Multiuser 3D virtual simulation environments support in the Gnutella peer-to-peer network

Abstract: One of the challenges for 3D multiuser virtual simulation environments (3DMUVEs) developers is to keep the shared virtual simulation environment synchronized among all the participating users’ terminals. Support to 3DMUVEs through traditional client–server communication model offers simpler management but can lead to bottlenecks and higher latencies. Peer-to-peer communication model, on the other hand, offers no central coordination but are more complex to manage. Current peer-to-peer networks, such as KaZaA and Gnutella, provide multimedia sharing services but do not support multiuser 3D virtual environment (VE) applications. This paper describes a solution to support 3DMUVEs in a hybrid peer-to-peer Gnutella network, which provides session control and distributed shared VE synchronization. As a result of this work, two components specified by the ongoing multiuser extension to the MPEG-4 standard were implemented and integrated to the Gnutella network for control and synchronization. This solution minimizes the disadvantages of client–server and pure peer-to-peer models. The results show that this approach can be a feasible solution, specially for spontaneous 3DMUVEs that can emerge from any user, with no investment needed (apart from his own computer). The use of peer-to-peer networks such as the Gnutella could be used as a test environment for companies wishing to check both their multiuser 3DMUVEs software for correctness and their acceptance by the users community before making heavy investments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]