Update (July 24, 2003):
"And the clouds parted and ALL the Angels sang!"

The new Contact 6.101 (a 6.1 upgrade) was released last week and it is wonderful. All the convenience and rendering of a robust VRML engine doing X3D. Because it's the next generation of the most popular VRML plugin, there's no learning curve on how to use it. How you used to do it for VRML 2.0 is how you still do it for X3D. Our testers spotted no conformance problems, but all the X3D they worked with was VRML converted either by Spazz3D 3 Beta or X3d-Edit.

Textures behaved normally, color-wise and tiling-wise. Unusual texture centers or texture edge tags also worked exactly as they do in VRML - no matter how unusual. Delicate alpha channels in PNG (8bit) rendered properly with subtle transparencies. There were no "sight lines" along the rectangular edges of jackflats (four-way rectangular planes to similate plants and trees with partially invisible GIF's and PNG's) nor billboards (single rectangles that automatically rotate to always face the viewer, most commonly used to make trees). Lighting commands also behaved as in a classic VRML environment.

VRMLScript and animations performed beautifully, as did complex anchors (URL hooks). Even the anchors that used JS performed correctly, a small popup or call to another page happened when the link was clicked. It was quite wonderful to see VRML animations that had been translated to X3D working as they should. It was also nice to get a functioning error screen for X3D. The X3D specification calls for the parser to stop running on an error and to NOT finish rendering any X3D graphic with an error. Though a pain, it is the correct way. Contact 6.101 does it the right way, ensuring that files are technically perfectly coded. The error screen gives meaningful messages listing the exact line and linespace with the error to make debugging a quick and easy project.

MovieTextures (using GIF animations, SWF animations [Flash 2 or 3 only]) were also tested. These can be quite tricky to get to work even in VRML. They worked. This is important as part of the new X3D specification allows MovieTexture to load and run animations, streaming RAM (RealPlayer content) as well as sound. In addition to all the X3D conformance, there are dozens of new additions specific to just X3D. Virtually all of these are implemented or at least partially implemented.

If you'd like to see X3D as it really looks, get Contact 6.101 and be amazed. There's three ways to determine which version you have. If your Contact is from Blaxxun.COM, it's the older 5.1 version, maybe even older. If you originally downloaded it from:

          http://www.bitmanagement.de/download/BS_Contact_VRML/
          BS_Contact_VRML_61.exe

You've got the older 6.1 version. We didn't care for the original 6.1 (rather vocally criticized 6.1). You can also find the OCX (bsvrmlcontact.ocx) and check the property tab. Version 6.1 is NOT good, version 6.101 is good. The newer Contact 6.101 is here:

          http://www.bitmanagement.de/download/BS_Contact_VRML/
          851366/BS_Contact_VRML_61.exe

The filesizes are also different, the newer 6.101 is smaller. If you need to really, really do X3D, it's very much recommended.

Original story (June 1, 2003):
The Pacoima Ranch testers really, really wanted to like the new Contact 6.1 plugin from the wonderful Bitmanagement.DE site. It has builtin X3D rendering. The new gamelike method in Walk mode is both retro (think CosmoPlayer) and visionary at the same time. Then the testers tried to install the 6.1 version. Very bad things happened. Very, very bad things. Only two of five testers attempted to install 6.1, the problems were that severe.

The first machine (an older Win95) encountered a previously unseen install error, "unable to complete remote call". The installation was so corrupt it refused to uninstall, though it would offer to uninstall, then get caught in an endless loop that never did uninstall it. The testers verified the size of the install file several times to ensure the original installer was downloaded correctly. It was. After spending several days researching the odd error message, a single entry on Google suggested it might be a Java problem. Why the version of Java used should cause a problem isn't known, but switching from MSJVM2 to JRE1.4 seemed in order. On the first (and only the first) try to see X3D, the plugin worked. Attempts to view other X3D files failed, and even the original viewable file failed on repeated attempts to view it. Multiple uninstalls and reinstalls did not solve the problem.

An ordinary surfer would most likely never find the JRE1.4 workaround, but having five testers searching allowed the workaround to be found. Purchasing an industrial-strength uninstall program was necessary to rip out Contact 6.1 by its roots. It could then be installed (with JRE1.4 active). VRML was fine, but X3D never really worked. The program was uninstalled.

The next machine was a Win98SE. Java was preset to JRE1.4 and the install went very smoothly. Then the problems started. Any page with VRML or X3D caused the browser to selfclose, or crash, or the OS simply froze with the only way to exit being a powerdown with a quick session of Scandisk on reboot. On looking through the mimetype (filetype) associations, it was noticed that the BSContact (BXWRL/X3D) entry showed as model/vrml, the VRML World (WRL/WRZ) entry showed as model/vrml and there was no separate entry for just X3D. By deleting the entries and carefully constructing new entries for the various filetypes, the selfclose (crash, freeze) problem stopped and VRML could be seen, though X3D could not. No solution was found. A BBS frequented by VRML, X3D and Bitmanagement people was queried, but they too have no idea why all the problems.

Wondering if the way the tester group sets up its machines might be the problem, a friend in Canada (WinXPPro) also downloaded and installed the Contact 6.1 software. It installed correctly, but his machine froze every time it went near VRML and X3D. He immediately uninstalled the software and reinstalled the older Contact 5.1 for VRML and Flux for X3D. His machine required a complete reformat and reinstall of all software the next day.

It should be pointed out that all testers had previously installed the Flux plugin for X3D and could see VRML and X3D using it. Both Contact 5.1 and Flux were uninstalled before Contact 6.1 was installed. Because of the severe problems experienced by the first two testers and the Canadian friend, it was decided to abort the test. Ordinary surfers would probably never jump through all the hoops the testers did to install a plugin, nor should the purchase of extra software be necessary to fix a bad install. In addition, the reason for the sudden forced reformat was suspected to be related to the installation of the Contact 6.1 software.

Contact 6.1 is not recommended at this time. Fortunately, X3D is still highly experimental, though moving toward main stream at an ever increasing speed. Almost for sure, the great team at Bitmanagment.DE will soon issue a really wonderful new version of Contact 6 that will install nicely, not cause crashes, freezes and forced reformats AND see both VRML and X3D on a wide variety of Windows boxes.

As regards the rumors on many VRML BBS that home users could get a free license to remove the Bitmanagement.DE rotating logo that covers part of the lower right VRML screen - it's just that, a mere rumor. Correspondence with Bitmanagement.DE confirms there is no such practice. The minimum price per workstation is 300 EU plus tax. This works out to about $350 USD ($600 CAD). Obviously too high for most home users (and casual business users) to actually consider paying the fee to remove the logo.