Patent ID: 8671142

Claim:
A method of interoperating between two-dimensional and three-dimensional representations of a virtual world, the method comprising: receiving, from a first client computer, a request for access to a virtual world, the request indicating a location in the virtual world to be accessed and a capability of the first client computer; selecting, by a computing system having one or more computer processors, a representation of the virtual world from a plurality of representations of the virtual world for transmission to the first client computer, at least one of said plurality of representations including two-dimensional content and at least one of said plurality of representations including three-dimensional content, wherein said selecting is based on the received capability of the first client computer; in response to selecting a representation that includes three-dimensional content, transmitting, to the first client computer, three-dimensional content representing the virtual world; in response to selecting a representation that does not include three-dimensional content, transmitting, to the first client computer, two-dimensional content representing the virtual world, the two-dimensional content comprising an indicator configured so that when activated the first client computer invokes a virtual world browser configured to process three-dimensional content, the indicator further configured so that when activated the virtual world browser accesses the location in the virtual world indicated in the received request for access; receiving a second request for access to the location in the virtual world from a second client computer, wherein a first avatar associated with the first client computer and a second avatar associated with the second client computer are located within the virtual world at the location; and transmitting to the second client computer an indication of which of either the three-dimensional content or the two-dimensional content has been transmitted to the first client computer.