Abstract
In this paper, we propose a new approach to building a scalable virtual environment by combining virtual sub-environments. To manage different types of users interaction, datasets, rendering methods, and so forth, we build and handle virtual sub-environments separately. To unify these sub-environments, we propose a use of an environment manager, which determines the users viewpoint of sub-environments according to the user's input, and compose display image from rendered images of them. By using the proposed methodology, we can combine sub-environments seamlessly, and build a virtual environment to manage different types of datasets, users interaction and rendering methods. By unifying sub-environments according to the user's viewpoint, we can construct a universal large-scale environment: the user can walk through cities, observe from above the earth, and fly through the solar system. Furthermore, we implemented the prototype system in CABIN and demonstrated the scalability of this architecture.
