Performers Go Web
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1. PSTAGE Performers Go Web Installing Upstage on a Linux Server The following article was written by Patricia Jung with Helen Varley Jamieson and published in Linux Journal April 2005 it is reproduced here in its entirety with the permission of the authors ee fry Ji Fe D 3 creati PETTE GF RESEARCH SCIENCE amp T EH ALLOWS Y TI HAaANnATD PITAA G With UpStage the next theater is only a mouse click away LJ PSTAGE Writers musicians painters filmmakers and artists of every kind are using the Web as a platform Only one traditional art form does not have a strong presence in cyberspace yet theater But as soon as one is willing to adapt to the a medium a new art form evolves cyberformance The term cyberformance was coined by New Zealand performance artist Helen Varley Jamieson to describe performance that uses the Internet to bring remote performers together in real time in a live theatrical event She has been working for several years with the cyberformance troupe Avatar Body Collision using free Internet chat applications to create performances in cyberspace To provide her her co performers and their audience with a Web based stage she initiated an open source project called UpStage written by Douglas Bagnall see Resources The first release launched in January 2004 was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Research Science and Technology and Creative New Zealand and funds2. When it comes to voice definitions one no longer has to deal with XML now it s Python The file Upstage upstage config py contains a section actually a dictionary object called VOICES that defines the commands used in text to speech synthesis Listing 2 Having said this UpStage speech generation does not depend on Festival Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 9 of 14 LI PSTAGE exclusively This is especially important for non English speakers because the Festival distribution as is limits itself to English If you want to add new voices simply start a new line inside the curly braces following the VOICES keyword Type the name of the new voice in single quote marks and add fest Make sure you start the line with as many whitespaces as needed to place your opening single quote directly below the beginning of the other voice definitions Python is picky about indentations and incorrect indentations mean that UpStage stops working Listing 2 Voice definitions in config py VOICES kal timeout 15 text2wave eval voice kal diphone otype raw _ fest l j Following the pipe character enter whatever command pipeline you like provided it reads text from stdin and provides 16kHz raw PCM output on stdout To test it issue the following command echo Say something in the relevant language lt command gt timeout 15 lame S x m s r s 16 resample 22 05 preset phone tm
3. about the relevant error message when you run go sh as a non privileged user for the first time It s only then that Upstage creates the pid file For security reasons it is not advisable to run UpStage as root That s why the server uses an unprivileged port above 1024 Which port your UpStage server runs on can be configure If you dislike the default port 8081 change the line WEB PORT 8081 in Upstage upstage config py and re run go sh Because the September 2004 version of UpStage is missing the directory that the server uses to store temporary MP3 files you can save yourself a lot of trouble if you create it by hand mkdir html speech Now point your local Web browser to http localhost 8081 and you should end up at the entrance to your theater Figure 1 To customize it according to your needs change its HTML code in Upstage html index html and the corresponding style sheet Upstage html style main css It s a good idea to keep the relative link lt a href stages gt lt a gt to the stages your audience will be grateful and the log in for the artists Figure 1 The default entrance hall clearly shows the origin of the software Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 3 of 14 I PSTAGE UpStage Foyer Mozilla Firefox View Go Bookmarks Tools Help Foyer Avatar Body Collision UpStape Here you can see live performances by Avatar Body Collision a Title amp description
4. players are alive and kicking again Douglas Bagnall promised to fix this bug soon Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 5 of 14 LI PSTAGE Problems with GIFs Even if you have installed gif2png properly the September 2004 version of UpStage can t convert GIF pictures for use as avatars props and backgrounds Until a new version is available you can fix this bug yourself by uncommenting line 38 in Upstage img2swf py and deleting giftopnm flag background fff in line 63 The relevant lines then should read as follows 35 def do _gif tfn swf 38 os path remove png 57 def thumbnailer filetype tfn thumb log l 6 image gif giftopnm s pnmscale height 10 pnmtojpeg gt s Fixing Up Roles and Props These problems with users and permissions don t appear with the inventory of your theater Using the workshop http localhost 8081 admin URL you can add and edit stages avatars an avatar complies with a character in your performance in one disguise backdrops or stage designs and props The latter can be carried by your avatar and they always appear in the upper left portion of the avatar such as the blue bubbles attached to the bomb in Figure 6 When creating new avatars props and backdrops you have some choices too dimensional pictures Flash animations and video streams But be careful with moving pictures they require bandwidth and are real perf
