To explore possible uses of a distributed virtual environment (DVE) for leisure, learning, and work, a group of researchers and artists at MERL, Cambridge, Mass., created a prototype DVE called Diamond Park in 1995 using the Scalable Platform for Large Interactive Networked Environments (Spline). Accommodating both bicycling and social interaction, the DVE was designed as an amalgam of landscape park, village, and World's Fair covering an area exactly one mile square. Besides its visual details, the park encourages live conversation and is rich in audio effects, including birdsong, music, and sound effects cued by particular actions.
One of the first things a visitor sees when entering the park is a colonnaded structure [middle]. Situated high on a virtual hill, its three-dimensional tabletop map helps orient park visitors, who can move about the park in two ways. Those who ride an actual computer-controlled stationary bike see the park on a wide screen where they are represented by avatars riding bicycles. Others use mouse-keyboard inputs and a regular computer monitor; they appear as avatars on unicycles. Both groups use a headset to talk with each other and hear the park's audio effects. Moving into the park, they come to an open-air cafe [bottom] whose ambient noises include jazz and the clink of china. There they can stop to chat, maybe practicing a foreign language with a visitor from another country.
Shared virtual worlds