Update (July 4, 2002):
Amazing and wonderful news for VRML multi-user enthusiasts worldwide: All Blaxxun chatservices have been restored. In addition, both the Blaxxun.COM and Blaxxun.DE sites are online. Avatar and Voice support are fully restored to pre-blackout levels.
Update (July 3, 2002):
The wonderful folks at Whoola.COM pointed out that they are online and not affected by the Blaxxun woes. They use Blaxxun technology for much of their site, Corps of Discovery, a subscription-based VRML adventure game styled on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Undoubtedly there are many similar standalone sites wholly unaffected by Blaxxun's ongoing collapse.
An additional bright note is that CyberTown went back online today. Our inside contact at Blaxxun had told us that the CyberTown servers would be offline for just a few days, but it was felt that it was best to sit on this information until it could be confirmed. No method of confirming it was found, though it is now known to be accurate. There has been massive amounts of corporate doubletalk surrounding Blaxxun recently, and it was uncertain if the original information was simply more of this. This same source maintains that the Blaxxun servers will go back online sometime today, but Blaxxun.COM (the entire site), Blaxxun.DE (the entire site) and any chatserver (just the chatpanel, not the entire site) using the Blaxxun server to form its chatpanel is still offline, so this may prove inaccurate. Sites with independent installations of Blaxxun's Platform and related software are largely unaffected.
Update (June 30, 2002):
Early today, all Blaxxun properties worldwide went offline. Affected properties are:
Needless to say, the entire 3D chat community across the globe is in near chaos at the moment, there are 1000's of chatrooms offline. Both paid and free services have been affected - there are only two known properties still working and both have custom installations of the Blaxxun server. Though partially expected, Blaxxun officials, CyberTown officials, and CyberTown Founder Hawk had remained extremely optimistic that all properties going offline would not happen. In a bulletin available only briefly through CyberTown News, many of the rumors surrounding Blaxxun were actually refuted. Due to the apparently spurious nature of the bulletin (self-serving corporate doubletalk - ie, a lie), it was felt that not reporting it on discovery was the better route. Obviously, the continuing investigative reporting done right here at The News Letter about this crisis has yielded better and more accurate information.
Reliable sources within CyberTown have said that the CyberTown servers should be back up in about a week. There is at this moment no information about when, if ever, the Blaxxun servers will return to service. The only known 3D chat services online at this moment are the GoonieTown.COM and iCity.CO.IL VRML cybercities. All 3D chatrooms here at Pacoima Ranch are offline at this moment.
Update (June 19, 2002):
In the ongoing trainwreck that is Blaxxun's current state-of-affairs, a totally new wrinkle has been added - what will happen to CyberTown, Blaxxun's flagship community. In a Founders Day open forum at CyberTown, Hawk (founder of CyberTown) had this to say:
- des nouvelles de [CyberTown], le 15 juin 2002 :
- [Founder] Hawk [56495] : Hello
- OK, I've been asked to say a few words
- I wish I had better news...
- As you may remember, last year [CyberTown] suddenly went
offline for a week or so
- at the time we were as surprised as anyone
- but many people said that if anything like that
happened again, they'd like to be informed in advance so that they could
make arrangements
- I've often been "advised" to not let the citizens
know some of what goes on in the background in order to keep [CyberTown] here...
- but I really don't want to treat you like children
and I [really] believe that you have the right to know
- As you know, some months back [Blaxxun] declared
insolvency
- since that time, more than 90% of my time has been
spent in trying to keep [CyberTown] online despite that
- first it was going to be taken off at the end of
April but we managed to keep it here
- then it was going to be taken off at the end of May
and again we managed to keep it online
- and just now this morning I received an e-mail that
I'd like to quote
- (I need to open my e-mail program and hope I don't
crash) - hold on...
- the insolvency lawyer in charge of [Blaxxun AG] has
realized that
- he is paying for the connectivity of [CyberTown],
which is owned
- by [Blaxxun Inc.]
- He will therefore switch off all machines located
at our provider
- pretty soon.
- that should all have been in quotes
- please let me finish
- during the last few months we have been trying to
get [CyberTown] back
- but [Blaxxun] has been claiming that they have buyers
who want to buy [Blaxxun] but will only buy it if [CyberTown] is included
- so they wouldn't sell it back to us
- the main potential buyer contacted me and said he'd
be interested in continuing to work with us if they acquire it but things
have gone very quiet in the last couple of weeks until that e-mail this
morning
- we have a person in the US who is interested in
hosting [CyberTown]
- and we have all of [CyberTown] backed up on CDs
- and the domain is in my name so only I can move it
- BUT - and it's a big BUT
- if we just move it
- the [Blaxxun] investors will probably come after us
in a lawsuit
- claiming we have [stolen] their property
- I have this morning sent out a [number] of e-mails
trying to find out as much as I can about the current situation and will let
the Council know as soon as I know anything more
- we can't currently afford a lawsuit
This newsletter was unable to find any mention anywhere in CyberTown about this Founders Day message, though extremely reliable sources within the VRML community did codesave it and post it to several 'Net groups. Coming as no surpise to the many horrorstruck people on the sidelines, this confirms many deep suspicions about the future of Blaxxun, the future of VRML MU (3D multi-user chat environements), and whether CyberTown will survive the collapse of Blaxxun. CyberTown has nearly one-million Citizens.
Internally, all reports of a collapse are being quashed, with many Citizens being banned, some even being forced to leave should they openly question CyberTown's future. The reasons for this are not overtly obvious nor discussed as officially all news regarding this is apparently involved in a total cover-up. There not only is no official reply, there isn't even any mention that such questions are even asked, though they are.
In unrelated news, most Blaxxun chat surfers experienced an unusual glitch last night. As far as anyone knows, the entire Blaxxun system went offline for about twenty minutes. All known VRML chatrooms froze or collapsed during the glitch. Surfers found themselves unable to enter (or reenter). Twenty minutes later, when surfers were finally able to reenter VRML chat, they found all rooms empty, and avatar support was temporarily suspended. Many surfers have reported that Voice (synthetic text to spoken voice) had been inoperative, though some said it worked, others not. This Voice failure was apparent for most of the evening, though Voice resumed after the twenty-minute system collapse. There is first-hand knowledge that Voice was inoperative and that all chatrooms collapsed, dumped all surfers, then reinitialized. After approximately ninety minutes, avatar support resumed.
Many chatrooms have been experiencing unusual lagtimes for several weeks. No cause has been established, though it is popularly believed that Blaxxun may be selectively jamming chatrooms to hold down on bandwidth. Once unusual, but no longer, the lower chatpanel now frequently errors out with, "unable to connect to Blaxxun servers, please check your installation of Contact for errors". Since the installation is good, the most likely reason is that the chatroom in question is being jammed or blocked by Blaxxun, possibly as a bandwidth savings. As with ALL previous attempts to gather information directly from Blaxxun about these and related matters, no response has been received.
Update (June 1, 2002):
Despite initial stories to the contrary, several critical services formerly provided via Blaxxun have been recently detected to no longer work or be offline. Several weeks ago, webdevelopers around the 'Net discovered that VRML chatroom using the Blaxxun Frameset Generator no longer functioned. While much of the room would open and begin functioning, the chatworld itself would never open in the topframe. Repeated attempts to recode around this error have determined that the flaw resides with the Blaxxun servers themselves. They no longer support this service, though no official announcement has happened. This type of behavior is frequent in bankruptcy cases. No notice, no service, no recourse. The annoying part is that both free and registered users have been locked out.