5. types of inventory have their own text configuration files namely Upstage config props xml avatars xml and backdrops xml They all follow the structure shown in Listing 1 Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 7 of 14 LJ PSTAGE Listing 1 The structure of the avatars xml configuration file lt avatars gt lt avatar url media Pbp9 q8I swf voice ked name huge penguin file Pbp9_ q8I swf thumbnail media thumb Pbp9_q8I jpg gt lt avatar gt lt avatar url media clock swf name clock file clock swf thumbnail media thumb clock jpg gt lt avatar gt lt avatars gt Although the name of the root element does not actually matter UpStage uses avatars props and swamp respectively when generating the files What matters is the name of the sub elements avatar prop and backdrop Each osub element has four mandatory plus one optional attribute as described in table 1 Table 1 Attributes to Stage Inventory and Avatar Elements Attribute Value url Path to the relevant Flash file starting with the media catalog below Upstage html UpStage generates random filenames If you edit entries by hand it is fine to use filenames suitable for humans name The name of the item It appears on stage so choose carefully To change it during performance use the nick lt name gt command typed into the text input field below the chat window File The filename of the relevant Flash file repe
6. ated without the path Thumbnail Path to the thumbnail in JPEG format relative to the Upstage html directory UpStage stores them in Upstage html media thumb These thumbnails appear on stage to help players select items voice This attribute affects avatars only and even here it is optional it defines the voice used in text to speech synthesis The voice names are defined in Upstage upstage config py To edit an existing avatar choose the http localhost 808 1 admin edit avatar link from the workshop and click the name of the relevant item The appropriate dialog Figure 4 Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 8 of 14 LI PSTAGE leaves you with two options to change the item s name and voice Figure 4 The Edit dialog of an avatar Editing huge penguin huge penguin Name huge penguin Voice ked w submit _type None mec ium name huge penguin url media PbhpS g8I swf height None width None file Phpo gI swf a Ea E E iel e ked thumbnail media thumb PhpS q8I jpg description ked Home Stages Workshop Log out Unfortunately this dialog is of little help when it comes to estimating the size of the picture on stage The UpStage client renders backdrops to fit the size of the browser window while props and avatars appear about three times their original dimensions The user manual contains a section with recommendations for sizes and formats for creating graphics Making Noise
7. by using the pink name button When you click elsewhere on stage your avatar moves slowly there If you want it to jump there at once click the green fast button first the orange slow button brings you back into slow motion mode To bring the character to a full stop during its journey use the red stop button To equip your avatar with a prop click the appropriate thumbnail in the right part of the image gallery below the stage window It then follows your avatar in all its movements When you click another thumbnail in the wardrobe your old character remains on stage but can be overtaken by your co players When the avatar you currently hold needs to leave the stage use the yellow drop button At the moment this also is the only way to get rid of a prop Even though it is possible to change props by clicking another prop icon although this is not done entirely without side effects this current UpStage version has no get rid of prop button yet The gray clear button empties the stage except for those avatars your co players are holding The entire operation however has a side effect before your co players can move their characters again they have to re select them in the wardrobe Sometimes it might as though things haven t disappeared from the stage In most cases a browser reload helps but then you need to grab your avatar again When for some reason you need to start from scratch you can use the red reset button This sh
8. d password this Username lj lt player Kaaa oira aka a ab a a a oira a Password oii ir Password again Player permissions This player can w Act you want this MN l w Add or Remove Players including youl Home Stages Workshop Log out password 551a9c1c68844936b0d182080fe7dcc0 name 1j rights act admin su gt lt player gt The password attribute doesn t contain the actual password which 1s upstage for this example but its mdSsum If you wish to add users using your favorite text editor you can generate the password like this echo n upstage md5sum 551a9c1c68844936b0d182080fe7dcc0 The name attribute contains the username of the player and you can grant up to three rights The big boss needs the su right Everyone who is supposed to create and edit things that can be seen and used on stage needs the admin permission and all players need the right to act Unfortunately the Web front end is quite buggy when it comes to deleting and editing users It doesn t show you the correct rights it doesn t allow you to change them not even with superuser power and it doesn t let you delete users If you click the check box before the relevant user entry in http localhost 808 1 admin edit player and press the Remove players as a superuser button UpStage removes the relevant player until the end of the session but doesn t delete him or her from players xml After restarting the server all the
