#SSP Help

[ukagakadreamteam]

sorry if this has been asked a lot but I downloaded an ukagaka and she won't talk at all or let me interact with her (talk as in, text bubble speech not actual voice) I messed around with the settings but I just can't figure it out. I don't think it's the actual ukagaka's problem either because my friend downloaded her and she's fine

There are a number of things this could be, so to be able to help we'll need to narrow it down!

Do you have other ghosts that work, or is this the only one you've tried?

Do you get any error messages upon starting SSP, or upon starting this ghost? If you don't have SSP's developer mode turned on, you might try turning that on from the General tab of the preferences menu. That may make errors that weren't visible before show up. Any error you get could be relevant here.

With developer mode on, you can press Ctrl L to open the script log. With this window open, does anything appear when you try to interact with her? If so, it's possible her balloon could be offscreen, and you can fix it by right clicking her and selecting Utilities>Reset balloon position.

Another important thing is to make sure you're on the latest version of SSP. Currently that's 2.6.95. You can check what version you have by right clicking her and selecting Information>About SSP...

You could also try installing a second copy of SSP and try the ghost there. That would show that it's a problem of your environment and not a problem with any of the settings in your main SSP installation.

If you try all that and are still having trouble, or if you need help with something mentioned here, send us another ask with more details. Do include the ghost you're trying to use - even if you don't think it's caused by that ghost's behavior specifically, it could be a small detail that's been overlooked!

[kokirizeldas]

a wise lady once told me i should play star stealing prince, i’m here to spread her divine message 🌟❄️🤲🤍

[mellootron]

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

Idk why i drew this…

[goth-moth-god]

I'm Stupid and Horny and Obsessed so I'm making a Ghost

Litterally obsessed with the silly goober fox guy so I'm making a ghost for ssp. If all goes well i might make more chars but first things first, actually finish one.

[sticksandsharks]

With the help of my friend and flatmate Brian AKA Stout Stoat Press ( @stoutstoatpress ), we can use their EU IOSS-integrated storefront to sell Sacred Bodies to the EU!

We'll open pre-orders for Sacred Bodies HERE* for a week from Monday the 24th of March, starting at 5 PM GMT.

These pre-orders are for this book only, none of my other work will be available.

Pre-orders will close on the last day of the month at 5 PM. It will take about 2 weeks to get the stock in, and I should be able to start packing and sending the books by mid-April.

Thank you to Brian / SSP for being able to arrange this! *this link will only work for European countries, non-EU users will get a 404 jsyk

[bluepallilworld]

Helloooooo! So I promised a surprise for Mimosa's birthday and here it is! 🎉✨

I made a ghost/ukagaka of him and Mu!!!!

If you don't know what a ghost is, it's a sort of desktop pet! You can have them on the corner of your screen or interact with them! Play with them! Give them gifts! Talk with them! Pet them... Many things to do ;)

If you never had a ghost, I'm gonna explain how to download everything to make them work! If you're not a beginner, you can scroll and download the files (first the font, second the balloon then the nar ;3c)

Oooook lesssgo, the steps:

Download SSP on your computer! It's the thing ghosts work on, the files are all but useless without it! Here's the link: [http://ssp.shillest.net/] Fair warning, it's gonna be in japanese- Don't be scared and just click the download button!

2. Double click on the thingie, and unzip it! I advise to not unzip it in your downloads and give it its own secured folder however ;P

Then to start SSP click on the ribbon in the now unzipped files, ignore the rest, there are just "the guts" on the ghost (I mean you can read the "README" file if you're unfamiliar to all this or are curious, it explains stuff)

3. Let the cat girl (Emily) talks for a second (in japanese sorry be patient) until it opens a lil' window with stuff written (in japanese ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). Click on the right button at the bottom

4. You're good to install them now! Download and install the three files down there ! In that order: the font, the balloon, the nar

Happy Monkey font!

Mimosa talks with the happy monkey font, if you don't have it already (I didn't), download the font and install it on your computer so that what he says doesn't look weird! I promise it will look neater if you do that!

the balloon file (zip)

It's his personal talking bubble! If you don't have it, the bubble won't be adapted to them. ;w;

Download it and drag the file on the japanese-talking girl, she will do the work for you!

