned off in the Ultrasound settings. For the most part, I'm happy, since I have a semblance of MIDI and WAV sounds in Windows... I haven't tested too many sound apps, since this clean install of Win95 means I have weeks of re-installing, etc, to do. I did try MODUS, and it worked rather flawlessly. MODUS was a mod player that always seemed flaky under Win 3.1. I got sounds and music out of the Lode Runner demo, which is better than I used to get. What made this work finally? I dunno. Maybe the clean install of Win95, maybe the version of the drivers (5.48), or maybe the fact that I only left the 4 critical files in my "Have Disk?" directory. Whatever it is, it seems that there is a strong chance of the old Win 3.1 drivers being easily adapted for Win 95. Let's hope Gravis is smart enough to get something stable and ready for distribution with Win 95 GA release. Particulars: Win95 Build 347 - configured for Dual Boot GUS 2.4, 1 MB Gus windows driver version 5.48 Address 220 gf1:11, midi:7, playback dma:1, record:1. Ultrinit 2.26a ATI GU+ ISA 2MB 486DX-33 ISA, 8MB ---------\ Neil D /--------- Neil Danylczuk PCS (Professional Computer Services) Phone: (306) 787-1080 Regina, SK, Canada ---------/ndanylcz@socrates.health.gov.sk.ca\--------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 1995 03:00:00 +1000 (EST) From: Thaddaeus Kong Subject: InterWave and GF1 compatibility In a previous message Yossi Oren said: >About this Interwave-GUS intercompatibility deal... >Think about it a bit - if the Interwave is GUS compatible it means you will >use GUS calls to program the Interwave. Ergo, GUS will still work. Now, if Marvellous, the InterWave is also SB and GMIDI compatible, ergo a cheap SB will be InterWave compatible too. >AMD's new features have an ace up their sleeve, say easy use of a-law >compressed samples (you got it right, sample compression) or a different DAC >setup the GUS will be rendered incompatible, but as long as you put samples on >the GUSRAM (plus it fits in 1MB) and play them to get sound, no matter what >frills you add (48KHz or reverb or whatnot) you'll get a reasonable replica out >from the GUS. Think about this -> Is the InterWave going to stick with the 1 MEG RAM limitation? And do you think it won't have ROM based samples? The InterWave will (*SHOULD*) have a different memory addressing scheme and if GF1 is is compatible, I'll avoid the InterWave. Let's bring the compatibility discussion to something that can be tested (the InterWave is vapourware). Is the GUS compatible with the MAX? Even better, is the rev 2.2 GUS compatible with the rev 3.7 GUS? Well, Gravis has answered this question for us -> NO! What is more worrying is that I am trying to stir the pot here and NO ONE from Gravis is refuting me. Silence speaks volumes here. Remember the early days when John Smith posted those "just to let you know..." articles? Something is going on in Gravis, and I'd hate to hear them say, "Guess what, regular GUS is now obsolete and unsupported, you guys should have taken up the MAX offer when you had the chance". ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Apr 95 10:56:14 CST From: "Mai, DongKinh" Subject: Re: No MIDI in Windows - No sounds for Dark Forces. I'm resending this, apparently, it didn't make it through the first time. ------- A friend of mine also has problems getting MIDI to work in windows. He had the 2.0x version of the software and decided to upgrade to the 3.5x software, and could get NO MIDI, WAVs play OK. DOS MIDI and WAVs work. We even checked the ULTRASND.INI (only 1 on the hard drive). So he went back and reinstalled the old version 2.0x (?) of the software and everything works. The reason he tried to upgrade was that he gets no sounds or music in Dark Forces. The setup recognizes digital sounds, but doesn't play any music. When he starts DF no sounds work at all. He has one of those motherboards that gives him a parity error with 16-bit DMAs when using the GUS. If you can help, email him at 'elee@hsc.usc.edu' or post to this digest. Thanks, Dong-Kinh ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 13:27:42 +0100 From: ct91@cityscape.co.uk (Damian Scully) Subject: Re: GUS in Windows help. When I wrote in asking about having no midi device in windows, someone replied with: >Have you tried the MIDI Drivers option in Recording Session and set it to >Extended-level setup? Also, do you get a "start up" sound when you enter >Windows? If you do, you probably just haven't set the MIDI drivers option in >Recording session. If you DON'T get a start-up sound, try checking your Midi >Mapper applet under the control panel, as well as the Drivers applet and make >sure the GUS stuff is there. If not, I'd try re-installing the GUS software. I do get startup sounds, and I can play mod, mid, wav files or whatever. When I look at the driver list in the control panel the Ultrasound drivers are there, and they are also there in the Sound Mapper, but when I check the Midi mapper the old Gamewave files are there, and I can't seem to be able to change them to the GUS. I also tried what you mentioned about the setup in Recording session but that did'nt work either. Thanks for the advice anyway. Maybe someone else can help me? Damian. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Apr 1995 14:32:44 -0400 From: rodman@wizvax.net (Josh Rodman) Subject: Origin and the gus I just mailed off this letter to every address I could find on the Origin WWW page. I suggest that others argue similarly, and perhaps somone might listen. -------------------------------- Reading your response to another user of my mailing list has left me rather upset: --- Cut Here --- The Gus MAX in Sound Blaster emulation mode can run just fine, however there are no plans to include GUS as a native / sfx device in Bioforge. --- Cut Here --- The Sound Blaster emulation in the GUS and GUS MAX was _not_ designed for use with current games. It was designed for use with older games before the GUS became a popular card. Also, you notably do not mention the Sound Blaster emulation working for the original GUS. No support at all for a soundcard is very disappointing indeed. It is expected by both Gravis and the people who own their products, and deservedly so, that current games will directly support their hardware. My reasoning for this can be found below. If you want to present yourselves as competent programmers who are capable of creating good games, you are going against your better interests. By offering inferior support for a soundcard or no support for a soundcard you present two ideas that are damaging to your company. The first is that you do not care about satisfying the customer, only about money. This is because you are only offering support to the cards you believe are the largest section of the market, rather than supporting them all, which is really not much more work. It begins to look as if profit margins are more focused on than quality products, and the latter is certainly a proven way to become successful. All one needs to do is look at Origin's initial groundbreaking products like the early Ultimas. The second is that you are not competent at programming. By failing to support a wide range of soundcards it raises issues (a la MicroProse) that you really don't know what you are doing with current video-gaming technology. I do understand that not every company has to be an expert on all the soundcards, but I also understand that there are ways to support them without being such experts. If you can't support all the soundcards, does this mean that in your next game if you go SVGA that you won't support most videocards? It really makes you look bad. If you would argue that supporting all soundcards is more work then it is worth, then I would point out that it is rather easy to provide support for all soundcards these days. If your staff does not have the talent or does not have the time, then simply license the AIL drivers or HMI drivers. They work great, and will receive frequent updates, thus alleviating you from the job of supporting every card on the market while allowing you to look good in the marketplace. --------------- I hope someone there gets a clue. -- Serve the Computer. The Computer is your friend. Be a happy Alpha Complex citizen. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 95 09:15:43 BST From: hickinl@VNET.IBM.COM Subject: Origin GUS Support (was: Bioforge) >It would be scary if Origin planned not to give this game native GUS >support as a test to see if GUS users (from the registration cards sent >back) bought the game though it did not have native GUS support unlike >its other games, WC3 and S-Shock. If enough buy the game, they would be >convinced that they don't need to include native GUS support since they >would still buy their damn games. Your right.....It is possible to think that 'hey, people don't want use to support the GUS, so why bother ???' which is why I kept hold of my SBPro when I brought my GUS. I got the GUS in the knowledge that it would require some fiddling to get working with some games but also in the knowledge that (thats to die-hard GUS fans like yourselves) the gus is THE wavetable card in its price range. Times are changing and its seems more and more like Software houses are farming out there sound support to 3rd parties, this can be good in the case of the Miles sound drivers (which support every damn card under the sun) and bad for people like iD who get some cretin to do it (not their fault I just get a bit pissed off with upgrading Doom from v1.1 to 1.2 to 1.4 to 1.66 to 1.7a to 1.9). I'm starting to ramble now without a point. I guess my point is that, Yes, the GUS is a really great sound card and yes, it is very stupid and narrow minded of companies like Origin to ignore it but at the end of the day, I brought my computer/soundcards for (amongst other reasons) to enjoy it and so if a game is good, very good, I'm going to buy it. This isn't intended to be flame bait............ Lee Hickin. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- IBM UK Limited, Portsmouth. <---------------> hickinl @ vnet.ibm.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Apr 95 12:15:36 EDT From: bbaskin@mail.utexas.edu (Bryan K. Baskin) Subject: OS/2 and DOS Games >Subject: Games in Dos sessions in os/2 >I recently discovered the ability of setting your own autoexec.bat file >for dos sessions under os/2 and was delighted at the prospect of actually >running games in dos sessions. rule, but I'd settle for a regular full screen dos session>. I've got a >gus with 1 meg. >I've had a few problems, however. Doom used to work for me, but without >sound. Now, it crashes on me after a few seconds, but does have sound. >The sound does get munged after sounding "normal" for a brief moment or so. I've had varying sucess with that old game. Some versions could use music and sfx, some none, some with music only. Doom's sound code has problems. I've played a beta for Doom OS/2 and it works with sound just fine. Final version will support windowed or full screen operation... Cool. Out in May(?). >I also want to run Pirates Gold under a dos session, but since apparantly >the dos session doesn't have/emulate EMS ram emulation>, emuset/megaem don't work (and my serial mouse has yet to work >under a dos session despite using the mouse driver in my os2\mdos directory). The problem is DON'T run MegaEm or SBOS in OS/2. It ain't gonna work. Both want ring zero access and OS/2 ain't to keen on givin' it to some DOS program. By the way, does SBOS or MegaEm work in Win95? No one seems to know. >If anyone has had any luck in running any of these games in a dos >session, please inform me on the settings that you've had, etc. And if >anyone has ever used Display v1.87, and had sound abilities with the GUS >(>it looks for a SB but wont run with sbos or emuset set) let me know. Thanks. Later. Baskin UT Austin Team OS/2 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Apr 95 15:51:48 EDT From: "Henrique 'Snoopy' Vianna" Subject: Problems with the Digest? Hi there, I didn't receive any message from the Digest in the last two weeks. If it is working ok, would anybody mail me? As my host has been down for some days, maybe I need to subscribe again. Thanks for your time. - Henrique ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Henrique Avila Vianna | >>On the Net find me at:<< | "When you're a Computer Programmer | snoopy@brufpel.bitnet | little rabbit, Universidade Federal de Pelotas | hvianna@brufpel.bitnet | carry a BIG Centro de Informatica | hvianna@vortex.ufrgs.br | gun!" 96010-900 Pelotas, RS BRASIL | snoopy@atlas.ucpel.tche.br | -Jazz Jackrabbit ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 95 16:12:39 EDT From: Jon Grieve <100102.145@compuserve.com> Subject: VFW v1.1e Message-ID: <950412201238_100102.145_EHK140-1@CompuServe.COM> Ok, there's been a fair bit on the Digest about getting Video for Windows v1.1e - but I can only get the runtime version. The initial posting, as I remember, concerned ADPCM. What caught my eye was a mention of a new Sound Recorder; that had additional functionality for installed CODEC's. Does anyone know where this can be gotten from? Am I right in thinking there's some kind of 'full' kit - like the runtime, but with the apps to capture video? On my system, I have a number of CODEC's installed (they came with the Orchid SoundWave I have sitting next to my GUS). My understanding is that regardless of which card I use to sample, the CODEC will be 'brought in' and used to compress the data. Like, 'whatever' soundcard can be used to sample the data - and then it's passed through the CODEC, which does it's stuff to compress the data. Can anyone verify if this is true? Hmmm, sorry for straying off the GUS-only path. Thanks, Jon Grieve ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Apr 1995 13:35:50 -0400 From: Frank Wang Subject: Why hasn't this been implemented yet? Imho, this is almost -more- important than getting > 1 meg on the GUS. Megaem needs to check for which patches have been used in this game already, and load those -first- before loading others. When an instrument is used in a midi file or something, check a size 300 bit array to see if that instrument has been used before or not. if not, mark it. Naturally, you'll have to re-run megaem before you play a different game, so the new custom patch file is loaded (and saved). Anyway, this would circumvent the 1 meg problem. If you only used the patches you need, you don't need to waste so much memory loading all the weird instruments (unless you really -need- them). Anyway, this seems -really- easy to implement. Is it too much of a slowdown? shouldn't be. The improvement is huge in some cases. I made a custom patch file for Monkey Island 2, and the game sounds -much- better. Half of the needed instruments don't even get loaded in the normal megaem config. - Frank ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V21 #13 ******************************* To post to tomorrow's digest: To (un)subscribe or get help: To contact a human (last resort): FTP Sites Archive Directories --------- ------------------- Main N.American Site: archive.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/ibmpc/ultrasound freedom.nmsu.edu pub/ultrasound Main Asian Site: nctuccca.edu.tw PC/ultrasound Main European Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound Main Australian Site: ftp.mpx.com.au /ultrasound/general /ultrasound/submit South African Site: ftp.sun.ac.za /pub/packages/ultrasound Submissions: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound/submit Newly Validated Files: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound Mirrors: garbo.uwasa.fi mirror/ultrasound ftp.st.nepean.uws.edu.au pc/ultrasound ftp.luth.se pub/msdos/ultrasound Gopher Sites Menu directory ------------ -------------- Main Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound WWW Pages --------- Main Site: http://www.xmission.com/~grue/gus.html Main European Site: http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/ultrasound/ Main Australian Site: http://ftp.mpx.com.au/archive/ultrasound/general/ http://ftp.mpx.com.au/archive/ultrasound/submit/ http://ftp.mpx.com.au/gravis.html Mirrors: http://www.st.nepean.uws.edu.au/pub/pc/ultrasound/ GUS digest: http://gpu.srv.ualberta.ca/~itam/digest.html MailServer For Archive Access: Email to Email to New Submit Files Mailing List: Email to with content "subscribe epas-list " Hints: - Get the FAQ from the FTP sites or the request server. - Mail to for info about other GUS related mailing lists (programmers, musicians, etc.).