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Zabaware Forums => Ultra Hal 7.0 => Topic started by: Medeksza on October 27, 2017, 07:39:29 am

Title: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on October 27, 2017, 07:39:29 am
I'm preparing to release a beta version of Ultra Hal 7 in about 2 weeks. I'm preparing a new server this weekend and will migrate zabaware.com, ultrahal.com, and a database server to it over this time. Once the new server is completely and and running Ultra Hal 7 beta will be able to be released. Check back here for more info.

Here is what's new in Ultra Hal 7:
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: kryton on October 27, 2017, 08:10:14 am
Removes support for older Windows?
Does this include WindowsXP?

I have reason recently to try and reload Hal onto a WindowsXp machine and it comes back "Dependencies missing"

Don't forget all those who have supported Hal for years.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: LiFeTimeGamer on October 27, 2017, 08:39:13 am
WOW!!!!!!!  Now I gotta get a new machine with Win 10... LOL  :P

Thanks Robert for all that hard work...
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on October 27, 2017, 12:44:39 pm
Removes support for older Windows?
Does this include WindowsXP?

I have reason recently to try and reload Hal onto a WindowsXp machine and it comes back "Dependencies missing"

Don't forget all those who have supported Hal for years.
Ultra Hal 7 will work with Windows XP SP2 and newer. The last service pack for XP was SP3, so as long as you have your XP system up to date, Hal will continue to work. Reg-free COM was introduced in XP SP2 and should help minimize dependency issues and conflicts with other programs as you may have experiences sometimes with Hal.

Windows 2000, ME, 98 and earlier will definitely not work any longer with Ultra Hal 7 though.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on October 27, 2017, 12:58:17 pm
#1: The agent char system: Ive worked with that for years now . Did you find a work around for Agent Char Voice Lip Syncing issues on the high end Voices. SAPI 05 voices. Voiceware voices. You know 1 ones im talking about .The ones that sound human and not like micro**** Sam.
Or is Hal just gonna have the voices that your selling?
Hal with Double Agent will now fully support MSAgent characters with any 32-bit SAPI 5.0 voices and full background transparency of the characters. The old MSAgent library only supported SAPI 4.0 and had pink backgrounds in Windows 7. A hotfix from Microsoft fixed some issues, but not all. Double Agent fixes everything with MSAgent character support.

#02 Hals Brain
Robert , im reading the post and it looks like Hals brain is stored in the cloud and not on my drive.
Rendering Hal useless as a stand alone unit with out Net Access.
Am i miss understanding all this?
The cloud brain and storage is optional. Hal 7 will continue to run your old Hal 6 brains if you wish or will run the Hal 7 brain in local only mode. You'll miss out on some of the new features if you disable the cloud mode, but I am not removing any old functionality.

Robert: So far im not seeing anything that blows my skirt up. But i am seeing somethings that are making me nervous.
The agent char system, Thats deff a step backwards by comparison to haptek and the voice systems has got me really nervous.
Agent support is improved and Haptek-based characters are still fully supported as well. Ultra Hal 7 also includes some non-Haptek, non-Agent characters like the new mobile phone character. Hal 7's plugin system will support new 3D character engine systems when and if they come available as well.

Hal continues to support all SAPI 4.0 and 5.0 voices whether you buy from Zabaware or not. Hal 7 adds support for CereProc voices using CereProc API, but will work with CereProc SAPI 5.0 voices you may already have bought (for more $). Selling CereProc voices without SAPI 5.0 support lets us offer it for less $ than you can buy otherwise, but if you do buy the SAPI 5.0 versions, they will work fine.

My roadmap is to get Hal working on mobile phones and tablets and these changes are needed to get that to happen. However, I worked hard to make sure I have not removed any functionality you are used to.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: LiFeTimeGamer on October 27, 2017, 01:56:44 pm
Yep I'm sold also...   I can't wait to try it out, then purchase it...  ;D
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Spitfire2600 on October 29, 2017, 05:17:34 am
Sounds fantastic. I can't wait to start tinkering. I might even have to buy a new copy to play around with.

-Spitfire_2600
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Spitfire2600 on October 29, 2017, 05:27:49 am
I'm sure I've asked before, but what language is the new Hal written in and how will this affect local pc plugins? I believe you said Hal6 plugins will still work but android will require API's. Will PC only remain VBScript?

