New characters

[Biggins2002]

I've seen some posts where people want to make new characters. Is anyone done this yet? This may sound like a stupid question, but is there any way to change a .acs file into a .ocx? All of the msagent files seem to have the .acs file name and the character files in the hal program have .ocx. I know it may sound pretty silly huh? I know I'm not a programer, but hey isn't that the way things get answered by asking silly questions?

Biggins2002

[Medeksza]

Ultra Hal Assistant will accept either its own proprietary character plugin which is an an OCX file, or it is able to accept any MSAgent character if you make a small UHP text file telling its object name. Also you need to make a JPG of an intro screen for the character and a preview image. Its actually quite simple. The best way to see how this works is to look at how Ultra Hal Assistant loads the current MSAgent characters. Lets take the Microsoft genie character as an example. Open the file "C:/Program Files/Zabaware/Ultra Hal Assistant 4/genie.uhp" It will look like this:

[Ultra Hal Assistant 2.0 Plugin]
[DO NOT MODIFY]
Type=Face
Name=Genie MSAgent Character
Speech=True
AgentChar=True
Startup=genistrt.jpg
Preview=geniprvw.jpg
Object=Genie
BGColor=048048048

You can have Hal use any MSAgent character simply by making a file like this one. Just figure out the object name of your ACS file and set the Object= line appropiately. Also change the name line to whatever the name of the charater is. Make 2 jpeg files with a startup screen featuring the character and a preview of that character and reference the files in the Startup= and Preview= lines. The jpg files should be located in the "Characters" subfolder.

Robert Medeksza

[Biggins2002]

How do I create UHP text file. Do I need some sort of file editor? What is a good one. When I figure out the text file, the rest seems pretty simple.

[Medeksza]

The easiest thing to do would be to open an existing UHP file in Notepad and modify it for a different character. For example you could open the genie.uhp file I mentioned above and modify the Object= line to point to a different installed character. Also modify the Name= to give the character a different name and modify the Preview= and Startup= to give it a different preview image.

Robert Medeksza

[rciafa]

i can't get the jpg. to go into the character box.
i got the name in though.
how do i transfer a character face?
thanks,
richy

Edited by - rciafa on 01/19/2002  08:02:10

[The Tinman]

just rename the image to marystrt or maryprvw and cut and paste the image into the character file. it will only work for your startup and preview images. The program will then call up the Mary.ocx file for the animations. if you plug in another character for your animations just use characternamestrt and apply this to a static image of your entity. understand?

[rciafa]

quote:
just rename the image to marystrt or maryprvw and cut and paste the image into the character file. it will only work for your startup and preview images. The program will then call up the Mary.ocx file for the animations. if you plug in another character for your animations just use characternamestrt and apply this to a static image of your entity. understand?

tinman i changed the start and preview to a jpg but what is a static copy?
and i made my own character in paint.
i still can't get it in the character file.
thanks,
Richy

[The Tinman]

A static copy is simply an image that does not move. If you made an image and you want this to come up with your start images or preview images you simply follow the instructions that I have given you. what ( be specific) problems are you encountering. Once you rename these images you simply cut and paste them into the character file. You must however name them marystrt or maryprvw. IF you are using the mary animation as your entity. If you are using another animation, you must name them the name of the animaton that you have selected. You cannot take a static image and expect it to be animated by the program. Creating the strt images and prvw images is easy. Specifically what problems are you having?