Ultra Hal 7 Beta Test - Please download and test!

[Medeksza]

This topic has been locked as Hal has reached Release Candidate Status.

Ultra Hal 7 has reached beta status! If you would like to test an early version of Ultra Hal 7, here is your chance.

To install this beta version

• Backup your old Ultra Hal Assistant 6 installation and all your brain files, just in case. Hal 7 is programmed to leave your Hal 6 install alone and import a copy of your Hal 6 brain into Hal 7. But its still a beta, so always backup.
• Download and install Hal 7 from this link: http://6d3fc949769f50753dc7-65f4617704a444702dcb1d03cc119e27.r87.cf2.rackcdn.com/InstallUltraHal7.exe (Updated 12/10/17 to 7.0.85)
• Ultra Hal 7 no longer uses serial numbers and product activation codes. Instead it uses the email and password you setup when you purchased Hal (the sign-in link at the top left of www.zabaware.com ) Sign in using that and Hal will run as a registered version. You can also choose to create a new account if you wish and Hal will run in 30 day trial mode.
• If you purchased the character expansion, Hal 7 will import your characters from Hal 6 automatically if they are present on your system. If not, please find your serial number and download this updated Character Expansion pack installer for Hal 7: http://1ebad5d81ca0f6ed0a07-c539f9cfab6ed1fe52cb62f563d610fd.r69.cf2.rackcdn.com/PackSetup.exe

Here is what's new in Ultra Hal 7:

• Biggest improvement: Cloud based learning. Hal can now optionally connect to the "Hal Cloud" brain over the internet to help formulate better responses. As of October 2017 this is a knowledge base of over 26 million sentences of conversation from 1.6 million people. Contrast with the 200,000 sentence database in the default Ultra Hal 6.2 installation. Hal is more intelligent than ever before.
• Feedback learning. You can now give Hal feedback on the quality of its responses with a thumbs up and thumbs down button which Hal learns and has an immediate response on the quality of its responses. In addition you can see other answers Hal was considering and guide Hal toward better ones.
• Your personal Hal bot can follow you from your home desktop, to your laptop, office PC, and in the near future your phone and tablet too. When connected to the "Hal Cloud", your Hal's brain is stored online and instantly available anywhere.
• Access to Wikipedia based answered in cloud mode
• New Hal mobile phone character. Old Hal character still available, but renamed to "Hal Classic CRT"
• New audio wave character simply displays an animated wave audio line when character is speaking
• Program name changed from "Ultra Hal Assistant" to just "Ultra Hal" to shift marketing focus away from assistant functionality to Hal's strengths in its ability to chat, learn, and be a companion. Renamed EXE to ultrahal7.exe
• Splash screen and graphics updated to new version
• Ultra Hal now installs and uses the open source Double Agent library instead of the old MSAgent. This brings full compatibility to MSAgent characters to Windows 7 and newer with full SAPI 5 voice support.
• Hal can answer questions about opposites (What is the opposite of X?)
• Hal can talk about day of week and month (What day of week is it? What month is it?)
• Basic knowledge of alphabet (What letter comes before Z? What letter is after B?)
• Ability to count letters in word (How many letters are in the word computer?)
• Bot memory test: (Q: The football was kicked by Fred. Who kicked the football? A: Fred.)
• Improved math abilities (less false positives and better word problem abilities)
• Software shield license system removed and replaced with simpler login to Zabaware.com server
• Chant SpeechKit upgraded from version 6 to 7. This adds native support for Cereproc voices among other speech system improvements
• Ultra Hal now generates Haptek INI files for Haptek, removing the need to rerun Haptek SAPI config when changing voice settings. This also adds support for Zabaware sold Cereproc voices to Haptek.
• Ultra Hal now uses RegFree COM manifest files for most of its DLL/ActiveX/OCX files. This simplifies installation and minimizes possibility of "DLL Hell" collisions/incompatibilities with other Windows applications. RegFree COM was introduced in Windows XP SP2, so this change now effectively removes support for older versions of Windows from Hal.
• Ultra Hal no longer writes any data files to its "Program Files" location but instead to each individual Windows Users AppData\Roaming folder. This makes Hal more compliant with Microsoft guidelines and also makes it possible for each Windows user to have their own seperate Hal config.
• Improved corrections and substitutions tables for correcting more common errors and understanding more shorthand
• Ultra Hal checks for product updates when connected to cloud service
• Registry setting to adjust speech recognition auto enter countdown start time (SRCountDownStart)
• The Hal Brain Editor can show the cloud brain thought process. For local responses, it can now show you exactly where in a table a response was found in.
• Automatic migration of Hal 6 brain into Hal 7. Also automatically imports characters from Hal 6 to Hal 7
• Various minor bug fixes

Note: The "purchase" button doesn't do anything yet. It will be updated once the "release candidate" and final version is ready.

