Speech in TDS

[Eliot]

I know that I can find it in search becuase I did. I have installed the sapi4 runtimes and can get speech from XP, just not TDS. I am just having one of those moments I think. Can someone else pick my brain so as to maybel trigger the thought I can't seem to locate, lol. Usually another mind always helps. Thanks. *puppy*

[Jooske]

Hi eliot, what seems to be the problem? that you forgot in the control panel to close temporary SAPI5 and opened SAPI4 to be able to have speech and all nice msagents speakign and singing scripts running?
And TDS speaking of course and reminding you of lunch and coffee.

[Eliot]

I don't see anything under speech in the control panel except the part where I select "micheal. michelle. sam" for the voice ???

I have gotten it to work before. All I remember doing was installing this exe from MS. I recently had a accident with a batch file and wiped a whole folder which that happened to be in :o

before, as in before this new format/install

[Bowserman]

Hi Elliot :).

You will need to download the Text-to-speech engine/s from Microsoft on the webpage here. (http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/user.asp)

Regards,
Jade.

[Eliot]

Thanks a million!!!!! That sweet coffee talk will return to its normal 5 am regularly scheduled programming ;D

So, its 1. sapi4 run time 2. text to speech(ur link) 3. you get TDS voice


Correct?

[Jooske]

XP comes with it's own msagent engine, the msagent.exe, so that part you don't need from the download page. All other with the TTS (several languages available, but US English you need at least) and VR, msagent characters if you didn't take them from the XP cd-rom yet, make sure you have the runtimes for SAPI4 and the speech control panel installed ------ The latter one you'll find back in the windows control panel (think that has another name in XP, right?) where you choose between the sapi4 and sapi5 engine.
All depends on your intention to do more with the agents or only want the nice TDS talking.
If you have some of that installed you might like to look at the samples pages for some possibilities.

[Eliot]

I got the voice working fine, well its working. Only have one voice, lmao. I want the different ones I had back :'( Work in progress today here. I have a few other things to do before I dive off into this :)

[Jooske]

Could it be in the past you ever downloaded and installed the whole 40mb SpeechAPI4.0 SDK with some 20 voices? (and lots more functionallity like voice recognition and dictation etc? what you have by nature in XP with the SAPI5 as well)

[Eliot]

Yes, I did install that in the past. I also installed that yesterday as well. ??? I am at a loss now as to why I only get the 1 voice type.

[Jooske]

Did you re-install it, yes, did you re-assiciate it with TDS running the spchapi runtimes which ship with TDS too?
I don't know what happened now?

[Rainwalker]

Hello Jooske .... how do i associate sapchapi runtimes with TDS. I have decided to play with this and i am able to receive the startup greeting with Tds in a female voice ( she has a heck of a time saying ****-a doodle-do ;D ) . When i look in control panal ect. i see little under 'Speech"
and the voice test only produces the Sam voice. No sign of the voice i am hearing. Also should i be able to type a greeting or something in that lower space at the bottom of the TDS dialog box, hit enter and hear it? Should i download the TDS scripts? I know you have often spoke of these things so maybe you could point me to a couple of threads. I expect to have further questions as i no doubt will become more and more interested as it seems as though it will be a fun learning experience. While i'm here Jooske i wanted to say thanks for posting that TDS graphic bar. I also live by the sea and have been using the bar since i saw it :D

[Jooske]

If you install the runtimes, windows does so default, and if you run the (i guess it's the same?) spchapi.exe (just press it to run it) in TDS (that must be the same runtimes) it should have associated TDS speech with all available speech engines and voices it detects on your system ... It is in the speechpack in the TDS download site, where you find the scripts as well.

I don't know well about what you get via the test -- i keep it to a nice friendly voice, looks most like the msagent Merlin voice. When i change it for another one i feel strange with my TDS and haste to get back to that familiar voice.

