The blaxxun Contact frameset is needed in order to turn a standalone VRML 3D world into multi-user chat space. There are several ways to create such a frameset.

The Frameset Generator

The frameset generator is the easiest way to make your VRML world multi-user, all you have to do is to enter the url to your world on the net and to give your world a title. Try the frameset generator.

The frameset generator is also usable directly in a link, e.g

https://www.mission-base.com/cgi-bin/theearth/frameset.pl?url=https://www.mission-base.com/peter/mututorial/arena.wrl&title=The%20Arena

In your html file this would look like:

<a href="https://www.mission-base.com/cgi-bin/theearth/frameset.pl?url=https://www.mission-base.com/peter/mututorial/arena.wrl&title=The%20Arena">https://www.mission-base.com/cgi-bin/theeart/frameset.pl?url=https://www.mission-base.com/peter/mututorial/arena.wrl&title=The%20Arena</a>

The entire url should be in one line, even if it looks wrapped above.

Replace the url specified in the example "https://www.mission-base.com/peter/mututorial/arena.wrl" with your own url and the title "The%20Arena" with your own title.

Another version of the frameset generator is kept at http://www.cyberworlds.org.uk/fgen/fset.php. This version also keeps a history of all worlds ever made multi-user with it, go there to see what other people have brought online.

The Full Frameset

Before you read on you should see the frameset example in action, test the frameset example.

In general, a Contact frameset consists of 8 files which must be available on your HTTP server in order to provide access for Contact users to your online community.

It's easy to customize the Contact frameset, because all customizing information is kept in one file. All other files just need to be copied without any changes to your HTTP server.

Click here to download the set of sample frameset files.

Simple Frameset Configuration

Download the framesetexample.zip unzip it onto your web server and edit the file "contact.bxx", this file looks like:

server     www.blaxxun.com
port       2000
scene      https://www.mission-base.com/peter/mututorial/frameset/example/contact.bxx The Arena
sname      The Arena
3dscene    https://www.mission-base.com/peter/mututorial/arena.wrl
htmlframe  HTML 

Change the scene, sname and 3dscene lines to point to your world and you are done.

Advanced Frameset Configuration

Frameset Files

A Contact frameset consists of eight files. Five are HTML files, two are Contact parameter files (extension bxx), and one is a dummy file (extension bx3). The files are described below.

index.html

The Entry Page should be used in other pages on your site in order to link to your online community. The Entry Page just contains the following embed statement for the Check Page and additional help text for the user.

<EMBED SRC="./check.bxx" TYPE="application/x-ccpro" HEIGHT=1 
WIDTH=100%>

Contact.htm

The Frameset Page specifies the general frame layout for your online community. It contains at least the 3D Frame, the Contact Frame and the HTML Frame. In addition, you can include a number of other HTML frames specific to your online community here.

<FRAMESET ROWS="60%,40%,*" BORDER=0> <FRAME SRC="Contact3d.htm" 
NAME="World" SCROLLING=no MARGINHEIGHT=1 MARGINWIDTH=1>
<FRAME SRC="Contact1.htm" NAME="Contact" SCROLLING=no 
MARGINHEIGHT=1 MARGINWIDTH=1>
<FRAME SRC="blank.htm" NAME="HTML" NORESIZE SCROLLING=no 
MARGINHEIGHT=1 MARGINWIDTH=1>
</FRAMESET>

Contact3d.htm

The 3D Frame contains the following embed statement in order start up Contact 3D in this frame.

<EMBED SRC="blank.bx3" TYPE="application/x-cc3d" WIDTH=100% 
HEIGHT=100%>

Contact1.htm

The Contact Frame contains the following embed statement in order to start up Contact in this frame.

<EMBED SRC="./contact.bxx" TYPE="application/x-ccpro" 
HEIGHT=100% WIDTH=100%>

blank.htm

The Help Frame has just the purpose of providing a hidden frame in which "new window" calls can be performed. This is used for displaying Contact help documents as well as Contact chat log documents.

Note: In order to ensure that this mechanism is working, the name of the Help Frame as defined in the Frameset Page must match the htmlframe parameter in the Parameter File.

Frameset Page:

<FRAME SRC="blank.htm" NAME="HTML" NORESIZE SCROLLING=no 
MARGINHEIGHT=1 MARGINWIDTH=1>

Parameter File:

htmlframe HTML

blank.bx3

The 3D Dummy is just needed to define a syntactically correct embed statement in the 3D Frame.

check.bxx

Activated from the Entry Page, the Check Page continues loading the Frameset Page by executing the loadworld command if the user has already installed blaxxun Contact:

loadworld       Contact.htm

If the user has not already installed blaxxun Contact, the Entry Page remains.

contact.bxx

The Parameter File will be loaded by Contact on start up. It contains all necessary information for the behavior of your online community. A detailed description of the parameters contained in this file and there meaning follows later on in this document.