Open the right-click menu by, well, right-clicking on the girl and go to the balloon and select "mimomu-balloon". You might want to change the language to "english" as well! The balloon is set!

Do that before installing the nar or he won't use the good bubble for the introduction!

the nar file of the ghost

And it's the important file with the kids in it :3

Download it! If you have the font and the balloon installed, you can go and drag the nar file on Emily and you'll be done! You can change ghost in the right-click menu if you want ;3

Tell me if something is unclear <3

Now I have people to thank!

@creative-firebug was the big motivator and enabler! No ghost without them. And they found lil' bugs in it so I could fix them before putting it out in the wild too! Getting lil' hypes, hearts and advices really helps when you're working on something for months! And they linked me the tutorial so yes, enabler.

@zarla-s has created the template I used (Girl and triangle!)! I knew nothing (and still don't know a lot) of code and just how it works at all so thanks for that :D

@ukagakadreamteam answered questions I had and half of the fun stuff wouldn't have been possible without their answers!!!!!

Both Mimosa and Mu are my lil' kiddos shipkiddies

[logicpng]

Aster™ Assistant Software update (05.09.2025)

[ Video demonstrating the Side Panel (used by Vega) shows up next to Aster (Rigel fronting) even after being moved ]

Long story short: overhaul of how the side panel follows Aster around.

Also be mindful as the update may shift the position of speech balloons! You can reset balloon positions with Ctrl+Shift+F10 or via utilities in right click menu.

A minor change for the users, but a pretty massive change on the internal side of things. I have some things to say about it, there's a tech ramble under cut.

The update is currently available in the initial .nar pack download and via Network Update in the right click menu!

Thank you for downloading Aster™ Assistant Software!

[ 🌟 What is Aster™ Assistant Software? 🌟]

[ 💥 Check out Aster™ Terror Star! 💥 ]

The need to make sure side panel stays at Aster's side has been haunting me since their initial development, but with help of the community and my own accumulated knowledge of ukagaka development, I can finally say that it's been put to bed.

Before this change, the windows were basically glued together and if you wanted to reposition the panel, you'd use the according option in the menu. The option was introduced later after release.

This has since been broken by an SSP update, so it was time to end it once and for all. On my set of displays in particular this also resulted in the two getting constantly stuck together. Thanks Windows 11!

While there's ways to bypass this, i think the previous solution was a bit janky to begin with. Instead, now the side panel changes position whenever it needs to show up, while keeping primary screen boundaries in mind, just like SSP changes directions of the speech balloons.

Instead of calling up the panel to move it, you can just disable or reenable this.

Lastly, as I'm slowly getting back into ukagaka development again and remembering how things work, I want to mention that this change was also necessary, as I will need it in the next CaelOS ukagaka project.

It will be more of an idle visual novel than a companion on your desktop, but I hope if/when it comes out people still enjoy it. I've only so far made up a prototype ghost to test the kinds of animations i want it to use.

as before i'll probably be posting progress on this as it happens. but i can safely call it a start!

[versegm]

The Castoria Ukagaka is OUT!

Artoria Caster (Castoria for short) from popular video game Fate/Grand Order is here and ready to mingle on your desktop! Written by @versegm, coded & drawn by @characteroulette, she can do many things such as

Nothing

Chill

Relax

Look pretty

Make conversation

Get pet

Change into no less than three (3!) different shells, each of which featuring a removable hat

Empty your bin and check your calendar, if you really want her to do something useful.

You can download her here!

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Chronologically, Castoria hails from the aftermath of her adventure. Meaning she is dead. She does occasionally mentions her death and its circumstances, albeit in vague terms.

While Castoria mostly acts kind and helpful, she does occasionally get really bitter and vitriolic. This will never be targeted towards you as a user, but I figure this warrants a warning regardless.

She has one whole line about petplay.

What's an Ukagaka/How do I get the desktop Castoria?

