Http animation file microsoft agent

To assign an animation or animations to a state, create the appropriate animation, expand the States entry in the tree view of the Editor window, and select the State icon. The list of animations you have created appear in a list box on the right side of the window. Check the animation you want to assign to this state. Note that you can assign more than one animation to the same state. This allows the server to randomly select different animations for the state.

Assigning an animation to a state does not prevent an animation from playing that animation directly. You can also assign an animation to a state by selecting the animation's entry in the tree. The Assign To State list box on the Properties page lists the states. Select the check box of the state to which you're assigning the animation. The Editor does not support creating additional states because states only apply to situations where the server must play an animation automatically on behalf of the client application.

Thus, there is no benefit in defining your own state. If need be, you can play any animation explicitly using the Play method. You can save your character's definition file by choosing the Save command on the File menu or the Save Character Definition button on the toolbar.

If you want to save the character definition file with a new name, choose the Save As command on the File menu. The Editor saves a character's editable definition as an Agent Character Definition. ACD file. You can also edit this self-documenting text file format with most text editors and word processing applications. To print your character's definition, choose the Print command on the File menu or the Print button on the toolbar.

To set the properties for your printed output, choose the Page Setup command and choose your settings before selecting the Print command. When you are done creating your animations, the character and images must be compiled into a special format that Microsoft Agent uses to load this data.

To build a character, select the Build Character command on the File menu or from the toolbar. If you have unsaved edits in your character definition file, the Editor saves the definition file before displaying the Build Character dialog box.

The Agent Character Editor will automatically propose a filename based on your character definition filename. The Build Character dialog box also includes a drop-down list so you can choose between building the character as a single storage file. ACS or as multiple files. If you choose the latter, the Editor builds an. ACF file that includes character's data and an. ACA file for each animation you created. If you plan to install and access a character stored on the same computer as your client application, you would typically choose the single structured file format.

This format provides easy and efficient installation and access to the character. However, if the character will be accessed from a web server using the HTTP protocol, build your character using the. ACF individual file format. This latter file structure allows a webpage script to load individual animation files, storing the data in the user's browser file cache.

It provides more efficient access over the Web because animation data can be downloaded as needed rather than requiring the user to wait for the entire set of animations to download at one time.

In addition, because the character's data is stored in the browser cache, the file space can be automatically reclaimed.

Although you can also download character data either as a single structured file or multiple files from a web server and install elsewhere on a user's machine, such a method requires security provisions for downloading and installation.

As a result, the Microsoft Agent API does not include support for downloadable installation of a character except to the browser's cache. However, you can still support this scenario by creating your own installation control and distribute it following appropriate security conventions.

The Compress option enables you to set whether the character data is compressed. Typically, you will want to set this option to compact your character data, although building a character with the compacted data takes longer. Once you build a character, subsequent builds will be faster if you build the character to the same directory location. The Character Editor automatically verifies and copies those files that have not changed, and recompiles any data that has been edited.

If the Editor detects any errors in the character file while building the character, it writes the information out to a log file and displays a message box. You can choose to view the log file or ignore it and read it later with a text editor. However, note that the Editor will overwrite the log file the next time you build a character file.

To edit an existing character, choose Open on the File menu, select the character's definition file. ACD in the resulting dialog box, and choose Open. The file will load into the Editor.

Note that you cannot load compiled character files. ACF, or. For example, if the character's state has not changed for several seconds, Agent begins playing animations assigned to the character's Idling animations. Similarly, when speech input is enabled, Agent plays the character's Listening animations and then Hearing animations when an utterance is detected. These server-managed animations are called states , and are defined when a character is created. For more information, see Designing Characters for Microsoft Agent.

Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode. Please rate your experience Yes No. Any additional feedback? In this article. In addition, to ensure that character and animation data load successfully, use the RequestComplete event. If a load request fails, you can retry loading the data or display an appropriate message.

If an animation's Return animations is defined using Exit branches, you do not need to call it explicitly; Agent automatically plays the Return animation before the next animation. However, if a Return animation is listed, you must call the animation using the Play method before another animation to provide a smooth transition. If no Return animation is listed, the animation typically ends without needing a transitional animation.

If an animation's Return animation is defined using Exit branches, you do not need to call it explicitly; Agent automatically plays the Return animation before the next animation.

However, if a Return animation is listed, you must call the animation using the Play method before another animation to provide a smooth transition. If no Return animation is listed, the animation typically ends without needing a transitional animation. The character file includes sound effects for some animations as noted in the following table. Sound effects play only if this option is enabled in the Microsoft Agent property sheet.