A Q about character plugins

[Straker]

Has anyone bought and used, successfully, any of the characters sold at desktopmates.com? How do you like them? I am currently using the trial version of Hal 6 and I downloaded "Dawn" from Desktopmates which is a free demo for Hal 6, but it won't install itself in the Hal 6 program but, instead, installs itself in Cyberbuddy. Anyone know how I can move "Dawn" to Hal 6 or don't all the characters at Desktopmates work with Hal 6? I like the idea of floating characters which float about on your puter screen such as those sold at Desktopmates as opposed to those that seem to be stuck in some kind of box.

Thanks.

[markofkane]

As far as I know, Characters used with Hal are stuck with the box. That's the only way to interact with the characters.

And you need the Hal expansion Pack.

Someone may correct me if I'm wrong.

[Art]

OK Mark...you're wrong! LOL!

Seriously, put the Candi, Brandy, Keiko.uhp files or whatever in your
UltraHal6 folder.

Within Hal's menu select from the character's name and it will appear then float down to Hal's box.

The characters can be moved with the mouse but Hal's window will still be on the screen.
If minimized, the character will also go to the taskbar.

I'd recommend using a small window size (like 50%) if you want more of your character and less of the Hal User Interface.

So while it's not prefect, it can be done.

[Straker]

Thanks. Actually, "Dawn" is a Microsoft Agent Character file, not a UHP file. But whatever, I simply copied it over to the Hal6 folder and it works.

Now, I still have the trial version of Hal 6, when you converse with Hal with the full version do you need to press a botton to talk to her like you do with Cyberbuddy and Answerpad? Also, where do I find the file called "vrFreeWill.zip", it seems to be missing. Hal's ability to use syllogisms sounds very interesting and I would like to be able to use this plugin.

Thanks.

[Art]

Using the phrase freewill in the Search box, I located the following:


http://www.zabaware.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2845&whichpage=1&SearchTerms=freewil

You can get it at Vrossi's forum in the downloads section.

If you wish to try the voice recognition feature just click on the mic button...that's it. Talk into a fairly good quality mic clearly with as little background noise as possible and after having trained the computer for your voice.
Click button again to turn listening / speech off.

[DesktopMates]

Actually you don't install DesktopMates, or any MS Agent characters directly into Hal's folder. All MS Agent characters are installed into a special default character folder which is part of the MS Agent core components on your system. Hal as well as CyberBuddy, and any other MS Agent program, loads characters directly from this folder. When you select a DesktopMates character from the Hal character list and there's no preview, it's because there's no UHP file installed for it. UHP files for MS Agent characters are still required but aren't technically a character file, they only define the character so Hal knows which one to load. Hal will automatically create a UHP file for new installed MS Agent characters the first time you try loading it, but we recommend using our character plugins for Hal which will install the proper UHP files designed especially for DesktopMates characters. Character plugins for Hal are available on our Hal Plugins page.

If you copied Dawn's ACS character file into the Hal folder, I'll assure you that's not the reason why she's working, the character file can't function or be run from there, it can only function from the default MS Agent character folder, which is also where Hal is programmed to read ACS files from. The reason she probably started working is because Hal eventually created the auto UHP file which you may not have noticed until you re-started Hal.

Our Plugin page also has some interface skins available for Hal, including our latest "Blue Ice" skin which is a compact interface which was designed to use with our large DesktopMates head characters. The character remains to left of the chat window and does not overlap or interfere with the chat window and gives the illusion that the MS Agent character is independent from the Hal interface window.

[Straker]

Thanks for the info. I like the "Blue Ice" skin as the character doesn't overlap it, but it doesn't appear that this skin has a "size" button that allows you to change the size of the character like you can with the "Large Character Skin" which is what I've been using.  I don't know enough about all this technology to know what ACS files or MS Agents are or what UHP means (I'm guessing it stands for Ultra Hal Personality). This is all pretty knew stuff for me.

Thanks for the info on Free Will. It seems I may have asked too soon as Hal 6 seems to already have this plugin installed on it.

One more question: how do you edit or erase what you tell Hal or what Hal knows? It seems she keeps repeating something I said in error when I ask her a question and I don't know how to change or erase it. Thanks again.

[DesktopMates]

The reason there's no character resize button on the Blue Ice skin is because the button is part of the character's box in which it resides, but since this skin makes the character's box invisible it also makes the resize button disappear as well. IMO this was never an ideal place to put the resize button, it should have been made so the button  could be placed anywhere on the interface just like all the other buttons, and if that isn't possible then at the very least character resize options should alternately be made available in the menu list along with the window resize options or in the section where you select characters.

Unless someone knows of way that the character resize button can be customized and placed elsewhere on the interface skin.

.ACS is the extension for MS Agent character files, same as .ZIP is for zipped files. ACS files are the actual character file or character program. MS Agent itself is the technology created by Microsoft which is a set of core components that's an extension of the Windows operating system, MS Agent technology basically in layman terms, amalgamates the character file and voice engine with programs like Hal or CyberBuddy producing a character on the user's desktop capable of speech. For more info visit our new user start up page and click the "Technical" button to view a schematic and detailed info on how this technology functions, this will provide you with a general idea and understanding on how it works and how all the components tie together.