vhToolkitUnity is the Unity rendered version of the Virtual Human Toolkit. This project integrates several research systems together in order for the user to interact with a virtual human character through usage of text to speech and language understanding. Some of the systems that are integrated into his project are the Smartbody animation system, text to speech engines, and AcquireSpeech. Unity is a 3rd party proprietary rendering engine and is provided as binary-only with the Virtual Human Toolkit. You can download the free version of Unity here. For changing art assets you need to purchase Unity Pro. vhtoolkitUnity was created using the vhAssets package as a starting point.
The Toolkit also contains an open source renderer Ogre which only serves as a proof-of-concept and is not fully supported.
In the Launcher, click the Launch button in the Renderer row (click the Advanced button if you don't see any rows). Be sure to have the Engine parameter set to 'Unity'. A small option screen pops up allowing you to select several graphical settings. The most important ones are:
Once you're happy with your settings, click 'Play!'. Unity should now continue loading.
You can use the W,A,S and D keys to move the camera, and Q and E to move it up and down. Hit J to toggle mouse look; this allows you to use the mouse to change the direction the camera is facing.
Toggle the text box with L. Use the arrow keys to see suggested questions, or type in your own questions. Hit Say to ask Brad the question.
You can talk to Brad using a mouse and microphone when Unity is in full screen mode. Use the M key to turn this ability on and off. When the ability is on, click and hold the left mouse button while you are asking your question, and release when you're done talking.
Use the ~ key to bring up the console.
Bonebus mode uses Smartbody as a separate process instead of integrated within Unity. This is useful if you have Unity Free since Smartbody uses Unity Plugins which is a Pro only feature.
Click 'Launch SB Bonebus' and the SmartBody window will open
Click 'Bonebus Init Scene' and the Characters will re-initialize in bonebus mode
If Unity will not Play because you have Unity Free, then click the SmartbodyManager gameobject and disable it before playing.
Creating your own Virtual Human has different meanings to different groups. Some people want to use the existing characters that we supply, but only change certain features like giving them a different voice, or a different colored shirt. Others groups want to use a different character, but the character was created using a standard character package that we already support (Mixamo, etc). Others want to use a completely different character with a unique skeleton, etc. These instructions will attempt to explain the different features and how to customize based on your needs.
The easiest way to use your own Virtual Human is to create a Unity Project using the included .unitypackages as a starting point. From here, you can add/change features on the default character, or bring in your own and customize using the existing character for reference.
Hit the ~ key to bring up the console. Here you can see some debug information. Type 'help' for all available commands.
Overview of the main commands:
Receives:
Sends:
See Main FAQ for frequently asked questions regarding the installer. Please use the Google Groups emailing list for unlisted questions.