Distributed Virtual Worlds: Foundations and Implementation Techniques Using VRML, Java, and CORBA

✍ Scribed by Dr. Stephan Diehl (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 167
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Recently with the success of Java and the existence of different interfaces between VRML and Java, it became possible to implement three-dimensional Internet applications on standard VRML browsers (PlugIns) using Java. With the widespread use of VRML browsers, e.g., as part of the Netscape and Internet Explorer standard distributions, everyone connected to the Internet can directly enter a virtual world without installing a new kind of software. The VRML technology offers the basis for new forms of customer service such as interactive three-dimensional product configuration, spare part ordering, or customer training. Also, this technology can be used for CSCW in intranets.
The reader should be familiar with programming languages and computers and, in particular, should know Java or at least an object-oriented programming language. The book not only provides and explains source code, which can be used as a starting point for own implementations, but it also describes the fundamental problems and how currently known solutions work. It discusses a variety of different techniques and trade offs. Many illustrations help the reader to understand and memorize the underlying principles.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages I-XII
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Motivation....Pages 3-6
Technical Aspects....Pages 7-10
User Perspective....Pages 11-16
Front Matter....Pages 17-17
Three-Dimensional Computer Graphics....Pages 19-25
Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)....Pages 27-49
Protocols for Distributed Virtual Worlds....Pages 51-64
VRML Extensions for Distributed Virtual Worlds....Pages 65-76
Partitioning of Distributed Virtual Worlds....Pages 77-86
Streaming....Pages 87-97
3D Technologies for the Internet....Pages 99-106
Front Matter....Pages 107-107
Implementing Multi-User Worlds with VRML....Pages 109-112
Java Network-Programming: A Simple Distributed Virtual World....Pages 113-135
Implementing Multi-User Worlds with CORBA....Pages 137-150
The Future....Pages 151-152
Back Matter....Pages 153-166

✦ Subjects

Computer Graphics; Simulation and Modeling; Software Engineering; Programming Languages, Compilers, Interpreters; Information Systems Applications (incl. Internet); User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction