Patent ID: 6912565

Claim:
Apparatus for providing a virtual environment, said virtual environment arranged to include one or more entities, the or each entity being represented in the virtual environment by at least a conceptual entity-model, a dynamic entity-model and a visual entity-model, each of said entity models being mutually independent, said apparatus comprising: server applications arranged to provide: a conceptual-model manager, said conceptual-model manager arranged to provide conceptual entity-models; one or more dynamic-model managers, the or each dynamic-model manager arranged to provide dynamic entity-models; one or more client apparatuses, the or each client apparatus arranged to provide one or more visual-model managers, respectively, said one or more visual-model managers each arranged to provide visual entity-models; and a communications apparatus arranged to allow transmission of messages between said conceptual-model manager, said one or more dynamic-model managers and said one or more visual-model managers; in which said virtual environment is divided into mutually exclusive zones with the or each entity, represented by respective entity-models, being located in one of said zones, and at least one dynamic-model manager is provided, wherein the or each dynamic-model manager comprises: one or more zone managers, each zone manager being arranged to provide dynamic entity-models in an associated zone.