Distributed Virtual Environments (DVEs) are networked
VR systems that support group work and whose central
concept is one of a shared virtual world, i.e. a
computer generated space where participants can meet
and interact. To address the need that DVE middleware
platforms offer adequate support to applications that
run on the public Internet, DVE middleware platforms
ought to meet six requirements. These include
scalability, persistence, responsiveness,
flexibility, maintainability and extensibility. This
book argues that research efforts aimed at the
implementation of mechanisms to address...