Text To Speech, Clickable Urls & Login Bug Fixed for 2.143

[thyme]

Text To Speech (TTS)

For 2.143 there are 2 versions, TTS and non TTS
Both are identical except the non TTS version will be silent for chat.
Because the TTS version utilises .NET 3.5's TTS support, you will need .NET 3.5 installed on your computer.

.NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 is free for download from the Microsoft site:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

You download first the dotnetfx35setup.exe which is 2.8 meg. The installation downloads about 50 meg.

You don't need .NET for the non TTS Seamless3d version.

You can download both versions of Seamless3d and the server from the download page.

The Seamless3d server version number has been jumped up to 2.143 to keep it synchronised with the modeller/client.

Updated Seamless3d chat protocol

To accommodate TTS and to simplify Seamless3d chat, I have modified the seamless3d chat protocol slightly so you will need 2.143 if you want to chat using the new server.
Both versions of 2.143 are compatible with each other.

Fast path for checking out the new chat features

The seamless3d server is likely to be running (click this link to see) so if you don't want to read anymore right now and just want to check out the new chat:

1/ go to the folder:

My Documents\Seamless3d\Application Data For Seamless3d

and delete the seamless3dSetup.wrl file.

This is done just to get rid of the previous version's worldUrl format.

2/ Click
3/ Enter your nickname
4/ Click go.

You can use any of the urls for your avatarUrl field from the smls formatted avatar page:

http://www.seamless3d.com/av/av_smls.html

Standard floor height changed from -1.75 to 0 for Seamless3d chat

I have changed the height of the floor for the avatars in my smls formatted avatar page and my smls worlds form -1.75 to 0.

The Seamless3d server now remembers worlds that have been visited

As before you can join others in a world when you see their name in the worlds open page, just copy the url from the world's hyperlink (right click & copy the short cut/link) and paste it into Seamless3d's worldUrl field using Control V to paste. For 2.143, worlds that have been visited will continue to be listed in the worlds open page after all occupants have left.

Clickable chat urls

Now when you paste a non smls url into you chat window others can easily open it by clicking on the url in the chat window.
Any url that begins with "http://" or "www" will open into your web browser when clicked. You will open a new web browsers for each click so don't keep clicking while you wait for a web browser to open !

Updated chat tutorials

I have updated the 2 seamless3d chat tutorials for 2.143:

http://www.seamless3d.com/tut/chat/index.html
http://www.seamless3d.com/tut/chat/hosting.html

worldUrl format simplified

The worldUrl is now much simpler to set up. It is made of only 2 parts, the path that leads to the smls_server.php file (you don't specify the actual file just the path to it) and the world url for the smls file.

World title is now specified in the WorldInfo node

The title is no longer included in the worldUrl field, instead it is specified in the WorldInfo node so all world smls files must now contain a WorldInfo node if you want to use it for chat. The advantages of having the title in a WorldInfo node instead of in the worldUrl field is it makes setting up a worldUrl easier for the end user and it bypasses the problems encountered in the previous versions where IE and Firefox behaved differently when certain characters were used for the title. This should put an end to parallel universes opening in the same server leaving visitors isolated from each other.

World thumbnail filenames must now have a postfix "_tn"

In previous versions if you wanted a thumbnail image file to be shown by the seamless3d server when the worlds open page was opened, you had to supply in the same folder as the world a jpg image (144 by 114 pixels) for the thumbnail that had the same name as the world smls file name (except for the jpg file extension).

For 2.143 you must add a post fix "_tn" to the filename.

So for example if you smls file is named my_world.smls, name your thumbnail my_world_tn.jpg

Mysterious Login Bug Fixed

A mysterious and frustrating bug that plagued much of 2008 has been bypassed in 2.143. This bug prevented Alain (and probably others) from logging into the seamless3d chat server. This bug would happen for Alain when he used his router but not when he used dialup. This would lead one to think the problem must be related to the router but because Alain was able to log in using IE or Firefox behind his router we knew his router was not blocking the seamless server. I had the opportunity to isolate and fix this bug on my own computer recently because I began experiencing Alain's symptoms.