In an allied problem, the Blaxxun Avatar Library is now offline. While the basic page itself continues to load, there are no avatars behind the links, and surfers ultimately wind up at the Blaxxun 404 Page with a link to the Blaxxun Webmaster their only service link. As with the frameset problem, both free users and registered users and webdevelopers (some of whom may have paid fees) have no recourse nor is there any mention anywhere on the Blaxxun sites about these problems and degradations of service. As mentioned above, this type of thing is common in a company in bankruptcy and portends a probable collapse of Blaxxun shortly.
Crafty and knowledgeable webdevelopers are aware of how to avoid these service problems. By specifying their own avatar library, they may avoid angry surfers finding nothing but 404's when they go to select an avatar. A recent Pacoima Ranch Offices development project in Canada brought how quick this angry reaction can happen to our attention. By using the VRMLchat server pages hosted on any 'Net server, then specifying an avatar library via an addon parameter, a complete VRML chat can be created that is relatively free of Blaxxun services and the continuing erosion of same. Recode this and add it on the end of the contact.bxx file to specify your site's avatar library:
avatarworld http://www.my_site.com/my_avatar_library.html
Be sure to leave the spacing EXACTLY as it is above, just recode it to point at your avatar library page. After selecting an avatar, surfers then use the Personal Data link (on the Options Tab - the same one they used to open the library). The avatar's URL is input on the Avatar URL line near the bottom of the Personal Data popup of the Options Tab (four yellow or green rectangles). Webdevelopers and VRML enthusiasts are openly discussing a for-fee mechanism to implement a for-fee (though public) implementation of the Blaxxun Community server on non Blaxxun servers. In the most likely scenario, VRML chatroom operators would pay a small monthly (or annual) fee for access and bypass Blaxxun altogether. With the minimal software charge for the Blaxxun Community server at about $8,000 USD plus server maintenance, an upfront fee to join of about $200 USD with a $20 monthly fee is envisioned. A mere 50 members would be required to make this option viable. Heavy usage chatrooms would likely encounter bandwidth charges.
Original story (May 1, 2002):
As one of the major players in the VRML arena, the announcement by Blaxxun Group that Blaxxun AG (the German branch) had filed for insolvency has sent ripples of chaos throughout the VRML community. Many compare it to when Platinum, Inc. stopped offering VRML software at the same time as CosmoSoftware was bought out by Computer Associates and stopped offering most of Cosmo's VRML authorware. The only current major consumer-oriented VRML software company is now ParallelGraphics, offerings include Cortona (the free public plugin to view VRML), and about a half dozen designer-oriented software packages. There are no longer any consumer-oriented VRML software packages in active release, though our VRML Resources site has links to many outstanding abandonware and current software. All are fully functioning freeware or nagware and include some of the best of the VRML 97 authorwares.
Additional concerns have been raised as the currently preferred VR MU (Virtual Reality Multi User server - aka VRML chat) software is ALL by Blaxxun. Literally thousands of VR MU sites will stop working should Blaxxun stop their servers. Most VR MU use the Blaxxun servers rather than installing the software on their own sites. Installing the VR MU directly to one's server runs about $8,000 (or more) USD, so the savings are enormous. Using the Blaxxun servers is free and has spurred continuing development of elegant VRML chatrooms at reasonable prices across the entire 'Net.
The Blaxxun VR MU using Blaxxun's Contact (VRML plugin) is the undisputed leader in VR MU's. Elegant look, easy installation and easy-to-code pages make it a standout that has trounced all competition for years. That the pages are easy to code to seamlessly integrate into one's site made them a first choice without compare. Surfers first became aware that something might be wrong with Blaxxun when all servers went offline for a 12-day period last year. Though publicly blamed on a hacker attack, many wondered at the time if there were money problems. Add in the fact that the super-easy frameset generator has been yielding unusable and unfixable code for six months, and it now becomes obvious that the insolvency has been coming on for some time. The frameset generator was an online tool that would partially write a page to allow VRML authors to create a VR MU using their own VRML files without going to the hassle of completely coding the seven pages needed to create a VR MU using Blaxxun. A single complex URL bounced off the Blaxxun servers did it all.
