---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft Comic Chat README July 1996 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1996 This document provides information to supplement the Comic Chat Web Page. ------------------------ How to Use This Document ------------------------ To view readme.txt on screen in Notepad, maximize the Notepad window. To print readme.txt, open it in Notepad or another word processor, and then use the Print command on the File menu. -------- CONTENTS -------- 1. Comic Chat Overview 2. Supported Configurations/Platforms 3. Connecting to other IRC Chat rooms 4. Frequently Asked Questions ----------------------- 1. Comic Chat Overview ----------------------- Comic Chat is a new kind of graphical chat program, developed at Microsoft. In recent years, a number of graphical chat programs have appeared for online services and the Internet. Comic Chat takes a different approach to other graphical chat programs, by using a visual representation of conversations based on comics conventions. As users type text into Comic Chat, a comic strip unfolds showing the various participants in the conversation as comics characters, and their utterances in word balloons. Inside of each Comic Chat client is a small, fast expert system for comics generation. On the fly, each Comic Chat client automatically determines a number of aspects related to comics generation. These include: - Which characters to place in each panel - The gestures and expressions for these characters - Where the characters should be placed, and how they should be oriented - The outline form of each word balloon - The layout of word balloons in the panels - When to move on to a new panel - What zoom factor to use for each panel To get the most current information on Comic Chat, and to download the currently released version look at the Comic Chat page on Microsoft's World Wide Web site: HTTP://WWW.MICROSOFT.COM/IE/COMICHAT/ To contact the Comic Chat team with your suggestions, bug reports, or comments please email us at: comichat@microsoft.com. ------------------------------------- 2. Supported configurations/platforms ------------------------------------- Comic Chat currently runs under Windows 95. When Comic Chat is delivered, it will also run under Windows NT 4.0. Comic Chat requires a minimum configuration of a 486 processor, 8mb RAM, 256 color video and a 9600 baud modem. ------------------------------------- 3. Connecting to other IRC Chat rooms ------------------------------------- If you want to connect to an IRC chat server that you already know about, you can do this by expanding the Connect dialog box. Then enter the server address, port number, and channel name. For example: Comicsrv1.Microsoft.Com, 6667, #Comic_Chat. Currently we support the following channels on our servers: comicsrv1.microsoft.com, 6667, #Comic_Chat comicsrv1.microsoft.com, 6667, #Comic_Help comicsrv1.microsoft.com, 6667, #Newbies comicsrv1.microsoft.com, 6667, #Pet_Chat comicsrv1.microsoft.com, 6667, #Sports_Chat comicsrv2.microsoft.com, 6667, #Family_Chat comicsrv2.microsoft.com, 6667, #Internet_Chat comicsrv2.microsoft.com, 6667, #Politics_Chat comicsrv2.microsoft.com, 6667, #Singles_Chat ----------------------------- 4. Frequently Asked Questions ----------------------------- Q. Will you be updating Comic Chat? A. We will be updating our Web site frequently and will let you know when new updates are available. Q. How do I connect to other IRC chat rooms/channels? A. If you want to connect to an IRC chat room or channel you already know about, click the File menu, and then click New Window if you are running within Internet Explorer 3.0 (just click New otherwise). Expand the dialog box that comes up so you can see the Server, Port and Channel entries, and then provide the following information: - In the Server box, type the IRC server name. The default entry is ComicSrv1.Microsoft.com. Replace this with the IRC server you are going to connect to. - In the Port box, type the IRC server's port number. The default entry is 6667. - In the Channel box, type the channel, preceded by a number sign (#). The default channel name is #Comic_Chat. Q. How can I tell what version of Comic Chat I am running? A. If you are running Comic Chat outside of Internet Explorer, click the Help menu, and then click About Microsoft Comic Chat. The version number will be listed at the top of the dialog box. From within Internet Explorer you can chose Microsoft Comic Chat Help from the Help menu, and then click About Microsoft Comic Chat from there. Q. Why can't I get access to any Microsoft Comic Chat or IRC chat rooms? A. If you are accessing the Internet from your corporate network, you will be able to download the Comic Chat program; however, most corporate proxy servers limit access to chat rooms. If you have any questions, please contact your system administrator or use a dial-up analog or ISDN line to access the Internet. Q. Can I create my own comic characters? A. At this time you will only be able to use the characters supplied with Microsoft Comic Chat. We will be adding new characters throughout the duration of the beta. Q. Can I create my own backgrounds? A. We are supplying a limited number of backgrounds with the beta, we will add more soon. Q. Why don't all the characters have gestures? A. In the original Beta 1 release there were some characters who's emotions had not yet been articulated. This has been updated in the current release. When you go to the View, Options menu and then choose the characters tab, you can see what gestures each character has before you choose it as your character. Q. Does Comic Chat run under Windows NT 4.0? A. Comic Chat currently will run only on Windows 95. Windows NT 4.0 will be supported in the final release. Q. How does the emotion wheel (lower righthand corner) work? A. The emotion wheel enables you to manually change your character's emotions. The center of the emotion wheel is neutral emotion. Where there are multiple levels of emotion, the intensity of the emotion increases as the control moves away from the center. To see a tooltip describing each emotion, rest your mouse pointer over one of the eight faces around the perimeter of the emotion wheel. To change your character's emotions, drag the control (the dark dot in the center of the emotion wheel) from the center of the emotion wheel. Q. How can I tell characters apart when there are duplicate characters? A. Move your mouse pointer over the character and then pause; a tooltip appears that displays the user name and character. Q. How do I print? A. Go to the File Menu, Select Print menu, choose Properties, Graphics. Change the resolution to 150 or 300 bps. This will speed up printing and still provide high quality. Q. How long to download? A. 14.4 baud Modem Approximately 13 minutes 19.2 baud Modem Approximately 10 minutes 28.8 baud Modem Approximately 8 minutes Q. How big is Microsoft Comic Chat to download? A. The program with its existing artwork is currently 1 MB compressed. Q. How much space does Comic Chat take up? A. The Comic Chat program with its existing artwork is currently 4 MB. Subsequent artwork and character updates will increase this size. Q. Can I uninstall Comic Chat? A. Yes. To uninstall Comic Chat, open Control Panel, and then double click Add/Remove Programs. Select Microsoft Comic Chat from the list. Q. Why does it say my ID is in use when I go to another chat room? A. Nicknames (IDs) must be unique. Your connection will be refused if: - You are already connected to a chat room on the server. - You just recently disconnected and the server has not refreshed. - Someone else is using your nickname. To connect, you can either choose a new nickname or make sure that all Microsoft Comic Chat clients have been closed and then wait a minute and reopen Microsoft Comic Chat. Q. How do I get more panels across the screen? A. There are a few things you can try: - Increase your screen resolution by using Display Properties in Control Panel. - Maximize the window. - Move the vertical splitter to the right to make the member list thinner. Once you have done this, click the View menu, and then choose the largest number of panels you can. Depending on your screen resolution and monitor size, you can select from one to five frames. Q. What is the difference between Comic Chat and IRC chat? A. Microsoft Comic Chat is a graphical chat client that can be used like any text chat client on the IRC channel. Not everyone inside the channel (chat room) needs to be using Microsoft Comic Chat for this to work. Text chat users will automatically be assigned a character, so that the entire chat will be graphically represented to the Microsoft Comic Chat client user(s). NOTE: When using Microsoft Comic Chat on an IRC channel where most of the other users are using IRC text clients, it is a good idea to begin by clicking the Options menu and then checking the Do Not Send Comic Information box. This will prevent special comics messages from being sent to the other chat clients. Once you log off Comic Chat, the client will reset. When you log on the next time, the Do Not Send Comic Information box is not checked. Q. Why do I get an "HTTP 1.0 / 404 Object Not Found" error from the chatroom web page? A. The name of the room files and the names of the channels on the server were changed. Your browser or your internet service provider may be caching the web pages and you are seeing the old page which links to files which no longer exist. To get around this you can try to refresh the web page and/or clear the local cache if your browser caches the file.