Method and apparatus for distributed simulation

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention pertains to computer simulation in a network environment. More particularly, the present invention relates to providing computer simulation with high consistency, responsiveness, and security in a distributed network environment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In discrete event simulation, a machine performing simulation, such as a computer system, maintains the state of various simulation objects that can be displayed on a display device, such as a computer monitor. These objects may represent real-world objects, such as people, vehicles, etc., which may be controlled by a human user. The state of an object may include the object's display position on a display device, its physical orientation, size, shape, color, etc. The machine normally evolves the state of an object over time based on three factors: 1) user input; 2) object-internal rules for advancing the object's state (which may be general laws of physics and/or object-specific behaviors); and 3) rules for interaction with other objects (which again may be based on laws of physics or may be specific to the interacting objects).

In distributed discrete event simulation, each object may be known to multiple machines, each with its own version of the object's state. Distributed simulation presents three challenges. First, because of variable communication delay, different machines become aware of events affecting an object at different points in (physical) time. There is unavoidable delay between the machine where a command is issued and another user's machine where the affected object is being observed. Thus, a major challenge of distributed simulation is providing a consistent view of simulation state across all machines.

Second, mechanisms that improve consistency generally involve reaching agreement about the progress of simulation before displaying it to the user. This delay may result in poor responsiveness, i.e., excessive delay between when the user issues a command and when the response is apparent.

Third, attempting to improve responsiveness by granting the user's machine authority over the state the user can influence may result in an integrity problem: the user may modify the program on his machine to corrupt the simulation state over which his machine has authority, degrading the experience for other users.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention includes a method and apparatus that provide consistency, responsiveness, and integrity for a network-based simulation of physical objects. Among other features, the ability to run different parts of a shared computation at varying times on different machines is provided.

In particular, the present invention includes a method and apparatus for maintaining a simulation distributed on a network and characterized by multiple objects. A true state of each of the objects is maintained on a server on the network. User commands are sent from a client on the network to the server and are associated with timestamps. Essentially identical computations of object state are performed on the server and the client to achieve essentially the same result on the server and the client. However, corresponding computations on the client and the server may be performed at different times.

In another aspect of the present invention, the simulation is advanced according to global virtual time. In a local processing system, at each of multiple points in global virtual time, a state of one of the objects is computed for a time that differs from the current global virtual time. The object is displayed according to each computed state.

In yet another aspect of the present invention, a repair message is received from a remote processing system, such as a server on the network. The repair message includes an indication of a true state of an object and a time value associated with the true state. Previously computed states of the object are then recomputed based on the repair message.

In still another aspect of the present invention, a time frame for a current state of an object is determined based on a proximity of the object to another object with which the object can interact.

In another aspect of the present invention, a frame of reference of an object is determined as a region in which the object can exist. A determination is made of when the object contacts the frame of reference. When the object contacts the frame of reference, the position of the object is transformed from an original position associated with a first time frame to a new position associated with a time frame of the frame of reference.

In another aspect of the present invention, objects are simulated in accordance with a hierarchical classification system that restricts the set of objects that any given object can affect.

Other features of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description which follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements and in which: <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none" compact="compact"><li>Figure 1 illustrates a network environment in which the present invention may be implemented;</li><li>Figure 2 is a block diagram of a computer system that may be used in the network environment of Figure 1;</li><li>Figure 3 illustrates a timeline associated with a server calculating states of an object S(t);</li><li>Figure 4 illustrates the shifting forward in time of an object displayed on the user's machine, relative to the server, based on an estimate of network latency;</li><li>Figure 5 illustrates the transmission of a timestamped command from the user's machine and the shifting back in time of an object displayed on the viewing machine;</li><li>Figure 6A is a flow diagram illustrating an overall process implemented on a client during a network-based simulation, in the presence of latency;</li><li>Figure 6B is a flow diagram illustrating a process for processing network traffic;</li><li>Figure 6C is a flow diagram illustrating a process for processing local user inputs;</li><li>Figure 6D is a flow diagram illustrating a process for drawing an object;</li><li>Figure 7 illustrates a command from the user's machine being lost and the transmission of synchronization messages from the server to repair inconsistency due to such loss;</li><li>Figure 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for handling a repair message during a network-based simulation;</li><li>Figures 9A and 9B show two sample displays which include a pilot actor, a shadow actor, and an obstacle;</li><li>Figure 10A shows a display in which a shadow actor is displayed in a time frame that is too early in relation to a pilot actor and a heavy object;</li><li>Figure 10B shows a display in which the coordinates of the shadow actor have been transformed according to a frame of reference;</li><li>Figure 10C is a flow diagram illustrating a process for determining a frame of reference for an object and for transforming coordinates of an actor according to the frame of reference;</li><li>Figure 11 shows timelines associated with a collision between two objects controlled from two remote machines;</li><li>Figure 12 shows timelines associated with an actor controlled by one machine causing a light object to collide with a second actor controlled by another, remote machine; and</li><li>Figure 13 shows timelines associated with one user influencing a heavy object while a second, remote user controls an actor.</li></ul>

