Networked Virtual Environments: Design and Implementation (ACM Press Books)
Enjoying a multiuser virtual environment is easy--after all, its realistic interface is designed to be. Building a networked virtual environment (net-VE), on the other hand, is quite a formidable task.Networked Virtual Environments: Design and Implementationis a technical introduction to this exciting software development field and lays out many of the challenges net-VE developers must face and the weapons they have in their arsenal.This book doesn't take you through the process of building a net-VE. Instead, it focuses on the architecture and standards that come into play. The writing is a bit on the dry side, methodically presenting the technical issues; however, the text works well for systematically building knowledge of this complex topic.Authors Sandeep Singhal and Michael Zyda introduce the concept of net-VEs in general, explaining what a net-VE is and all of the technical hurdles programmers must clear. They also delve into the relevant communication standards and topologies. The book looks at recent developments and offers some basic communication techniques in Java, C++, and C via TCP/IP, User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol (UDP/IP), and multicasting.There is a lot of material here, and you'll likely need more to fully implement a net-VE. However, this book gives game developers, graphics programmers, and forward-looking Web site designers an excellent technical background.--Stephen W. PlainTopics covered: Prerequisites for a net-VE, relevant network architectures, common network protocols, resource management and optimization, VRML, and Internet gaming.