In the bottom you can type
speak "Hello Sam Rain Walker!" (with those quotes around it) and you should hear the basic TDS voice you set for it.
Most of us love the speech in TDS and with msagents. They also work with proper scripts in other ways like you might have seen on the MS sites, and i'm really happy it is in TDS, as it opened a whole new world for me.
The welcome wav file in the test files for instance is cerated with a TTS engine, no human voice was there, and it has so many uses!
You can make a little script with via TDS calling an msagent character and starting such a song from the ms speech site i posted, before it starts speaking. You can imagine many and many possibilities.
As TDS reads java and vbs script too, even more possibilities thinkable!

The graphics bar is RS made (Ruby Slippers) who is really gifted as a fine designer. I like that bar very much, it's really very fine!

[Robyn]

I have XP and see the text to speech in my control panel, I have downloaded the spchapi.exe from TDS but am unsure about the next step ??? Do I download the runtime file from Microsoft and just run it to install and then run the file from TDS in order for me to hear TDS speak?

[Jooske]

Hi again, the spchapi which comes with TDS should be the same as the runtimes for sapi4 you got from the MS site. You will need to download and install as well at least the US english TTS engine from the MS site and install it all default. the spchapi just connects TDS to the speech engines available on your system.
If you also got the msagents characters from the site there, at least Genie, then you can load from the scripts my InnerPeace script from TDS.
Further if you got it speeking (try to type
speak "hello Robyn!" in the bottom of TDS and hear if you got a result from that) you can do many more nice scripts with TDS, poems, songs, whatever there is.
If you get Peedy singing and speaking to you on the MS msagent tryoutagent page, you should be complete as the several tests and samples there help you to download what is needed on your system to run those pages properly.

For the msagent characters however they will grab only a few animations needed, not the whole characters, so you might like to get the four from the msagent page.

Good luck!

[Rainwalker]

Thank you Jooske.............. i will work on it later in the week and yes tis a sweet graphics bar :)

[Robyn]

Thank you Jookse, I have downloaded all the appropriate files from the Microsoft site and will endeavour to have TDS speaking to me very soon. I am doing a bit of 'spring cleaning' in my computer and once everything is neat and tidy it will be a singing and talking TDS (I hope) I appreciate you explanation of what I need to have to do this.

I will now look for your link to the graphics bar by Ruby Slippers :)

[Jooske]

(Naughtly gron here) no need to play all these with TDS but to have some impression of what a dear creative soul does on internet with the msagent characters making them sing and dance on your screen and telling jokes (all free page without add and spy and other nasties) http://grandpajim.ath.cx/
mind you, each story needs other agents he's giving download links on his pages per story, in most cases. Some agents are really rare to get.
If you installed Peedy the green parrot don't forget on that Granpa page in the bottom right to get to the reflex tester. It's a marveless interactive test and with some good script possibilities included!
He helped me a lot with some scripts like rebuilding my InnerPeace script into a dialogue 8) on his site.
A few less complicated scripts i rebuilt for TDS in SS3 as found in the TDS scripts InnerPeace.SS3 and the CokeMachine (in Andreas(W)'s d/l site to name a few. Oh pardon, the cokemachine is rather complicated but nice
So start making ready for the speech first of all!
Ih and i just see Grandpa posted online this very useful page to see which speech engines voices you have on your system. It's aheavy page and takes some loading time (several minutes to get all your voices) but then you see what you have and a test text in top you can change to be read by the voice. The same voices will work in your TDS.

[Jooske]

What you might find very useful is the Deskbot, able to read aloud pages and textparts for you. It's created by BellCraft technologies, creator of MASH too, and part of the msagentring.
Deskbot homepage
www.deskbot.com
MASH
www.bellcraft.com
www.msagentring.org
Most of the technology works very fine with TDS too:

i ever visited a msagent sample page with voice regognition and i left the msagent character up while opening TDS. This meant my TDS was manageable voice controled via that msagent with functions like"Update", "open the Helpfile" and a few more i added in my SS3 script.
So another reason to use the speech functions and being msagent ready!
Tell me the time, send email, tell a joke, what can i say?, close window, read clipboard, start program, surf to the forum, such kind of commands.
Good exercise to learn some scripting! 8)

[Robyn]

Hi Jookse

I would love to have the knowledge of all the scripting that you have but I am still ??? about all of it. I have to depend on the sample ones in TDS but maybe someday I will have gleaned a little more knowledge form all the posts about this to help me write even '1' 8) I am only in the nursery with anything like this :-[

I have to investigate more of the sample ones to make sure I can run all of these first! The good thing is I love to learn so maybe someday I will get there ;) will check you links out later, thanks.