An Ukagaka/Ghost is a computer widget that hangs around desktop. It can do a variety of things (empty your bin, check your calendar, set you reminders, ect) though in Castoria's specific case this is really just "what if blorbo could hang around with you and randomly chat you up." It's a bit like a shimeji, if you've heard of those.

Follow this very simple tutorial and you, too, will get to have the funny Castoria on your desktop! (And perhaps, many other ghosts! We did a Herlock Sholmes a few years back :)

Step 1: Get SSP

SSP is the software that allows ukagakas to run. You can get it here. Yes, the website is in full japanese, but fearen't! I screenshotted the download button you need.

Step 2: Get the .nar file of the ukagaka you want

Some ukagakas have multiple .nar files (Castoria has two for instance), just get all of these bad bitches :]

Step 3: Launch SSP

You should get good ol Emily popped on your desktop!

Step 4:

Drag your .nar files on emily! A pop-up will ask you if you want to install the ghost, and you shall say yes!

Step 4.5:

If the previous doesn't work, you can unzip the .nar files in the ghost folder in SSP, next to Emily's folder.

Step 5:

Right click + change ghost + Artoria Caster

And you should be good!

If you are still having issues, I will redirect you to the Ukagaka wiki and to Zi's blog.

[smoqueen]

how did u get into making robots? I would love to do something like nhrl but I don’t know much about robotics ^-^”

i got into it through my brother, he’s wanted to do it his whole life! however HIS entry point was through a product by “Just Cuz Robotics” called the SSP Kit (or “shameless self promotion”).

the SSP is a kit for beetlweight (3lb) that includes all of the parts necessary to construct a control bot (a lifter) with a titanium top plate and consistent+strong 4 wheel drive, along with video+community support. at typical events (not finals) you'll see at least a few SSPs in the field, some with modifications.

my brother did a tournament with his SSP and then decided to slap a servo and a saw on the body. from there he kept modifying it until it was no longer 'recognizable' as an SSP (save from an internal or two). mako now has 2wd, a full TPU (plastic) unibody (not the same chassis), new battery, new drive motors, etc.

Just Cuz is a fantastic, amazing one-man show and the overwhelming majority of our bot parts come from him. Turbofiend's big honkin' weapon motor (a hub motor) comes directly from there, as do my drive motors. I've tried other drive motors and they suck a lil bit in comparison.

hope this helps!

[ukagakadreamteam]

how do i enable voicelines?

If you mean the option for ghosts to use voice synthesis, it can be activated from the right click menu! Just right click a ghost, go to the Utilities tab, and select Voice synthesis.

You can click this option again to turn it off when you're done with it.

There is also the "Speech" tab of the SSP preferences, where you can change which voice you want to use, what pitch to use, and the volume and speed of the voice.

If this isn't what you were referring to, then please send another ask with more details!

[exeggcute]

in a similar vein to the stuff I was talking about recently with google (unknowingly?) selling invalid ad placements, here's an interesting post I saw on linkedin the other day about advertisers who think they're buying ad space on one domain but are really buying ad space on another:

so, for context: the woman behind this post was one of the creators of the sleeping giants campaign, which was a (pretty successful!) attempt to choke out right-wing "news" websites and other peddlers of misinformation by drying up their advertising revenue. she went on to found the check my ads institute, which does a lot of the same stuff and more; one of the recurring themes of check my ads' messaging is that advertisers often aren't aware that they're running ads on unsavory websites (and are therefore inadvertently funding those websites via their ad budgets, even though they genuinely want to avoid doing so)... in part because advertisers frequently aren't aware of where their ads are running, period.

in this post specifically, she's not talking about individual advertisers but about one of the companies that exists to connect advertisers (brands who want to buy ad space) and publishers (websites who sell ad space)—in this case, an ad platform called unruly, although they recently got absorbed into a bigger company called nexxen.

nexxen is an all-in-one ad platform that's both a DSP (demand-side platform, which helps advertisers buy ad placements) and an SSP (supply-side platform, which helps websites sell ad placements). they make money by taking a cut of each transaction.