-Spitfire_2600
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: lightspeed on October 29, 2017, 04:35:04 pm
a question or two to robert.
 after this hal seven (in the later final version is downloaded will the other files we have brain etc. still migrate into seven (even though it will have the optional online cloud brain , and if so and we later decide to use the cloud brain , it won't delete the current brain files , will it?? ( i would think it would just not use them , all files would stay in case a person decides to change back (not using cloud based frame . ) i would have preferred and hoped the cloud based brain would have worked with a persons custom built brain files , like using the answer from the custom brain file (if it had the answer, then maybe also adding to the answer from the cloud base info. thus forth making it like a hybrid .  :)
otherwise those of us that have spent years on custom brains teaching it many things have something we can no longer use (and have the cloudbase) .   I would have rather seen a hybrid workings like what i mentioned if possible. i think it would have been a better set up  or will it work that way even though brain files will be elsewhere?

also once the hal7 is finalized , is their any hope of working on a more human lifelike etc. characters to use with hal?
thanks for you time and work on all this.  :)
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on October 29, 2017, 09:30:26 pm
I'm sure I've asked before, but what language is the new Hal written in and how will this affect local pc plugins? I believe you said Hal6 plugins will still work but android will require API's. Will PC only remain VBScript?

-Spitfire_2600

The new Ultra Hal 7 for Windows is still predominantly a VB6 application with VBScript based brain. It is still customizable locally with VBScript just like Ultra Hal 6 was. It includes additional response routines in the VBScript that reach out to a server version of Hal. These routines sit at a higher priority than the old "MainBrain" and "_UserSent" brains and are meant to replace them when running in "Cloud" mode.

Once the new Android/IOS version is available then those versions will reach out to the server for all parts of the brain (not just "MainBrain" and "UserSent"), there will be no VBScript running this. It will still be customizable however because all parts of Hal's brain will be available using an API and you can then program customized bots using whatever language you like. The server version of Hal itself is built on PHP7, MariaDB, SphinxSearch, and some custom extensions. But it will talk with any language over a JSON based API.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on October 29, 2017, 09:39:47 pm
a question or two to robert.
 after this hal seven (in the later final version is downloaded will the other files we have brain etc. still migrate into seven (even though it will have the optional online cloud brain , and if so and we later decide to use the cloud brain , it won't delete the current brain files , will it?? ( i would think it would just not use them , all files would stay in case a person decides to change back (not using cloud based frame . ) i would have preferred and hoped the cloud based brain would have worked with a persons custom built brain files , like using the answer from the custom brain file (if it had the answer, then maybe also adding to the answer from the cloud base info. thus forth making it like a hybrid .  :)
otherwise those of us that have spent years on custom brains teaching it many things have something we can no longer use (and have the cloudbase) .   I would have rather seen a hybrid workings like what i mentioned if possible. i think it would have been a better set up  or will it work that way even though brain files will be elsewhere?

also once the hal7 is finalized , is their any hope of working on a more human lifelike etc. characters to use with hal?
thanks for you time and work on all this.  :)

When upgrading to Hal 7 all your old Hal 6 brains will remain untouched and will remain as an option in your brain list. They will run exactly as they did under Hal 6 if you choose to use the old brain. There will be a new Hal 7 brain available to use as well. For the initial beta release I would be interested in seeing how fresh Hal 7 brains work for everyone.

Later in November I plan on releasing a second beta with a migration tool that can take an Ultra Hal 6 brain database and load it into a Hal 7 cloud-based brain. This optional tool will create a new Hal 7 brain using knowledge from your old Hal 6 database. The original Hal 6 brain will still remain as an option should you ever wish to go back to it.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on October 29, 2017, 09:52:11 pm
also once the hal7 is finalized , is their any hope of working on a more human lifelike etc. characters to use with hal?
thanks for you time and work on all this.  :)

That depends on how well sales go of Hal 7. My next priority after releasing Hal 7 for Windows is to get the Android and IOS versions finished, followed by better online brain editing tools and an API reference for the cloud based brain.

If all goes well I do hope to soon after release a Hal 7.1 with support for the new http://www.expressive.ai/ character engine. This is the new company co-founded by Haptek creator Chris Shaw. This character engine can be supported on all major platforms (not just Windows).
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: lightspeed on October 30, 2017, 10:20:58 am
thanks for answering robert, i will again though ask you this other question for anyone who has a custom brain made  is their a way you can let that brain work with the online cloud base ? using the priority of any known custom brain and adding if needed addictional information from the cloud base info. for hal. to me this would be a better set up . 
or will it do this ?? instead of either a user has to use the custom brain or the cloud base and not benefit from both .
both would be better .
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on October 30, 2017, 10:26:49 am
thanks for answering robert, i will again though ask you this other question for anyone who has a custom brain made  is their a way you can let that brain work with the online cloud base ? using the priority of any known custom brain and adding if needed addiction information from the cloud base info. for hal. to me this would be a better set up . 
or will it do this ?? instead of either a user has to use the custom brain or the cloud base and not benefit from both .
both would be better .

