CyberStrike Digital Sound Instructions V3.4 SOUND FILE DOWNLOAD To use sound with CyberStrike, you must make sure you have the version of CyberStrike that includes the sound effects. This is the CS15S.EXE file in the software library. If you downloaded the CS15.EXE file instead (the one without sound), then download the CSSND.EXE file to get the missing files. Extract this file in the directory where you have CyberStrike. Extract these files into your directory where you have CyberStrike. SUPPORTED SOUND DRIVERS The following is a list of sound drivers (or computers with sound built in) that we support or, as indicated, plan to support: SOUND DRIVER DMA-BASED? ----------------------------------------------------- AdLib Gold Yes AdLib or compatible No ATI Stereo FX Yes Aria Yes BigMouth, Talking Technologies Unknown Covox SoundMaster 1 Unknown Covox Speech Thing Unknown Covox Voice Master and SoundMaster II Unknown DigiSpeech DS201 Speech Adapter Unknown Echo 2, Street Electronics Unknown Lantastic Voice Adapter Unknown Life Size Enhancer Unknown Logitech SoundMan (PAS-16 clone) Yes MediaMaster or compatible Unknown MicroSoft Sound System Yes ProAudio Spectrum, MediaVision Yes Sound Blaster or compatible Yes Sound Blaster Pro Yes Sound Source, Walt Disney Unknown Tandy 2500XL Unknown Tandy SL/TL Unknown Tandy TX/EX/HX/SX and PCJr Unknown Turtle Beach Multisound Yes Ultrasound Gravis Yes INSTALLING THE SOUND DRIVER To select the sound driver, run the SETDRV.EXE program. A list of sound drivers is displayed (the list scrolls to show more). Select the one you use. If that sound card has options that must be configured such as a Base Address or IRQ, then the program will let you adjust the settings. If you do not know the answers to these questions then just use the default values provided...if it doesn't work then consult your sound card manual. DEINSTALLING SOUND The sound driver you use will be copied to a new file called SOUNDRV.COM on your hard driver. To eliminate sound support DEL SOUNDRV.COM from your hard drive. You can re-install by using SETDRV.EXE at anytime in the future. SETTINGS Make sure that you have the sound option turned on from the settings window in the Terminal Mode of the CyberStrike FE. While in terminal mode press ALT-S to access this menu of options. Toggle the sound option ON. ========================================================================= NEW VERSION NOTES: BREAKTHROUGH SOUND TECHNOLOGY If you use sound with CyberStrike (is there any other way to play?) then you already know we have some HOT digital sounds going. But, thanks to some cutting edge technology, developed by John Ratcliff (JWR), CyberStrike really pushes the envelope! (for you sound gurus, pun intended) CyberStrike can now play several digital sound effects, simultaneously, each with independent volume, stereo and pitch control. On IBM sound cards, which typically have but a single digital audio channel, this is quite an accomplishment. All of these effects, except stereo, work on all supported sound cards. Stereo requires a stereo sound card such as the PAS-16 and SoundBlaster Pro. Besides being really cool, this technology adds to your perception of the Virtual World (3Space) you wandering through. You will be able to hear battles waging and can tell by the volume if they are nearby or off in the distance. The stereo panning allows you to tell if that last explosion was to your right or your left. Pitch control lets me adjust the sound of shots based on the Doppler Effect so you will get a sense of if a shot is coming at you are going away from you. Why haven't you seent his kind of thing in commercial PC-based games? Basicly because it is very cutting edge. John Ratcliff is THE authority on PC Audio, and this technology will first appear in one of his games which is unquestionably the most awsome use of sound heard to date (and the graphics are spectacular too). But, luckly, you all will get a preview of this technology in CyberStrike! If you have a stereo sound card, you will get a lot out of this. The volume changes are one thing, but having left/right orientation on a sound can make a real difference! To get the most out of this position your speakers a uniform and substantial distance to the right and left of you, and make sure you have the correct speaker on the correct side. Or, for optimum results, use stereo headphones! A couple things to note: Shots fired will have a slight pitch change based on their angle of fire relative to your location. Or, in other words, if they are coming at you they have a slight higher pitch and if they are going away it is lower. This is the doplar effect. The change is subtle, but once you get good at hearing it you can determine a lot of critical information from these sounds. Also note that the sentinel firing sound is now completely different than normal shots. This is only fair. :) IMPORTANT SOUND NOTE: Sound now **REQUIRES** Expanded Memory. Before, either Expanded or Extended memory would work. You may be running CyberStrike with only HIMEM.SYS managing memory. This is an XMS memory manager and will not provide you with sound capability. To use sound you must use EMM386.EXE with HIMEM.SYS, or another memory manager such as QEMM386 (which, itself, provides HIMEM.SYS support services). So, your CONFIG.SYS should now have in it: DEVICE=C:\HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=C:\EMM386.EXE RAM DOS=HIGH,UMB ... or ... DEVICE=C:\QEMM386 RAM DOS=HIGH .. or some other memory manager configuration that supports EMM. Note: The paramaters you specify to EMM386.EXE or QEMM386 may vary with your configuration. Check your memory manager documentation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PAS-16 NOTES The ProAudio Spectrum 16 sound card has many settings that can be configured. However, the PAS16 sound driver only works with the default IRQ, Base Address and DMA channel settings. You do not normally need to change these (even if your parallel port is on IRQ7, it isn't a conflict). If you do change the settings, then use the SoundBlaster Pro driver and run the sound card as a soundblaster compatible.