Agents are not an mIRC feature, they actually come with
Windows. Full name being Microsoft Agent, that makes it a bit
clearer. When you have Agent installed on your computer, you
have access to little characters that can do all kinds of
things on your screen. In addition, a new options area will be
available to you in mIRC options - The Agents options section.
Microsoft Agents are only available for Windows 95, 98, ME,
NT, 2000, XP and 2003 Server. Other Windows platforms are NOT
supported (i.e. Windows CE, 3.1, PocketPC).
This document aims to describe how to set up and install
agents on your computer, how to use them with mIRC aswell as
provide a few resources for further information.
Please note: If
you are using Windows XP, ME or 2000 then you do
NOT need to install MS Agent. Agents come pre-installed
with all editions of those operating systems. If you are using
another version of Windows you must install, so read
on....
Firstly, to download and install MS Agent you must meet the
system requirements which are set out by Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/prodinfo/sysreq.asp
These system requirements are, by todays standards,
extremely NON-demanding. The chances are your computer WILL
meet those requirements. If you don't understand anything on
that page, don't worry.
You must then download and install MS Agent! You can get it
from http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/user.asp.
It is available in multiple languages. Note, when you install
MS Agent it CANNOT be uninstalled. It is fully integrated into
your system and cannot be reversed. When you install MS Agent,
you won't notice much happening - you'll see some files being
installed (it places various DLLs in your system files) and
then...nothing. This is perfectly normal, nothing is meant to
happen - all the work, at the moment, is going on in the
background of your computer.
Now that when this is done, you must do some more
downloading. If you want the characters to appear on your
screen, then you're going to have to download the characters
in the first place! Microsoft provides 4 default characters,
Peedy (Parrot), Merlin (magician), Robby (robot) and Genie
(a genie!). Different agents will have slightly different
animations - they certainly look different, but they will
hide/show themselves in different ways etc. - For example,
when you make Merlin "Hide" he will pull his hat over his head
and body, and disappear. However, when you make Peedy the
parrot "Hide" he will fly away in the background of the screen
and disappear. As with the MS Agent installation, the files
will fly by and be installed in seconds. You will still not
notice much!
Now you are ready to use Agents with mIRC! You still have
not made them capable of all features available, however, you
can make them appear on the screen. When you make them talk
(at the moment) you will not hear anything - you will see the
words come up in a speech bubble however...
In the following examples, we will assume you have
downloaded Merlin the magician. His file name is Merlin.acs.
When reading this, it's a good idea to have mIRC open and with
the Merlin Agent and MS agent installed on your computer. If
you are not using Merlin, just substitute 'merlin.acs' for
whatever you downloaded, for example, 'peedy.acs' or
'robby.acs'. It's also a good idea to have your PC speakers
on.
To load the agent type:
/gload Merlin merlin.acs
You may notice that in your taskbar you now have a picture
of a little Magician's hat - this means Merlin is awaiting
your orders and is installed and ready to show up!
Now, let's finally see this agent of ours....Type:
/gshow Merlin
Ta da! Merlin should now be on your screen and ready for
action. Cute isn't he? If you just leave him alone he will get
bored and do various movements on your screen to keep himself
busy. TO hide him, just use /ghide
Merlin and he will magically disappear.
Now, let's make Merlin think something...Type:
/gtalk -k merlin Hi there
This should make Merlin pop up a speech bubble with the
words "Hi there" in them. As yet the poor guy is mute and his
mouth will not move, and no sound will come out. This will be
resolved soon :)
With mIRC, Agents can play .wav files to you. You can tell
the agent to play this .wav file to you. Simply type:
/gtalk -w merlin
<file.wav> This is a wav file.
This will make Merlin play the WAV file, aswell as make him
pop up a speech box saying "This is a wav file". This is
useful for if you want Merlin to speak the contents of a WAV
file, it looks great!
Now that you've played around with Merlin, you might like
to give him (and yourself!) a little rest. To unload him,
simply use /gunload Merlin.
Ok, so we've got this far - but how do you make the
Microsoft Agent speak actual words? Well, it's actually very
easy. However, once again, Windows XP users are a little
different from everyone else. If you are using Windows XP
please note the following:
Microsoft Agent uses SAPI 4.0 to have it's agents speak.