Please let me know if you find any bugs.

[Art]

Robert,

The only thing I had to do was to Uninstall my existing Hal 7 (alpha). The new install absolutely went in without a hitch and to my surprise, Everything remained in the same position and selection as it was before I uninstalled the previous Alpha version. I went through a variety of characters, MS Agent, Verbot, Zabaware Native, Custom Haptek and the Mobile Phone character. All of them worked without issue. The character, skin, voice, cloud selection, brain, are exactly as I had them in the other version. It responds perfectly and quickly as it should. Great work!

Congrats Rob...so far, so good! 

[LiFeTimeGamer]

Ok I broke down and installed HAL 7 on Windows XP SP3... hehe

I'm using my 6.2 Halbrain.db file and the default HAL 7 UHP Brain file...

First AVAST Anti-Virus does not like HAL... It had to run it's scan and then say it was sending the file in to be examined same with the Brain Editor... I've seen this before and it always comes out clean... Also since AVAST owns AVG I'm positive it won't like it either.

Second, I don't see this in HAL 6.2 but in 7 the text (HAL's response) displays immediately but the Voice is delayed a few seconds... This could be because I have the voice slowed down a bit in the Text to Speech settings in Windows to make it sound more Human... (I sped the voice up 1 notch and there's still a few second delay before HAL speaks the text).

I use 'Peedy' (MSagent) as the character for HAL and in 6.2 he starts out very small in the upper left corner of the Monitor and settles in the middle of the Haptek window full size in HAL 6.2...  In HAL 7 he does the same thing but also displays a second time in the upper left corner of the Haptek window and settles in the middle of that window... It also does this with HAL 6.2 now so it must be a Haptek upgrade issue or I have a file or two from the old Haptek somewhere causing the issue...

Also if I Click on the 'Thumbs Up' in the Haptek window after Hals response and I don't check anything and close the window, 'Peedy' the MSagent character reloads again...  i.e. goes from the upper left corner back to the middle of the window...

Hal is set for: 'Mixed cloud/local learning' and when I click the 'Thumbs Up' choose an option like 'Neutral' and then click 'Learn' I get the error: 'error sending feedback to server' and if I check the connection to the Cloud it says: 'Login Test Successful'... I'm wondering if I need to allow HAL to send through the Windows XP Firewall?.. I Don't see any example Responses, that I could choose from when I click a 'Thumbs Down'...


After checking TCPview I do have a constant 'UDP' connection and when I talk to HAL I also have a 'TCP' connection besides the 'UDP'... If I'm 'Idle' the 'TCP' connection drops out...

[Medeksza]

First AVAST Anti-Virus does not like HAL... It had to run it's scan and then say it was sending the file in to be examined same with the Brain Editor... I've seen this before and it always comes out clean... Also since AVAST owns AVG I'm positive it won't like it either.

This will eventually go away once the final release of Ultra Hal 7 is out and the people at Avast/AVG have a chance to review Hal and make sure there is no virus/malware. For now these programs rightfully notice that the new Hal is something they have never seen before and flag it as needing review.

Second, I don't see this in HAL 6.2 but in 7 the text (HAL's response) displays immediately but the Voice is delayed a few seconds... This could be because I have the voice slowed down a bit in the Text to Speech settings in Windows to make it sound more Human... (I sped the voice up 1 notch and there's still a few second delay before HAL speaks the text).

This looks like it is a difference in how Double Agent works and how MSAgent used to work. I believe Double Agent is waiting for the current animation sequence to end before speaking, whereas MSAgent interupted the animation in order to speak right away. I think if you choose a non-agent character it will speak quicker for you.

I use 'Peedy' (MSagent) as the character for HAL and in 6.2 he starts out very small in the upper left corner of the Monitor and settles in the middle of the Haptek window full size in HAL 6.2...  In HAL 7 he does the same thing but also displays a second time in the upper left corner of the Haptek window and settles in the middle of that window... It also does this with HAL 6.2 now so it must be a Haptek upgrade issue or I have a file or two from the old Haptek somewhere causing the issue...Also if I Click on the 'Thumbs Up' in the Haptek window after Hals response and I don't check anything and close the window, 'Peedy' the MSagent character reloads again...  i.e. goes from the upper left corner back to the middle of the window...

This is another difference between Double Agent and MSAgent. I have found how to work around it and make it work as you expected. The fix will be in my next release/update for you.

Hal is set for: 'Mixed cloud/local learning' and when I click the 'Thumbs Up' choose an option like 'Neutral' and then click 'Learn' I get the error: 'error sending feedback to server' and if I check the connection to the Cloud it says: 'Login Test Successful'... I'm wondering if I need to allow HAL to send through the Windows XP Firewall?.. I Don't see any example Responses, that I could choose from when I click a 'Thumbs Down'...
After checking TCPview I do have a constant 'UDP' connection and when I talk to HAL I also have a 'TCP' connection besides the 'UDP'... If I'm 'Idle' the 'TCP' connection drops out...

