From: osendai@well.sf.ca.us (Mark Pesce)
Subject: Re: TECH: My standard is better than your standard. (LONG)
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1992 09:08:32 GMT
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link



About networking VR:

There's been quite a bit of work at the university level, particularly
UNC, on networked virtual realities.  Of course, there's also SIMNET,
so perhaps someone from BBN could help explain how it arbitrates
network vs. object traffic.  (Of course, that data may be classified.)

In any case, I saw a document from UNC a year ago, (can't remember
the author's name) which described how to arbitrate "ownership"
of the objects within a virtual environment.  It seemed a very
reasonable and well-thought-out approach to the issues.  It described
the object as a series of "actions" which could be perfomed on
it (sort of an OOP approach) which arbitrated ownership, propagation
of the introduction of new objects, etc.

People _have_ solved this problem already.  The solutions just aren't
widely known.  And for VR to be useful, it has to be networked.

- Mark Pesce
Ono-Sendai Corporation
(415) 387-OSVR