[Jooske]

For me it's step by steps and with the help of the whole TDS scripting family too!
in the bottom of the TDS console type
speak "hello Robyn!"
<enter> and hear TDS friendly speaking that to you.
In fact that is the first step in scripting.
Not really hard is it? if you got TDS speaking at you already at least.
Now next step,
For instance, open your notepad or the SS3 editor in TDS and paste this part from between these lines into it

'--------------------------------------------------------------
Speak "Thank you For considering registering TDS-3. We believe that you're about to make the best and smartest buy you've ever made, and we look forward to you joining us at the Discussion Forums! Tomorrow, you could be a fully-armed licensed TDS operator, staying two steps ahead of trojans simply because we at Diamond Computer Systems do, and knowing that should anything be slightly suspicious, you now have the most complete programmable system analysis software available in the world to combat them with. There are countless benefits to being a legally registered TDS Operator."
'---------------------------------------------------

Save as RegisterTDS.SS3 in your scripts folder.
BTW: in the script editor make sure it is one long line, no wraps here!
Now you just made your first script! Congratulations.
To play it:
in TDS > SS3 > Load script > find the one you just saved, doubleclick on it and you should hear TDS speaking to you.
Not hard eh?
Looking forward to youtr experiences with this part.
At least makes you feel proud if you susseed in hearing all this and belonging to the only REAL TDS family on this planet!

[Robyn]

Cool Jookse I have just made the first step by using the bottom console to speak to me 8)

I have copied your script and saved it and am astonished that it has worked for me :) I can see why you are intrigued and endeavouring to learn even more. TDS is opening even more doors to me now and has made me smile tonight! Thank you for taking me on my first steps with the scripts :)

[Jooske]

I'm so proud of you! You see you can do it too! Look how also some other scripts are done, in the example scripts for example the "Hello world"
If you want to have some idea what a script is, open notepad and drag the script icon in that so you can have a look for some idea what it could be about. Several have a description what they are used for, some are complete running scripts, others are only snippits of examples to be used in other scripts.
In the msagent supported scripts i used most of time the msagent Genie, like in the InnerPeace script, (just load that doubleclicking it via TDS > SS3 > Load script ) as i don't think many will collect several hundreds of agents like i did just to use it some time.
They run in webpages, emails, vb and vbs script, exe files, just to name a few extensions. And TDS can run various of them or start programs using other extensions.

[Robyn]

I am still testing the sample ones but one thing I do not have within TDS is the script editor, I can use Notepad but when I click on the link on the TDS tool bar ' SS3Edit.exe not found!' ???

I am going to follow all your advice her but it will certainly take me a while before I can be confident with the script world but one thing I do know is that I never even thought I would even be able to attempt to learn about this. A new dimension to my book of learning now :) I thought I had the world's best Trojan detector but never imagined just how much more the software had for me. Thank you Jookse for helping me and well done TDS for software full of surprises!

[Jooske]

I have the ss3edit.exe in the TDS directory; it came with the Scripts.zip; maybe if you move it to the TDS directory and reload TDS it does appear? Or maybe it only appears in registered versions?

Of course, with your scripting skills in full gear and an infrared remote control on your PC you hear it "COOCERICOODOODLEDU! is that coffee i can smell?" and just before that it started your coffeemaker and started your egg boiler, so you really smell it; whn you don't like to do shoppings you created a list of what you want, start your TDS Genie supermarkt script and Genie calls your local supermarket, reads the list for home delivery and you wait for it; you are in your car and call the pc at home so Genie starts your oven and diner is ready when you come home.
Oh yes in the meantime it does protect against all kinds of nasties and trojans which it is created for in the first place.
It's just the best tool (for me that is for sure) with some nice extra possibilities to make security so much fun!

BTW: those scripting skills in high gear, it is possible, scripts not been written as far as i'm aware of, but never know what other TDS family members created already!

