When implementing multi-user cooperation systems in networked virtual environments, synchronizing local representations of shared virtual world has to be considered. It involves distributing and storing the data that represent users' activity in the virtual world. In this paper we propose a concept of general variables, which formalizes the task of distributing, journaling and locking the data in the client-server model. To verify the employability of the concept, we have implemented a Java bundle comprising a server and a client-side library. Four multi-user applications are presented to demonstrate that with the help of the bundle, a single-user application can be turned into multi-user one with minimum effort.
We present an interest management technique that organizes the shared state of a virtual environment into domains and subdomains. To specify users' interests, we have partially adopted the general aura-nimbus model. It has been generalized beyond its original spatial use to allow users to express their interests explicitly without relying on their spatial characteristics only.
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