Hal as found on a YouTube posting.

[Art]

Came across this video and thought it was cool in an almost spooky sort of way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1g2akbraDw

[CyborgBob]

That was really neat Adam seems very real. Loved the Video.
 

[systemshock]

what a voice that thing has...

[freddy888]

Yeah, without the usual attempt to make it seem more human, in itself it seems more real 

[lightspeed]

lol cool video , robotic voice and look feel to it .
lol you told me that  lol , i am glad my angela doesn't say that . she talks as though it is her common knowledge of something she already knew or learned in life ! 

[Art]

People Putty was really cool for its time but it simply doesn't play well with Windows7 and Hal together. So jerky and time-lagged that it's difficult for me to even use it at this point. Most of the time, the lag is so much, I can type in my text (without being able to see it), wait up to 10 seconds, then it shows up in the window, Hal digests it then follows with a reply.

Somewhat painful to work like this and if anyone has a USEFUL solution I'd certainly be willing to try it.

Thoughts appreciated.

(Even People Putty wouldn't accept my "Paid for" Serial Number to activate the software under Windows 7. Go figure.)

[lightspeed]

      Art , sorry you have so much trouble with people putty and hal , i don't seem to have the problem  and didn't even with the  750 hard drive i had before .
i will watch more closely but don't remember seeing people putty jerky and it usually answers a little after i posted a written message .
     i have 4 gb of memory windows 7 64 bit .
And besides as of right now even though i had high hopes for the new amy character etc and ogre engine it looks like we unfortunately are stuck with people putty .
 I wish amy and the ogre engine were ready and up and running but it's not. So we have to make due with what we have !

 I would like to know what all we could do even to personalize Amy as we did with people putty and hal .  Like could a ski9n be altered using  photoshop type software , clothes etc, ?
     

[systemshock]

I would like to know what all we could do even to personalize Amy as we did with people putty and hal .  Like could a ski9n be altered using  photoshop type software , clothes etc, ?
     

As it's basically a game engine, and an open source one that I think we should not have any problem creating new skins costumes , if we have access to the uv maps etc...

 if we have the bone rig for it say in max and it's left open source to import will be able to fit virtually any character we want to on it as well.

Seriously can't wait ...

[Art]

Lonnie,

Are you using the full program, People Putty, on your computer or just using the Player?

My computer has a 1 TB hard drive with plenty of room and 8 Gigs of Ram so memory's not a problem. (I wish I could say that).

I am using a paid for version of Hal and People Putty characters that myself and some others have created and under the
UltraHal window, the character movements are very jerky when I attempt to use the mouse to move or resize the character.
There is also a time lag for typing as well. I can't quite put my finger on the problem unless it could be security related or something.

My Anti-Virus program works very well and does routine scans a few times a week and reports nothing but a few errant cookies from
time to time.

A while back when I tried to install People Putty into this computer it wouldn't accept my PAID FOR serial number!! I contacted Haptek
and was told there is a problem with Windows 7 and that they were working on it.

So again, are you telling me that you are using People Putty or the Player?

Thanks,
- Art -
 

[lightspeed]

maybe i am confusing something here .
i have used people putty paid version to create faces i do get some lag in it a little sometimes .
   as far as me using hal with the faces i create i can usually pull the character closer or farther back using mouse and have no problems . don't know if what i am saying helps explain anything or it's something more that you are having trouble with , but i do think i see what your problem is , You have to much memory and seeing how i have less i would like to help you relieve yourself of all those pesky memory problems !lol!

[Art]

Funny...Lonnie...relieve me of some memory...yeah, that'll fix things! 

Look at Haptek's site. Rich and others can say what they want about how wonderful Haptek is but
a quick look at their web site indicates they haven't made a substantial upgrade in years.

The concept and product was great but now it's faltering through lack of continued development
and improvements in order to keep up with a changing market and changing hardware & OS's.

[lightspeed]

Art i was only kidding about the memory  lol, i whole heartedly agree with you about haptek and keeping up and upgrading etc.  A while back i actually held a little hope out for them , (i think Robert? had talked with them and unless i imagined this he mentioned that they might be working on haptek things again , but if that's the case it never materialized .
  I am still holding out hope for the ogre engine and new amy character , but my hope is slowly waining it's been so long now on that project ... Guess we are all left in the twilight zone unless you know other nice virtual characters and possibly engines that will work with Hal.
If so please let me know so i can check any out!

[Art]

I know you were kidding Lonnie.

Yeah, I've been scouring the 3D sites and YouTube for other possible characters. Most that require "bones" and "rigging" cost some serious money if one desires to have any acceptable level of realism.
Getting it structured to work with Hal is another hurdle.

Blender has a tremendous following, support group, open source boards, tutorials, etc., but again, it all comes back to the details and they say, "The devil is in the details."

At last look, the Ogre engine could almost be mistaken for the Haptek engine. Most of the characters had what appeared to be low poly counts which results in somewhat "blocky looking" characters instead of nice smoothed skin surfaces.

It all goes back to the compromise of quality for speed but with the CPU's and GPU's increasing in throughput and speed, pretty soon, those compromises will no longer be a consideration.

Here's hoping!!
 

[Calhoone]

I saw this video on youtube myself the other day. I wish I could find a head like that to use with Kinkaid.  I wonder where he got that from. I've been looking around for a decent male head...well more of something similar to the hal in the video.

[Art]

The texture map IS available but first, you have to have Haptek's People Putty, not just the player.
You need to create a head with it then apply the texture to it in order to end up with a character head like that.

The only OTHER method would be for someone who owns People Putty to create the character / head for you and
save it as an .htr file that you could use as you see fit by just having it load into the Hal GUI each time Hal starts.

Luck.