[fandaor]

Hello there,
I am quite interested in the concept of Virtual Assistant (I am in the process of beginning a home project for a V.A. that would mix domotic, network and office help functions) but I have to admit that I am quite stuck in choosing what 3D renderer can be used to modelise the V.A.

MS Agent sounfs great but it is no longer supported nor developped by MS since Windows 7.
So I would like to know if you could enlight me in some solution that can be used (easily) to display the 3D model of the V.A. and what are the implications (on the fly rendering, pré-calculated actions, etc..).

In the creation of a V.A., would you consider the displaying as part of the CORE program or can/should it be developped as a module (and therefor implies a possibility to externalize it on a separate thread/processor) ?

Would it be easier to wait for solutions like Guilde 3D studios and work on the development from there ?

Thank you kindly for your replies.

Regards,

Fandaor

[Freddy]

Hi Fandaor, welcome to the forum.

Maybe this article will help get you started with some options :

http://aidreams.co.uk/forum/index.php?page=avatar_engines

[fandaor]

Hello Freddy,

I indeed had a look upon it but the fact is the article is quite old (2008) and most of the links are pointing to 404 websites or to technologies that were accurate with Vista or XP

Another question I had about rendering is how it is structured in a software. I presume you have a renderer plus a logic, but after I am wondering if the "behaviors" are already made and stored as sequences that are then linked one after another, or they are generated "on the fly" depending of property files ?

Regards,

Fandaor

[Maviarab]

Welcome Fand...

and as for your last question....on the fly or pre-rendered (though think your getting slightly lost with the correct graphical term of the word rendering), it would depend entirely on the software used.

Pre animated etc, involves a lot of work, on the fly is easier (to you) but then you reduce your options significantly regarding software choices

[fandaor]

Thanks Maviarab,

That's what I thaught and also the "on-the-fly" option may be a little bit hard if I have to play with voice, no ?
Do you know by any chance any list of this kind of software ?

Fact is that I have the Ekman - FACS and I think it might be of value to analyse the expressions described there to try to adapt them for a V.A.

Could you please advice me on the best (and easiest) solution for a 3D rendering engine that would be working fine with Seven (not necessarely need to have a web player) ?

Thank you in advance,

Fandaor