Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games and
Internet-based virtual worlds that can be accessed
using standard personal computer hardware. See
also virtual world.
Virtual World: The definition of virtual worlds
has changed over the years with the evolution of
virtual reality and synchronous online communica-
tions technologies. In the 1980s and 1990s. The
term was used broadly to refer to any single-user
or multi-user computer-simulated environment
or artificial space, which encompassed a variety
of text-based and graphical MUDs (multi-user
domains), MOOs (MUDs, object- otiented), and
multiplayer games. In recent years the defini-
tion appears to have narrowed and is now often
used to refer specifically to three-dimensional,
Internet-based, multi-user simulated worlds such
as Second Life, in which users, through their
avatars, can experience, manipulate, and interact
with virtual objects and places that are either
modelled according to the real world or instead
depict fantasy worlds. Communication between
users may occur via text, static graphical icons
(e.g. “emoticons”), visual gestures and “facial”
expressions, sound (including human or synthetic
voice), and occasionally, may take more sophisti-
cated forms such as touch, voice commands, and
balance senses. See also avatar, Second Life (SL),
virtual reality (VR).
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