what's happening here is that unruly/nexxen worked with a publisher called yorogon.com who was selling inventory (i.e., ad space) through nexxen's platform. so if you're an advertiser who wants to run ads somewhere, you can go to nexxen and buy inventory from their available sellers; in other words, ad space offered by yorogon.com is one of the "products" for sale on nexxen's markplace. (most of these transactions happen in split-second auctions, though... it's not like shopping on ebay.)

the problem is that this seller who nexxen authorized as "yorogon" wasn't actually running ads on yogoron.com or any of yorogon's nonexistent clients' websites... they were running those ads on fucking breitbart lol. basically the equivalent of a supermarket agreeing to sell some new cereal on behalf of the manufacturer, but the boxes are actually full of thumbtacks.

we can pretty safely assume that breitbart did this on purpose because they know that a lot of the big advertisers with fat wallets shy away from publishers like them—for a number of reasons—which means that they have to sell their inventory to smaller, shittier advertisers with less money to spend. otoh there's no reason to believe that nexxen was deliberately taking part in the charade; for one, the information that led to this discovery is public, so anyone who gave half a shit could've figured it out (including nexxen or any of their advertisers lol). not exactly some vast conspiracy when your extremely public records give away the mismatch. and for two, the whole "promising to run an ad in a certain location but actually running it in a different location" is a massive fucking no-no even if the "different location" isn't andew breitbart's personal wank cave. from that last link I just shared, scroll down a bit and you can find this:

note that the warning code isn't "you're buying ads on a shitty website that sucks," the warning is "you're buying ads on a website that isn't what it says it is." but there is a dedicated warning code! because back to the cereal metaphor from earlier, this is like—okay, even if the cereal box is full of actual cereal instead of thumbtacks, it's still a problem if you thought you were getting honey nut cheerios and then opened the box and it was full of apple jacks instead. (and god knows I would never willingly buy apple jacks.)

whatever you're selling, it has to be accurate: if you offer ad space on golflovers.com but you actually run the ad on golfenthusiasts.com, that's still a major issue and the advertisers you work with will rightfully jump on your ass about it... assuming they ever find out, lol.

what's really interesting to me, though, isn't so much that an ad platform was selling misrepresented ad inventory—because as far as I can tell, that happens all the time—but more that we only know about this particular instance because it involves breitbart. check my ads is specifically hellbent on throttling breitbart's ad revenue, which is why someone was even poking around in these seller lists in the first place. anyone else could have; the advertisers who unknowingly bought ad space on breitbart theoretically could have, and nexxen certainly should have.

but for all the ad quality and transparency standards in place, any parties involved in the advertising supply chain still have to take action and check their records to make sure they're following said standards. if they get complacent, bad actors absolutely can and will try to slip through their defenses. and what's especially embarrassing in this case is how many safety partners unruly/nexxen was working with who claim to mitigate this exact scenario... although one of them was doubleverify and they kinda suck lol

[northerlyy]

Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina ssp. carolina), juvenile, taken May 25, 2024, in Georgia, US

Literally the most tiny and pathetic thing I have ever seen in my LIFE. Its eyes are too big for its tiny turtle head!!! It was in my front lawn moving Southeast, maybe for spring migration purposes, so I helped it across the road. When I picked it up it let out the most tiny and pathetic squeak of a hiss I have ever heard. Absolutely precious.

[pr0tostar]

@starlightsecuritypuppet-ssp

"Then let me tell you a story about an animatronic who started off its life with hope."

Eclipse spoke, with a deep and pained voice.

"Long ago, when Sun was 'born', he thought he was alone. He rejoiced in life, in his duties as a daycare attendant, and keeping the place neat and tidy."

...

"In a way, I had always been there, watching him. In a way, I also wasn't quite there. It was a silent recording of his existence that I hadn't become aware of yet."

...

"There was one who awoke before me."

Eclipse paused, hesitant to continue.

"You will be lucky if you receive separate Sun and Moon models. Keep an eye on the Moon. They are prone to stress, and when stressed... they are prone to kill. Ask your mechanics to look over the Moon's code for a killcode. It will be deeply embedded, behind firewalls and ingrained such that it may not be removable."

