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Chatbots => Haptek => Avatar Talk => Help & Tutorials => Topic started by: Freddy on March 03, 2009, 04:45:38 pm

Title: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Freddy on March 03, 2009, 04:45:38 pm
This is just a simple tutorial I put together to help you get the Haptek player into a Visual Basic project.  The tutorial comes with a example project to show how you can send commands to the player.  I hope it is of some use for those just starting on this kind of thing.  Comments appreciated and do get back to me if something isn't working right.

http://aidreams.co.uk/forum/index.php?page=103
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: GT40 on March 03, 2009, 05:25:02 pm

Thanks Freddy.

Very similar method with Haptek & VB6. When I needed it, lol. But always funnier to find by itself. ;)

Very well done tutorial. 8)
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Freddy on March 03, 2009, 05:30:12 pm
Many thanks :)

Yes I am not one for reading manuals until I get stuck, most of the time I just press a button and hope to find out what it does...so never put me in charge of any missiles...
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Jake on March 04, 2009, 12:16:57 am
Thanks Freddy!!   ;D

This is a great resource for people who are wanting to get rolling in this area.  I don't know why Haptek doesn't put this kind of stuff on their site... supporting their users desire to make nEAtO stuff with their technology couldn't do anything but make them more money.  It doesn't seem like they are looking at the BIG $ picture.

Also... Freddy, you said...

 "Then the rest is up to you !  Get yourself the Haptek SDK or Dr Benway's guide (near the bottom of the first page) and familiarise yourself with Haptek commands.  The demo project shows a few examples of sending things to the Haptek control.  Good luck !"

Sorry to be a pain, but do you or anyone else have the links to HAPTEK SDK and DR BENWAY'S GUIDE?  "near the bottom of the first page"... bottom of what page?  Again... sorry,  I'm missing the info that is most likely there but I can't get my brain around it.

Thanks!
Jake
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Freddy on March 04, 2009, 01:25:33 pm
Glad you liked it :)  Yes, Haptek are a law unto themselves!

Go back to the tutorial page and with your mouse, hover over the words "HAPTEK SDK" and "DR BENWAY'S GUIDE" in that sentence - you will find they are links to the information you need.  If you click on "DR BENWAY'S GUIDE" it will take you to a forum post and the help document is near the bottom of the thread in the form of an attachment which you can click on to download.

It's sometimes hard to tell which words are links, but on this forum they appear in bold and are brighter than the surrounding text.  I'll go back and put lines under them so it's clearer.

Hope that makes sense.  I hope the demo project works okay and have fun !

If you are still stuck then get back to me. :)
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Freddy on March 04, 2009, 01:55:51 pm
Here's a link or three aswell..

Some if not most (?) of the Software Development Kit can be found online:

This is the main page - http://www.haptek.com/developers/HaptekGuide4/HaptekGuide4.html

Here's the overview of using Hyper Text - http://www.haptek.com/developers/HaptekGuide4/HaptekHyperText/Haptek_Hypertext_Manual.html

And here's the command reference - http://www.haptek.com/developers/HaptekGuide4/HaptekHyperText/htref/html/index.html

All of that is in the SDK, so it's up to you on whether you download it or use it on-line.  Dr Benway's guide contains a lot of information too and is very useful and user friendly, you will find things in there which you won't find in Haptek's documentation.
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: NEIL on March 14, 2009, 09:34:04 pm
Thanks for the fun Freddy?  ::) I know absolutely nuttin about vb.
Finally got the player working as an exe, but can't load your demo.
I have vb 2005 express edition & it says that your demo was made with a different version.
I got the above mentioned one cos that was what they said on the Ogre site.
Flopping round like a fish outa water but having fun ( sorta  :-\ )
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Freddy on March 14, 2009, 10:13:35 pm
Hmm, yeah I was using Visual Basic Express 2008, so that's probably the problem.  I seem to remember having to convert things from 2005 in the past.  VBE2008 is newer obviously so I would try that out.  As for Ogre, the only thing I remember seeing there was you needed Visual C++ 2008, so I got that, maybe one day I will actually learn that language.
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Carl2 on March 15, 2009, 09:39:58 pm
Freddy,
  Unable to down load the Visual Basic Express from Microsoft,  it says it needs a file that I have.  The computer has XP as the OS.
Carl2
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Maviarab on March 15, 2009, 11:01:52 pm
What file does it say you need?
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Carl2 on March 17, 2009, 12:44:19 am
  I just tried another install of visual basic,  it was unable to complete the setup.  It is determined there is a problem with BIts which uses the max bandwidth when downloading.  I followed the links and instructions and am still unable to inatall visual basics.  I could try it in Vista.
Carl2
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Maviarab on March 17, 2009, 11:56:57 am
Blts?

And really cant think of any reason other than not enough space that would stop it from installing. Its a fairly commmon program...
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Freddy on March 17, 2009, 12:20:32 pm
What's Blts ?
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Carl2 on March 18, 2009, 12:00:24 am
  Bits  , it's in Services(Local)  Background Intelligent Transfer Service,  transfers files in the background using idle network bandwidth, If this service is disabled this computer will not be able to use the Automatic Updates feature or the Windows Update web site.
  This is what MS thinks is the problem I am having. 
Carl2
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Freddy on March 18, 2009, 10:20:53 am
Hmm, well sometimes I have found that the only way downloads will work is to download normally, without an accelerator or anything like it.  I would try downloading normally.  There is also an off-line installer which you need a DVD writer for (not sure if CD-RW is too small capacity), that's the one I used - it's actually the whole Visual Basic Studio, I just choose to install the Visual Basic on it's own.
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Carl2 on March 20, 2009, 12:35:14 pm
Freddy,
  As far as I know this is part of the MS system and not an add in from someone else.  Other downloads work.
Carl2
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Freddy on March 20, 2009, 06:03:15 pm
Well, unfortunately I can't really help with MS's problems - the best thing I can suggest is to download the off-line installer, it worked for me.
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: robotman on September 18, 2009, 09:16:04 pm
This is just a simple tutorial I put together to help you get the Haptek player into a Visual Basic project.  The tutorial comes with a example project to show how you can send commands to the player.  I hope it is of some use for those just starting on this kind of thing.  Comments appreciated and do get back to me if something isn't working right.

http://aidreams.co.uk/forum/index.php?page=103


Hi Freddy, wonder if you can help...? I'm working on a C# / Visual Studio app that uses the Haptek player. I next need to build a set-up / deployment project so users can install my app. However, when I build the set-up file, then run it on a Windows PC that does NOT have the Haptek player installed, the app crashes due to a missing file (probably some DLL).

My question is, do you know the list of files / references / dependencies needed when building a set-up  deployment project?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Haptek Player and Visual Basic tutorial
Post by: Freddy on September 19, 2009, 12:56:15 pm
Hi Robotman,

I understand your question but I am afraid I can't answer it because I never really did much work on the deployment side.  I was happy enough to ask people to install the player beforehand.

The deployment side seems like a whole new ball game to me and is still something I have to learn.  But you could ask over on the VHumans (http://www.vrconsulting.it/vhf/) forum and see if someone there can give you some general advice - that's where the programmers tend to hang out.

Best of luck.