Microsoft Agent Character Editor

Microsoft Agent

The Microsoft Agent Character Editor in its default state after launch.
Name	Microsoft Agent
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	1997 (28 years ago)
Latest version	2.0
Latest version release date	1998 (27 years ago)
Written in	C++
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Discontinued?	Yes

The Microsoft Agent Character Editor (Ace or MACE for short) is a program made by Microsoft to allow users to edit and compile their own Microsoft Agent character. It was first confirmed to appear in the Microsoft Agent Beta 2.0 and Microsoft Agent 1.3 and has had a release for every public Microsoft Agent version since. It allows users to create new characters with all the major technologies of the platform, including text-to-speech, animation states and lip-syncing. The user can add animations to their character from static BMP or GIF frames; they can also add sounds to the animation or assign the state that triggers the animation, such as the state "GesturingUp" triggering the animation "GestureUp" or add small mouth bitmaps to allow for lip-sync of their character's speech. Ace saves character definitions as ACD files and builds the finished characters as ACS files.

Modern usage

Ace is now used to make most, if not all new Microsoft Agent characters. Most modern characters do not have much animations and rarely use much of Ace's features; lip-sync was a notable example of this before Konnor88 brought it back into popularity. Due to the way the tool was made, a lot of modern character animations have only one frame and a sound. Konnor88 has also made a custom version of the program called the Frontier Agent Character Editor.

Versions and builds

Version	Earliest compilation date	Source	Notes/Issues
Ace Beta	1996/1997	Unavailable	Earliest known version of MACE, no build numbers known
Ace 1.3	1997	Unavailable	No build numbers known
Ace 1.5.0.232	August 20th, 1997	Microsoft Agent Development Kit	First public version, released alongside Microsoft Agent 1.5
Ace 1.5.1.302	October 29th, 1997	Visual Basic 6	Latest pre-2.0 version of Ace available
Ace 2.00.0.2124	September 24th, 1998	Formerly on Microsoft's website	The only known 2.0 Ace version and, by far, the most popular one

Trivia

• It was used to create almost every Microsoft Agent character.
• The download link for this program was formerly available on Microsoft's website.
• Ace 1.5.0.232 has the same build number as the first public build of Microsoft Agent; it is possible that all Ace versions have build numbers based on what the newest Microsoft Agent build is, which would potentially confirm the existence of Microsoft Agent 1.5.1.302 and 2.00.0.2124.