Advanced Configurations

Basic installation

First, download the zipped installer,and verify that the system and network requirements are met. Then follow these steps for installation on a multi-user system:

1. Unzip and run the installer with administrative privileges.
2. Move the Desktop and Start Menu shortcuts to the All Users profile.
3. Verify that users have read access to the shortcuts and write access to the program folder.
4. Configure the Windows firewall to allow traffic from EDUni-NY.
5. The first time you run EDUni-NY, it will prompt for connection type. Most users can choose LAN. If your network blocks outgoing connections and you are unable to meet the required network configuration, use the Autoconfigure option (which will use the proxy server tunnel.activeworlds.com and port 443).

For more complex needs such as replacing the world list or reducing network load, please see the Advanced Configurations section. Please communicate with us in detail whenever making such configuration changes.

Additional Needs

Some of the web content accompanying the virtual worlds, and resources on our web site, requires web browser plugins and other support software and hardware. Please be sure to install or upgrade the following if possible:

• Updated video drivers and DirectX, for best video performance and stability.
• Windows Media Player version 9 or later, for playing streaming video in EDUni-NY and videos on this web site.
• Speakers or headphones so that users can hear sound in the worlds, in an appropriate way for the classroom or computer lab.

The following plugins and software are also recommended but optional. The worlds or web sites that use plugins are listed:

• Java plugin for Internet Explorer (needed for Many Eyes projects used in WITS and CYFair programs, and the Modeling Malaria web site.
• Adobe Flash Player for IE (needed for the Jumping Genes exhibit world).
• QuickTime or QT Lite plugin for IE (needed for web content associated with the Jaipur world).
• Adobe Reader, (for viewing documents posted on this site and others).
• Microsoft Office or Office viewers, especially Word and PowerPoint (for viewing a few files on this site.

Testing

To test, log in to EDUni-NY. If you are logged in to the web site with the user name tech, there is a EDUni-NY account with the same name and password for you to use. If you run into problems or do not have the tech login, please use the account we provided or contact us for login information. If you expect to log in frequently to support EDUni-NY use, or if you find the test account is in use, please contact us to resolve this as well.

Once logged in, you should see a 3D viewport, chat window, and toolbar tabs on the sides of the screen for accessing auto-hidden Web and Tabs windows. You can navigate the 3D space with the arrow keys similar to many 3D games. There is a list of worlds under the Worlds tab of the Tab Controls window; choose a couple to test with (you won't be able to enter ones with a gray icon next to them). Explore a bit. Try resizing the 3D viewport occasionally. Watch for an entirely blue viewport, strange behavior resizing the viewport, extremely low frame rate, continuing slow response, serious rendering glitches and crashes, and failure to load web sites.

Troubleshooting

Some issues we have seen are listed below along with suggested solutions. You can also look through the Active Worlds Documentation for more possibilies.

3D content doesn't appear (without "file not found" icons), viewport resize problems, rendering glitches, software crashes.

These problems are often video-related. First make sure your video drivers and DirectX are up to date (keep in mind that the latest video drivers aren't always the most stable). If that doesn't fix it, try changing rendering mode (Options Menu, Settings, Video tab). Software renderer is usually the most stable, but also the slowest. If this doesn't work or performance is unacceptable, consider changing video hardware or shrinking the 3D viewport.

Crashes, or 3D objects don't load.

Sometimes this is caused by problems writing to disk. Check that the disk is not full (by default the software will use up to 250MB for caching content), and that users have write access to the program folder.

Users don't see or can't use program launch icons.

The installer is not multi-user aware. The program shortcuts must be manually moved from the Administrator's profile (the one who installed the software) to the All Users profile. This applies to both Desktop and Start Menu shortcuts. Alternatively, any desired shortcuts can be created manually. Make sure users are given read access to the shortcuts.

Only see blue (usually) background and "file not found" icons in virtual worlds; some or all web pages don't appear in web panel.

This could be caused by blocks on web content or web sites. All of the 3D artwork is accessed via HTTP. The hosts we use are listed on the network configuration page.

Browser can't connect; browser connects but no worlds are listed, and title bar lists location as "Nowhere."

This is usually caused by intermittent connectivity problems, blocks on some or all of the required TCP ports, or other firewall/networking issues. Sometimes when the browser is run for the first time, the world list takes a few seconds to load. If this is the cause, it will usually load in less than a minute, or can be refreshed sooner by cycling one of the options that appear when right-clicking the empty world list area. If the world list appears, just restart the browser, or choose Home from the Teleport menu to start.

Software is not responsive (e.g. can't move in 3D space).

There are various issues that can make the 3D viewport appear unresponsive. First, try clicking the 3D viewport then moving (to make sure it has keyboard focus) and hold down shift while trying to move (this enables object pass-through). If this doesn't help, or of the entire browser (including menus, chat, etc) are unresponsive, it is likely a networking issue. The browser often freezes briefly while downloading and processing large files (or longer if there is and extremely large file); check the download progress bar on the left side of the status bar for hints, and see if it recovers within reasonable time for completing a file download. This could also be a video or disk issue.

Lab has limited bandwidth.

Each machine that is running EDUni-NY will need to download the artwork for each world entered. This is usually on the order of 10MB per world (can be as much as 50MB), which can add up fast for 10-20 computers in use at the same time. Much of this information is cached after the first use, but there are circumstances under which this doesn't work. We have come up with alternative configurations to deal with such issues; please contact us if this is a concern.

Lab uses Deep Freeze or similar management tools.

This is fine, but it means being careful about a few things. First, cached content will be lost between sessions, which amplifies any bandwidth issues. Also, any configuration settings that are changed will be lost. So it is a bit more important to make sure the configuration is "right" including video settings, screen layout, teleport list, and Home location. It is also likely that configuration changes will be helpful periodically.