Many thanks to Alain for his persevering in carrying out my tests and his much valued patience

Avatar Clone bug fixed

You no longer need to close seamless3d down and reopen it when you are logged in and want to open a new world (so that you don't leave a clone of your avatar in the world you leave) because Seamless3d now automatically logs out soon as a new world is opened.

Copy Delete Node Bug Fixed

A (non chat related) bug that would show up after nodes were copied and deleted and then if the user right clicked on a node (which would result in an exit) has been fixed (if not party) for 2.143

Compiled with VC++ Express 2008 (VC++9)

2.143 is the first version to be compiled with VC++9. I have uploaded the source files for both the TTS and non TTS versions but I need to update the tutorial for how to compile it using the new compiler.
I will update it after I reinstall my system which I hope to do soon.

Got the server working with our satellite connection

I can leave the Seamless3d server running for longer periods now because I found out by chance I can run it with our new ipstar satellite connection, I just can not log in my self if I use an internet url like everyone else. This is not much of a problem if everyone else can log in fine because I can log in and join everyone by logging in with my local IP address Wooo Hooooo . Glad I gave up on Peer to Peer or I would never had been able to do that..

Now if I could only find out how to get a server to run behind both our router and ipstar modem I could leave the server running without any interruptions from Ep unplugging the network cable

What about downloadable demos with recorded speech and animated nurbs?

Some of the features I was working on for the next version such as demos with recorded voice, downloadable demo files and a new polymodelling demo are not available in this version but work on them will soon resume. I also have animated nurbs and animated polygon subdivision in the pipeline so stay tuned

[vnomad]

You have done it again!
Impressive work.
I wish I had the time to explore all the amazing Seamless features!
Well, at least I want to see if I can get the TTS working.
I am curious to see how it might (dys)function in languages other than English . . .
Enchante de faire votre connaissance

[thyme]

Thanks very much vnomad
It was a pleasure chatting to you in seamless this morning (your evening time)
I am glad that the voices worked for you.

If you google for the words:

sapi5 voice norwegian

You will find there is a sapi5 Norwegian voice called Nora but its not free

You can hear a MP3 recording of Nora here:

http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/SpeechE ... oices.html

I downloaded some free sapi5 UK English voices and installed them but disappointingly I don't see them available when I open my Control Panel and click on the Speech icon.

I feel optimistic however for the future of sapi5 voices because Microsoft has added sapi5 support to their .NET frame work. This should mean more TTS development will revolve around this standard which should result in more sapi5 voices from around the world becoming freely available.

[Peter]

Hi Thyme!!

I was burning to hear your chat talking ... but my Vista box is once more making trouble :

I have installed the .NET framework (the whole thing) and 2.143 after.

I have pasted the urls from the "open worlds" page into the login window and also a new avatar.

But when it seems that I am almost connected to the chat, I get a windows error message about Data Execution Prevention (DEP) shutting down seamless3d ...

That DEP is new to me, lol ... this is not the UAC of last time.

I have tried both 2.143 versions : with TTS and without.

I have observed one thing :

Even thou I have dumped all contents of the old seamless folder, 2.143 is still displaying my old nickname and the old Url for world and avatar in the login window. May be I must delete something more?

I hope to get it fixed.

TC

Peter

[thyme]

Hi Peter I saw you log in and I see your nurbs patch av (which is not the default av) and then you apparently crashed

Hearing you say it remembers your name Peter sounds promising because this must mean you are trying to log in with a url that is formatted differently for 2.143 to the previous versions

You must delete this file:

My Documents\Seamless3d\Application Data For Seamless3d\seamless3dSetup.wrl

This is the file that remembers your nickname and worlUrl etc.

Strange though how you could log in at all if you used the old formatted url but I remain hopefull

Thanks much for your feedback I truly appreciate it

[fabricator]

For a short while I'm running a seamless3d server off my 20mb down, 1mb up, ADSL2 connection. Not sure for how long, it depends on how hot it gets here, and my connection staying on.

It should appear on the worlds open page

Just use the url in thymes first post image, that should work nicely.