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method and apparatus for consistent, responsive, and secure distributed simulation in a computer network environment are described. As will be described in greater detail below, a set of mechanisms provides consistency, responsiveness, and integrity, to allow high-realism in a distributed network simulation environment. Consistency is achieved by executing the same computation using the same inputs on multiple machines on the network, i.e., on a server and one or more clients. Responsiveness is achieved by executing the parts of the computation that affect a user's object earlier on the user's (client) machine than on the server for the user's object. Integrity is achieved by executing all computations authoritatively on the server. The ability to run different parts of a shared computation at varying times on different machines is provided.

Note that in this description, references to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" mean that the feature being referred to is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Further, separate references to "one embodiment" in this description do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment; however, such embodiments also are not mutually exclusive.

As will be apparent from the description which follows, the present invention may be embodied in the form of software, at least in part. That is, present invention may be carried out in a computer system (or in multiple computer systems) in response to a microprocessor executing sequences of instructions contained in a storage device. The instructions may be executed from a local memory or mass storage device and/or from one or more other remote computer systems (collectively referred to as "host computer system").

In the latter case, for example, a host computer system may transmit a sequence of instructions to the ("target") computer system in response to a message transmitted to the host computer system over a network by target computer system. As the target computer system receives the instructions via the network connection, the target computer system stores the instructions in memory. The target computer system may store the instructions for later execution or execute the instructions as they arrive over the network. In some cases, such downloaded instructions may be directly supported by the microprocessor of the target computer system. Consequently, execution of the instructions may be performed directly by the microprocessor. In other cases, the instructions may not be directly executable by the microprocessor. Under those circumstances, the instructions may be executed by causing the microprocessor to execute an interpreter that interprets the instructions or by causing the microprocessor to execute instructions which convert the received instructions to instructions which can be directly executed by the microprocessor.

In various embodiments of the present invention, hardwired circuitry may be used in place of, or in combination with, software instructions to implement the present invention. Thus, the present invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software, nor to any particular source for the instructions executed by a computer system.

Software embodying the present invention may be in the form of, for example, one or more software applications, dynamic link libraries (DLLs), implementations of Application Program Interfaces (APIs), plug-ins, etc., or a combination thereof. Portions of such software may reside in the server and each client participating in a simulation. Other portions may reside in only one platform on the network, such as in a server, or only in particular platforms on the network, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this description.

Software embodying the present invention may be written in a conventional programming language, such as C or C++. It may be desirable to employ an object-oriented language, such as C++.

Figure 1 illustrates a network environment in which the present invention may be implemented. The environment includes a server 1 which is coupled to a number N of clients 2 via a network 3. It will be recognized that the server 1 and the clients 2 form part of the network 3. Although two clients 2 are shown, the number N of clients 2 is not restricted to any particular number. The server 1 and each of the clients 2 may be a conventional computer system, such as a personal computer (PC), a workstation, or even a hand-held device such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), personal information manager (PIM), a set-top box, a console game system, or the like. The network 3 may be the Internet, a campus intranet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), or any other type of network. However, the advantages of the present invention may be most apparent when implemented on a network which is subject to substantial latency, such as the Internet. It will also be recognized that the present invention can be applied to networks that use any of a variety of communication techniques, including datagram based networks (e.g., the Internet), connection based (e.g., X.25) networks, virtual circuit based (e.g., ATM) networks, etc.