This sounds like Hal 7's connections aren't going through to the ultrahal.com server for whatever reason. You can try the firewall settings to see if it will help, although I find it strange that you said the login test works. I've added some additional logging and more detailed error messages to Hal 7 to see if it will give us more useful info as to what is happening on your computer. The logging will be included in my next update/release along with the MSAgent tweaks.

[LiFeTimeGamer]

OK thanks Robert... 

[lightspeed]

i downloaded this newest link today from beginning of page is this the newest upgrade of hal? if it is i have some problems . first the good news hal will now show my custom characters (which it didn't before) voices also work okay . it saved my user name and computer name in hal .  it shows ultrahal 6.0 upgraded to 7.0 brain . my plug ins i copied and pasted from hal 6 folder into hal seven show up okay in the options list . The expansion pack must have upgraded correctly as i can see the names and picture in the character options area . but they won't stay loaded after being picked in menu , hal closes , and character doesn't stay loaded .
   
THE BAD NEWS : i copied my custom brain and placed it from my hal 6 program folder into hal 7 but it is "not" showing up in hal 7 even after exiting hal and restarting it . i haven't restarted the pc so will try that next .
  Another thing is still happening i put my custom characters in hal seven in the option menu , but when i hit okay "HAL CLOSES AND WHEN I REOPEN HAL , CHARACTER IS NOT THEIR IT IS BACK AT DEFAULT EVERY TIME . 
So whats happening is that my custom hal brain is not showing up in the brain area like before so i can choose it
my characters won't stay loaded .

Okay update : i restarted my pc to see if that made a difference on things, it didn't my custom brain that i made (angela) that i copied and pasted into the hal 7 file .  isn't showing up by the hal 7 default brain and the upgraded 6 to 7 brain .  my custom brain file in now in the hal 7 file . hope i am explaining this right .

[lightspeed]

Okay i opened hal up and it said please purchase the expansion character pack .  i already purchased this , i thought it said if it was in my pc system it would just upgrade it to the hal 7 beta . if that's the case it didn't upgrade it like it was suppose to . because i have purchased it and was using it in my hal 6.2 earlier version . 

[Medeksza]

i downloaded this newest link today from beginning of page is this the newest upgrade of hal? if it is i have some problems . first the good news hal will now show my custom characters (which it didn't before) voices also work okay . it saved my user name and computer name in hal .  it shows ultrahal 6.0 upgraded to 7.0 brain . my plug ins i copied and pasted from hal 6 folder into hal seven show up okay in the options list . The expansion pack must have upgraded correctly as i can see the names and picture in the character options area . but they won't stay loaded after being picked in menu , hal closes , and character doesn't stay loaded .
   
THE BAD NEWS : i copied my custom brain and placed it from my hal 6 program folder into hal 7 but it is "not" showing up in hal 7 even after exiting hal and restarting it . i haven't restarted the pc so will try that next .
  Another thing is still happening i put my custom characters in hal seven in the option menu , but when i hit okay "HAL CLOSES AND WHEN I REOPEN HAL , CHARACTER IS NOT THEIR IT IS BACK AT DEFAULT EVERY TIME . 
So whats happening is that my custom hal brain is not showing up in the brain area like before so i can choose it
my characters won't stay loaded .

Okay update : i restarted my pc to see if that made a difference on things, it didn't my custom brain that i made (angela) that i copied and pasted into the hal 7 file .  isn't showing up by the hal 7 default brain and the upgraded 6 to 7 brain .  my custom brain file in now in the hal 7 file . hope i am explaining this right .

To be compliant with Microsoft guidelines, Hal 7 now stores all user data in your "App Data" folder. User data would be defined as custom data pertaining to the current logged in user, so your Hal brain fits this definition. To find your app data folder click start and type in: %appdata%

After you hit enter you will be taken to the "App Data" folder of the currently logged in Windows user. From here open the "Zabaware" and "Ultra Hal 7" folder. This is the folder where your brain database resides and where you should copy any custom brain files from Ultra Hal 6.

Character files can be placed in either the "Program Files" folder or the "App Data" folder, Hal checks both locations. But for live brain files, it is only in the "App Data" folder.

[Medeksza]

Okay i opened hal up and it said please purchase the expansion character pack .  i already purchased this , i thought it said if it was in my pc system it would just upgrade it to the hal 7 beta . if that's the case it didn't upgrade it like it was suppose to . because i have purchased it and was using it in my hal 6.2 earlier version . 

