Grzyb wrote on 2024-07-05, 17:23:

So I'm playing with GUS ACE, as the only card - set it to 220h, and removed the "Disable Adlib ports" jumper. Installed the 4.11 […]
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So I'm playing with GUS ACE, as the only card - set it to 220h, and removed the "Disable Adlib ports" jumper.
Installed the 4.11 software - it only asked about one IRQ and playback DMA.
No record DMA is obvious, but there's no SB IRQ either.
SBOS hasn't been installed, and no "SET BLASTER=..." in AUTOEXEC.BAT .

I guess no SB emulation with this card...
but why the Adlib ports jumper?
What's the point of providing such an option if there's no Adlib emulation anyway?

AFAICR, the GUS's Adlib and Sound Blaster emulation was partly hardware assisted. There were/are probably some docs about this.

GUS can capture the SB/FM writes and generate an IRQ that invokes the TSR which then uses that data to act upon.

But can the ACE do it as well?
Should I try to install SBOS manually?

ACE has all the features of a regular GUS, these functions come from GF1 itself + help from GF1D1 chip. The PAL on ACE does allow one trick that normal GUS cannot have, which is hiding of Adlib writes so that the TSR will leave this part alone and just do SB emulation. Card on its own cannot do anything without the TSR, it is like EMU8000 vs General MIDI.

OK, installed SBOS manually - does work, both FM and PCM.

Why isn't it installed automatically? They didn't believe somebody would use ACE as the only card?

well the ACE concept was to use as a secondary card alongside a sb(compatible) one so it's not unrealistic that SBOS stuff do not get installed - would only lead to confusion
it was marketed as an addon card IIRC

I suppose it's old coffee, err, old news now, but the GUS was often being paired with an SB Pro.
I think it even was the assumed default configuration. In the demoscene, at least.
Which in turn happened to be supported by Gravis at one point.

keropi wrote on 2024-07-05, 19:06:

well the ACE concept was to use as a secondary card alongside a sb(compatible) one so it's not unrealistic that SBOS stuff do not get installed - would only lead to confusion
it was marketed as an addon card IIRC

Possibly a bad idea...

I think the lack of recording wasn't a problem for majority of users - the ACE was still attractive as the only card.
And it would've been even more attractive if they advertised SB compatibility, instead of hiding it.

Though it's a fact that SB emulation is poor - not only FM sounds bad, but also many games fail to find Adlib/SB at all.
For example, can't get Wolfenstein 3D to use the card...

Grzyb wrote on 2024-07-05, 20:01:

And it would've been even more attractive if they advertised SB compatibility, instead of hiding it.

Though it's a fact that SB emulation is poor - not only FM sounds bad, but also many games fail to find Adlib/SB at all.
For example, can't get Wolfenstein 3D to use the card...

Gravis sound cards had a reputation for poor SB compatibility at the time. Hence why the ACE was designed and marketed as an add-on card to be used alongside a real Sound Blaster.

Not implementing the proper hardware for SB compatibility was a shortsighted move from Gravis. If something akin to the GUS Extreme (Synergy ViperMAX) was made earlier, it may have prevented the demise.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2024-07-06, 18:42:

Not implementing the proper hardware for SB compatibility was a shortsighted move from Gravis. If something akin to the GUS Extreme (Synergy ViperMAX) was made earlier, it may have prevented the demise.

Exactly!
There was a bunch of design choices in computing history I will never forgive - and the lack of SB in GUS is very high on the list.

It was perfectly possible to make an SB-compatibility daughterboard for the original GUS - and I bet it would've sold much better than the 16-bit recording option and the CD-ROM controller.

Also, a "premium" variant, with the SB option already integrated...
though I'm wondering about possibility of making such a board when the original GUS was realeased - 1992, or even 1991 ?

GUS Classic was about 3/4 length...
what was the smallest SB (or clone) back then? SB 2.0, about 1/2 lenght, right?
3/4 + 1/2 = 5/4, too long, needs careful optimizations...

Another problem would be Creative not willing to sell their "DSP" chips - when were first clones available?

Hm. I can understand the missing Sound Blaster compatibility, but an OPL3 would have been nice.

I remember, my PAS16 had an SB emulation as a means to ensure legacy compatibility with Sound Blaster, but it could be disabled also.

OPL3 Stereo FM, by contrast, was still current technology.
Even AdLib had featured it on the AdLib Gold in some way.

The only explanation I have is that the GUS was meant to be a wavetable sound card.
A bit like an Creative Goldfinch card.

No SB DAC, no FM. Just a powerful RAMpler with mixing capabilities and with a good DAC, which also could be accessed directly.