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Troubleshooting Guide for Wonderland

If you are having trouble getting Wonderland to start or to work properly once started, here are some suggestions that may help.

Basic Troubleshooting Advice

If you are having trouble getting Wonderland to start, the best way to get help from the community is to provide as specific information as possible when you report a problem. The things we need to know are:

• Operating system
• Java version (if known)
• Version of Wonderland
• Type of network setup (eg, direct connection to internet over DSL)

For many problems with Wonderland, the only way for us to figure out what is going wrong is to see the error log. In order to make these messages visible, you need to have the Java Console displayed when Wonderland runs. The method for showing the Java Console is different on different platforms.

Showing Java Console on Windows

• Make sure Wonderland is not running
• From the Start menu, select Control Panel.
• In the Control Panel, click on Java.
• In the Java Control Panel, click on the Advanced tab.
• Click on the + before Debugging and select Enable logging.
• Click on the + before Java console and click on Show console.
• Click OK

Showing Java Console on Mac OS

• Make sure Wonderland is not running
• Navigate to Applications --> Utilities --> Java
• Open Java Preferences
• Click the Advanced tab
• Under the Debugging heading, check Enable logging
• Under the Java console heading, click Show console
• Click Save and close the Java Preference dialog

Running Wonderland with Logging Turned On

Try running Wonderland again. Shortly after you see the Java splash screen, you should get a window titled "Java Console - Project Wonderland." At the point you get stuck, copy the entire contents of the Java Console window into a forum post that includes the information listed above as well as a description of what happened when things didn't work. Here's the general progression of events that should happen if everything is working properly:

• A Java splash screen appears
• The Java Console - Project Wonderland window opens
• Depending on the platform, you may get some messages that ask you to "trust"
• Launching application message appears with a progress bar
  • If this is your first time running Wonderland, it should take some time and appear to be downloading content
• The Project Wonderland window opens - it should look black at this point
• Login dialog appears
• You should enter a user name (and password if your system has authentication turned on)
• After clicking Login, it should say "Connecting..."
  • It's normal for there to be a delay before this message appears
  • There is also no immediate feedback when you click Login (this is on the list to fix), so be patient and wait at least 20 seconds before deciding something is wrong
• The Users window and the Status window appear
• File names quickly show up and disappear in the Asset Manager pane of the Status window
• The 3D world appears
  • Depending on the complexity of the world and the speed of your connection, you are likely to see the world appear incrementally
• Your name appears in the Users window in italics
• While the world is loading, your avatar is suspended in the air
• Once the world is fully loaded, your avatar floats down to the ground
• If your audio is properly set up, your name changes from italic to normal in the Users window
• You should now be able to use the arrow keys to move your avatar
• You should be now be able to speak and see the name above your avatar's head flash yellow

In your forum post, please let us know how far along in this progression you got.

Login Dialog Does Not Appear

Occasionally when you launch Wonderland, you will see a black Wonderland window, but the login dialog never appears. Quitting out of Wonderland using File --> Quit and restarting usually solves the problem. The next time Wonderland launches, the login dialog should appear, although some users have reported that they needed to restart a few times before the dialog showed up.

In case you're interested in the details, we believe this may be caused by a bug in Java. There is at least one report that moving to a newer version of Java (e.g. 1.6.0_06) solves this problem, but we haven't been able to confirm this yet. There is a P1 issue (#429) to track this problem.

Audio Does Not Work

Getting audio to work can often be a challenge. Here are some simple things to check if audio is not working for you:

• Check the volume setting on your computer. Make sure the audio is not set very low and is not on mute.
• If you have a volume or mute setting on your headphones, check that the mute button was not accidentally pressed.
• Check to make sure you have the correct input and output audio devices selected on your computer. On Windows, look in your control panels for sound settings and on Macs, navigate to System Preferences - Sound. Once you make sure the system is using the correct headset and microphone, return to the Wonderland window and select Tools --> Audio --> Reconnect Softphone. This will force Wonderland to re-initialize the audio.

If you still are not hearing audio, Select "Softphone" from the Windows menu. It should look like this:

If the word "Connected" appears above the "1" button, then it is likely a volume or mute setting on your computer is not set properly. Use your computer's audio or sound control panel to check to make sure the correct headphones are being used. You may want play a song or a video with sound on your computer to make sure that audio is coming out the headphones.

If the Softphone window does not appear at all, then the problem lies with the Wonderland configuration. Most often, this happens because there is a firewall between you and the Wonderland server. Please refer to this technical article, Setting up a Project Wonderland Server Behind a NAT or Firewall, to learn more about configuring Wonderland to work through a firewall.

Here are some additional resources that should help you figure out how to set up your system for the best audio experience:

• Wonderland Audio Setup Guide
• jVoiceBridge Audio Troubleshooting

Finding and Eliminating Echo

If you hear echo, then someone connected to the world is either not wearing headphones or their computer is sending the audio out the speakers instead of selecting the headphones. If audio is coming out of someone's computer speakers, it will feed back into their microphone and cause other people to hear echo when they speak. The person causing the echo will not hear it, so it is usually easy to figure out the source of the echo.

If the computer has selected the incorrect audio device, please refer to your computer manual to figure out how to open up your audio or sound control panel and manually select the headphone device.

If the person causing the echo does not have headphones, then they should put their avatar on mute unless they are actively speaking. Do to this, either select "Mute" from the Tools menu or press the open square bracket ( [ ) key. Do the same to unmute.

Avatar is Stuck

If your avatar is stuck, here are some possible reasons and what to do about them:

• Window needs focus - When you use the Wonderland menus or dialog boxes, your main window can lose focus and the arrow keys will not do anything. Simply click on your avatar or anywhere in the main window to regain focus. The arrow keys should now work.

• Too close to an object - Sometimes, if you are very close to a 3D object or a document, your avatar can get stuck. Often backing up or turning to the side will free you. If not, un-check "Avatar Collision Response Enabled" from the Tools menu. This allows you to walk through objects. After getting unstuck, you may want to re-check this setting so that your avatar will not walk through walls and other solid objects.

• Still Controlling an Application - You may still have control of an application. If so, you will see a "Release App Control" button in the upper right corner of your screen. Press the button and you should regain control of you avatar.

Platform Tips

Each operating system platform presents its own unique challenges -- here's a guide to help you through some of the platform-specific issues we have run accross:

• Wonderland Platform Tips