Channeling the data flood

The distributed virtual environment (DVE) can provide a simulated environment in which two or more participants interact with each other and with their surroundings. In working with this software, users face great technological problems, of which the biggest are: managing the enormous data loads involved; negotiating the interplay of all the virtual objects, including the virtual people; and creating the most efficient network topologies possible for users´ machines. At the network level, each occupant of a DVE system uses a computer that is connected to a local- or wide-area network (LAN or WAN), which provides information on the changing state of the virtual environment and its contents. The paper discusses the design of a distributed virtual environment and the use of the Internet