___________________________________________________________________ Companion Disc Readme for Developing for Microsoft Agent Copyright (c) 1998 by Microsoft Corporation All Rights Reserved ___________________________________________________________________ README CONTENTS - SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS - WHAT'S ON THIS CD? - HOW TO USE THE CD - SUPPORT INFORMATION - Microsoft Press support information - Microsoft Agent support System Requirements =============================== Windows 95 or Windows NT® 4.00(x86) Internet Explorer version 3.0 or later A Pentium 100 MHz PC (or faster) At least 16 MB of RAM At least 661 KB free disk space for the Microsoft Agent control, plus at least 1.26 MB if you plan to use speech output, and an additional 6.68 MB if you plan to use speech input A Windows-compatible sound card A compatible set of speakers and microphone (recommended) End-User License Agreement: You'll need to read and agree to the terms of the end-user license agreement in Appendix E before using Microsoft Agent. A copy of this agreement is downloaded with the Microsoft Agent control. What's On This CD ================================= * Microsoft Agent Control * Microsoft Agent Character Files * Microsoft Agent Character Editor * Lernout & Hauspie® TruVoice text-to-speech engine * Microsoft Command and Control Speech Engine, version 3 * Microsoft Agent Linguistic Information Sound Editing Tool * Microsoft Agent Visual Basic®, HTML, Visual C++® and Java code samples How to Use the CD ================================= Agent control (US version only) - To install the Agent control, follow these steps: 1. On the taskbar at the bottom of your screen, click the Start button, and then click Run. 2. Type D:\msagent.exe (or, if your CD-ROM drive uses a drive letter other than "d," substitute the correct drive letter). 3. Click OK, and then follow the directions on the screen to install. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Three character files in the .ACS format -- \Genie.acs, \Merlin.acs, and \Robby.acs The .ACS format is used when the characters are stored locally and are compiled as part of a single file. These files need to be copied to a folder named characters under the folder where you installed agent (by default this is \program files\microsoft agent\). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Microsoft Agent Character Editor (.EXE file, 709 KB) - To install the Agent Character Editor, follow these steps: 1. On the taskbar at the bottom of your screen, click the Start button, and then click Run. 2. Type D:\editor\ace.exe (or, if your CD-ROM drive uses a drive letter other than "d," substitute the correct drive letter). 3. Click OK, and then follow the directions on the screen to install. At this time only U.S. English speech engines are available from Microsoft. However, SAPI-compliant engines for other languages may be available from third parties. The \Links folder contains a link to Microsoft's Speech Engine Support Requirements site as spchreq.htm. The \Links folder also contains a link to the Speech recognition research Web page at Microsoft.com (as Speech.htm). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lernout & Hauspie® TruVoice text-to-speech engine (.EXE file, 833 KB) - To install the TruVoice text-to-speech engine, follow these steps: 1. On the taskbar at the bottom of your screen, click the Start button, and then click Run. 2. Type D:\voice\fromtext\cgram.exe (or, if your CD-ROM drive uses a drive letter other than "d," substitute the correct drive letter). 3. Click OK, and then follow the directions on the screen to install. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Microsoft Command and Control Speech Engine, version 3 (.EXE file, 3.15 MB) - To install the Command and Control Speech Engine, follow these steps: 1. On the taskbar at the bottom of your screen, click the Start button, and then click Run. 2. Type D:\voice\engine\actcnc.exe (or, if your CD-ROM drive uses a drive letter other than "d," substitute the correct drive letter). 3. Click OK, and then follow the directions on the screen to install. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Linguistic Information Sound Editing Tool enables you to generate phoneme and word-break information for enhancing sound (.WAV) files to support high-quality lip-synching character animation. Microsoft Agent Linguistic Information Sound Editing Tool (.EXE file, 2.9 MB) Requires a microphone and sound card. - To install the Agent Linguistic Information Sound Editing Tool, follow these steps: 1. On the taskbar at the bottom of your screen, click the Start button, and then click Run. 2. Type D:\voice\editor\liset.exe (or, if your CD-ROM drive uses a drive letter other than "d," substitute the correct drive letter). 3. Click OK, and then follow the directions on the screen to install. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sample Code Microsoft Agent Visual Basic®, Visual C++® and Java code samples are found in the \Examples folder, as is the Overview.HTM page, which provides an overview of the Agent technology presented by the three Microsoft agents. The include files for the code samples can be found in the \Examples\Include folder on the companion CD. These examples all require a connection to the World Wide Web and the \\www.microsoft.com site to function. To run the following examples, you must first copy the character files to the folder \Program Files\Microsoft Agent\Characters. Each sample includes a Readme.txt file with further instructions for building and running the sample. The instructions assume that you are using Microsoft Visual Basic®, Microsoft Visual C++®, or Microsoft Visual J++, as appropriate. *Visual Basic Sample (\Examples\VB) Visual Basic 5.0 required. -Hello World Visual Basic Sample -Instructions for installing and running the sample are included in its readme document. These instructions assume that you are using Microsoft® Visual Basic®. You will be instructed to install Microsoft Agent and the character data files to build and run the sample. *HTML Samples (\Examples\Html) -Hello World HTML/VBScript sample -Hello World 2 Html Sample -- Illustrates Hello World with AgentNotifySink. Demonstrates how to receive Agent events in HTML/VBScript. -Hello World 3 Html Sample -- Illustrates Hello World with AgentNotifySink and two characters. Demonstrates how to use Agent events to coordinate multiple characters in HTML/VBScript. *Visual C++ Samples (\Examples\C) Visual C++ 5.0 required. -Instructions for installing and running the sample are included in its readme document. These instructions assume that you are using Microsoft Visual C++®. You will be instructed to install Microsoft Agent, the Microsoft Agent Include files, and the character data files to build and run the samples. -Hello World C++ Sample -Hello World 2 C++ Sample -- Illustrates Hello World with AgentNotifySink. Demonstrates how to receive Agent events in C++. -Hello World 3 C++ Sample -- Illustrates Hello World with AgentNotifySink and two characters. Demonstrates how to use Agent events to coordinate multiple characters in C++. *Java Samples (\Examples\Java) Visual J++ 1.1 required. -Hello World Java Sample -Instructions for installing and running the sample are included in its readme document. These instructions assume that you are using Microsoft Visual J++. You will be instructed to install Microsoft Agent and the character data files to build and run the samples. -Hello World 2 Java Sample -- Illustrates Hello World with AgentNotifySink. Demonstrates how to receive Agent events in Java. -Hello World 3 Java Sample -- Illustrates Hello World with AgentNotifySink and two characters. Demonstrates how to use Agent events to coordinate multiple characters in Java. *Goodbye World sample (Examples\Html) -- Demonstrates the use of voice input. Requires a microphone and sound card. SUPPORT INFORMATION =================== Microsoft Press support information ----------------------------------- Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the book and the contents of this companion disc. Microsoft Press provides corrections for books through the World Wide Web at http://mspress.microsoft.com/mspress/support/ If you have comments, questions, or ideas regarding the book or this companion disc, please send them to Microsoft Press via e-mail to: MSPINPUT@MICROSOFT.COM or via postal mail to: Microsoft Press Attn: Developing for Microsoft Agent Editor One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 Please note that product support is not offered through the above addresses. Developing for Microsoft Agent Support -------------------------------------- For support information regarding Developing for Microsoft Agent, you can connect to Microsoft Agent Support on the Web at: http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/prog/agent/