quinta-feira, 18 de agosto de 2011

[Virtual Environments] What is a Virtual Environment?



Virtual environments have been increasingly used for a variety of contexts: teaching in classrooms, informal learning, distance learning, business, and e-commerce to name a few.
  • A specific kind of a virtual environment are the Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs): that perceptually surrounds the user, increasing the user’s sense of presence. Usually, IVEs track a user’s head and body position, facial expressions and gestures, and other information, thereby providing much more information about where in the environment the user is focusing his or her attention.
  • Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) or Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVES) describe virtual environments that involve more than one user, with avatars interacting with each other. With increased bandwidth and more available Internet access, virtual environments that allow for greater multi-user interactivity have become more widely available in recent years.
  • Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs), Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), Massively Multiplayer Online [Games] (MMOs) all describe similar things. MMORPGs often are based on fantasy themes (e.g. in online computer games such as World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, or Everquest II)
  • Multi-user domains (MUDs) and MUD Object Oriented (MOOs), are primarily text-based environments that were the predecessors to today’s graphical virtual worlds.
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