[Robyn]

I will look about in my TDS directory as I have the full registered version so will see if I need to confiquire something. I will also enjoy reading your other little tips today about scripts with TDS :) As you say security is the priority but the little extras are fun to enjoy and 'try' to learn.

[Jooske]

The SS3edit.exe is just that file, have a look in your script folder if it is still there to be moved into the general TDS-3 directory.


Imagine: an employer in the office wants some coffee, so tells the computer "coffee!"
Genie jumps up, knows in his script he has to send a very lovely message to the secretary "Would you please be so kind as to send me one coffee? Thanks!"
Well, isn't that lovely?

The secretary remembers the office fridge is getting empty from the snacks and sodas and some more, so she says to the computer "shopping!"
see the Genie jumpup with a whole supermarket of selected items, --
"would you like me to check for specialties of the day?"
ok, today we have ............
would you like me to order this for you?
there is large pizzas too to take home, want those too?"
so the list is growing, while one can tell it is the office list or a few sidesteps to the personal list,
in the end Genie makes the bill and all is picked and in an hour delivered.
If you want to see part of this demo have a look in the www.microsoft.com/msagent samples pages, especially the peedypizza ordering palace.
Yes this is possible with TDS too, so in case you get hungry be prepared to know some scripting before it runs out of hand!

You see the kind of technology used a lot on internet, for support, chats, information, tours, --in TDS-2 there was a voice guided tour to explain all the main options!-- for TDS-3 i posted somewhere a quick tour where Genie points to some main buttons on your screen with TDS up to help you to your first scan in no time.

anyway, just have your script start the update and TDS is updated all automatically: if your script is an exe or a script in a html page TDS doesn't even have to be running for that!

Oh i'm only a starter in scripting. If we look at other people's work we all fall silent in amazement, so i just fill all those gaps of open mouths with some funstuff to keep us busy and less frustrated maybe, and so do some others too with real nice scripts, posted in the TDS operators only forum for instance.

[Robyn]

Hi Jooske

I went to the site and was able to watch the demo. I have installed Genie and when I run your script ( 8)) the Genie appears and I can read all the little message and then Genie flies away again! I also installed Merlin but which script does Merlin work with? Is it correct that TDS does not 'actually' speak it is just the typing words ??? I tried to play music but haven't been able to get the jukebox script to work! I really do have a lot to learn :-[ I am reading the Microsoft site again and think it has something to do with sapi runtime as I seem to have v5 and not v4 which is required to get the LH key with Genie/Merlin in the registry. I do not have this LH key so will have to investigate Microsoft's side of things now.

[Robyn]

All sorted now I had forgotten to install one of the files for US English :-[ Genie has now actually spoken and I am chatting to TDS with words and not just reading them :) I need to work out how to let TDS use another voice eg Merlin so a little more investigation to do.

How do I change to voice TDS will use to speak to me? I have Merlin installed but think it is Genie speaking to me now.

I found the sscEdit.exe and now have it in my main TDS folder (thanks)

[Jooske]

0Grab all the good stuff there is, InnerPeace works with Genie, btw, in the tryout msagent on the main site you need Peedy the green parrot.
Merlin is in a sample script where Robby the robot explains in English what Merlin is going to say in French.
So you need to get the french TTS engine for that too.
You can use TDS as a pronounciation helper too that way.
TDS > Configuration > Misc change the slider for other test voices.
Hiow do you think i created that welcomeF.wav in the tests files? Just used a TTS engine online too.
On Grandpa Jim's page lots of different agents aer used.
If you get the characters Peedy and ..forgot the name of the cat.. where Peedy sings America and shoots the cat, it's lovely!
There are whole theaters with those things, some really very advanced.
If Wayne would not have put the speech which is part of the whole msagent technology in TDS then most probably i would not have discovered that world at all.
I thought those were just stupid childish bots, till i learned to work with them and saw other people's projects!

If you have the ZoneAlarm firewall you might like in the user submitted area Jazzie's ZAmonitor script which does a lot when some instrusion would try to take place.
And when you grow you will see Andreas(W)'s Screx script, which is really great!