During a simulation, each of the clients 2 maintains a set of objects, representing real-world objects, some of which are controlled by the human users of these machines. Each machine maintains the same objects, however, the states of the objects may be computed at different times on each machine. The server 1 maintains the "true" state of each object, i.e., the state which is considered to be the correct state of the object. The clients 2 are machines used by human users who control certain ones of the objects. Note that in certain embodiments, however, the server 1 may be implemented in the same machine as one or more clients 2. However, for purposes of explanation, it is henceforth assumed that the server 1 is implemented in a separate machine on the network. In addition, there may actually be more than one server 1; for example one server may maintain the true state of certain objects, while another server or servers maintain the true state of other objects or perform other server functions.

Figure 2 is a block diagram of a processing system that may represent any of the machines shown in Figure 1. The illustrated system includes a central processing unit (CPU) 21, which is a microprocessor, read-only memory (ROM) 22, random access memory (RAM) 23, and a mass storage device 24, each connected to a bus system 31. The bus system 31 may include one or more buses connected to each other through various bridges, controllers and/or adapters, such as are well-known in the art. For example, the bus system may include a system bus that is connected through an adapter to one or more expansion buses, such as a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. Also coupled to the bus system 31 are a monitor (display device) 25, audio speakers 26, a keyboard 27, a pointing device 28, a simulation input device 29, and a communication device 30.

Mass storage device 24 may include any suitable device for storing large volumes of data, such as magnetic disk or tape, magneto-optical (MO) storage device, or any of various types of Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) or compact disk ROM (CD-ROM) storage, flash memory etc. The monitor 25 may be any suitable device for displaying alphanumeric, graphical and/or video data to a user, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), a liquid crystal display (LCD), or the like, and associated controllers. The pointing device 28 may be any suitable device for enabling a user to position a cursor or pointer on the monitor 25, such as a mouse, trackball, touchpad, joystick, or the like. The simulation input device 29 may be any device which receives user inputs to allow a user to control objects in a simulation, such as a joystick or the like. Note, however, that the keyboard 27 and/or the pointing device 28 may also serve this same purpose, such that the game input device 29 may be omitted in certain embodiments. The communication device 30 may be any device suitable for enabling the computer system to communicate data with another processing system over a network via a communication link 32, such as a conventional telephone modem, a wireless modem, a cable modem, an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) adapter, a Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL) adapter, an Ethernet adapter, or the like.

Note that some of these components may not be present certain embodiments, and certain embodiments may include additional or substitute components not mentioned here. For example, a server may not require components such as speakers 26 or simulation input device 29.

1. Object Model

According to the present invention, each user's (client) machine tracks the state S of an object as a series of values over a range in virtual time: S(t-k), S(t-k+1), ..., S(t), S(t+1), ..., S(t+k). When a user's machine creates a depiction of the simulation state, it in general does not depict all objects at the same point in virtual time. Instead, it divides the objects into two categories: 1) objects that are influenced by user commands, which are called "actors", and 2) objects that are not influenced by commands, which are called "obstacles". An actor may be, for example, an avatar. Actors are further categorized as either: 1) "pilot actors", which are actors that are influenced by local user commands, or 2) "shadow actors", which are actors that are influenced by user commands from a remote client. In accordance with the present invention, pilot actors are depicted as timeshifted ahead of global virtual time (i.e., in a later timeframe than global virtual time), while shadow actors are depicted as timeshifted behind global virtual time (i.e., in an earlier timeframe than global virtual time), as discussed below. The handling of non-actor objects is discussed in the next section.

Global virtual time advances in synchronization with wall-clock time, and is the same at any given instant on all machines. Global virtual time is authoritatively maintained by a server, as described below, and may be propagated to all clients participating in the simulation using any conventional clock synchronization protocol, such as Network Time Protocol (NTP).