Notes:

• Only the parameter file contact.bxx needs to be customized. Just copy all files example unchanged to your community directory on your HTTP server and modify contact.bxx according to your needs
• Every community needs an individual directory on your HTTP server. Communities might also contain sub-communities located in subdirectories.

The contact.bxx Parameter File

The file contact.bxx contains all place- and scene-specific parameters for blaxxun Contact. The most important parameters are described below. Some are mandatory; examples are provided. Some only are used starting with certain versions of Contact.

server

This parameter stores the name of your Community Server.

Use: mandatory

Example: www.blaxxun.com

port

This is the port used by your Community Server.

Use: mandatory

Example: 2000

scene

This parameter specifies the unique name of your scene used to log on to the Community Server.

Compatibility Note: For compatibility with older versions of blaxxun Contact, the logical scene name now specified by the sname parameter should also be added to the scene parameter (separated by blank).

Use: mandatory

Example:
http://www.blaxxun.com/vrml/home/ccpro.bxx Home World

sname

This parameter specifies the logical scene name. This is the name that appears in the place list in blaxxun Contact.

Compatibility Note: For compatibility with older versions of blaxxun Contact, the value of the sname parameter should be equivalent to the logical scene name specified by the scene parameter.

Use: mandatory

Example: Home World

3dscene

This parameter specifies the 3D world to be loaded in blaxxun Contact. Avoid using absolute paths in order to be able to move parameter files to another location. The strings ./ and ../ are valid specifiers for this parameter and will be evaluated. Relative names will be resolved against the location of the bxx file itself.

Use: mandatory

Example: home.wrl

htmlframe

This parameter specifies the name of a frame defined in the frameset document which blaxxun Contact should use to display log and help documents.

If a frame with the specified name does not exist in the currently loaded frameset, blaxxun Contact opens a new browser window for those documents.

Use: mandatory

Example: HTML

frameset

The frameset parameter can be used to reference to another frameset to be loaded. This might be useful for a set of worlds/places where you don't want to define the whole set of html files for all sub worlds/places. In this case you just need the 3D files for your sub world/place together with a bxx file which uses the frameset parameter linking to the frameset of a top-level world.

Use: optional

Example: ../main.html

framesizes

The framesizes parameter specifies the size of the blaxxun Contact chat panel in percent relative to the total width of the blaxxun Contact frame.

Use: optional

Example: 60

helpindex

The helpindex parameter specifies your worlds help index file to be shown in blaxxun Contact's help list panel.

Use: optional

Example:
http://www.blaxxun.com/products/client/Contact/index.html

vrmldefavatar

This parameter specifies the default VRML avatar for your VRML world.

Use: optional

Example: http://www.blaxxun.com/vrml/avatars/default.wrl

visdefavatar

This parameter specifies the default Viscape avatar for your Viscape world.

Use: optional

Example: http://www.blaxxun.com/vrml/avatars/default.svc

noblaxxunhelp

This parameter can be set to 1 in order not to add blaxxun's help documents to the blaxxun Contact help list panel. The default is 0.

Use: optional

Example: 0, 1

noblaxxunicon

This parameter switches the blaxxun logo in the public chat panel off if set to 1.

Use: optional

Example: 0, 1

3dmenu

This parameter specifies the menu mode for blaxxun Contact 3D. Valid values are:

0	trade show
1	normal
2	expert

Use: optional

Example: 0, 1, 2

avatarworld

This parameter specifies your avatar select page. The parameter value may be followed by the name of the target frame (separated by blank) in which the page is to be displayed.

Use: optional

Example:
http://www.blaxxun.com/vrml/avatars/pro_vrmlframe.htm

avatarhorizoncount

This parameter defines the maximum number of constantly visible avatars.

Use: optional

Example: 6

avatarhorizon

This parameter defines the update range for avatars. In this example you get updates for avatars in a 120-meter (=1200000 Viscape units) circle around you.

The maximum value is 320.

Use: optional

Example: 120

maxneighbourspp

This parameter defines the number of moving avatars in each motion package.

The default value is 6; the maximum is 15. If you increase the value, bandwidth use increases.

Use: optional

Example: 6

defaultworld

This parameter is currently not supported.

message

This parameter contains a string which will be displayed in the public chat after a connection has been established.

