VRMLWorld.net

[admin]

Well, it has been about a month since I posted the ABNet 2 server code for download. We would love to hear what you are doing with your server. Tell us about your experinces and show off your sites.

-rick

[yehuna]

Ok, even if my english is not the best, I will try to give an answer to your post, rick.

It's a while ago now since I had the idea of a town on the moon, but at this time microsofts jvm just had gone, and most vrml chat systems didn't run anymore with newer sun java software. So It put this idea on ice, watched the abnet forum and waited for the first release of abnet.

Now, since this release od abnet2, I started again working on this idea, and created "Puerta-al-Cielo", an town on Saturns moon Titan. For now it is only a few objects, some rudimentary buildings, and a homepage I am working on. My goal is to create at least one well designed building, then open the chat and find some more people to build with me and let the town grow. Until this time there is a preview avaiable, but without chat function. If there is someone interested in visiting this preview, go to http://www.puerta-al-cielo.de. For now, it is only a german site, but I have in mind to translate it to english later.

I think I will first open the chat when the cortona client is avaiable for abnet2, because I don't like the pricing system of blaxxuns client, the binding to internet explorer, and the blaxxun logo wandering over the screen.

Flux Player, for now, seems to unstable for me, as it needs a lot of cpu power. Also I wasn't able to install this on firefox browser, even if this should be possible. So, I think cortona is the best choice.

Joachim

[admin]

It would be great is someone who has a Cortona SDK decided
to implement this. If anyone out there has the Cortona SDK and
wants to try this I'd be glad to help.

You would start by creating a cortonax.html page. You might
use the fluxax.html page as a starting point. In the new
html page, you would change the javascript so that it makes
the appropriate Cortona API calls. You need to add just a few
things. You would need to modify the avatar loading, the Proximity
Sensor injecting, and the <OBJECT classid= so that it start
Cortona instead of Flux.

You would also need to modify the abnet.js. You would change
it so the appropriate Cortona API calls are made to set the position
and orientation of an Avatar in repsonse to the 'onPC' and 'onOC'
The 'onPC' event is sent when someones avatar changes position.
The 'onOC' event is sent when somones avatar changes orientation.

That's about it. Anyone up for the challenge?

-rick

[Shaba1]

[fabricator]

[zak]

I have to sheepishly admit that I have only been able to run the ABNet2 software and get into server mode using Apache HTTP Server for Windows. After dealing with some router problems, I am now able to successfully serve a world from my own box, and am interested in seeing what will happen next.

My goal is to set up some worlds where my students can practice English with each other in an evironment where they won't be interupted by strangers (friendly or otherwise). I have seen some mention of chat logs in this forum and will be trying to work on this.

If anyone has any idea how to get a text to speech engine working with ABNet, I would appreciate any suggestions. It may seem that text to speech is an outdated technology, what with Skype and others, but I need a way to monitor my students (hence the chat logs) and to prevent them from just using Chinese to talk to each other (hence the tts).

I will be following Rick's progess and everybodys' experiences in the forum. I am especially interested in seeing how Flux or some open-souce applications like FreeWRL or OpenVRML (don't know anything about these- other than the names) can be used with ABNet.

Anyway, I'm sorry to say I don't have anything useful to contribute (yet), but I just wanted to express my interest and excitement regarding this project.

[admin]

One of the great things about ABNet is the way everything is
really done using javascript on the HTML page. To add
text to speech, you would need something that will do the
conversion for you that can be controlled from either a
java applet or activex.

You need to modify the javascript on the main page
of ABNet (either contactax.html or fluxax.html). Whenever
text is received or sent from the network. You should
add the correct function call that would perform the conversion
for whatever text to speech engine you are using.

-rick

[zak]

Rick, I downloaded an active x object called "TRSpeaker".
http://www.text-reader.com/trspeaker_English/index.html
That web page says it is similar to MS DirectSS (didn't try that).
I added a couple of lines of code (just copied them from that web page) to your contactax.html page and "voila" - I have text to speech.
The only real problem is that it reads my avatar name each time I say something. I guess it's not a big deal unless your avatar name is really long - ex. "Thunderpox- Lord of the Galaxy Dreebxone".
I suppose some people would also be perplexed (upset) that every avatar would have the same sounding voice- male, female, abstract form.
Anyway, it's a step in the right direction.

[admin]

Nice! Great to see someone extending ABNet.

You could use javascript to split the message text from the
name and just play that.

If you post the modifications you made, I'll take a look at it.

It looks like you could create different speakers objects
using that Text-to-Speech engine, then depending on the
user you could have different voices.

You might want to add an interface to the contactax.html
that allows the user to set their voice preferences. You
would have to send that information to all other users
whenever a new user joined the conversation. Again,
that would be done by modifying the javascript in ABNet.

-rick

[zak]

Rick- I only added two lines (my scripting "ability" consists only of cut and paste)- I marked them with "added"

var b3DState=0x0;
var X3D_LOADING=0x0;
var X3D_LOADED=0x1;
var X3D_LOADFAILED=0x2;

var TRSpeaker1=new ActiveXObject("TRReader.TRSpeaker.1");// trspeaker added

var userList=new Object;
var userTyping=[];
...

function chatSendMsg(f) {
window.status='';
var msgFld = f.message;
if ( msgFld.value.length > 0 ) {
var msg = me.username + ': ' + msgFld.value;
ABNet.SendToAllExcept(me.uniqID,'chat',escape(msg));
chatAppend(msg);

TRSpeaker1.Speak(msg);// tts added

CC3D.setNodeEventIn('ABNetSharedEvents','groupChat',msgFld.value);
msgFld.value='';
}
...

Of course as the TRSpeaker web page says you need to have a text to speech engine and voices. It also tells you how to be able to select a voice.