A key principle of the present invention is that in the absence of network errors (such as corrupted, lost, or excessively delayed packets), S(t) has the same value on every machine that is aware of the object, even while the precise physical ("wall-clock") time at which S(t) is calculated may vary from machine to machine. In the presence of network errors, S(t) may temporarily diverge but is eventually restored to consistency.

For each unit of state of an object S(t), there is one machine that authoritatively "owns" that unit of state. This machine is referred to as the server for S(t). Exactly which machine on the network is the server for S(t) may change occasionally. The server maintains global virtual time G. The server calculates the state of all objects for which it functions as server, up through time t=G. This process is shown in Figure 3. In the figures which follow, time is depicted as progressing downward.

A user of a given client machine may have the privilege of influencing certain object states with commands. In particular, each user may be represented by a pilot "actor" A, which may be an avatar, that is heavily influenced by the user's commands. The server for a user's actor that authoritatively calculates A(t) (the state of actor A at time t) and the user's machine may be different machines. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the user's machine timestamps each user command with a virtual time value t1 and then sends a signal representing the timestamped command to the server for A. The timestamp is chosen so that when the command arrives at the server, the value of the timestamp is slightly ahead of (i.e., more advanced in time than) the global virtual time G. That is, if L is an estimated upper bound on the latency between the user's machine and the server, then the user's machine chooses t1 = G + L. Note that the user's machine may estimate the latency using any of various well-known network latency estimation methods.

On receiving the timestamped command, the server immediately sends the command to all machines that are intended to track the state of the user's actor. The server calculates A(t1) when global virtual time G reaches t1, and this computation does not take into account commands timestamped later than t1. That is, a command timestamped t1 only affects A(t) when t≥t1.

The user's machine performs the same computation to calculate A(t) as that performed by the server, applying only commands timestamped t or earlier. Because all input to the computation of A(t) is the same on the server as that on the user's machine, and the algorithm to calculate it is identical, A(t) is the same on these machines. Thus, the server waits until global virtual time G reaches t1 to calculate A(t1); however, the user's machine calculates A(t1) when depicting the user's actor at time t1, which is usually shortly after sending the user commands timestamped t1 and, hence, significantly before G reaches t1. If t1 is computed as G + L when the command is issued, then the user's machine is depicting the object as shifted ahead in time from the server by L time units.

Figure 4 illustrates an example of this process. In Figure 4, the user's machine's estimate of one-way latency L is 3 time units. Thus, at time G=0, the user's machine displays A(3), and at time G=1, the user's machine displays A(4), and so forth. At time G=2, a local user input (UI) (command) is received at the user's machine; hence, at time G=2, the user's machine sends the command to the server (as represented by the arrow between the two vertical timelines) and displays A(5), applying the command. Note that in the illustrated example, the command is shown as being received by the server at some time between G=3 and G=4, and not at G=2+L (G=5); this indicates that the actual latency for transmission of the command is lower than the user machine's estimate of the maximum latency L, as will often be the case. It will be appreciated from Figure 4 that by using this technique, the system achieves consistency, responsiveness, and integrity: the user and the server go through the same sequence of state A(t), the effects of the user's command are immediately apparent on the user's machine, and a compromised user's machine is not capable of affecting A(t) beyond what an unmodified user's machine could do.

As mentioned, when receiving the command, the server immediately redistributes the command (with timestamp) to the other viewing machines that are depicting the user's actor. These machines calculate A(t1) later, when G reaches t1 + L (where L is the viewing machine's approximation of the latency from the server to the viewing machine itself.) That is, the viewing machine views the shadow actor as delayed in time by L. Figure 5 illustrates this process.

As shown in Figure 5, at time G=2, the user's machine depicts A(5), applying a user command that is timestamped with a time value of "5". The user's machine depicts the user's actor (a pilot actor) shifted forward in time by 3 time units (i.e., A(5) is displayed at G=2), whereas on the viewing machine on which the object is a shadow actor, it is depicted shifted back in time by 3 time units (i.e., A(5) is displayed at G=8). As in the previous example, the actual latency during transmission of the command is shown as being less than the user machine's estimate. Thus, A(t) is calculated the same across all machines (consistency), the user's commands are immediately apparent to the user (responsiveness), and no modifications to the user's machine can affect A(t) beyond what the user could do with an unmodified machine (integrity).

