Something that I've been wondering about for a while and, after seeing some recent posts again about the DOS based utility, Aweutil, I thought that I'd raise a couple of questions.
I'm not a programmer but, I have a basic understanding of the limitations of the AWE based cards (which basically includes the AWE32, SB32 & AWE64 range of cards) under both DOS & Windows.
My focus is more from a gaming perspective where one would want to access the General MIDI capabilities of the sound card.

I know that, under Windows, the Windows drivers takes care of how (Windows based) games can "access" an AWE based card.
The AWE Control Panel also enables a user to load custom soundfonts which can vastly improve the MIDI sampled playback over the standard 1 MB ROM sample set (although, one is limited to a maximum size of 28 MB).

Under DOS, however, is where the scenario changes and this is where my questions are mostly based around.
I know that Aweutil works by trapping data going out to the MPU-401 port and re-directs it back to the AWE based card (since the EMU8000 synthesis chip does not have the capability to interpret MIDI commands).
I'm also aware of the limitations of Aweutil under DOS and that this mostly works with "real mode" DOS games that do not make use of a DOS extender.
With games that make use of a DOS extender, direct support of the AWE based card is usually required - the only exception is when one plays such a game from within a DOS command prompt via Windows.

I know that one can "fool" Aweutil by renaming the standard Synthgm.sbk file with a similar (General MIDI based) version 1 soundfont (*.sbk) and thereby load custom soundfounts to playback DOS games. Unfortunately, I've yet to come across a version 1 soundfont (*.sbk) that sounds very good and is less than 28 MB in size.

What I would like to know is whether, theoretically speaking, it would be possible to:

1. Write a similar tsr that will take up less memory
2. have the ability to load version 2 (*.sf2) soundfonts under DOS
3. also be able to work with games that makes use of a DOS extender