The Business & Social Network

Oddessey Re-Born

In the aftermath of the failure of Blaxxun a void was left for people to upload and display their worlds and creations. Alternatives, some new and some that had been around already rose up to fill that void. Revemonde was kind enough to provide it’s “Outside” server for the use of us rogue world builders. Also interest in ABnet by Rick Kimball has been re-kindled. X-Robotica is also going to offer world hosting. Even a community, 3D Planets, will host our creations.
The communities have also suffered as a result of Blaxxun’s demise. Of the many communities that were out there, it appears that Cybertown (pay), 3D Planets, Oddessey, United 3D (all free), and Jewel of Indra (adult only & pay), and are the only ones left up & running.
All of these operated the Blaxxun server architecture. All still do but one.
That brings us to Oddessey.

In a forward thinking jump, they have taken the bold move (in my opinion) of embracing the Bit Management BS Contact server. It utilizes the BS Contact browser and, because the server is BS Collaborate, you don’t have the annoying “floating logo” everyone seems to love to hate. As of this writing, they have their entry place,

Entry world with the chat window open

Entry world with the chat window closed

their community places and user homes back online.

User conole

The users log-in is the same and even (in my case at least), some backpack objects and in-world money is still there. It would seem to me to be a massive undertaking. But it looks good so far.

I have been a member in Oddessey for quite a few years and am glad to see them sticking it out. So far I have not run into any other users online at the same time as me, so I can’t get any user input from others yet, but I am impressed with what they have done. The screenshots here are from within Internet Explorer, but you can access it through Firefox through an executable that you download. It utilizes the newest version of the BS Contact browser also. It is NOT friendly to the Blaxxun browser. Because it uses BS Contact, it is also friendly to X3D and like Exit Reality, utilizes H-Anim avatars well. I personally think the H-Anim avatars are great looking and are light years ahead of the old AV Studio avatars.
I took a look at the BS Collaborate server early on and it looked like a sound idea, although prohibitively expensive, especially for a large community venture like Oddessey. But, they are making it work and there is no rumbling so far about it becoming a pay site (are you paying attention, Cybertown?).

Their look has changed, and they are coming back online slowly but surely and membership is free. It is certainly worth your while to check them out.

A word of caution. If you install the BS Contact plug-in, it will replace the Balxxun one. A few of the Blaxxun-based communities only work with the Blaxxun plug-in. Fortunately, there is a free small program that will allow you to switch between. Go to:

http://closed.forumactif.com/3d-faq-and-news-f39/pluggins-3d-change...

or:

http://mixed3d.free.fr/ressources/Setup%203D%20Viewer%20YOUPIENv2.0.0/

See this article and more at:

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Thorne on May 2, 2009 at 11:07pm

Nice idea by the looks.

I went to the site and the members entry (there was no "sign up" link).
was told I had a popup blocker and it needed to be allowed. Could not find the option in safari so ran firefox, enabled the site for popups. then was told incompatible OS (they could at least use user friendly messages and say "operating system") - I was using OS X. Nice to see they detect all this and tell you what's wrong rather than things not working and you not knowing why.

So I next fired up XP in a VM. Went thru the popup enable and was told I need a plugin.
So clicked the link and downloaded, installed Contact - had to quit FFox - ok.
restarted FFox - was told need plugin again!

Closed FFox and started IE. Allowed popups. Nothing about plugins this time.
Seems you have to have a login already - and there is no link for registering - bad interface design.

back to oddessey.org page. verified the "join the evolution" at the bottom is not clickable.
go to the memer login page
try "want to login" link again.
no joy

emailed support.... maybe better luck next time.

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Lehmann on May 2, 2009 at 11:48pm

Accornding ot Tony Goodchild, one of the developers, they are still working out bugs. I had the same problem with Firefox, it is supposed to work after you install thier executable but no dice here either. I also noticed that the version of BS Contact they use is specific, by that I mean that I installed a newer version of Contact and IE would crash every time I signed in. As I said, still working out bugs there:-). It is interesting that although Bitmanagement has had their Collaborate server platform out for awhile, this is the first implementation I have seen of it that hasn't been just experimental. Oddessey is just one of a few virtual communities that was based on the Blaxxun server (now gone) and was forced to go in a new direction as there is no longer a company to renew their server license with.

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Permalink Reply by David Doran on May 3, 2009 at 7:30am

Not all blaxxun communities used a licence which had to be renewed yearly, the ones with foresight bought the licence instead of leasing it. The initial expenditure for a purchased licence may have been much higher but in hindsight it looks like it was the right decision. Our community never had to use blaxxun for technical or programming support so the closure of blaxxun didn't affect us although it was sad to see them go as we enjoyed the competition of new blaxxun communities.

I wish Oddessey the best of luck with their new platform and hope to see it fully operational sometime in the near future.

Deighv
Co-Founder
http://3dplanets.com