9. globally dispersed troup of cyberformers go to stage Shows available from this Foyer Test Stage Player Log in Login This online performance space uses UpStage a web based venue Password for live performance You will need Macromedia Flash Player to watch the performances This is a standard plug in for most web browsers but if you don t have it it s free to download from the acon Macromedia site _Login Welcome to UpStage Next Show Foyer Avatar Body Collision supported bry Creative New Medialab South Zealand Pacific Done The theater also has a back door for its personnel The URLs http localhost 808 1 admin and http localhost 808 1 login html lead you directly to a login dialog that can be changed in Upstage html login html Hiring Personnel The name of UpStage s default theater director 1s z and z has no password You probably want to change this so log in and enter the theater s director Using the Add a new player link go to http localhost 808 1 admin new player and add the name and password of the new director To actually make him or her the big boss who can hire and fire make sure you tick the permission to Add or Remove players Figure 2 Figure 2 LJ Becomes a Big Boss Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 4 of 14 LJ PSTAGE This new player is written to the Adding a player user configuration file Upstage config players xml like Pick a username an
10. icture They convert into Flash format the PNGs and JPEGs used both for stage decoration and as avatars Hence performers and audience alike need the Macromedia Flash plugin for their Web browsers KHTML and Mozilla based browsers work fine but at present Opera isn t suitable Unfortunately at the time of this writing the current version of UpStage does not honor PATH settings Therefore it is wise to check whether all the above mentioned programs Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 2 of 14 L PSTAGE are situated in one of the directories that are hard compiled into bin sh strings bin sh grep E bin sbin usr local sbin usr local bin usr sbin usr bin sbin bin If not appropriate links should be set Otherwise error hunting can become tricky as UpStage isn t good at providing meaningful error messages in every situation Things become even more complicated when using the sound tools Despite UpStage using graphics tools in usr local bin it doesn t necessarily find lame there So for users who aren t up to hacking the source creating a link named usr bin lame seems unavoidable Setting Up the Theater Now it is time to start the server unpack the source archive Upstage 2004 09 28 tar gz and enter the newly created Upstage directory Here you find the shell script go sh that tries to kill an old twisted server mentioned in the file Upstage twistd pid and starts a new one So don t worry
11. now are being sought to continue its development Of course the software isn t restricted to on line performances UpStage also makes an interesting tool for on line teaching as well as product and other types of presentations It even serves as a collaboration tool for virtual workgroups UpStage s strength is its user friendly and highly accessible interface players and audience alike need to have nothing more than a standard browser and and Internet connection to participate Newbies can learn the basics and find themselves happily text rapping and avatar hopping in no time Your Theater Needs Careful Planning The server software itself is written in Python and comes with its own Web server giving the artist the opportunity to set up a stage easily wherever his or her laptop is located on line Apart from the Web server which requires the Python Twisted framework the software makes extensive use of other open source programs commonly installed on Linux systems such as the text to speech system Festival the netpbm tools and gif2png See the Problems with GIFs box below for more details Often not shipped with Linux distributions are the swfttools and the MP3 encoder lame The timeout program from The Coroner s Toolkit which is used during speech synthesis also generally is not included But it usually can be omitted if one isn t afraid to touch the source code The stage is a Flash client and here is where the swfttools enter the p
12. ormance killers Video streams must be available locally and should be stored in Upstage html media For Linux the UpStage user manual recommends webcamd as the software to use to upload a video stream by way of FTP Unfortunately webcamd s original project site seems to be closed see Resources but it still 1s available both as a binary and as a source archive from Debian servers Differing from real world theater an avatar backdrop or prop can be assigned to multiple stages simultaneously This 1s done in the Manage an existing stage section http localhost 808 1 admin edit stage lt stagename gt Figure 3 Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 6 of 14 fee Suit aU psije stage Konqueror e _ ali Stage Properties Stage name Fullname Probeblihne Media used with this stage Avatars Name Huge Penguin bomb penguins phone scissors screen star ty Props Hame bobbles cd Backgrounds Name beavis LJ PSTAGE Figure 3 Although the inventory names are clickable these links don t lead to the edit dialog for the relevant item but instead point to the Flash file The configuration data for the stages are stored in XML format in Upstage config stages xml and Upstage config stages lt stage id gt config xml The first file lists all available stages each of the latter holds information about the inventory assigned to the appropriate stage Needless to say the three
