System and method for distributed simulation in which different simulation servers simulate different regions of a simulation space

• US 8,612,196 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2002
• Issued: 12/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Linden Research Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Linden Research Incorporated
• Inventors: Rosedale, Philip E., Ondrejka, Cory R., Meadows, Andrew L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Saxena, Akash
• Application Number:
  US10/289,124
• Publication Number:
  US 20030195735A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,060 Days
• Field of Search: 463/42, 463/43, 463/33, 709/202, 715/706, 345/633, 345/629, 345/640, 345/672, 345/674, 345/687, 703/13
• US Class Current: 703/13
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30

Abstract

Distributed continuous simulation of a three dimensional simulation space is provided using a set of simulation servers. The simulation space is partitioned into a set of regions. In one embodiment, each simulation server is responsible for simulating one of the regions of the simulation space. Users interacting with the simulation communicate directly with the simulation server responsible for simulating the region that the user is currently interacting with.

Claims

1. A machine implemented method of simulating, comprising:

performing a continuous distributed simulation of a space using a plurality of computing devices connected to a network, each computing device of the plurality of computing devices simulates a different region of the space, performing the continuous distributed simulation includes reporting about the simulation to a user computer device;

determining whether an item has changed;

if the item has changed, determining whether a particular change for the item would be perceptible on the user computing device based on one or more properties of the item in the space and a physical property of a user interface on the user computing device;

transmitting data about the change to the user computing device if it was determined that the particular change would be perceptible on the user computing device and not transmitting the data about the change to the user computing device if it was determined that the particular change would be not be perceptible on the user computing device, wherein the physical property of the user interface on the user computing device is display resolution.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the plurality of computing devices includes an agent process in communication with the user computing device; and

the determining of whether the item has changed and whether the particular change is perceptible are performed by the agent process.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the determining of whether the item has changed and whether the particular change is perceptible are performed at the plurality of computing devices.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the on one or more properties of the item in the space include size of the item and distance to the item from a location representing point of view for the user computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

determining whether a particular change for the item would be perceptible on the user computing device includes determining whether an image of the item will move on a display of the user computing device by more than a predetermined number of pixels.

2. A system for simulating a space that can be accessed by a user computing device, comprising:

a plurality of computing devices in communication with a network, the plurality of computing devices perform a continuous distributed simulation of a space such that each computing device of the plurality simulates a different region of the space; and

an agent process on one of the plurality of computing devices, the agent process is in communication the user computing device, the agent process determines whether an item in the space has changed, if the item has changed the agent process determines whether a particular change would be perceptible on the user computing device based on one or more properties of the item in the space and a physical property of a user interface on the user computing device, the agent transmits data about the change to the user computing device if it was determined that the particular change would be perceptible on the user computing device, the agent does not transmit the data about the change to the user computing device if it was determined that the particular change would be not be perceptible on the user computing device, wherein the physical property of the user interface on the user computing device is display resolution.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the on one or more properties of the item in the space include size of the item and distance to the item from a location representing point of view for the user computing device.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the agent process determines whether a particular change would be perceptible by determining whether an image of the item will move on a display of the user computing device by more than a predetermined number of pixels.