Oddessey Re-Born

[Bruce Lehmann]

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.

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