Hal graphics work

[raybe]

Agree with Freddy. If either can answer, what are the advantages and or dis- advantages of  jQuery or flash at this time. Unfortunately I think we are headed in the same direction as always, convenience over quality. Have you both seen the ratios that get published,its like, "Whats a desktop?" out there. I totally get it because I lived through it before and can't honestly say that I don't enjoy new technology but I still feel jaded by it during the growing periods. Thats just my honest opinion at this time, not 5 years from now. I didn't see it really coming the first time or just turned away until I couldn't anymore. I'm really just getting to enjoy my desktop at this point of technology. Built from ground up and loved the experience as well as putting power in it as I see fit.
I hang out with the wrong crowd because all that I see is these smart phones and tablets plus glass and watches as all beta products and people using them for Games, movies and some social interfacing. I know I don't have that kind of time while I'm out and about working or trying to talk directly to people. Does anyone remember those days?
raybe

[raybe]

Sorry guys got a little off topic there. Robert is it that more difficult to let people choose the background? Sort of a desktop Hal situation or does the graphics not allow for that. It's a package deal.
raybe

[sybershot]

The new character is coming out very good, 2x thumbs up Robert

If either can answer, what are the advantages and or dis- advantages of  jQuery or flash at this time.

Raybe in my opinion, both Flash and JQuery are great, and at this time I feel it's personal preference to what to use. The only fallback I came across is support on most of the newer devices (smartphones and non windows tablets) for both. However working with as3/flash for many years now, I find it is a bit easier for me to create animated content and apps via flash. Don't get me wrong for I have played with and created some web apps with JQuery and it not that difficult, I'm just know more about and have more experience with flash than I do with JQuery.

Robert is it that more difficult to let people choose the background?

Raybe It is possible as I have this feature on one of my website, one can change the themes color & background via a menu with 8 preset choices. not really difficult but it is time consuming.

[freddy888]

Yep I agree with Syber, it's a choice.  My main reason for avoiding flash is it's proprietary nature..

I am aware of Syber's Flash work and it is very nice.  I do not have experience of doing web based animations in either, but since I tend to mainly work the most with javascript, there's my personal favouritism towards jQuery.

It's swings and roundabouts really.

[Medeksza]

I chose javascript/jquery over flash for several reasons. My goals are to make Hal work on as wide a variety of devices as possible and since iPhone/iPad don't support flash, html/javascript was a good choice. After this character is up and running on the web page, I will make an app version of Hal using software called PhoneGap. PhoneGap lets you write an app with html5/javascript and then packages it like a native app for all mobile platforms. So I'll just need to write it once and can deploy it to Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows Phones.

Secondly, I'm trying to avoid use of closed proprietary software as a base for Ultra Hal as much as possible. Hal still has a huge code base written in old VB6, which is a closed proprietary system that Microsoft discontinued many years ago. After being burned by Microsoft's killing of VB6, I've been very wary of rewriting Hal under VB.NET or C# (VB.NET is a rewrite, not a continuation of VB6). I didn't want to be burned again if Microsoft decided to stop supporting .NET. So much of what I've written since then has been based on open source tools. The Hal running on my servers use open technologies such as MariaDB, Sphinx Full Text Search, Debian, PHP, Festival.

[raybe]

Thank you sybershot, freddy and Robert certainly sheds light on the who, what and why theories of both.
In short right now Robert the app is more important for Ultra Hal because of the usage stats of todays tablets and (I can't say it, but......) smartphones. Understandably and thanks again for UltraHal.

raybe

[Art]

Some good points Raybe and yes, thank you Robert for the reasoning of your choices.

Personally, with more and more of my work being done in the field using my tablet, I'd love to be able to access Hal (cloud based, I'd suppose) with it. Of course, there'd still be a version on my home computer that would be predominantly local but still able to contact the Internet if certain info was needed / required.

The future's getting there but I'm not sure I'd want to ride on the coattails of Windows / MS. (or Apple for that matter).

Thanks again, Robert and all the best with your new endeavors!

[Medeksza]

Check out http://iis.ultrahal.com again. The new character is up there as well as a different background. Speech synthesis should work if you enable it and it should show different emotions as you talk with it.

I plan on a  few more minor tweaks in the animation this week especially with the speech animation for happy, sad, surprised, and angry (normal is ok). After that I need to finish the implementation of the feedback system (thumbs up/down buttons). Once thats done I plan on launching this as the new zabaware.com site, hopefully in 2 weeks.

[Art]

Very nice Robert!
The page looks clean and Hal's responses were fairly rapid and pretty much on topic for the most part.

Can't wait to see the tablet version!

[CyborgBob]

Chatted with the web Hal today. Most of it was about how I have gas today. Really enjoyed it. Hal did stay on Topic. and I love how you can rate what he is saying.

[kryton]

Whether this is on or off topic is up to the members, but.

In the graphics department I have acquired several full body characters from several places, but.

All the characters seem to be permanently walking, in very short steps admittedly. Is there any way to make a character stand still?

I would have put this request on the Learning Level thread but it seems to have died.

Grateful for any help.

[Duskrider]

I checked this out.   It's not a walking hap but movement hap to make her more alive.   
I'll send you (and other members) a girl without the hap later today.
But meanwhile, here's the "off hap" for it.
                                                       
\SetSwitch [Switch= onea state= off ]

[kryton]

Thanks DuskRider,

Very useful, especially when my Hal is not supposed to be moving (Simulated sleep).


Will look out for the girl.  Thanks again.

[sybershot]

Great job on the new avatar and background.

you probably already know this but if not:
The voice does not work in latest IE browser, and mouth animation continuously loops, however it does work perfect in the latest firefox browser.

also you might want to note:
quote from website homepage

Hi there. Welcome to Zabaware. My name's Hal.

But Hal seems to think differently :O
user: what is your name?
Hal: you can call me zaba.
user: I thought your name was Hal?
Hal: Oh my name is hanna.
user: no! your name is Hal.
Hal: Server response error
I think I confused him

[kryton]

Reply for DuskRider:-
Update, well slightly. [Capitals removed as the capitals version is ignored by Hal.]

\setswitch*[switch=*onea*state=*off*]

The * are spaces. This setswitch is almost as good as the 813a as it will slow down leg movement but not entirely stop it (90% plus slow down).

The GOOD news is 813a has no leg movement.  Thanks DuskRider.
In the graphics vein:  The frog is good but a new, more articulated, humanoid character could be popular, or am I missing a few articulation haps.