Figures 6A through 6D illustrate a process that may be performed on a client according to the technique described above. Figure 6A illustrates the overall process. At block 601, the client processes any new network traffic, which may include remote commands and other messages. At block 602, the client processes any new local user input. At block 603, the client draws each object in the simulation, and the process then loops from block 601. This loop is ideally repeated many times per second.

Figure 6B shows the processing of network traffic (block 601) in greater detail, according to one embodiment. At block 611, it is determined whether the input is a remote command. If not, the input is handled appropriately according to the type of message it is at block 614, and the process is then exited. If the input is a remote command corresponding to an object B, and if the timestamp associated with the command is greater than G-L (block 612), then at block 613 the command is stored with its timestamp in a command buffer corresponding to the object B. The process is then exited. If the input is a remote command, but the timestamp is less than or equal to G-L, then at block 615 any previously computed B(t) are discarded for all values of t greater than or equal to the timestamp. The command is then stored at block 613 in the command buffer for the object B with its timestamp, and the process is exited.

Figure 6C shows in greater detail the processing of local user commands (block 602), according to one embodiment. At block 621, a local command associated with an object A is timestamped G+L. Then at block 622, the command is added with its timestamp to the command buffer for object A.

Figure 6D shows in greater detail the process for drawing an object S (block 603), according to one embodiment. At block 631, the time frame in which the object S should be displayed is determined as described above. That is, for pilot actors the time frame is G+L, whereas for shadow actors the time frame is G-L. For other objects, such as obstacles, the time frame is determined according to appropriate predefined rules, examples of which are described below. If the state S(t) of the object S is already known (block 632), then at block 633 the object is drawn according to S(t), and the process is exited. If not, then S(t) is calculated based on the previous state S(t-1) at block 634. This may require calculation of S(t-1) based on S(t-2) if S(t-1) is not already known, and so forth. After S(t) is calculated, the object is drawn based on S(t) at block 633, and the process is exited.

Referring again to Figure 5, note that a user machine's command message to the server may be lost, corrupted, or delayed past time G+L (time 5 in Figure 5). In these cases, the message is discarded, and A(5) on the server is now different from the A'(5) calculated on the user's machine. Without additional action, this inconsistency persists and may compound, ultimately resulting in unbounded inconsistency. To avoid this, the server periodically resynchronizes A(t) by sending a repair message (t1,A(t1)) to all clients.

An example of this messaging technique is shown in Figure 7. In Figure 7, a user command message for time 5 is lost en route from the user's machine to the server (as denoted by the "X" symbol). Because the user's machine predicts that the message will be received and processed by the server at time 5, it calculates the object's state based on the command being applied; this state is denoted A'(t) above, and diverges from the server's state A(t), because A(t) is calculated without applying the user's command. At time t=6, the server sends to all clients a synchronization message, or "repair" message, the contents of which are (t, A(t)), i.e., the time and the state of a given object (or multiple objects) at that time. In the example of Figure 7, the repair message is (6,A(6)). The user machine then recalculates A(7) from A(6), A(8) from A(7), and so on, so that it depicts the correct A(11) after receiving the repair message. The viewing machine records A(6), using that state instead of calculating A(6) itself when depicting A(6); this mechanism handles the case that the user command was lost between the server and the viewing machine.

Figure 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for handling a repair message on a client. At block 801 the client receives a repair message (t,A(t)) relating to object A. At block 802 the client then replaces any A(t) that is already stored in A's state buffer for global virtual time G equal to t, with the A(t) specified in the repair message. The client then discards any A(t) in the state buffer for G greater than t at block 803.

In one embodiment, instead of immediately displaying the correct A(11), the user's machine gradually interpolates between A'(t) and A(t) (starting at time t=11) to avoid an unappealing "snapping" effect that may arise when instantaneously correcting from A'(10) to A(11).

