Patent ID: 8145998

Claim:
A method for displaying interactions of a local user avatar of a local user and a plurality of remote user avatars of remote users interacting in a virtual environment, the method comprising: receiving, at a client processor associated with the local user, positions associated with less than all of the remote user avatars in one or more interaction rooms of the virtual environment, wherein the client processor does not receive position information associated with at least some of the remote user avatars in the one or more rooms of the virtual environment, each avatar of the at least some of the remote user avatars failing to satisfy a condition imposed on displaying remote avatars to the local user; generating, on a graphic display associated with the client processor, a rendering showing position of at least one remote user avatar; and switching between a rendering on the graphic display that shows at least a portion of the virtual environment to the local user from a perspective of one of the remote user avatars and a rendering that allows the local user to view the local user avatar in the virtual environment.