An open middleware for large-scale networked virtual environments

This paper presents a 100% Java middleware that aims to offer an open and extensible foundation for building large-scale real-time networked virtual environment applications. This platform relies on a partial replication model in which the whole simulation space is spread on a federation of processes based on application-specific criteria. A configurable event communication framework allows arbitrary consistency and synchronization protocols to be implemented in close cooperation with the application semantics. This middleware has been experimented with success for multi-player game prototypes involving both human-driven and autonomous simulated entities