Multi-authoring virtual worlds via the World Wide Web

The rapid growth of the Internet has seen a range of Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) emerge that support virtual worlds, where users can int eract with both objects and each other. However, little consideration has b een given to the development of these environments and the provision of too ls to allow users to manage them. This paper presents a web-based model for jointly authoring multi-user virt ual worlds using the ideas of object ownership and division of the virtual environment at the object level. A brief description of an implementation a nd its more interesting features is also provided. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scienc e B.V. All rights reserved.