Update (January 30, 2004):

We've been testing our solution on multiple machines and it does seem to work everywhere it's been tried. In addition, our VRMList friends at Singapore VirCampus have also begun recommending that surfers who like Contact 6.1 install Contact 5.1 first, then just ram 6.1 over the top of it.

Original story (January 3, 2004):

Like many serious 3D Chat enthusiasts and developers, Pacoima Ranch has had an odd relationship with Blaxxun and Bitmanagement for the last year or so. The initial releases of Contact 6 where met with despair at how truly awful it was. It didn't install nicely, required endless tweaking to make it work and crashed a lot of CPU and OS combinations no matter what. Version 6.1 was equally nasty.

Blaxxun is the current developer of Platform, the 3D Chat and Community software that drives most 3D sites. They were also the original developers of Contact (through version 5.1), but now leave the current versions to a new company, Bitmanagement. From Version 6.101 to 6.102 Contact has been really nice. It did everything expected of Contact. Great VRML, nice chatpanel, proper constancy, AND it also does X3D so gloriously you'd never know how young X3D is. Then along came Version 6.104, meant to correct a Borland problem experienced by an extremely limited number of users and developers.

Via an unknown paradigm, Version 6.104 does not work on many systems (all Windows machines). The most common problem after the upgrade from 6.102 to 6.104 is that the chatpanel refuses to form in multi-user mode. Attempts to repair aren't possible, there's no repair choice, just an uninstall. Uninstall will usually unleash an "a device attached to the system is not functioning" error. Rebooting with a reinstall of 6.104 will likely cause an odd error, "the following files did not self-register or unregister". Usually no VRML format will work now.

Unfortunately, after lots of testing, the problem is apparently part of the 6.104 build. Multiple reinstalls, uninstalls, special environments (all Java disabled, Win95 emulation SafeMode, and similar) and still there's no chatpanel for the 6.104 versions. Then the nasty little secret of 6.104 became apparent, once installed, it leaves stuff behind that fouls the 6.102 install. It too now cannot do a chatpanel. Lots of tinkering and tweaking failed to find out how to easily  undue whatever 6.014 had done.

Since Contact is THE standard for 3DChat, easily fixed was merely the first try. Via a weird series of install errors, a method was found that got 6.102 installed AND allows a chatpanel to form, though it's technically NOT a 6.102 chatpanel, though it is a Contact chatpanel. Working on a previous install problem, all versions of Contact were uninstalled. Then all Java was turned off. Then all firewalls were turned off. Then all antivirals (Norton and such) were disabled. Then via Internet Options, Security tab, all zones were reset to LOW. The system will fight you on some, but make sure they say LOW. You can reset them later to your preferred levels. This leaves you in a good environment to duplicate the mistake. Now install the Contact 5.1 build. Error messages can be ignored, be sure to hit CONTINUE if you get an error panel. After installation, reboot. Now here's where the mistake got made. Be sure to turn MicroSoft Java off, leave Sun Java on, all firewalls are turned off, all antivirals (Norton and such) are disabled, via Internet Options, Security tab, all zones are reset to LOW. Now install Contact 6.102 without removing Contact 5.1 first. It shouldn't work, but it does. The top part of the multi-user panel is VRML (or X3D) via Contact 6.102 and the bottom (the chatpanel) is via the older Contact 5.1 build.

Hopefully a future build of Contact 6.1 will address this problem.