Methodology of Supporting Networked Virtual Environment on the Web

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology and infrastructure to design a Web-based networked virtual environment. Due to the distinct characteristics of the Web architecture, a Web-based networked virtual reality system must provide a seamless, browsable and boundless way for the user to view and retrieve information from the Internet. This paper fully discusses the essential requirements to design such a networked virtual reality system. The mechanisms to fulfill these requirements are then fully explored in this paper. A multiple user 3D web browsing system, called the Shared Web system, was implemented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented architecture. And at the end, this paper will be concluded with the demonstration of supported virtual worlds.