Use: optional

Example: This is a welcome message.

protectpublicinput

This parameter protects the text input field in the public chat panel if set to 1.

Use: optional

Example: 0, 1

listtabflag

This parameter defines which Contact tab panels are active/inactive. It is a string of 0's and 1's, where each digit represents the state of a panel.

0	inactive, panel not displayed
1	active, panel visible

The tabs are displayed in the following order (left to right):

• People List
• Place List
• Group List
• Card List (unused)
• Log List
• Help List
• Settings List
• Public Objects List (Contact 4.0 or higher)
• Personal Objects List (Contact 4.0 or higher)

Use: optional

Example: 11001110

settingslistflag (Contact 3.01 or higher)

This parameter defines which entries in the Contact Settings Panel are active/inactive. It is a string of 0's and 1's, where each digit represents the state of an entry.

0	inactive, entry not displayed
1	active, entry displayed

The order is as follows (left to right):

• SETTINGS_FIREWALL
• SETTINGS_MEMBERDATA
• SETTINGS_GESTURES
• SETTINGS_CHATMACROS
• SETTINGS_ABOUT
• SETTINGS_AVATAR
• SETTINGS_LANGUAGE (Contact 4.0 or higher)
• SETTINGS_VOICE (Contact 4.0 or higher)

Use: optional

Example: 11111111

panelbackrgb

This parameter specifies the RGB (red-green-blue) values for the list and chat panel background color in blaxxun Contact.

Use: optional

Example: 120,87,217

paneltextrgb

This parameter specifies the RGB (red-green-blue) values for the list panel text color in blaxxun Contact.

Use: optional

Example: 255,128,0

inputtextchatrgb

This parameter specifies the RGB (red-green-blue) values for the input chat text color in blaxxun Contact.

Use: optional

Example: 255,128,0

systemtextchatrgb

This parameter specifies the RGB (red-green-blue) values for the system chat text color in blaxxun Contact.

Use: optional

Example: 255,0,0

historytextchatrgb

This parameter specifies the RGB (red-green-blue) values for history chat text color in blaxxun Contact.

Use: optional

Example: 0,0,0

bottextchatrgb

This parameter specifies the RGB (red-green-blue) values for bot chat text color in blaxxun Contact.

Use: optional

Example: 128,255,128

owntextchatrgb

This parameter specifies the RGB (red-green-blue) values for your own chat text color in blaxxun Contact.

Use: optional

Example: 255,255,255

othertextchatrgb

This parameter specifies the RGB (red-green-blue) values for other chat text color in blaxxun Contact.

Use: optional

Example: 255,128,0

chatgroup[n]

This parameter enables you to define chat groups which will be displayed in the group panel.

Use: optional

Example:

chatgroup1 myFirstGroup
chatgroup2 mySecondGroup
chatgroup3 myLastGroup

moderation

This parameter enables the moderation feature in Contact.

Note: In order to join a moderated group or to moderate a group, the group panel must be activated (see the listtabflag parameter).

Use: optional

Example: moderation open_mod.htm HTML

loadworld

This parameter defines a URL to be loaded in a specific frame after login/startup

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example:
http://www.blaxxun.com/vrml/home/home.wrl 3D Frame Name

vrmlmyavatar

This parameter defines the VRML avatar which will be set for this client.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: http://www.blaxxun.com/vrml/avatars/dave.wrl

vismyavatar

This parameter defines the Viscape avatar which will be set for this client.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: http://www.blaxxun.com/vrml/avatars/default.svr

nickname

This parameter defines the nickname which will be set for this client. This should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: Superman

prenickname (Contact 3.07 or higher)

This parameter defines a string that will be displayed (in superscript) in front of the user's nickname in the chat panel. This should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: Expierience Level: 200

postnickname (Contact 3.07 or higher)

This parameter defines a string that will be displayed (in subscript) after the user's nickname in the chat panel. This should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: Role: Member

lastname (Contact 3.01 or higher)

This parameter defines the last name which will be set for this client. It should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: Kent

firstname (Contact 3.01 or higher)

This parameter defines the first name which will be set for this client. It should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: Clark

interests (Contact 3.01 or higher)

This parameter defines the interests which will be set for this client. It should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: Krypton, Earth and Lois Lane

url (Contact 3.01 or higher)

This parameter defines the URL (homepage) which will be used for this client. It should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: Superman

urt (Contact 3.07 or higher)

This parameter defines the URL title which will be used in dialog boxes and menus instead of "URL" for the user's URL (homepage). It should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: Homepage

protectnickname

This parameter defines whether the nickname can be changed by the user. If it is set to 1, the user is unable to change the nickname. It should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: 0, 1

authenticationid

This parameter defines the authentication ID which will be used for this client. It should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: a_valid_authentication_id

authenticationpw

This parameter defines the authentication password which will be set for this client. It should be set by registration script.

Use: optional (login parameter)

Example: a_valid_authentication_password

voicesupport (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter defines whether voice will be supported for the clients. If the voice software is not already installed, blaxxun Contact asks if it should be downloaded.

If the parameter is set to 0, the blaxxun Contact voice interface will not be activated, even if the voice server is installed. The default setting is 1.

Use: optional

voicelang (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter specifies the supported voice language. The default is US.

Use: optional

Example: US, GR

botvoiceenable (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter defines whether bot voices should be enabled or not. If it is set to 1, bot voice will be enabled. This applies to every bot in the world. But each bot can be handled separately via the bot scripts.

The default value is 0.

Use: optional

botvoicetype (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter determines the voice type used by bots. The table below lists the bot voice types associated with different parameter values.

0	Default male voice
1	Full male voice
2	Aged male voice
3	Male voice
4	Full female voice
5	Aged female voice
6	Whispering female voice
7	Female voice
8	Child's voice

Use: optional

botvoicerate (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter determines the speed of bot speech in words per minute. The value can be between 75 and 600; the default value is 180 words per minute.

Use: optional

clientvoiceenable (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter defines whether the client's voice should be enabled or not. If it is set to 1, the client voice will be enabled.

The default value is 0

Use: optional

nochatdetails (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter disables the additional tool access button in the chat window if set to 1.

The default is 0.

Use: optional

nochathistory (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter disables the display of chat history entries in the chat window if set to 1.

The default is 0.

Use: optional

nochatlog (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter disables the logging of chat entries to the session log if set to 1.

The default is 0

Use: optional

nochatinvite (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter disables the "invite to chat" menu in the avatar list if set to 1.

The default is 0.

Use: optional

localavatarserver (Contact 3.07 or higher)

In a Viscape world, you can set this parameter to cache all avatars from the server automatically to your hard disk.

Use: optional

Example: localavatarserver www.blaxxun.com

Avatars from http://www.blaxxun.com will be cached and loaded into the directory <contact installation directory>/avatars. A subdirectory can be specified with the parameter localavatardirectory.

localavatardirectory (Contact 3.07 or higher)

The name of a subdirectory for locally cached Viscape avatars; see also localavatarserver above.

Use: optional

Example: localavatardirectory blaxxun

Avatars will be cached in <contact installation directory>/avatars/blaxxun.

logcolor (Contact 3.08 or higher)

This parameter defines whether the chat text colors should be used when writing to chat log files. The default value is 1

Use: optional

Example: 0

showbotwhisper (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter defines whether the user sees the chat text whispered by a bot as whispered text or as normal chat text. The default value is 0.

Use: optional

Example: showbotwhisper 1

chatgrouplang (Contact 4.0 or higher)

For each chatgroup defined (see above), a different language can be specified. The chat text written by the users in this group will be spoken in that language.

Possible values are:

US	English (default)
GR	German

Use: optional

Example:

chatgrouplang1 GR
chatgrouplang2 US
chatgrouplang3 GR

useversionserver (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter specifies whether blaxxun Contact accesses the blaxxun version server on startup. The default value is 1.

Use: optional

Example: useversionserver 0

firewalloption (Contact 4.0 or higher)

This parameter specifies the protocol used when entering the world.

0	UDP (default)
1	blaxxun proxy server
2	TCP
3	HTTP tunneling

Use: optional

Example: firewalloption 1

uselastscene

This parameter can be used for pages which requires to reload the last active scene (like avatar pages). The default value is 0.

Use: optional

Example: uselastscene 1

[ListTabs]tabPrivateObjName (Contact 4.2 or higher)

This parameter specifies the name of the tab used to display private objects. The tab needs to be activated. The default is "My Backpack".

Use: optional

Example: [ListTabs]tabPrivateObjName My Backpack

[ListTabs]tabPublicObjName (Contact 4.2 or higher)

This parameter specifies the name of the tab used to display public objects. The default is 'Purchasable Objects'.

Use: optional

Example: [ListTabs]tabPublicObjName Purchasable Objects

[World Params]objectpucolumntitle (Contact 4.2 or higher)

This parameter holds the titles for the columns in the object tabs.