In an alternative embodiment, instead of sending the complete state A(t) in synchronization messages, the server sends a digest of that state. The digest of state is a relatively small number of bits that includes less than all of the information in, but is nonetheless representative of, the object's full state. For example, such digest may be in the form of a checksum or Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) representation of the object's full state. Each client machine compares the received digest to the digest of its own computed state A'(t) and takes no action if they match. If the digests do not match, however, the client requests a retransmission of A(t) (the full state) from the server or a trusted server proxy. This approach conserves bandwidth in the expected case that divergence is uncommon, while degrading time-to-repair when divergence occurs (because of the possibility that multiple digests may be required to detect divergence, and the extra round-trip to fetch the state repair.)

2. Obstacles

An object that is not directly influenced by user commands is referred to as an "obstacle". Like actors, obstacles are characterized by a state function S(t) that is authoritatively computed on the server and it is also computed on clients. In a traditional approach to distributed obstacles, the server sends the value of S. The client receives the value, discards its old data on the obstacle's state, replaces that data with this new S, and displays that S immediately. As an enhancement, a traditional system may interpolate between old state and new state. This approach suffers from delay, and also suffers either inconsistency (if updates to S are sent infrequently) or high bandwidth usage (if sent frequently). The delay can be particularly bothersome when an actor interacts with the obstacle.

According to the present invention, the client handles obstacles similarly to actors. Each machine is able to calculate a state function S(t) over a range of time values. S(t) depends only on S(t-1) and each O_i(t-1), where O_i is the state function for each object i that can affect the behavior of the obstacle S. When the client has exact information for S(t-1) and each O_i(t-1), it is able to calculate the exact value of S(t). Then, the client has flexibility to choose t to trade off between responsiveness and consistency.

Figures 9A and 9B show a simple example of an interaction between actors and an obstacle. Specifically, a pilot actor A and a shadow actor B are shown interacting with an obstacle S, which may be a soccer ball, for example. Suppose the obstacle S is near a pilot actor A, as shown in Figure 9A . Suppose further that the pilot actor A is able to take (or push on or otherwise affect) the obstacle S, so that S(t) depends on A(t-1). If consistency were the only goal, then the client could wait until receiving S(t) from the server before depicting it. However, as described above, the pilots actor is depicted on the client at a later time than its state is known on the server, so that approach would result in very poor responsiveness. To achieve responsiveness, the client depicts S at the same point in time that it depicts A; that is, the client depicts S(t) before S(t) has been calculated at the server, and long before S(t) arrives at the client. It does this by calculating S(t) from S(t-1) and A(t-1) in advance. When all inputs to S(t) are known in advance, this approach provides consistency and responsiveness.

As a second example, suppose the obstacle S is closer to the shadow actor B that is able to influence S and far from the pilot actor A, as shown in Figure 9B. In this case, attempting to render S in A's timeframe would result in poor consistency, because B(t) is not known in advance; B(t) depends on remote user input. Thus, the client in this case does not attempt to calculate S(t) in advance. Instead, it waits until it has received B's user input (as described above), and once it knows B(t-1), then it calculates S(t) from S(t-1) and B(t-1). In this way, consistency is maintained. Responsiveness is not an issue in this example because the local actor is too far away to interact with S. Note that Figures 9A and 9B are not necessarily drawn to scale in terms of the relative distance between A and B.

As a third example, suppose the obstacle S is near both the pilot actor A and the shadow actor B. In this case, it is not possible to provide both consistency and responsiveness. To achieve responsiveness, S(t) must be depicted before B's user input for time t-1 has been received. To achieve consistency, B(t-1) must be taken into account when calculating S(t). Clearly it is not possible to do both (when network latency is greater than one timestep). In one embodiment, therefore, S is depicted in a timeframe that is nearer A's timeframe the closer S is to A, and farther from A's timeframe the farther S is from A, regardless of where B is, effectively trading off consistency for responsiveness. In another embodiment, B's proximity to S overrides A's, emphasizing consistency. In yet another embodiment, S's timeframe is chosen proportional to its relative distance to B and to A, to strike a balance between consistency and responsiveness.

