Running Example Scenario

• If you checked the "Run Virtual Human Toolkit Launcher" option at the end of the installation, the launcher will begin automatically. Otherwise, use "run-launcher.bat" in your installation folder ("c:\vhtoolkit" by default).
• The launcher allows users to launch and kill entire scenarios or a subset of the needed components. See the Launcher documentation for more detail.
• In order to launch all components needed for Brad, click the Launch button in the Run Checked row, under the Run It All section. Be sure to quickly click OK in the settings window that will pop up.
• All kinds of windows will now pop up. After a while all the rows in the Launcher that have a checked check box should be green. If all of them are orange, make sure ActiveMQ is running. If a few are orange, try to load those manually.
• When all modules are up and running correctly, select the VHToolkitGB window (the renderer, Gamebryo), and AcquireSpeech, a Java program. These are the only two windows you need in order to interact with Brad.
• In AcquireSpeech, go to the Player tab, type in a question in the Text field and hit Enter or click Send. Try saying "hello", for example. Brad should greet you back. You should hear him talk and his lips should be moving. As the toolkit is currently not providing many animations, he might come across as a bit static, although he should be moving his body a little bit. For short answers he might not use any gestures, for longer answers Brad is more likely to gesture. Blinking is currently disabled. You can ask Brad high level questions about the toolkit and himself. Brad is not meant to be an online tutor on how to use the toolkit. If he does not answer some of your questions, we would love to hear which ones.

Notes:

• A renderer needs to be up and running before SmartBody starts. Both Gamebryo and Ogre will present you with a small settings window in which you can change settings like resolution. By default, all modules wait for 15 seconds on the renderer before starting. This means you need to quickly select OK in order for the renderer to start loading. If the renderer has not finished loading before all other modules start, go to the Launcher, kill the renderer and SmartBody, and manually launch the renderer again. This time, wait till it has finished loading and then launch Smartbody.
• You can disable the Gamebryo settings window from popping up by checking "Do not show this dialog again". If you have changed the settings, also check "Save settings" so that the next time Gamebryo loads, it has your preferred settings. You can get the settings window back by deleting "c:\svn_vhtoolkit_trunk\core\vhtoolkitGB\AppSettings.ini".
• For better graphics, try increasing the resolution or the multisampling. The latter will show Brad with less hard edges. To do this, click Advanced and select a value from the Multisampling drop down menu. 2 or 4 multisamples should provide a noticeable difference.
• If the graphics seem sluggish, select the Gamebryo window and hit the Z key on your keyboard. This will show the framerate at the top left of the screen. If this is low (under 20 to 30 frames per second), select the '-' key (minus, next to zero) on your keyboard to disable dynamic shadows. This should improve the framerate considerably, although the graphics will look a lot less good. We are currently working on a happy medium.
• If you run into any problems, please see the FAQ for possible solutions.