From: twong@civil.ubc.ca (Thomas Wong)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Re: GUS vs. PAS 16
Date: 16 Oct 1992 18:39:29 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Civil Engineering, U.B.C., Vancouver, B.C., Canada
NNTP-Posting-Host: sam.civil.ubc.ca

As for your comment on PAS having SB compatible on hardware so that when
you get out of the DOS world, you'll still be ok....

Well, there is two ways to go in the emulator game. You can either build
it hardware, or software. Personally, I think they did the right thing
by going software. Reasons....

True, PAS has the SB emulator as hardware so that if you use Unix,
you'll still have the SB emulation. But SB compatible software is mostly
DOS programs anyways. How many Unix program or games do you have that
plays SB sounds? So you still have the SB emulation but other than DOS,
you'll have to find programs for whatever operating system that you have
that supports SB.

So now you're going to say that you're now writing a driver for Linux
for the PAS but Gravis is making it hard for you to do the same for the
Ultrasound. Well, with this issue, I agree with you, and that's why I
have also told others to call Gravis and have forwarded the message to
the Ultrasound mailing list to get Gravis to change their policy, just
like Media Vision changed their policy since the original PAS.

But you see, you are saying that you are writing a driver for PAS for
Linux. Well, that's what the Ultrasound needs too, a driver for Linux.
So as soon as this nondisclosure mess is cleared up, then hobbyist can
write drivers for whatever operatiing system they are using, just like
the PAS. There is already a driver for Windows 3.1, and the OS/2 driver
is coming. So the onboard SB emulator for the PAS doesn't do much for
you under Linux either.

You have to realize that SB emulation is really most important for DOS
only. And they have that covered with the TSR and Win 3.1 driver. For th
e OS/2 users, the OS/2 driver is coming. Now that's just about 99% of
the PC owners right there. And that's what this card is for, PCs only.
You made a good point about hobbyist and we'll address that so that
those who don't use DOS or OS/2 with their PCs can also use a GUS. But
together with the added benefits of having the emulator in software...

PAS has the SB emulator as hardware. To get any higher versions of SB
emulation means you'll have to buy a new card. So to be SBPro or SBPro
II or SB16.... compatible, you'll need a new card. With the TSR, you
just need to load a different program (or TSR). And since this program
only works with Ultrasound, there is no piracy problem and it can be
free distrubuted all over. At least the bug fix version of the current
TSR should be easily distributed everywhere. Don't know if they will
charge for a SBPro TSR or a SBPro II TSR....etc. But it's just a matter
of copying a program. And bug fixes should also mean something as simple
as patching a program or using a new one althogether. Since PAS's
emulator is hardware, you can't change it.

But I don't think SB emulation is really an issue as much anymore.
Especially since now that multimedia and sound effects are a big thing.
I think soundcard support will as common as video card support in
software very soon. So we can install the program directly as PAS or
Ultrasound mode and the software shouold be able to make use of the
card's full potentials. Especially since now that Win 3.1 has sound
support, and the OS/2 patch that's coming out will have sound support,
I think sounds will be the big thing in the computer PC market soon.

Thomas.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard