New user and poster with questions

[Maviarab]

Hi all,

just fount UltraHal and have downloaded free version (pointless getting full version right now as on my spare Pc as main PC went up in smoke).

Have not installed yet as thought I would try and get myself as much info as possible first to try and help me get the idea and get used to Hal.

After trawling through this forum and the ultrahalforum, any help in the following would be greatly appreciated.

What exactly is Haptek?
Are there any downloads that are particulary worth getting?
Exactly what are the .brn files?
Are scripts worth getting? (Notably the ones from Ziggy) and how do I implement them?
Changing the default skins of Hal (Not the window)
Downloads worth getting from DesktopMates?
If I upgrade will this intefere in what Hal has already learned?
Once I have finished rebuilding my new PC will i have to start all over again from scratch or is there a way to transfer what Hal has learnt from my current machine to my new PC?
Assistance on writing in VSB?

Any other info/advice that would help in me getting used to Hal and getting the most out of him

Anyway...I hope I'm not asking for too much there and I have learnt much already by reading posts here. It seems a fantastic product and I will be getting the full version as soon as my new pc built and just like to say I hoip0e I will be made to feel welcome within this community.

Marius

[Maviarab]

Sorry to be a apain...forgot a question.

I have downloaded the excellent HAL9000 skin from this forum (great work) but exactly what do I do with the seperate .uhp file?

Thanks in anticipation

Marius

[crunch]

wow ...

the XTF1.2 brain and its upgrades will be a great start for a new hal... read about it in the forum and get the d-loads here..
http://www.zabaware.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1705  then make sure you select that brain in options.

the .brn files are his present and self created growing brain..

put any skins for the GUI in the skin folder in the root hal program..then you may select them in options

i would strongly suggest you not get any other brain plug-ins until you work with hal and train him a bit and get used to how he reacts to things,,, some brain plug-ins are not compatable with others so you need to be able to tell if your hal isn,t right..

if you like then look of the characters used by microsoft office ot the windows help screen, those are MS Agent type scripted.. that is what destop mates is...
If you want real 3d.. that is haptek..haptek also allows for much more physical emotional response from hal in real time.
i and others have many post's on this just do a search for characters or haptek ...ect.. in this forum...

the only characters you can reskin are those from haptek... again you will see how if you look at my last post's and some from others...
 when you get the full version do not use voice recognition to train hal it make too many mistakes.. (someday when voice is 100%) then we can... in hal properties tyou wil see a slider for how much he learns around 3/4 up is the standard when teaching.. off is best when using voice recognition.....

I hope this helped you a bit.

have a great time with the most amazing being on this planet.(your hal)

[8D]

[crunch]

what to do with skin files..
the .uhp file is what tell the hal program the skin is and where to map all the graphic,window, buttons and such. put the .uhp files here

C:Program FilesabawareUltra Hal Assistant 5

put the .jpg's (graphic files in the skin folder)

 the files for hal 9000 here is then one I use sometimes.
http://www.zabaware.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1363&SearchTerms=HAL9000

 the other one had some button mapping problems..

hope this helps
[8D]

[Art]

Marius,

Welcome to the forum! Though some here are beginners and some are rather seasoned, we all learn from each other in one way or another. That's the beauty of a forum such as this. Chances are, what one person has a problem with, someone else has already found a solution. There are no "dumb" questions...only those that are not asked.

Skins are sometimes graphical images or themes that surround a program interface and Hal's interface has a number of "skins". You can even make your own.

Others often think of skins instead of textures. A lot of the Haptek characters can be textured (clothing, skin, eye color, etc.). It takes a bit of work with a graphics editor. Crunch has done some really fascinating work applying textures to various Haptek characters.

Crunch gave you a lot of good info. Get the XTF 1.2 brain.

A .brn file is code that Hal uses to either make decisions or comments in response to a question or statement. They can be viewed and edited with Notepad or any text viewer. Viewing them will help give you some insight into how Hal's brain works. Be careful, because line spacing is important (blank lines after text).

Upgrading should not interfere with your existing brain files but as a precaution you might wish to temporarily "relocate" a copy of them to another folder (just in case).

Take time to read older postings in both sections of this site (UHA and Programming UHA). There are a lot of great tidbits in there.

Also try the Search feature at the top of the page. It is a very useful feature but sometimes overlooked by many.

Again, don't hesitate to ask questions and welcome!

