The following information is intended to provide answers to commonly asked questions about creating custom Microsoft Agent characters. The questions are divided into the following topics:

• General topics
• Creating and editing characters

For assistance with problems that you may encounter creating custom Microsoft Agent characters, refer to the troubleshooting information.

Frequently Asked Questions about the usage and licensing of the Microsoft Agent characters Genie, Merlin, Peedy and Robby are available elsewhere.

• Where do Microsoft Agent characters come from?
• What is the difference between the .acs and the .acf/.aca types of character data files?
• How would I choose between using the .acs and the .acf/.aca types of character data files?

• How can I create my own Microsoft Agent character?
• Can I use a tool other than the Agent Character Editor to create Microsoft Agent characters?
• I downloaded and installed the Agent Character Editor, how do I use it to change a character that I found on the Internet and also downloaded?
• I created my own original Microsoft Agent character but now I want to make some small changes to it and I've lost all the original source files. Is there a decompiler tool or service available so I can reconstitute the original source files from the built character file?
• I want to create a decompiler tool to recover the original source files from the Microsoft Agent character that I created with them. Is the format of the Microsoft Agent character files published or documented anywhere?
• I have a distribution license for Microsoft Agent. Can I also distribute the Agent Character Editor tool along with my Microsoft Agent application?

General

Where do Microsoft Agent characters come from?

There are four Microsoft Agent characters, Genie, Merlin, Peedy and Robby, that are available from the Downloads page of this Web site. There have also been hundreds of Microsoft Agent characters that have been created by third party developers. Some of these can be downloaded from the Internet where there are entire galleries of characters. Others are for sale or have been commercially licensed or custom commissioned specifically for use with Microsoft Agent.

Regardless of where or how they are are made available, all Microsoft Agent characters are built with a tool known as the Microsoft Agent Character Editor. Additional information related specifically to the subject of character creation is available.

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What is the difference between the .acs and the .acf/.aca types of character data files?

Microsoft Agent characters can be built with their animations, sound effects and other data contained in either a single .acs format file or the combination of a single .acf format file with multiple .aca format files (a separate file for each of the character's animations).

Typically, a character with a complete set of animations in a single .acs file may be a few MegaBytes of disk storage in size. The same character in the combination .acf/.aca format would likely have a single .acf file of 10 to 20 kiloBytes and several dozen .aca files ranging from 50 to 200 or more kiloBytes (depending upon the number of image frames in each animation). The total cumulative size of all the .aca files would be larger than the size of the single .acs file with the same animations.

Also, .acs files are usually loaded from a drive of the local computer (or the shared folder of a computer on the same network, accessed via the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) device name). The combination .acf/.aca format files are typically hosted on a Web server and accessed asynchronously via the HTTP protocol.

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How would I choose between using the .acs and the .acf/.aca types of character data files?

Unless you are creating your own custom Microsoft Agent characters, you may not always have the option to choose between the two types of character data files. Some character developers make their characters only available in one format, more commonly the .acs type since it typically require less programming and can be more reliable in use, too.

The combination .acf/.aca format requires the additional programming of a Get method call to retrieve the data for each animation utilized. Additional code to check that the data was successfully retrieved, and possibly to re-try the Get method call, may also be warranted.

Despite the extra programming required, it may make more sense to use the combination .acf/.aca format when users are unlikely to have the .acs character data file already installed on their computer and your Web page/application only requires a small number of animations.

Scenarios that use both the .acs and the combination .acf/.aca format files of the same character are also possible. You may want to retrieve a few animations from the latter combination format initially to enable your application to quickly display a character and pre-occupy your user's attention while the full .acs character file with all animations downloads and installs in the background.

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Creating and editing characters

How can I create my own Microsoft Agent character?

The process of creating a Microsoft Agent character is not trivial but the Microsoft Agent Character Editor is a tool available to developers to create their own Microsoft Agent characters from constituent source bitmap image files (.bmp or .gif format), audio files and other information. Documentation on the use of this tool and tips for creating effective animations are also available.

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I have no drawing skills at all. Can I use a tool other than the Agent Character Editor to create Microsoft Agent characters?

Actually, the Agent Character Editor tool has no drawing functionality at all within it so no drawing skills are required to operate it. Its primary function is to assemble a character's animations from multiple source bitmap images that originated from something external to the Agent Character Editor.

Character developers have successfully used everything from high-end 3D modelling and animation software to video cameras to photo editing and a variety of illustration techniques to create these original source bitmap image files (.bmp or .gif format). You can certainly use other software applications to create and/or process the source bitmap images (and the audio files in .wav format used for sound effects) but this must be done prior to final assembly of the completed character by the Agent Character Editor, which is the only tool that can be used for this purpose.

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I downloaded and installed the Agent Character Editor, how do I use it to change a character that I found on the Internet and also downloaded?

Actually, the Agent Character Editor is not capable of "editing" or otherwise altering a Microsoft Agent character that is already built. It may be more helpful to think of this tool's functionality as an "Agent Character Compiler" - it can only build (or re-build) a character when all the constituent source files are also available. Its function is not comparable to a word processing application that allows you to open an existing, unprotected document to add, remove or change some words within it. It doesn't really allow you to simply insert an animation or remove an existing one from a character that is already built.

If the constituent bitmap images and other source files are available for an existing character though, the Agent Character Editor tool could be used to build a new or edited version of it. If you are not the creator and/or copyright holder of the existing character, or its likeness, there may be additional restrictions to consider.

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I created my own original Microsoft Agent character but now I want to make some small changes to it and I've lost all the original source files. Is there a decompiler tool or service available so I can reconstitute the original source files from the built character file?

No, the Agent Character Editor doesn't implement such functionality nor does Microsoft provide such a tool or service.

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I want to create a decompiler tool to recover the original source files from the Microsoft Agent character that I created with them. Is the format of the Microsoft Agent character files published or documented anywhere?

No, Microsoft does not publish this information or otherwise make it available. Note also that the End-user License Agreement for Microsoft Agent limits the reverse engineering, decompiling or disassembly of Microsoft Agent.

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I have a distribution license for Microsoft Agent. Can I also distribute the Agent Character Editor tool along with my Microsoft Agent application?

The distribution license for Microsoft Agent does not include distribution of the Agent Character Editor (or the Linguistic Information Sound Editing Tool, LISET).

Both of these tools are already available for download from the Microsoft Agent Web site, the Microsoft Download Center and various Microsoft software development kit (SDK) products and deliverables.

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General FAQs

FAQs about usage of the Genie, Merlin, Peedy and Robby characters

FAQs about speech

FAQs about development

FAQs about Microsoft Agent licensing

FAQs about distributing Microsoft Agent

Introductory FAQ page

Back to the Microsoft Agent home page