The current Mayor of CyberTown (a major Blaxxun property) the Honorable LadyLiz released this memo about the insolvency:
"Here's the information that we (my office and City Council) have been provided: Blaxxun, AG (the German subsidiary) has declared/filed "insolvency" - not Blaxxun, Inc. (the US parent company) nor Cybertown. For those who do not understand the term insolvency, it is equivalent to the US term bankruptcy - which takes on many forms. Corporations have been filing for protection under the bankruptcy courts of the US (and presumably other countries) for years, under a program of debt re-organization or restructuring. It does not, as many would believe, automatically mean 'going out of business'."
Of the current VRML plugins, Blaxxun's Contact is the one most commonly used. This is how the current plugins compare:
Contact (by Blaxxun):
- Lighting - superior
- Speed - superior
- Texturing - superior
- Installation - superior
- Overall - pick of the litter
Cortona (by ParallelGraphics):
- Lighting - superior
- Speed - good
- Texturing - very good
- Installation - good
- Overall - very good
CosmoPlayer (by Computer Associates):
- Lighting - poor
- Speed - good
- Texturing - very good
- Installation - poor
- Overall - good
VRML Viewer (by MicroSoft for Internet Explorer only):
- Lighting - very poor
- Speed - superior
- Texturing - poor
- Installation - superior
- Overall - poor
Of the various VR MU available, we've rated them suchly:
VRML Chat (by Blaxxun):
Probably the easiest VR MU there is. Hand edit seven files, create a VRML world, upload and enjoy voice-enhanced VRML chat. Extremely elegant and easy to customize interface. Dozens of avatars (VRML humanoid robots) and excellent constancy and immediacy make it the best. Suitable for online conferencing, chatting and gaming. Nothing else like it - good beyond good.
Islands (by ParallelGraphics):
Currently offline (for unknown reasons), but since it was both cludgy and amateurish looking, not a major thing. Limited avatar support and no voice support. Lacked an easy ability to use custom VRML worlds, though it was possible by making special arrangements via unspecified and contradictory procedures. Excellent constancy and immediacy. It worked in a pinch. Currently only offered as a big budget extra addon. The online server version being taken offline, combined with all links to it being removed suggest this server technology will be shortly abandoned, if it hasn't already been.
DeepMatrix (by GeomeTrek):
An intriguing and elegant Java interface that is easy to customize. Unlimited VRML custom worlds make it a good choice with one fatal flaw. As most computer users are moving away from JVM (Java Virtual Machine) towards JRE (Java Runtime Environments - currently it's JRE 1.4) and JVM2 (Java Virtual Machine Type 2) and the Java involved fails on any JRE higher than 1.1 and on all JVM2, DeepMatrix is not a true option. The DeepMatrix project has been characterized as "moribund" (soon to die) by most VRML fans. Limited avatar support and no voice support. No longer in active development. Reportedly good constancy and immediacy, but since every PC used to try it uses JVM2 (which produces a fatal error in DeepMatrix, "unable to communicate with VRML") and JRE 1.4 (which produces a fatal error in DeepMatrix, "vrml.external.exception.InvalidEvenOutException"), no really good way to tell. Java experts we've talked with say these errors are irrepairable.
VNet (a private offering for free public use):
Very similar to DeepMatrix, right down to the fatal errors on all computers using current Java. As with DeepMatrix, intriguing and easy to customize, but not a real option.
Should Blaxxun close shop (or close its VRML production and software divisions), virtually all VRML chat will disappear from the 'Net in a single moment. Blaxxun's current insolvency will be resolved one way or another by August 2002 (as per German law). Should Blaxxun close their servers, Pacoima Ranch will reinstitute a previously used VRML chat method that blends VRML and PHP. This was previously done using VRML and Java, but PHP is more compatible with current computers. Unfortunately, there will be little avatar support and possibly no voice support. We're currently auditioning text-to-speech scripts and already have a stable of PHP chat scripts.
VRML is dead! Long Live VRML!
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