Use: optional

Example:
[World Params]objectpucolumntitle Price,XCount,Image,Class

[World Params]objectpucolumnvalue (Contact 4.2 or higher)

This parameter holds the attribute names to be read from the database, displayed in the columns of the object tabs and set in the respective objects.

Use: optional

Example: [World Params]objectpucolumnvalue TPR,CNT,IMG,CLA

[World Params]objectpucolumnwidth (Contact 4.2 or higher)

This parameter specifies the size of the columns in the object tab.

Use: optional

Example: [World Params]objectpucolumnwidth 20,20,20,20

saveavatar (Contact 4.3 or higher)

If used, the client's avatar as set by vrmlmyavatar is written back to the client's configuration file.

Use: optional

Example: saveavatar 1

nicknamecolsize (Contact 4.3 or higher)

This parameter specifies the width of the nickname column as a percentage of total tab width. The default value is 70%.

Use: optional

Example: nicknamecolsize 50

noextlistcount (Contact 4.3 or higher)

This parameter, when active, switches the extended people count off. Default is on (0).

Use: optional

Example: noextlistcount 1

showdocument (Contact 4.3 or higher)

The specified file will be displayed on scene entry, in the specified target frame.

Note: loaddocument has the same format and function and is supported since Contact 4.2, but supposedly works unreliably.

Use: optional

Example: showdocument <filename> <targetname>

denychatinvite (Contact 4.4 or higher)

If this parameter is set, all 1:1 chat requests are automatically denied. For instance, the star of a (moderated) chat might receive lots of these requests, which he has to deny manually unless this parameter is set. We recommend using this parameter only for special sessions and certain users. The default setting is off (0).

Use: optional

Example: denychatinvite 1

helpindexfw (Contact 4.4 or higher)

The specified URL is displayed when the user clicks the Help button in Contact's firewall dialog box. As the firewall topic is rather complicated, this is useful if you run a community with a special connection or simply want to provide firewall help in the user's native language.

The default URL is http://www.blaxxun.com/support/faq/firewall.html.

Use: optional

Example: helpindexfw http://www.blaxxun.com/support

showobjects (Contact 4.4 or higher)

If this parameter is active, shared objects will be loaded in 3D even if the object panel is not displayed. Thus this parameter is only needed if you turn off the objects panel via the listtabflag parameter.

Default is do not load if objects panel is turned off.

Use: optional

Example: showobjects 1

#if version < version number
#endif version < version number

Parameters enclosed within this construct are ignored by clients having a higher version number. Since the last instance of any bxx parameter is used by Contact 4.3 (and lower), use it to provide different parameter values for older clients within the same configuration file.

Use: optional

Example:

listtabflag 11001 
#if version < 4.4 
listtabflag 11111 
#endif version < 4.4 

This sets the value for the listtabflag parameter to 11111 if Contact 4.3 (or earlier) is used; for Contact 4.4 it will be set to 11001.

Viscape

If your 3D world uses Viscape, a Viscape world has to be referenced in the blaxxun Contact frameset instead of the blaxxun Contact 3D frame. It can be used embedded or directly as a frame.

<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>blaxxun Contact</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET ROWS="60%,40%,*" BORDER=0>
 <FRAME SRC="Contact.svr" NAME="World" SCROLLING=no
   MARGINHEIGHT=1 MARGINWIDTH=1>
 <FRAME SRC="Contact.htm" NAME="Contact" SCROLLING=no
   MARGINHEIGHT=1 MARGINWIDTH=1>
 <FRAME SRC="blank.htm" NAME="HTML" SCROLLING=no
   MARGINHEIGHT=1 MARGINWIDTH=1>
</FRAMESET>
</HTML>

blaxxun Contact will use the frame named "World " for loading a new place after selecting it from the places list. The name of the frame "World" can be changed by the parameter "3dframename" in the bxx file.

Chat without 3D

Chat places without 3D can be defined by specifying an html frame instead of the world frame. Like for Viscape, blaxxun Contact will use the frame name "World" for loading a new html place after selecting it from the places list.

Linking to other places

Links in 3D can go directly to an ".wrl" file or ".svr" file. In this case blaxxun Contact loads the new world into the 3D frame. In VRML files you can use Anchor parameters as shown in the following example in order to reference not only a new VRML world but a whole new bxx file or even a complete frameset.

Anchor {
url "./home.wrl"
description "... back to home world"
parameter [ "scene=../home/contact.bxx" ]
# use a reference to a Contact bxx file for this anchor
Anchor {
url "./home.wrl"
description "... back to home world"
parameter [ "frameset=../home/Contact.htm" ]
# use a reference to a Contact frameset document for this anchor 

copyright © 2002 by Peter Graf