Hazel McKendrick is supervised by Henry Fortuna on her research into Distributed Virtual Worlds. She explores how simulating autonomous characters in a real-time virtual environment can benefit from distributing the processing workload across multiple computer systems. Her work considers establishing practical distributed computing methods and patterns for balancing workloads in a way that maintains real-time synchronization, addressing challenges relevant to simulations like massively multiplayer online servers and cloud computing.

1. Hazel McKendrick
Supervised by Henry Fortuna
Distributed Virtual
Worlds
“How can the processing of autonomous characters
in a real-time virtual environment benefit from
parallelisation over multiple distributed computer
systems?”

2. The Problem.
● Simulations
● MMO Servers, Cloud Computing
● Single server unsuitable
● Flexibility, scalability, redundancy
● Distributed Computing
● Small, local scale
● ...In real time

3. Simulate Characters in a
Virtual Environment.

4. Distribute Processing Work.

5. Balance Workloads.

6. The Significance.
● Accepted methods and patterns
● Real time, synchronisation
● Priorities specific to games
● Considers real world, not best case
● Clear relation to virtual world servers
● Current and relevant

7. Hazel McKendrick
Supervised by Henry Fortuna
Distributed Virtual
Worlds
“How can the processing of autonomous characters
in a real-time virtual environment benefit from
parallelisation over multiple distributed computer
systems?”