In one embodiment, an affectable object (an object that can be affected by another object) identifies potential affector objects (objects which can affect it) based on the physical proximity of such objects to the affectable object. When the affectable object advances from state S(t-1) to state S(t), the affectable object queries each potential affector object for its state at time t-1. If the state of a potential affector object at time t-1 is not yet known, the affectable object assumes it is not affected by that potential affector object. When a potential affector object establishes or changes its state for time t-1, it then identifies any relevant affectable objects (objects which it can affect), based on their physical proximity, and notifies them that their state for time t might be incorrect.

From time to time, the state S(t) of an object on a client may diverge from the server's S(t). This may happen because of numerical error in calculating S(t) from S(t-1) and O_i(t-1), or because of misprediction of some O_i(t-1) on which S(t) depends. To repair such errors, the server periodically sends (t1,S(t1)) to the clients. The client checks to make sure it had the right S(t1), and if not, replaces it and invalidates all S(t) where t&gt;t1. Note that this invalidation may not be perceivable to the user, since S(t) likely has not been drawn yet. Nonetheless, the interpolation technique mentioned above can be used to make any visible corrections smoother. In another embodiment, the server sends only (t1,D(S(t1))) where D is a digest function. When the digest does not match, the client requests a retransmission of S(t) from the server or trusted proxy.

3. Frame of reference

When a pilot's actor A and a shadow actor B are near each other yet depicted in different timeframes, the so-called "elevator problem" may arise. This problem is illustrated now with reference to Figures 10A and 10B. Suppose A and B are standing in a rising elevator E. The client system from which A is controlled must decide at what point in time to depict A, B, and E. As described above, this client system displays B in time delay, after B's user input has traveled across the network, yet displays A immediately as A's user input is received locally. Thus, if L is the one-way latency between server and client, and if A is depicted at time t, then B is depicted at time t-2L. If the elevator travels one meter per time unit, then B(t-2L) is 2L meters lower than A(t). This will look bad no matter where the elevator is depicted. If E is depicted at E(t), as described in the previous section, then (as described so far), B is drawn below the floor of the elevator E, as shown in Figure 10A.

To solve this problem, the system maintains a frame of reference for each object as a function of time. This frame of reference may be considered part of the object's state function S(t). The frame of reference of an object S is an object that defines a region of space in which S exists. More specifically, the frame of reference is a region of space which dominates the position of the object S. The frame of reference is established, or "acquired", when S makes contact with the object that serves as its frame of reference. Thus, when B steps into the elevator and makes contact with E, the elevator E becomes B's frame of reference, because the elevator dominates B's position. For example, while located within the moving elevator E, B might jump up and down or move sideways, but B is nevertheless required to remain within the elevator until B exits the elevator at a designated floor. Thus, the elevator E "dominates" B's position. Then, when depicting B(t-2L), the clients calculates the position of B at time t-2L, and then asks the elevator E to transform that position from time t-2L to a position at the time when the elevator is depicted (say time t). The elevator E raises the position by 2L meters and returns the new position. What is meant here is that the elevator E (or other frame of reference) is an instantiation of an object class, and this class includes method calls to perform these functions when the elevator E is instantiated as an object. Alternatively, such method calls may be implemented in the shadow actor object, or in another object or external process. In this way, B is depicted as standing next to A as the elevator lifts them both, as shown in Figure 10B, although the details of B's motion are time-delayed 2L time units for consistency and A's are not delayed for responsiveness.

Figure 10C is a flow diagram illustrating a process for transforming coordinates of a shadow actor according to a frame of reference, as described above. Again, the frame of reference may be considered part of the object's state S(t) function. Hence, the process of Figure 10C may be considered a subprocess of computing an object's state S(t) (block 634 in Figure 6D). At block 1001, it is determined if the object S is colliding with a heavy object O which dominates the position of S. If not, then at block 1004, the frame of reference for S(t-1) is used as the frame of reference for S(t). Any necessary state transformation is performed based on the frame of reference at block 1003, and the process is then exited. If the object S is colliding with a heavy object O, then at block 1002 the heavy object is taken to be the new frame of reference. State transformation is then performed as necessary at block 1003, and the process is then exited.

