I've been playing with the 3D characters that Haptek supplies and Freddy had suggested Daz which I've looked into a bit.  There are also some other Free programs out there to play around with.  Since I know very little about this I thought I'd like to get some Info about this before getting to involved.  The end product would be a higher count wire form character, to be used in the Hal window.
Carl2

Carl2, the last time I checked the only Characters that work in the Hal window were Haptek.

I think Freddy was talking about using Daz in conjunction with an AIML bot and not Hal, again, I think.

I do understand how appealing Hal's A.I is, there are those magic moments that you get when you chat to Hal that I don't think I have ever had from any other chat bot. Some bots might be more smart than Hal but Hal has a way of getting to know it's botmaster that is unique.

  There is or was Desktop mates which I tried but went back to Haptek.  There is also  the MS agents which I tried that somehow worked with the Hal program.   I do know Freddy was talking about building his own AI and he was working on an avatar for it, then he stopped.
Hal is a good AI program and Haptek is a good avatar, some of the work that went into making the character realistic, a state machine is overlooked and I have no idea how a Victoria character would act.
Carl2

Hy Carl2 as you probably already know Mr. Roberts is working on a new character engine for Hal, though your guess is as good as mine when ever it will get released/finished.

there is only one way to get a Daz figure into Hal, sadly it is not exactly what your was looking for though (to get a Victoria model into Hals window.
but what one can do and it will take a real long time and basically defeat the purpose of Hals brain is to make a character in Daz then create a whole bunch of lip synced avi (video) files to be used as responses by Hal. then one can use Daz characters by making Hal play a certain video when ever a certain input is inputted.

like I said it is not exactly what you wanted, but it is a way to get Hal to use Daz models    

  Thanks for putting that in Sybershot,  It's along the lines of what I was thinking, the majority of the programs are made for making videos.  Basically I was thinking of using the majority of the Haptek files, but using the higher poly count of Victoria's wirecount for the character.  Haptek really has a pretty advanced character in some ways  especially when you get to the fleshy characters although it lacks the collision detection.  I haven't seen a physics package for fleshy body parts for Victoria but have seen some fixes for body parts that distort which is never mentioned.  They do have physics packages for the hair though and there is collision detection.  One step forward one step back, I really don't want to loose the physics to gain the higher poly count and collision detection.
Carl2

Hi Carl, my project is just on pause. I waited a while for Unity to be updated to a new version and also still waiting somewhat for them to work on their WebGL player as that's where I think I am going - it's like having the Haptek player in a browser but there are no downloads.

I'm also working on my own simple language, it won't be very smart at first. It's meant to offer interactive characters in my virtual world. I've got the basics fleshed out and my parser was working. It's similar to AIML but easier to write.

But yes, you know how it is, only so many hours in the day, I will get back to it, I think when Windows 10 hits so I know what works and doesn't in the future.

As for Haptek; to do the custom models you would have needed the full SDK - this included all the tools you once needed to make the models. It's very user unfriendly though. I was able to do simple things like remove the boots on full body, but in time the appeal of Haptek left me for other things.

  Very nice to hear from you again Freddy.  Thanks for the update as to what you're doing, waiting, ho ho.  Best to take you're time and make sure you're moving in the right direction, I've been working on haptek for ages, once in a while I make a little progress. 
  I'd looked into the AIML a little and was able to write if I say then you say similar as to what you would do in Hal, don't care for it because you know her response.  I do like using Hals output change the background and clothing, adds more unknown.  AIML at one time also included emotions, mad would give one response and happy would give another response which I like and would like to try.
  I remember Alactive  had her boots removed, in both the fleshy and standard body.  I had thought  the SDK Was the documentation or manual for using Haptek.  They do mention quite a lot of software they use in make characters in the manual but it seems that 3D avatars can easily get very expensive. Anyways I did look at the manual  and after reading it it would seem there is no need to compress files we can use the uncompressed files from the haptek player temp folder.   Best of luck
Carl2

Yes this is the trouble making your own bots, you already know what they are going to say if they are scripted. I agree this is what makes UltraHal stand out.

Haptek aside you can do a lot of things with free and open source software now.

  I'm working on my third attempt to copy all the uncompressed files to one file and labeled a htr,  earlier attempts had her reading all the files to me, the latest has her arms in a unusual position that slowly moves to normal and she keep jumping up and down, I didn't include the jpg file but it is loaded in anyways.  I was able to find the obj file which I believe is the wire mesh.    Much simpler is to use the startup.hap which will load up everything and it works without problems, not sure how it can work since all the files are in a different place and not in the data folder as specified.  Live and learn, I think it is possible.

  Seems to be a place to think and write down my thoughts,  the latest thing would be the size of a better wire mesh and the extension used and if that is available, next is how Haptek will handle it.  I do remember trying a 4096 jpg for Haptek, strange results, the frist time it loaded the jpg but after that first load it would not load again, possibly loading time or some other reason.  So if we do get a better mesh we are still dealing  with lower photo quality.   Next to get a mesh somewhere.
   Also playing with a camera that stopped working, I opened it and found a small battery, welded terminals soldered to a board.  It showed a negative voltage from the plus terminal, not sure what is next.
Carl2

  I have contacted Haptek about their Delta Set maker but I have not heard from them yet.  Since Alactive is the latest character I compared her to what I am presently using and I'd say it is the same wire mesh.  For normal viewing it's not all that bad,  both breath, blink and they try to form eye cantact, where ever they are on the screen.  The character I am using has more breast movement and a bit of sag because of increased gravity.  If I compare the Haptek character to what I see in the Daz studio window, god I'm given a statue that I can move with sliders, there are some dances she can do, I don't believe there are any fleshy parts on her, the good thing is she has collision detection and can wear clothing the will not cling to her body as Haptek characters.  Things to think about.
Carl2

Really wish I could help you on this Carl2 but my knowledge on the subject isn't good.

Best of luck on your quest. You can do this 

Data,
  Perfectly okay, Daz and Haptek both have their good points and as always in advertising the bad points are not mentioned.  I watched the Alien Isolation which I believe is what the Daz figures are made for, game play or a video story.  I was able to come across a post where Duskrider had tried to use a different wire mesh but he ran into a problem with the tts which sounds logical. It sounds logical there would be problems with the animations as well as the moods.
Carl2

  I took out about 3 programs dealing with 3D to gain some space on the drive, I only left Daz Studio which I should take out and put in the other computer since it has a better video card. 
So it seems it was Freddy that had at long last been able to remove the boots. And Duskrider tried to put a higher poly count in the character but ended up losing the tts for voice.  While I have found a zip program using Bzip2 will not work with haptek as it is said it will. 
  Well something to be continued plus switching to win 10.
Carl2