Classifications for Distributed Virtual Environments

Robert Bartlett

Over the past decade Virtual Environments (VEs) have developed from being 
ravings of science fiction authors, to a viable reality. 
VEs are a class of application, which allow users to interact with 
a logical environment (Hollywood depictions include movies such as "Tron", 
"The Lawnmower Man", or more recently "The Matrix"). 
The focal point of this research is Distributed Virtual Environments (DVEs), 
a subclass of VEs, where users interact with a single logical VE distributed 
over a computer network. DVEs are used in simulation, 
training, collaboration, and more recently consumer level 
entertainment, in the embodiment of "computer games".

In the field of computing, development over time brings 
about conformity and standardisation (within a limited application domain). 
Such results, in DVE research have not yet been achieved, 
due largely to the diversity of application specific DVE implementations. 
Evidence of this is demonstrated in the spectrum of recent DVE offerings.

This research identifies and reviews common and differentiating 
issues for conceptualising DVEs within the topic areas of scalability, 
environment representation, quality of service, distribution types and 
persistence. These issues emerge in the literature of the myriad of 
customised DVE implementations, toolkits and architectures developed 
over the past decade. The current aim of this report is to present 
ways of classifying DVEs.