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System for designing a virtual environment utilizing locales

  • US 5,736,990 A
  • Filed: 08/28/1995
  • Issued: 04/07/1998
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/28/1995
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A system for generating a virtual environment in which graphical objects are to be depicted within required accuracy regardless of location within said virtual environment and so as to avoid the use of a global coordinate system for said virtual environment, comprising:

  • means for generating a number of locales each having a predetermined boundary and origin, each of said locales defining a subdivision of said virtual environment;

    means for locating a graphical object in a locale based on positions measured from the origin thereof, such that location and movement of a graphical object can be made with the required precision due to the utilization of a local origin within a locale as opposed to using a single point within said virtual environment, whereby the problems of providing a global coordinate system and positional inaccuracies associated with graphical objects located at large distances from a single origin are eliminated; and

    a network having multiple work stations to accommodate multiple designers for said virtual environment, each designer responsible for a different locale, and means for ascertaining when two of said locales overlap and for automatically indicating to said designers to the existence of overlapping regions of said locales, whereby multiple designers can work independently to create different locales within said virtual environment while at the same time being given means for resolving conflicts due to overlap of locales.

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