blaxxun contact 5.3 Release Notes
Release Notes v5.3
About this Version
The version of blaxxun Contact currently available for download is version 5.3. You can check your version of the software by selecting the "About blaxxun Contact" menu item in the "Options" panel in blaxxun Contact.
New Features and Improvements
This feature primary addresses performance improvements for http tunneling when used behind corporate firewalls.
Release Notes v5.1
New Features and Improvements
Download and setup
New automatic (one click) and minimal size install (1.5 MB) for most users.
With the new unified DirectX and OpenGL renderer the same version of Contact runs on all Windows platforms
Performance
On newer systems usage of DirectX7 or Dx7T&L results in a huge performance gain.
As texture are loaded in separate thread 3d navigation does not block while loading textures.
New 3d features
Multitexturing and environment mapping.
Completely customizable navigation and user interface system.
3d Sound with DirectX7.
Collision response improved and emergency exit provided.
Immediate access to navigation menu on double click.
Move the camera (with view your avatar enabled) with Numtab keys.
Tooltips for Anchors.
Pressing control modifies the current navigation mode e.g. to PAN while standing, Slide while moving... Scrolling the mouse wheel provides addtional navigation too. See 3d release notes below for further details.
MPEG4 compatible Layer3D and Layer2d nodes supported
Further information about all 3d related improvements can be found in the Contact3D release notes.
Media Support
Flash files are now supported via Real player (8.0) and MP3 files (non spatialized)
Language support
To decrease download size Contact is available in a minimal version supporting English, Spanish, German and French and an international version additionally supporting Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish.
Compatibility
The current version has been developed for MS Internet Explorer 4.0 - 6.0 and Netscape Navigator 3.0 - 4.78. The supported operating systems are MS Windows 95/98, Windows Me, Windows NT and Windows 2000. You may use it on XP and in the Opera browser 5.x too, however both are not yet officially supported.
Corrections
3d
The VRML console now only pops up for the most severe errors.
OpenGL renderer completely reworked.
DirectionalLights in the top level VRML corrected for VRML97 compliance.
Better avatar handling for reconnects and connection losts.
Fixed corrupt sound files.
Several small 3d related issues.
Http tunneling now works with authentication proxys in IE and passes far more firewalls.
1:1 chat to HTML enabled.
Known Bugs and Limitations
On Windows 95 and 98 performance is poor without DirectX7 or a good OpenGL card. Please update to DirectX7 or 8.
If you download the German voice library, text-to-voice might not work immediately. In that case, you need to close
all browser windows and restart the application.
Behind certain firewalls, download of the German text-to-voice system might not work at all.
If you already have a Contact installation, the setup program does not ask if you want to make Contact the
standard VRML browser for IE.
No Http tunneling suppport for Netscape.
Only the 3d viewer works in Netscape 6.x and Mozilla for Windows.
Certain screen savers may crash Contact3d on Windows2000.
Release Notes v5.0
Reduced Download Filesize
The latest release, in comparison to the previous generation (4.4), has also gained considerable speed and a dramatically reduced download size. During installation, components already installed are recognized and only necessary components are downloaded and installed. For typical installations, the download size is reduced to 1.5 MB.
Faster 3D Rendering
blaxxun Contact now provides the quality of high-performance 3D rendering you'd only expect to see in proprietary games. Surface effects like reflection and metallic surfaces have been improved. Using particles effects like fog, snow and rain can now be produced.
3D Drag-and-Drop Objects
This version also enables you to move 3D objects around via drag-and-drop as well as the ability to import objects from outside into the 3D environment.
Abstracted UI
Content developers now have additional ways of defining navigation, types of movement and many other user interface functions. The right and left mouse buttons can be assigned to certain functions, allowing the UI to be adapted to the specific needs of an application be it an e-commerce site or online gaming environment. Layering techniques allow explanation features with pointers which can be directed independently from the object to be demonstrated. This could be used for example to create an instrument panel for a flight simulator.
Improved Graphic Card Support
Other improvements improved 3D graphic card support. With updated drivers, 3D content now loads faster.
MPEG-4 Support
blaxxun's Contact has long supported the VRML97 ISO standard. Version 5.1 now embraces the new MPEG-4 standard, already implementing 60% of the specification. Standards like VRML and MPEG-4 achieve an exchangeability of data, an often enhanced image quality and comparable ease of operation and cost savings, which proprietary systems cannot provide.
blaxxun contact 5.3 Release Notes
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