Microsoft Agent COM Example

[Promixis]

This is a quick example of using MS Agent with Girder. Allows asyncronous events and speech.

-- Quick MS Agent LuaCOM demo
-- example of using the speech component and asyncronous events!

-- See MSDN for agent programming details

--http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/msagent/pacontrol_6lyk.asp



MyAgentEvents = {}
function MyAgentEvents:Click (CharacterID,Button,Shift,X,Y)
  print (CharacterID,Button,Shift,X,Y)
  MyAgent:Characters(CharacterID):Speak ("You Clicked on Me at "..X.."  "..Y)
end

function MyAgentInitialize ()
  LoadLuaCom ()
  if not MyAgent then
    MyAgent = luacom.CreateObject ("Agent.Control")
    luacom_Connect(MyAgent,MyAgentEvents)
    MyAgent.Connected = 1
    MyAgent.Characters:Load ("Genie","Genie.acs")
  end
end

function MyAgentClose ()
  MyAgent = nil
  collectgarbage ()
end

function MyAgentAppear ()
  MyAgent:Characters("Genie"):Show ()
  MyAgent:Characters("Genie"):Speak ("Hello")
end



MyAgentInitialize ()

MyAgentAppear ()

Mike

[Hesse]

Mike,

How can I select different voices using MS Agent? I've got it up and running, but it is using the default voice. I have ATT True Voices installed. Can you give the subfunction that controls it and maybe an example too.

Thanks,

Jessse

[Promixis]

Jesse,

You need to change the character that you load. (At least as far as I know!).

The documentation on MSDN is actually fairly good so its worth reading. Please post you work here for others to look at (me as well)...

[Hesse]

I read that MS Agent can use different speech engines, including ATT True voices. I assumed that I could change it for any of the different characters. I could be wrong.

I will look for the MSDN documentation. Thanks for the tip, I totally missed the website. Maybe I'll post a link here to make it more visible.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ntrol_6lyk.asp

Jesse

[Hesse]

Mike,

I found out how to change the voices, but don't quite know how to implement it. I found a nice script editing/creating program for MS Agent characters. It is called Microsoft Agent Scripting Software and is available at:

http://www.abhisoft.net/mass/

In that program, if you go to Actions->Set TTS Mode it shows a list of available voices on your computer. Then you can change the characters voice. For example, to change to Adult Male #1, American English (TruVoice), the script it outputs is:

Merlin.TTSModeID = "{ca141fd0-ac7f-11d1-97A3-006008273000}"

for the Merlin character. I tried in Girder to do:

MyAgent:Characters("Merlin"):TTSModeID = "{a101db41-5b7c-4513-9E58-7D00767313FE}"

But it didn't compile. What is the proper way to do this? Also, there is a way to get the available voices and save them into a variable. Then you could just select the index of the one you want. I'm not a great programmer, and I don't know Lua that well, so I will probably need some help doing this. I'm going to keep looking for the command to get the available TTS voices installed.

Thanks,

Jesse

[Promixis]

2 quick pointers for using luacom....

Properties, ie values, are accessed using object.property.

Methods, ie. functons, are accessed using object:method.

So

MyAgent:Characters("Merlin"):TTSModeID = "{a101db41-5b7c-4513-9E58-7D00767313FE}"

should be

MyAgent.Characters("Merlin").TTSModeID = "{a101db41-5b7c-4513-9E58-7D00767313FE}"

[BoomSmurf]

Originally Posted by Mike C

2 quick pointers for using luacom....

Properties, ie values, are accessed using object.property.

Methods, ie. functons, are accessed using object:method.

I wonder why this is. Really can't think of any reason why to make this distinction. At least not one that has more pro's than con's :-?

[Hesse]

Originally Posted by Mike C

2 quick pointers for using luacom....

So

MyAgent:Characters("Merlin"):TTSModeID = "{a101db41-5b7c-4513-9E58-7D00767313FE}"

should be

MyAgent.Characters("Merlin").TTSModeID = "{a101db41-5b7c-4513-9E58-7D00767313FE}"

Ok, I saw the distinction between those two and played with it some last night. However, I get this error when trying the second implementation.

14:43:38	Friday, June 04, 2004	ALERT:	error: COM error:(.\src\library\tLuaCOM.cpp,362):Invalid number of parameters.

So I must not have the syntax right. Have you found any documentation on the methods for interacting with the agent via COM (besides basic things). I didn't get what I needed from the MSDN website.

Jesse

[Hesse]

Ok, boy, what a struggle. I finally figured out how to change the voice. It was in my Lua syntax problems. It should be:

MyAgent:Characters("Merlin").TTSModeID = "{a101db41-5b7c-4513-9E58-7D00767313FE}"

Now, I just need to figure out how the other programs get the list of voices installed on the computer.

Jesse

[Hesse]

Ok, here are some other tips for showing and hiding the character, as well as idling:

MyAgent:Characters("Genie"):Show("1") --Show the character quickly (w/o sound effects)
MyAgent:Characters("Genie"):Hide("1") --Hides the character quickly (w/o sound effects)
MyAgent:Characters("Genie").IdleOn = "0" --Turns of idle mode animation so it doesn't go to sleep

Mike,

Is there a way to make the character speak while it is hidden? I don't really want to see the character at all, I just want to use it for speech. Maybe if I move him way off of the screen, I'll try that.

Jesse

Edit
Ok, this seems to work. It disables the balloon and shrinks the character down to one pixel.

MyAgent:Characters("Genie").Balloon.Style = "0"
MyAgent:Characters("Genie").Height = "1" --Default is 128
MyAgent:Characters("Genie").Width = "1" --Default is 128