Scalable Platform for Large Interactive Networked Environments (SPLINE)
To support our work on social virtual reality, MERL researchers, led by Richard Waters and David Anderson, designed and implemented a software system called SPLINE (Scalable Platform for Large Interactive Networked Environments).
Background & Objective: To facilitate interoperability between virtual environments built by different parties, SPLINE includes open interface definitions at both the network and application programmer levels.
Technical Discussion: SPLINE is an example of a class of software that has come to be called "middleware," because it sits between application programs and the operating system/network facilities of the host machine. Middleware is usually invisible to the end user, but is crucial to the application programmer because it dramatically reduces the amount of code that needs to be written. Our first use of SPLINE was to build the Diamond Park environment. During 1996 we have been revising the architecture of Spline and producing a new implementation, Spline 3.0. We are working with other companies to develop an open standard, called Open Community, based on the core technologies in Spline.
Contacts:
Richard (Dick) Waters
Derek Schwenke
Samuel Shipman
William Yerazunis
| Technical Reports: | |
| QOTA: A Fast, Multi-Purpose Algorithm For Terrain Following in Virtual Environments | |
| Time Synchronization in Spline | |
| Diamond Park and Spline: A Social Virtual Reality System with 3D Animation, Spoken Interaction, and Runtime Modifiability | |
| Building Multi-User Interactive Multimedia Environments at MERL | |
| Locales and Beacons: Efficient and Precise Support For Large Multi-User Virtual Environments | |
Technology Areas:
Net Services
Graphics
Networks
Modification Date: September 12, 2007