However, now, Windows XP is shipped with SAPI 5.0 which is not
compatible with this, so your agents cannot speak. Thankfully,
both SAPI 4.0 and 5.0 can be on your computer at the same time
with no problems, so you need to install SAPI 4.0 before
Agents can speak. Please download and install it from http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/sapi/spchapi.exe
and then follow the next instructions. You must have this
installed first!
To make Agents speak you need what's called a
Text-To-Speech (TTS) engine. Simple really - it's converting
your text into speech! You can download a TTS engine from http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/user.asp
The recommended engine for mIRC users is "Lernout &
Hausen TruVoice Text-To-Speech (TTS) engine - American English
(1 MB)". However, I have successfully installed and used
"Lernout & Hausen TTS3000 TTS engine - British English
(2.5 MB)" if you prefer British to American English.
Now, with all this installed (again, you wouldn't have
noticed much change) you should be able to make your Agent
speak out loud! Firstly, turn on your PC Speakers. Secondly,
if you unloaded Merlin (or whatever other Agent you're using)
remember to load them again with the /gload and /gshow
command. Scroll up for help! Now, use this to make Merlin
speak:
/gtalk Merlin Hi there
And another wonderful result! Merlin should have spoken out
"Hi there" - The speech bubble should have appeared and his
mouth should have opened. You can still make Merlin only THINK
text by using /gtalk -k merlin Hi there
(notice the -k switch).
It doesn't stop there...mIRC has all kinds of options to
make Agent work for you. You can have ti relay every channel
message to you, have it let you know when you get a query
message and from who, convert certain text into speech. Check
out the (new!) available mIRC options in ALT+O > Sounds
> Agents - Also type /help
Agents in mIRC.
You can also download more characters (more than the
default 4!) for free. The http://www.msagentring.org/chars.htm
Microsoft Agent Ring has lots of Agent characters for you to
download, including aliens, monsters, TV celebrities and even
Santa himself!
You can download a http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/user.asp
Speech Recognition Engine so not
only can your Agent speak to you, but you can speak to your
Agent! With this you can have a
http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/user.asp Speech Control Panel which gives you
various settings for TTS engines aswell as other settings.
If you're a little bit more technical-minded, you might
even want to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/msagent/deschar_9wky.asp
Create your own Agent it's not as
hard as it may sound!
...and if that's not enough information, see these pages
for further info!
http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/default.asp
MS Agent Homepage
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/msagent/agentstartpage_7gdh.asp
Agent in the MSDN library
http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/support/user/tts.asp
TTS Troubleshooting
http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/using/userinterface.asp
MS Agent User Interface
http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/developer.asp
MS Agent Developer Downloads (The last one
is only ^ for people who know what they are doing!)
Microsoft Agent seems a little complicated - that's why
this page was made. Hopefully, you have successfully installed
MS agent on your computer and can successfully use it with
mIRC. If you cannot get it to work the chances are you have
missed something - here's a lo down of some of the main
troubleshooting points you may come across
- Windows XP must have SAPI 4.0 installed to use TTS
engines.
- You do not need to install MS Agent on Windows
XP, Windows ME or Windows 2000. It's there already.
- Turn
your PC Speakers on.
- Make sure you have Agents Sounds
enabled - <b>ALT+O > Sounds > Agents</b> -
Check the box 'Sound'.
- Make sure you have a TTS engine
installed. Note the recommended ones.
- Make sure you have
an Agent character installed - see above for links.
- You
cannot use Agent on Windows CE, Windows 3.1 or PocketPC (or
any other OS, i.e. Mac).
- Before using the TTS engine,
unload and reload the agent if it is loaded, otherwise it
can't speak.
- For help with the /g commands, use /help
/g<word> - For example, /help /gload or /help
/gtalk.
...that's it! If you have further issues, it's likely to be
a Microsoft problem so try the http://support.microsoft.com/
MS Support Site for help
Or you might try asking in #mIRC on Undernet
, or posting on the http://trout.snt.utwente.nl/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php
mIRC Message Boards.
Have fun!
