Plug: Virtual Worlds for Millions of People

P2P-NVE 2008Dec. 10, Melbourne, Australia

Shun-Yun Hu and Jehn-Ruey Jiang

National Central University, Taiwan

2008/12/10

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Virtual world scalability

Virtual worlds are getting larger WoW: 11 M accounts, 1 million concurrent Second Life: 10 M accounts, 45,000 concurrent

Tech aside, content is the biggest problem Not everyone is a gamer (TV / movies / web) Expensive to develop (80% production cost)

Scale is achieved by replication

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Million-scale Virtual Worlds

IncentivesGeneral, interesting content

AccessibilityQuick to install, easy to use

StandardContent (HTML) & delivery (HTTP)

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Some observations

Largest network: Instant messenger (IM)300 M~780 M active accounts (MSN, AIM, QQ)Peak online: 40.3 M (QQ), 12 M (Skype)

User-generated content is viableSecond Life (34 TB), IMVU (1 M items)User interactions is the best content

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Design of Plug

IM-like, user-centered virtual worlds

plug: personalized, autonomous avatars Customizable avatars Script-based behaviors

plugspace: inter-connected, streamable rooms Final storage for content & states Stream-based delivery

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Usage scenario

Natural, spontaneous social interactionsplugs may navigate & find things of interestUsers may then initiate contacts

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Source: IMVU

Plugtalk

(portal transfer)

Text / Voice Chats

Plugspace 1Plugspace 2

Plug A

Plug B

Interaction scripts / 3D streaming

3D streaming

/ Interaction scripts

3D streaming / Interaction scripts

Implementation Plans

Adopt existing open-source virtual worldsrealXtend (client)Open Simulator (server)

Adoption goalsLight-weightP2P stream-based

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Sub-system plans Avatar system

Avatar profiles + people search (Connet, CCNC’08)

State management Voronoi partitioning (VSM, NIME’08)

Content streaming P2P streaming (FLoD, INFOCOM’08) Progressive encoding

Interaction scripts Linden script language (LSL)

Networking protocols plugtalk

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Conclusion

Plug addresses key issues for virtual worlds Incentive: find & socialize with interesting people Accessibility: IM-like, faster content loading via P2P Standard: scalable, affordable hosting

Facilitate conversation & interaction in virtual worlds

Make virtual worlds As easy to host as websites As accessible to use as browsers & IMs

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