13. ould not be done during a performance or when others are on the same stage as it dramatically throws everyone off and requires a browser reload Some players even may need to log in again Moving the reset button to a less tempting location is on the priority fix list Figure 6 To applaud or to hoot the audience can type into the chat Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 12 of 14 j psrace Linux Journal Mozilla Firefox 2 J s n 5 7 File Edit View Go Bookmarks Tools Help 7 Go GL glimpse in the r zgnu gt Hello eqnu gt Hello Who is there egnu gt Anyone out there lt phone gt Listen Gnu phone gt t s me lt phone gt you know whe lam Oh my gash Is he really going to Transferring data from localhost i If not logged in one sees the stage and the chat window only Figure 6 This however doesn t mean the audience has no voice Everything non actors type in can be seen by everyone in the chat window which makes UpStage a brilliant choice for on line teaching and presentations You can choose to respond or ignore the audience comments The only differences are the audience text appears in gray font without an avatar name attached and it isn t spoken aloud Hence the applause in UpStage is silent Resources UpStage www upstage org nz UpStage Downloads https sourceforge net projects upstage UpStage User Manual www upstage org n
14. p test mp3 If an MP3 player playing the resulting tmp test mp3 file says what it 1s meant to say insert your command into config py Because UpStage is quite particular about paths it is a good idea to make sure you re using absolute paths in this file The original config py file contains more text to speech commands than probably will work with your installation Because all of them appear in the voice drop down menu when adding or editing an avatar it is wise to comment them out using the sign Notice that with the original voice definitions you have to comment out two or three lines per item If you miss one you receive an error message such as this Failed to load application invalid syntax config py line 92 when restarting the server using go sh in order to activate the changes If all of your avatars lose their voices after this you probably commented out the default voice definition as well Bad idea It s perfectly fine to redefine the command behind the default entry but you must not leave UpStage without having one Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 10 of 14 j psrace Rehearsal Time When your stage is prepared it is time to start rehearsing This means all players need to log in and enter the relevant stage using the Stages link http localhost 808 1 stages in the workshop Once in they at first find a big empty space the stage surrounded by the chat window to the right where all uttered
15. text can be read An image gallery is located beneath the chat window Clicking one of the backdrop icons in the left part of the image gallery changes the stage design The right part holds the props Figure 5 Figure 5 When choosing backdrops one needs to consider that the outer right portion will be obscured by the chat window Linux SOUl Konqueror Dokument Bearbeiten Ansicht Gehe zu Lesezeichen Extras Einstellungen Fenster Hilfe E gt Adresse 7 lt gnu gt Hello lt gnu gt Hello Who is there egnu gt Anyone out there lt phone gt Listen Gnu lt phone gt It s me Seite geladen Above the chat window users see a button bar that mainly serves to control avatars The characters themselves can be found in the wardrobe above the buttons on the right hand Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 11 of 14 L PSTAGE side Here users find thumbnails of all avatars activated for this stage If you click one of them it appears in the mirror to the left of the wardrobe Hence a glimpse in the mirror always shows you which role you are playing Yet your character can t be seen on stage at once If you type some text in the input field below the chat window your avatar acts as a voice over When you first click on the stage window the avatar appears there and its utterances can be read as balloons see Figure 5 too Whether UpStage shows the avatar s name as text on stage can be triggered
16. z manual3 pdf Helen Varley Jamieson www creative catalyst com Python Twisted framework twistedmatrix com products twisted Festival www cstr ed ac uk projects festival netpbm tools netpbm sourceforge net Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 13 of 14 LI PSTAGE gif2png www catb org esr gif2png swittools www quiss org swiftools download html lame lame sourceforge net timeout Program from The Coroner s Toolkit www fish com tct Macromedia Flash plugin www macromedia com shockwave download alternates Webcamd webcamd tuxfamily org Patricia Jung trish answergirl de works as an editor and sysadmin for Open Source Press www opensourcepress de As such she is happy to have the privilege of dealing with Linux and UNIX exclusively Performers Go Web Patricia Jung April 2005 14 of 14
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