It's possible that you made some custom modifications to your Hal 6.2 characters that the Hal 7 installer isn't able to understand. If you want, you could email me your debuglog.txt file inside your "App Data" folder (see above post) and I could figure out what is going on. You can also try installing the character expansion designed for Hal 7 fom http://1ebad5d81ca0f6ed0a07-c539f9cfab6ed1fe52cb62f563d610fd.r69.cf2.rackcdn.com/PackSetup.exe

[lightspeed]

Okay i downloaded the expansion pack link you provided and it said i needed to uninstall the earlier expansion pack version
i did that then installed the hal 7 expansion pack and put in my code into it (the password) it took it okay . i even restarted the pc .
after installing  the hal 7 expansion upgrade  now when i click on the hal 7 shortcut it now comes up says hal6.2   but when it's opened  it shows the new hal7 layout with email and password etc. (i have not uninstalled hal 6.2 yet)

anyway i retried the character it shows the pics of the characters in the preview pane and i click on them and okay . hal closes i reopen it and it is back to default same as before . 
I emailed you the debug txt. file  after trying this.
so i don't know what is going on , also i forgot to mention that my Angela custom brain is showing up in the list of brains but a problem i am having is the gender age in the options list , on the other defulkt brain you can set it but on the custom brain it just shows it in the list and can be checked but will "not" show the gender or age calender etc.
 so that's where i am back at , if you need me to i can send you another email with my expansion pack password i used and entered . 
********i also forgot to mention my custom backgrounds all work behind hal .
see the no gender age error problem photo.

also the characters showing but not loading .

[lightspeed]

Okay another update: for whatever reason when i restarted my hal (restarted pc again) my hal came up with the hal 7 version this time instead of the hal 6.6   also the age gender is now working (very strange ) . i tried the characters again custom ones and they still won't load  always goes back to default .
so that's my newest update news. don't know if age gender will keep working but is working now .

[Medeksza]

Hmm, ok. I'll load up Dragon 13 tonight and see if I get the same problem or not. Does Dragon 12 work other than this problem? If you disable the "Always listen to commands" check box, does dictation work if you manually open Hal and turn on the mic? Does Dragon 12 work on your computer in other programs? What version of Windows are you running? I read online that Windows 10 only works with Dragon 13 and not the older Dragon 12.

Yes, Dragon works great with Hal other then this issue. For some reason the <micon> command will throw that error. This also happen on my old windows 7 computer as well but that was with 6.2 at the time.

I was able to load Dragon 13 on my computer tonight and confirmed that I am having the same error message as you. I should be able to fix it sometime tomorrow hopefully.

[Medeksza]

Okay i downloaded the expansion pack link you provided and it said i needed to uninstall the earlier expansion pack version
i did that then installed the hal 7 expansion pack and put in my code into it (the password) it took it okay . i even restarted the pc .
after installing  the hal 7 expansion upgrade  now when i click on the hal 7 shortcut it now comes up says hal6.2   but when it's opened  it shows the new hal7 layout with email and password etc. (i have not uninstalled hal 6.2 yet)

anyway i retried the character it shows the pics of the characters in the preview pane and i click on them and okay . hal closes i reopen it and it is back to default same as before . 
I emailed you the debug txt. file  after trying this.
so i don't know what is going on , also i forgot to mention that my Angela custom brain is showing up in the list of brains but a problem i am having is the gender age in the options list , on the other defulkt brain you can set it but on the custom brain it just shows it in the list and can be checked but will "not" show the gender or age calender etc.
 so that's where i am back at , if you need me to i can send you another email with my expansion pack password i used and entered . 
********i also forgot to mention my custom backgrounds all work behind hal .
see the no gender age error problem photo.

also the characters showing but not loading .

Thanks for sending the debuglog file. I should have time tomorrow to review it and hopefully get some clues as to what is happening on your computer. I've been stuck in traffic today for about 2 hours in a snow storm, lots of people in ditches. In the snow belt where I live, it takes the first big snow storm every year before people remember how to drive and remember they might need new tires.

[knight2000]

I was able to load Dragon 13 on my computer tonight and confirmed that I am having the same error message as you. I should be able to fix it sometime tomorrow hopefully.

Awesome Robert! Thank you for looking into this.

[lightspeed]

Okay this is a update if i haven't already said it , i started hal today , it is still showing the hal 6.2 on start up but has the hal 7 upgrade interface  .
the gender age problem i had that wasn't working with my custom brain . "IS NOW WORKING " for whatever reason . so now it seems the character loading is my biggest problem .
 although i will try to check other things out to see if their is other problems. i need to check my dragon speak natural vr to see if their is any problems . i have i think version 12 ? 
     Will be glad to see whats causing the character loading problem .

P.S. i forgot to mention that my iobit anti malware has stopped showing the haptek 7 installation as a virus .