Seamless Chat
Seamless chat is an open multi-user 3d world standard for artists, developers and anyone who just enjoys chatting in 3d works of art. Seamless chat is very easy to use. If you have not already installed Seamless3d, download the modeller setup file (download size is less than flash) and then double click the file to install. If updating to a newer version, close any instances of Seamless3d before installing. There is no need to uninstall the previous instalation because seamless3d is contained in a single exe and the installation does little more than copy the exe to your Program Files folder.
To log into seamless chat simply click
from the low toolbar:
Enter your nickname and click go:
You can click
to re-open the OpenNetFile control panel at any time.To see a list of worlds tick the worldList check box. You can visit any world in the list by clicking the world link.
The avatarUrl field
You will by default be given a simple default avatar for seamless chat but you can change your avatar by specifying a different url for the avatarUrl field. The url must secify an online file in order for everyone else to be able to see it. All of the avatars from this page are suitiable for seamless chat.Gestures can be activated by typing g0, g1, g2 etc. or by using the keyword for the gesture in a sentence. To keep everything very simple the keyword for the gesture is defined by the Anim node's name (its DEF name).
Seamless3d being 3d modelling software will of course allow you to custom design your own avatars and because Seamless3d's native modelling language is an open standard, you are free to import avatars from a wide and varied range of 3d modelling aplications.
It is very easy to import complete animated Avatars from Blaxxun/Canal avatar studio as well as HAnim avatars from Vivaty Studio.
It is also easy to import many meshes and animations from obj, wrl, wrz, wrl.gz, x3dv, x3dvz and bvh formats.
Not all files have to be imported and saved as smls format, some vrml/x3d files can be directly used in seamless chat but smls format will offer more options. Do not import and save an avatar for seamless chat if it is not your own work and if you do not have permision from the author. Make sure the file works before joining a party of chatters to avoid crashing everyone.
The landOffset field
Avatars made for seamless chat should be made for a land height of 0 meters. The landOffset field allows for non standard avatars to be adjusted to meet the standard height without modifying the avatar.The chat log file
The chat log file can be opened by right cliking on the chat window and selecting open chat log.The chat log file is saved to:
My Documents\Seamless3d\Application Data For Seamless3d\chat.txt
Text to speech (TTS)
The TTS version of Seamless3d utilises Windows' built in SAPI5 TTS speech engine for chat. The OpenNetFile's voice field can be used to specify any SAPI5 voice however if the computer playing the voices does not have the voice installed a different voice will be automatically selected by that computer. When a voice is automatically selected the gender of the voice will be decided by the state of the OpenNetFile's male field if the computer has both male and female voices.Some of the popular voices that can be specified in the voice field are:
-
Microsoft Sam
LH Michael
Microsoft Mike
Microsoft Anne
LH Michelle
Microsoft Mary
You can download Microsoft Mike and Microsoft Mary voices by downloading and installing Microsoft's Speech SDK 5.1 (download SpeechSDK51.exe) Uninstalling the SDK leaves the voices installed. Microsoft Anne comes free with Windows Vista but it can also be installed onto XP by installing Microsoft Streets and Trips. Unfortunately this is a much bigger download (1173.4 MB) than the previous downloads and is not free, however it has a free trial and I am curious to know if the voices are left installed after the trial times out.
If you don't have the TTS version your voice and male fields will still specify what voice to use for chatters who use the TTS version.
fields will still be used by chatters who use the TTS version.
Worlds for smls chat
Any smls file that contains a WorldInfo node with the title field filled out can be used for Seamless3d chat. Because there is no gravity the land (or much of it) should be at zero height.Sound alarm for when someone visits you
Seamless3d can open windows media player to notify you have company. With this feature you can leave WMP on very loud so that you can be out in the garden while you wait for someone to join you in VR. A rock song with drums and bass is especially effective at long distances, To do this all you have to do is add a mp3 (or any media file WMP can play) to your alarmFile field. Currently you must add the whole path without any quotes as shown in the following example:
The surverUrl field
In the spirit of open source, seamless chat is designed not to be dependent on the Seamless3d website. The serverUrl field lets the user specify an url for a seamless chat server located anywhere in the world.Currently if you specify http://seamless3d.com for the serverUrl (the default url) you will be automaticaly directed to use the http://mixed3d.net seamless chat server.
The http://mixed3d.net server is located in France and financed by Alain from the LouiZeForum.
Viewing worlds open lists from your html browser
You can use your html browser to view a list of worlds open for chat by clicking on the server's worlds open page:http://www.seamless3d.com/worlds_open.php
Unfortunately you can not yet open a world in Seamles3d by clicking on a link in your html browser but this is a useful feature nonetheless because you do not have to change your serverUrl field when checking mutiple servers.
Running a seamless chat server from your computer.
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