A multiuser 3D Web browsing system

The Virtual Realty Modeling Language sets an open-standard file format for designing 3D multimedia and shared virtual worlds on the Internet. VRML was originally designed to support the interaction of multiple participants in the World Wide Web environment, that is, to network virtual worlds via hyperlinks. The development of VRML has spurred broad research on distributed multiuser VR systems. We describe SharedWeb, a 3D Web browsing system that was designed and implemented to support interaction among clients in the existing Web environment. We begin by describing the methodologies and mechanisms used to achieve seamless integration with the Web environment, then we summarize the SharedWeb system implementation. We present some experimental results that show the effects of different frame rates and threshold values on system performance, and conclude with discussions of two virtual worlds currently supported by the system.