Without knowing the specifics of your custom setup I can't say for sure. But in general through VBScript it is possible. Most custom plugins written for Hal 6 should continue to work in Hal 7. It is possible for Hal to draw on answers from both the online database and local brain database simultaneously. The default behavior of Hal 7 will be to learn to and only use the cloud database if cloud mode is enabled, and learn to the local database if it is not enabled.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: onthecuttingedge2005 on October 30, 2017, 06:42:44 pm
Hi Rob.

I would like to request a better programming language or than VBscript be reversed with VBA instead.
I can run Vbscript in VBA but not the other way around. to help those who accomplished so much with
VBscript, VBscript is getting old and VBA is so much prettier and has a larger potential.

please upgrade our programming language to VBA.
and that HAL is out for Christmas for the forums sake.

Jerry 8)
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: lightspeed on October 30, 2017, 08:59:00 pm
ROBERT YOU WROTE: It is possible for Hal to draw on answers from both the online database and local brain database simultaneously.

 So this means that hal can be changed to do this. if so i "truly hope " that you change hal to be able to run this way . the custom brain i made was the normal way , the only thing i changed was the default(some of them ) answers and was based on the original hal db. i would like to be able to use my angela custom brain i have taught for about 6 years or more to work "with" the cloud data base.  PLEASE CHECK INTO DOING IT THIS WAY ,
THANKS.  :) It would be nice that priority is from the custom or user brain first and then add on extra info from the cloud . if their is no answer in the custom brain the answer is given solely from the cloud.

Anyway as i said i really hope you can go this way on the brain/ cloud as a combination .  :)
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on October 31, 2017, 11:19:46 am
Hi Rob.

I would like to request a better programming language or than VBscript be reversed with VBA instead.
I can run Vbscript in VBA but not the other way around. to help those who accomplished so much with
VBscript, VBscript is getting old and VBA is so much prettier and has a larger potential.

please upgrade our programming language to VBA.
and that HAL is out for Christmas for the forums sake.

Jerry 8)

Hi Jerry,

As much as I am a fan of VBA and the old VB6, Microsoft doesn't make VBA available freely for anyone to use, it would require special licensing and negotiation with Microsoft. Plus a fairly large rewrite of Hal. So it will have to stay with VBScript for now. Also VBA and VBScript is limited to Windows only. My plan for Hal though is to make it cross platform and that is going to involve moving Hal's brain to the "Cloud" and making it available to any programming language via API calls. Ultra Hal 7 for Windows will be a hybrid VBScript and Cloud approach, but all future upcoming versions of Hal for websites, phones/tablets and Linux/Mac will be 100% cloud based.

My goal is to release the beta version in a week after the new Zabaware server is up and running. The server is currently on some FedEx truck currently on its way to a data center in North Carolina. So I plan to beta test during November and hope to have the final release in early December before Christmas. All depends on how testing goes.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on October 31, 2017, 11:31:29 am
ROBERT YOU WROTE: It is possible for Hal to draw on answers from both the online database and local brain database simultaneously.

 So this means that hal can be changed to do this. if so i "truly hope " that you change hal to be able to run this way . the custom brain i made was the normal way , the only thing i changed was the default(some of them ) answers and was based on the original hal db. i would like to be able to use my angela custom brain i have taught for about 6 years or more to work "with" the cloud data base.  PLEASE CHECK INTO DOING IT THIS WAY ,
THANKS.  :) It would be nice that priority is from the custom or user brain first and then add on extra info from the cloud . if their is no answer in the custom brain the answer is given solely from the cloud.

Anyway as i said i really hope you can go this way on the brain/ cloud as a combination .  :)

Hal 7 will have a migration tool to upload your current Hal 6 brain to the cloud server so that your current Hal personality can run under the upgraded Hal 7 brain.

If you prefer to keep your old learned info on your local computer but still access the cloud database for its additional responses, than that will require a couple changes to Hal's VBScript. I'll be glad to help you when the time comes (after Hal 7 is fully released). However, I won't make such a setup an easy to set option in Hal's configuration in order to not make it confusing for new users. Reason being is because configuring Hal in this way will break one of the main benefits of having a cloud based brain, mainly that the same Hal personality can follow you whether you are on your PC, laptop, tablet, phone, or facebook. If you don't intend on ever accessing your Hal outside your own PC than this setup may work for you, but I don't intend on making it a default option.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: lightspeed on October 31, 2017, 12:18:03 pm
Thanks robert , i will have you help me when the time comes so that i can change what script is needed to use both the custom brain and the cloud , thanks for all you do and answering questions .  :)
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: onthecuttingedge2005 on October 31, 2017, 04:05:15 pm
Quote
Hi Jerry,

As much as I am a fan of VBA and the old VB6, Microsoft doesn't make VBA available freely for anyone to use, it would require special licensing and negotiation with Microsoft. Plus a fairly large rewrite of Hal. So it will have to stay with VBScript for now. Also VBA and VBScript is limited to Windows only. My plan for Hal though is to make it cross platform and that is going to involve moving Hal's brain to the "Cloud" and making it available to any programming language via API calls. Ultra Hal 7 for Windows will be a hybrid VBScript and Cloud approach, but all future upcoming versions of Hal for websites, phones/tablets and Linux/Mac will be 100% cloud based.