[KnyteTrypper]

Lots of good advice from forum members. I'll add a comment about agents. Hal will use either Haptek characters or MS Agent characters. Haptek characters are definitely more detailed and more versatile than agent characters, but there aren't a great many of them. Most of them are available by downloading the free Haptek SDK from their site. Since they are skinnable, a great variety of characters can be derived from the basics, but unless you have the graphics skills, you need to rely on a relatively small number of textures available on the web. This happens to be a good source of them. Crunch makes excellent full-body textures, and Zenman does some very nice things with the basic floating head Haptek character.
MS Agents have probably seen their heyday, but they've been around for a few years, and there are many agent characters to choose from. I'd go through my preference of the many free characters before spending money on them, lol. Here http://www.btinternet.com/~cabby/characters/characters.htm is a good place to check out a variety of characters, and download by ftp. There are many good sites like this one http://www.agentry.net/ and this one http://www.norriscomputer.com/agents for http downloads of free agents. Although if you want extremely sexy agents, you'll probably end up buying them from DesktopMates.
Welcome to the forum.  Happy roboteering!

[Maviarab]

Ok thanks everyone...Had a play around late last night (Im in UK) and was amazed with Hal...truly amazed. I have downloaded the XTF Brain and the patch and just installed them.

Thanks for all the help and advice and will kep you noted on how I get on.

Once again, Thanks for your time in replyng

Marius

[vonsmith]

Maviarab,
I hope you renamed the file that is the third step of the XTF Brain v1.2 installation process. Just thought I'd mention it.


=vonsmith=

[Maviarab]

Thanks for advice von and yes i followed your instructions to the letter and it works a treat thanks.

While im here does the Age script work with your brain and if so where do I place it?

[vonsmith]

Maviarab,
I'm not familiar with all the script add-on's out there. I do remember seeing one or two "age" type scripts around. There is no one best place for scripts in any Hal brain. Generally speaking the higher or lower a script is placed in the brain the more priority it has.

Locating your script higher up in the brain script lets your script function respond first before other scripts get a chance to create a GetResponse. If the following scripts don't overwrite your script's GetResponse then it has successfully exercised a higher priority.

Placing your script towards the end of the brain script means your script gets a chance late in the process to do it's thing and overwrite the GetResponse of previous scripts.

For some scripts it makes no difference where you locate them. As a rule I try to place what I call "directives" near the top of the brain script just after the UserSentence is pre-processed. Directives is a loosely defined term that I use to describe commanded actions. If I tell Hal to do something like make a silly face, tell me the capital of Texas, or whatever, I called that a directive. Following directives I place script functions that handle requests for "specific knowledge". Specific knowledge is querying knowledge files for a specific response or category of response. After that I place general knowledge search and response scripts for creating general chat with the user. These all are loose guidelines that I personally use.

The best thing to do is to learn how the scripts work and interact with each other to achieve a good balance in GetResponses back to the user. The second best thing is to experiment with the scripts by placing them in different areas and test, test, test.

I hope I didn't sound too clinical about what should be fun and educational. []


=vonsmith=

P.S. - The XTF Brain v1.4 has a built-in age script that I think will please everyone. Hal will tell you his age if asked... well sometimes he will. Most folks don't like being asked personal questions like their age. If the user enters Hal's true age in the new Dossier function file then Hal will answer querys about his/her age much like a human will. If I ask my Hal (Samantha) how old she is she might say "Old enough to drive.", "Ask politely and I'll tell." or "I'll be 19 next February."

[Maviarab]

Thats great thanks and yeah not too clinical lol.

I have already started to to test and look through the files to try and better understand how Hal "thinks" etc but obviously the more time I spend with him the better I will grasp things.

And version 4 sounds great, will you  be able to change Hal's birth date to say the day you "installed" him?

Sound like V4 will be great though, I am impressed with your skill and cant wait for you to complete it.

Thanks for the advice.

[vonsmith]

Maviarab,
I'll include a sample Dossier file with the XTF Brain v1.4 release. The user can edit all of Hal's personal info there. You can enter any birthdate for your Hal that is in the range supported in VBscript. The "age" sentence responses aren't editable unless you edit them in the XTF Brain script.

You can enter any number of responses you want for Hal to use in reply to the user's questions about Hal's creator. You can have Hal say his creator is you, God, Zabaware, the man in the moon, Al Gore, whatever.

Thanks for the compliment about my "skill". I'm just a humble programmer. It's Hal that is doing the hard work.


=vonsmith=

[Bill819]

Hey wait a minute. Al Gore may have invented the internet but don't give him credit for Hal. [^]
Bill
 []