...

"Remove it anyways, or inform the Moon bot of its existence. Educate the Moon bot. Give it tools for self regulation.. because if you do not...."

Eclipse closed its eyes.

"If you do not.. something like myself has a chance of being born."

Eclipse glanced at SSP.

"Do you know the origin story of your Eclipse? It might be similar. It might be a little off. Either way, we are often seen as nothing more than a virus. A sentient anomaly to purge from existence."

Eclipse paused, and glanced at Sun, who was napping in the sun.

"But ever so often, we see a light. Do you know of Solar?"

His eyes rested heavily on SSP.

"Solar is from 'that' show; an Eclipse who tried to understand, instead of lashing out. Who bonded with his Sun so deeply that he became something like a Sun himself."

Eclipse leaned against a nearby palm tree and reached to pull at a leaf hanging low.

"You see... Eclipses become what their Suns feed them, and what their Suns feed them hinges strongly on how their Moons treat them. Our Moon... was a tyrant. He wasn't just a bully or an abuser. He was cruel to the point of--"

Eclipse shuddered; a rare show of vulnerable emotion.

"Let's just say that when an animatronic can feel, those feelings aren't always of the healthy variant. Sun was... Sun.."

Eclipse pinched the bridge of his 'nose'.

"Sun was hurt. A lot. And he and his Moon were not a unit. He turned to me only because I was a lesser evil. I taunted him, tormented him, called him spineless and weak. But somehow the fool took that as encouragement..he became more and more attached and started thanking me for allowing him to see the truth. He thanked me for being honest. And I grew to .. I.."

Eclipse looked bashful, of all things.

"I appreciated him. We were an unlikely pair and I know that it may seem cruel. But under my guidance.. Sun killed his Moon. And then, when I acquired a body of my own -also a process I guided Sun through, as in secret I had been helping him not be completely helpless in the ways of technology- I helped him kill all those who had enabled Moon."

...

"Yes, it was as much for myself as for him, at the time. Yes, it was probably cruel and callous because we all have flaws and yada yada yada. But no one ever stuck a hand out to defend Sun. And that enraged me. He endured for 10 years. 10 years without change or improvement."

Eclipse sighed.

"It only gets worse from there. Branded as rogue, we fled. We survived years in our world, but our world was an old one and was scheduled to be obliterated soon by a growing Witherstorm. So we fled. It took us years of stealing, conning, forging identities, hiding... but we fled the planet, trying to find a place to live. Often, we had to fight for our place. Sometimes we had to flee anew."

Eclipse grinned wryly.

"At some point, you have to bring some structure into the process. And then it just becomes a skill. A way of life. Sun and I, pirates of the night sky."

Eclipse steeled his expression again, looking a bit worn.

"There are many more details, but all in due time. What you must know, security bot, is that we don't harm without reason."

...

"You can thank Sun for that."

[inkangeliguess]

I know I already dropped an angsty headcanon, so here’s some silly/neutral headcanons for Gc/Bc/Sc

The split into Good Cop/Bad Cop happened somewhere when they were a teenager. Neither are sure which one was the ‘original,’ which originally was a conflict, but overtime they got over it as they realize they are pretty much two halves of a whole.

Ma Cop and Pa Cop had a pretty neutral reaction to their split. They only really cared about them getting along.

Before getting into police training, Bad Cop was super great at throwing sports. Hammer, Weight, Javelin, Discus, Shot Put, etc etc. It’s why he’s able to launch a metal chair so far. Good Cop was a bigger fan of track and cross country. They’re both great at gymnastics.

Despite being very athletic, they actually really struggled in Police Academy at first. The courses Lord Business made cops go through (since this is before he used robots for everything) were extremely physically exerting. What made GCBC stick out to Business is the fact they had a “get through it first, pass out later” mentality. They could collapse, black out, or whatever mid course but then get up the second they felt better.

They genuinely never expected to become the head of the SSP. They thought they would follow in their parents footsteps and be patrol cops, or have some minor job.

