So what does the future of the Net really look like? Kansas?

The only way to find out was to hop into our time machine and take a look around. It was a mind-expanding trip, full of 3D graphics, wacky avatars, multi-person chat, and virtual reality environments you can fly through--all coming at you blazingly fast. Here's the best part: We liked it so much we brought a piece back home to the present.

The people from the future were so impressed with our youthful optimism and mastery of catchy buzzwords (community-building! multi-user! IP-enabled!) that they handed us a shiny disc, explaining that it contained the code for an online VRML world called Kansas. Kansas, it turns out, was a key turning point in the history of the Internet. Like all VRML worlds, you can walk, float, or spin around in Kansas, hyperlink to Web pages or other VRML worlds, talk with others via chat, interact with 3D objects as well as avatars (3D personae that represent individual participants in a VRML world).

Like HTML, VRML files are plain or compressed text files (recognizable by their file extensions .wrl, .wrl.gz, or .wrz) that reside on a server, just as HTML files do. But a VRML world is not a Web site--you need a special browser for, such as Oz Virtual (www.oz-inc.com/), Cosmo Player (http://vrml.sgi.com/cosmoplayer/), or RealVR Traveler (www.rlspace.com/) to view VRML files. These browsers also come as plug-ins or built-in features of other browsers, including Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. The contents of a VRML file are called a "world," because that's the most obvious use of VRML--that is, to create 3D, navigable, interactive environments. You can find plenty of examples of VRML worlds, from Euclid (www.construct.net/projects/euclid/index.html), a space based on the five Platonic Solids from Book 13 of Euclid's Elements, to BigBook (www.bigbook.com/), an online Yellow Pages. What makes Kansas an edge among VRML worlds is its CD-ROM connection.

Repeat After Me: "Bandwidth" When you access a VRML world, a file is downloaded into your browser. In theory, VRML is bandwidth efficient because it represents environments as geometric descriptions with a few simple shapes (cube, cone, cylinder, and sphere), along with lighting and shading specifications, all via a text file. But the reality is that VRML worlds are s-s-slow. That's because a VRML browser/plug-in renders the information in real-time, multiple times a second. Even with simple worlds, rendering is slow and jerky. The problem increases exponentially as sites incorporate the latest multimedia and interactive elements now supported by VRML 2.0. It's the stuff of nightmares for those with a 14.4 kbps modem, who tend to fall victim to motion-sickness.

Bandwidth might be the biggest problem facing all Internet-based technologies, but it's a non-issue in the CD-ROM business. The marriage of the two media offers some tantalizing possibilities. "But, wait," you might be thinking to yourself. "Doesn't The Net come with a CD-ROM each month?" Hmm ... why yes it does!

Enter Blowfish, a new caching system developed by Seven Raven, Inc. (www.7raven.com/) to take advantage of the CD-ROM distributed with The Net every month. Blowfish is "a digital multimedia asset system, designed to enable bandwidth-hungry applications over the existing infrastructure," according to lead developer Dennis Mahle. Instead of waiting for all of the information about Kansas to be pushed through to your browser, much of it is stored locally on The Net's disc. Blowfish automatically kicks in when it reaches a Blowfish-enabled page, seamlessly accessing information from the disc, your hard drive, the Internet, and The Net's server, to make your experience of Kansas faster, smoother, better.

Kansas: There's No Place Like Home We built Kansas around Black Sun's CyberHub Client, a Windows 95-only plug-in that you'll use with Netscape Navigator. According to Black Sun, CyberHub was "designed to be as platform independent as possible," and should eventually work with any browser that supports Java and has VRML rendering and navigation tools. At press time, the plug-in works only with Navigator 3.0 for Windows 95. Check the Black Sun site for the latest information on browser compatibility (www.blacksun.com). Once you're up and running with all of the tools (conveniently located on The Net's disc), you'll be set to jump directly into the mix.

When you enter Kansas 1.0, you'll find three rooms: the Boiler Room, Night Club, and Sports Bar. You'll be assigned a default avatar to participate, but you can also choose an avatar from the collection that we designed especially for Kansas. If you don't find one that strikes your fancy, design your own with any number of currently available 3D modeling tools, including PhotoModeler (www.photomodeler.com/vrml.html) or Rhino (www.rhino3d.com/). If you're looking for inspiration or just want to get an idea of what's possible, take a look at Black Sun's Avatar of the Week (ww3.blacksun.com/cool/features/index.html) page. And don't worry: Should any of your neighbors go overboard with "creative license," the CyberHub client gives you the ability to ignore avatars you find offensive.

For now, the main attractions of Kansas are the unique avatars, the funky setting, and multi-user chat with other visitors, via either text-based chat or voice using Cooltalk (both chat partners must have Cooltalk installed). For a quick exchange of information with other people in Kansas, you can use CyberCards, a virtual version of exchanging business cards. In future revs, Kansas will include stuff like real broadcasts of sporting events, which you'd watch via numerous big-screen TVs, or a jukebox music library with samples of the latest releases from your favorite artists. Because Kansas is a virtual world, it has no limits; it doesn't suffer from the constraints of reality.

Now Entering Kansas So are you ready to enter the brave new futuristic world of Kansas? It's live and waiting for you. Everything you need to start exploring the future of the Internet is on this month's CD-ROM, including Blowfish and the Black Sun CyberHub Client. Follow the instructions on the disc carefully, however--software from the future has certain limitations. For now, Kansas is limited to Windows 95 Netscape Navigator visitors, and a CPU speed of at least 100 MHz is highly recommended. The people from Black Sun also offer the following travel tips to get the most out of your first visit.