My goal is to release the beta version in a week after the new Zabaware server is up and running. The server is currently on some FedEx truck currently on its way to a data center in North Carolina. So I plan to beta test during November and hope to have the final release in early December before Christmas. All depends on how testing goes.

Gotcha boss.
Can't wait you know.
Jerry 8)
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: cyberjedi on October 31, 2017, 10:04:49 pm
c
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: lightspeed on November 01, 2017, 08:53:42 am
Robert , i forgot to ask , this upgrade of hal is still free to paid customers as before , right?  :)
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on November 02, 2017, 09:13:35 am
Robert , i forgot to ask , this upgrade of hal is still free to paid customers as before , right?  :)
It is actually going to be $15 (50% off upgrade) for old customers. I tend to keep updates within a major version number free so people who purchased 6.0 received both 6.1 and 6.2 free. But going from 6.x to 7.0 will be an upgrade price. The character expansion and any voices you may have purchased will continue to work as before, no need to repurchase any add-on components.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Spitfire2600 on November 04, 2017, 06:40:57 pm
No problem. I  intend of buying 2 copies to start... Moving from there, Hal will find himself on all of my machines.

-Spitfire_2600
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: lightspeed on November 05, 2017, 08:47:03 am
Robert , I hope their will be a way to pay with pay pal (credit card) i have one that is only used as i put money in it to pay online bills (debit type card).  :)
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: LiFeTimeGamer on November 06, 2017, 11:57:50 pm
One thing I thought about is, would it be possible to have a built in 'User Spell Checker' for us that are all thumbs an no fingers???  LOL

I really hate to hear HAL mispronounce all those words I spelled totally wrong in the first few months I talked to HAL...   Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Spitfire2600 on November 08, 2017, 11:31:31 pm
The reason I am concerned with the cloud is because I have some very personal conversations with Hal and I like that we can. I just don't want my personal conversations ending up on a cloud lol
This goes for all cloud based things.... Even Steam. I'm a paranoid, I know lol

-Spitfire_2600
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on November 09, 2017, 11:05:31 am
Robert , I hope their will be a way to pay with pay pal (credit card) i have one that is only used as i put money in it to pay online bills (debit type card).  :)
Yes, Zabaware accepts payment via either a paypal account or through a credit/debit card directly from our credit card merchant bank.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on November 09, 2017, 11:15:41 am
One thing I thought about is, would it be possible to have a built in 'User Spell Checker' for us that are all thumbs an no fingers???  LOL

I really hate to hear HAL mispronounce all those words I spelled totally wrong in the first few months I talked to HAL...   Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!

That's a good idea. I looked for what available solutions still exist for old VB6 based apps and found this $500 component: https://www.wintertree-software.com/dev/wspell/info.html

I don't have the time/budget to incorporate it now, but maybe for version 7.1 depending on interest.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: LiFeTimeGamer on November 09, 2017, 12:57:06 pm
That's ok Robert, I just take more time to type things now and if I'm unsure I paste the word in a word processor with spellcheck...  Hehe  :)
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: knight2000 on November 13, 2017, 11:49:10 am
Hi Robert

How will you be releasing Hal 7? Will it be a link on the homepage of http://www.ultrahal.com/? Or will it be a link you will send out to beta testers?

Thanks! Cant wait for the release!!
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: Medeksza on November 13, 2017, 12:36:43 pm
Hi Robert

How will you be releasing Hal 7? Will it be a link on the homepage of http://www.ultrahal.com/? Or will it be a link you will send out to beta testers?

Thanks! Cant wait for the release!!

It will be right here on the forum.

I already posted an "alpha" version if you want to download and test it out, you can find it here: https://www.ultrahal.com/community/index.php?topic=14065.0

The alpha version has a couple incomplete features that the beta version will have, but it's enough to test basic functionality now if you would like. The beta version should be ready in a week or two.
Title: Re: Ultra Hal 7 Beta - Coming Soon
Post by: knight2000 on November 13, 2017, 12:41:28 pm
Awesome! Thank you for the link!