What are all the actions the Merlin Agent can do?

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1116451

  •  12-09-2019
  •  | 
  •  

Question

This is a google question, admittedly. But it appears all the docs have been removed and I can't find them anywhere. So I'm hoping someone can either show me some VBScript code to enumerate objects OR has stronger google-fu.

The merlin agent is an abandoned Windows component kind of like Alice that aims to teach programming by letting kids tell stories. It was introduced to me in this stackoverflow answer by Bob Mc (and frankly deserves way more upvotes). In any event, here's an example, assuming you're on windows and it's installed to the C drive (I've found that merlin is on almost all computers):

agentName = "Merlin"
agentPath = "c:\windows\msagent\chars\" & agentName & ".acs"
Set agent = CreateObject("Agent.Control.2")
agent.Connected = TRUE
agent.Characters.Load agentName, agentPath
Set character = agent.Characters.Character(agentName)

character.Show
character.MoveTo 200, 400
character.Play "Surprised"

Wscript.Sleep 10000

Now what I'm looking for is other top-level actions Merlin can take. I know of:

  • Show
  • MoveTo
  • Hide
  • Speak
  • GestureAt
  • Play

Play takes an animation name. I'm also looking for all of those. I know of:

  • 'character.Play "Read"
  • 'character.Play "Write"
  • 'character.Play "WriteContinued"
  • 'character.Play "Congratulate"
  • 'character.Play "Greet"
  • 'character.Play "Decline"
  • 'character.Play "Explain"
  • 'character.Play "GestureLeft"
  • 'character.Play "GestureRight"
  • 'character.Play "Pleased"
  • 'character.Play "Surprised"
  • 'character.Play "GetAttention"

Can you help me find the rest somehow?

Was it helpful?

Solution

I'm not sure why I didn't try the Internet Archive[1] earlier, but it worked. Here's the Animations merlin can do:

Acknowledge             Nods head
Alert                   Straightens and raises eyebrows
Announce                Raises trumpet and plays
Blink                   Blinks eyes
Confused                Scratches head
Congratulate                Displays trophy
Congratulate_2              Applauds
Decline                 Raises hands and shakes head
DoMagic1                Raises magic wand
DoMagic2                Lowers wand, clouds appear
DontRecognize               Holds hand to ear
Explain                 Extends arms to side
GestureDown             Gestures down
GestureLeft             Gestures to his left
GestureRight                Gestures to his right
GestureUp               Gestures up
GetAttention                Leans forward and knocks
GetAttentionContinued           Leaning forward, knocks again
GetAttentionReturn          Returns to neutral position
Hearing_1               Ears extend (looping animation)
Hearing_2               Tilts head left (looping animation)
Hearing_3               Turns head left (looping animation)
Hearing_4               Turns head right (looping animation)
Hide                    Disappears under cap
Idle1_1                 Takes breath
Idle1_2                 Glances left and blinks
Idle1_3                 Glances right
Idle1_4                 Glances up to the right and blinks
Idle2_1                 Looks at wand and blinks
Idle2_2                 Holds hands and blinks
Idle3_1                 Yawns
Idle3_2                 Falls asleep (looping animation)
LookDown                Looks down
LookDownBlink               Blinks looking down
LookDownReturn              Returns to neutral position
LookLeft                Looks left
LookLeftBlink               Blinks looking left
LookLeftReturn              Returns to neutral position
LookRight               Looks right
LookRightBlink              Blinks looking right
LookRightReturn             Returns to neutral position
LookUp                  Looks up
LookUpBlink             Blinks looking up
LookUpReturn                Returns to neutral position
MoveDown                Flies down
MoveLeft                Flies to his left
MoveRight               Flies to his right
MoveUp                  Flies up
Pleased                 Smiles and holds his hands together
Process                 Stirs cauldron
Processing              Stirs cauldron (looping animation)
Read                    Opens book, reads and looks up
ReadContinued               Reads and looks up
ReadReturn              Returns to neutral position
Reading                 Reads (looping animation)
RestPose                Neutral position
Sad                 Sad expression
Search                  Looks into crystal ball
Searching               Looks into crystal ball (looping animation)
Show                    Appears out of cap
StartListening              Puts hand to ear
StopListening               Puts hands over ear
Suggest                 Displays light bulb
Surprised               Looks surprised
Think                   Looks up with hand on chin
Thinking                Looks up with hand on chin (looping animation)
Uncertain               Leans forward and raises eyebrows
Wave                    Waves
Write                   Opens book, writes and looks up
WriteContinued              Writes and looks up
WriteReturn             Returns to neutral position
Writing                 Writes (looping animation)

Here's how to get them all:

For Each strName in objCharacter.AnimationNames
    Wscript.Echo strName
Next

1: (SO can't parse this link) http://web.archive.org/web/20080214075638/http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/funzone/agent.mspx

OTHER TIPS

I know it's late to answer this question.

But

you can download the Library and characters here.

you can find the documentation here.

you can find the list of supported animations here.

Licensed under: CC-BY-SA with attribution
Not affiliated with StackOverflow
scroll top