[Alain]

nice to you , fabricator

and for me the voices works well

[thyme]

Yes thanks Fab

The server is running back on my computer again

Was fun chatting to you this morning Alain

I did not know Joseph was using sapi5 voices but I am surprised they are not used more than they are considering they are part of windows.
I wonder why MSN does not have them as an option, it would hardly complicate the program.
Alain you can have more than just the Microsoft Sam voice BTW, you can have at least 4 more voices on XP for free, I show how on my updated chat tutorial under the title Text to speech (TTS)

http://www.seamless3d.com/tut/chat/index.html





Seamless Scripts No Longer Running Because of Data Execution Prevention (DEP)

If Peter tries to run seamless gestures/scripts the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) mechanism stops seamless3d from running.
Because scripts use to run for Peter I have wondered if DEP gets turned on for every program by default after installing .NET 3.5

This had me very concerned for a while but I have found out windows lets the user disable DEP for any selected program

I would prefer however if Seamless3d could run with DEP enabled because DEP adds extra security from malicious code trying to take over.

I tried turning DEP on in XP but seamless scripts still ran ok for me.
Apparently only modern CPUs can utilise DEP.

For most programs DEP presents no problems but for a just in time compiler (JIT) such as the seamless3d script compiler I have to mark the compiled code as execution code.
Microsoft shows how to do this here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb430720.aspx

I wrote 2 simple examples for others who have DEP issues to verify it works as I understand:

http://www.seamless3d.com/download/call_mem.zip

call_mem.exe simply runs some machine code (from memory that has been dynamically allocated) that is not marked as executable code before it runs it so it should be stoped in its tracks by DEP.

notify_DEP.exe does the same thing except it marks the code as executable code before it runs it so it should not be stoped by DEP

I would much appreciate this test done for me so that I can move on to making the necessary changes to seamless

[Peter]

Good news Thyme :

call_mem.exe does not finish executing. The console just says gv before = 25, the program apparently crashes and after shutdown windows says it was DEP.

notify_dep.exe runs through (gv before = 25, gv after = 26) and kindly asks to press any key to shut down.

That did happen without performing any changes to the default DEP settings.

Yesterday I did try to disable DEP for seamless3d (as an exception) but the system did not allow it. I agree with you that totaly disabling DEP would not have been any good solution, so I am happy you did work out this other way.

Congrats,

Peter

[thyme]

Thanks very much Peter
These are the exact results I wanted to hear, you are now top of the class
The machine code executed from the dynamically allocated memory is responsible for incrementing gv from 25 to 26 so we know the code is working harmoniously when it is authorised by seamless to run but caught out by DEP if not.
Yes DEP is your friend

[fabricator]

Is there any where that lists the different voice options?
One of the screenshots shows 'LH Michael' in the voice field, so where was that discovered ?

[thyme]

Hi Fab
The Seamless Chat Tutorial under the heading Text to speech (TTS) tells you how you can install LH Michael , LH Michelle and other voices:

It also explains the role of the male field.

You can see what voices you have installed if you click Windows' Start->Control Panel and open the Speech icon.
I think Microsoft Office may also install LH Michael & LH Michelle depending on what components you install
If anyone has installed Microsoft Anne on XP I would love to hear from you.



Today we just managed to get the Seamless3d server to compile and run on Linux using the lastest version of SuSE 11.1 Anyone can test out this new version by logging in the normal way using the default link using seamless or you can log in just to see who is online using your web browser using the worlds open link.

The source code for the server should now be able to be compiled on any Unix like operating system which includes BSD, Mac & Solaris. It can still be compiled for Windows too. I will announce it and have it ready to download after it has been tested for a while.

[Alain]

I got it

[thyme]

Thanks Alain for being one of the first to test out the new Linux Server
Sorry I missed you, I saw your message you left in seamless and MSN but I am puzzled why the music alarm failed to play
seems the alarm is not completely full proof

[fabricator]

I checked the world list and saw no one was online, never mind I'll try out Microsoft Anne seeing as I have Vista.

Server crashed as soon as I entered using Seamless3d 2.144, the world list went with it. The chat is completely blank, and no error messages.