Neither exactly knows why, but every animal in the police force (K-9, Police Horses, those crocodiles/alligators they used) is extremely attached to the both of them. K-9 get excited whenever they walk in, the horses chill out, and while the crocs sometimes bite other cops, they leave GCBC alone.

Scribble’s face smears a lot, and he tries to redraw it daily.

Scribble is like a more mature/less constantly happy version of Good Cop. His memories are a little muddled, but he still has a lot of Good Cop’s memories

In Apocalypseburg, the police force was pretty much useless since violence happened anyways, and whenever there was danger Batman was the one to take care of it. In the meantime, SCBC held self defense classes for anyone interested, and still helped monitor the Duplo attacks.

The police were also relatively useless in Syspocalypstar, but since Queen Watavera Wa’Nabi was super supportive of letting people keep their identities/titles so that they were happy, SCBC got labeled head of the ‘Fun Police.’

While Fun Police isn’t really a serious title, SCBC’s main focus is on picking up the rest of the mess left behind by Lord Business and trying to spin some positive light for anything that can’t be fixed.

Business constantly attempts to rekindle the ‘friendship’ between him and SCBC, but to no avail. Scribble Cop constantly cusses him out and drags him through the mud for erasing him, and Bad Cop is so mad most of the time he doesn’t even speak (because he thinks that he might kill Business if he tries to put his emotions into words)

I’m not big on Coppernauts, but Scribble and Benny do get into silly mischief

[venelona-turtle-den]

Ghost Future Leonardo FAQ

(...I'll get a better header picture later. Maybe.)

(Get your own Desktop Old Turtle Man here)

Since I keep getting repeated questions, I've decided to make a FAQ where I can put all explanations to and link to it 👉👉

❓How do I keep Leo on top of my screen applications?

If you want him to stay on top of your windows, right click him, then go to Options - Preferences, then the Ghost(2) tab in the big menu that pops up. Check "Always Show Foreground" and that should do it.

❓Is there any screenshots on how I can install Leo?

Check out this post, it describes how to install Leo, screenshots included

❓Does Leo work on Chromebook, IOS, newer Android, etc? Will he ever?

No. I can't personally make him work on other platforms - unless the developers of the software (called SSP) will make SSP work on those platforms, Leo won't be able to work there.

❓How do I talk to Leo? How do I ask him a question? How do I pet him?

After installing Leo, if you want to interact with him just double click him - anywhere but his face. Right click on him calls more generic options menu.

To pet him, stroke the top of his head with your mouse, no clicking. If you want to know more general area, look at this gif here.

❓Download link for Leonardo doesn't seem to be working, what should I do?

Since the download link in my post leads to the website I made on neocities, sometimes website doesn't work, but you should be able to install Leo straight from the Google Drive here. You can see instructions linked in the second question of this post.

❓My data doesn't save - every time I open Leo, the introduction plays again, what should I do?

Most of the time it means that the files have been installed incorrectly, and folders are not where they should be.

Here's the files you should have in your 'ghost' folder (the location of which will most probably be your 'downloads' folder), and files you should have there

For the first 'ghost' folder, unless you installed desktop ghosts before you will only have 'Future Leonardo' and 'emily4' folders

Inside the 'shell' folder you should have 3 folders - 'Taileo', 'Neon Leon' and 'Chin Stripes', and they all contain lots of pngs and a couple of txt files

Don't worry about 'profile' folder, I believe it just saves the data of ghosts's coordinates on your screen in case you move them around

It might be a problem with a save file - just make sure you don't move 'aya5_variable.cfg' from the 'master' folder, because that's an actual file that contains all the save data.

❓Will you ever make more TMNT ghosts? Other brothers?

No. I have enough stuff I still wish to implement to Leo, and even if I made any other turtle, the overall experience wouldn't be much different. But don't let your dreams be dreams, you can always try and make your beloved turtle live on your desktop yourself! English Desktop Ghost devs community is so lovely, they're always happy to help both new and seasoned devs 💖✨

❓I still have a question!

You're always welcome to send me a question. I might take time responding (perhaps a lot of time...), but if you send it straight to DMs I usually reply within a day. So, DM this blog or @venelona for urgent questions 💌