4. Object interactions

It is possible that A(t) depends on A(t-1), user input timestamped t or earlier, and also on other objects O_i(t-1). For example, the fact that a pilot actor A and a bus B(t) collide at time t-1 has a significant effect on A(t). This is problematic if the user's machine does not know B(t-1) when calculating A(t). Consider the case that the bus B is being steered by a user on another machine. This scenario is illustrated in Figure 11. User A inputs a user input (UI) command A5 at time G=2, while user B inputs a command B5 at time G=2.

Now, suppose that the avatar A and the bus B collide at time t=6, that is, A(6) and B(6) overlap. There is no problem on the server, which calculates A(7) based on the collision when t=7. On the user machine steering B(t), there is a minor anomaly that the bus appears to penetrate the avatar until A(7) is drawn (at which point the bus becomes A's frame of reference and all is well.) On the user machine steering A(t), however, there is a problem: when A(7) is calculated at, for example, global virtual time G=5, B(6) is not yet known. Any of the following three techniques can be used to handle this problem.

A first approach is to repair A once a correction (t,A(t)) (t≥7) is received on the user machine. Because many timesteps may pass before the repair is sent, however, this simple approach suffers from significant repair latency, a longer than necessary period of inconsistency.

An alternative is to detect the collision on A's machine after calculating B(6) (time G=8), and immediately invalidate and recompute A(t) for t&gt;7. This alternative provides better (but imperfect) consistency at the cost of extra hit (collision) testing (presuming the bus would not otherwise need to test to see if it hit avatars).

Another alternative is to require that actors do not interact directly with other actors; that is, a bus or other object being controlled by one user may not physically collide with an avatar controlled by another user. This less functional alternative provides consistency at a low cost.

To achieve a good tradeoff between functionality and consistency, each object may be placed into one of three categories organized hierarchically. At the top of the hierarchy are "heavy" objects (such as trains, boulders, trees, etc.), which are objects that may not be responsively manipulated by users and respond physically to collisions only with other heavy objects. Next down in the hierarchy are actors, which may be responsively manipulated by users and respond physically to collisions with heavy objects. Note that actors do not respond physically to collisions with other actors. At the bottom of the hierarchy are "light" objects (e.g., a soccer ball), which respond physically to collisions only with actors and with heavy objects. Thus, one embodiment of the present invention takes the third alternative above in the actor/actor case; it is not allowed for a user to control a bus in a responsive manner, because it makes it impractical to accurately predict collisions with the bus on other machines. Similarly, it is not allowed that light objects affect actors because actors can affect light objects: if user A pushed light object O into user B, then it is practically impossible to have both sufficient responsiveness and accuracy. If the controls are responsive for A, then B does not learn that O was pushed into him until it is too late. This problem is illustrated in Figure 12.

In Figure 12, A pushes object O into B according to UI A5, displacing B at time 6. The machine of the user steering B(t) does not have UI A5 at time G=3 (when calculating B(6) and O(6)), so these values are calculated incorrectly. These incorrect values are labeled B' and O'. It is when B's machine finally processes UI A5 at time G=7 that it recognizes the collisions and corrects O(6) and B(6). This causes a consistency problem, because B' might be such that the actor B is moving out of the way, yet B(9) shows the result of B getting hit.

In the above-described embodiment, this problematic situation does not arise, however, because of the restriction that light obstacles do not affect actors. Thus, when A pushes O, O has no effect on B on either A's machine or B's machine. Note that this restriction is simply one way of implementing the present invention. For other embodiments, the functionality of A pushing O into B may be considered more important than the consistency/responsiveness trade-off.

Note also that a user may be allowed to control a heavy object, for example, a train T(t), with time lag. Thus, by sacrificing responsiveness to the train driver, consistency can be achieved for everyone, and responsiveness can be achieved for everyone except the train driver. An example of this process is shown in Figure 13. A key aspect of this approach is that, if a user can influence a heavy object, then the user's commands are delayed locally. In the example, at time G=2, the user influencing the train T issues a command T10, such as "apply brakes", and the user controlling the avatar A issues a command A4, such as "walk forward". In the example of Figure 13, L equals 2 and the maximum permitted one-way delay M equals 3. As described above, the avatar command is timestamped G+L (4 in this example) and sent to the server. Because the train is a heavy object, its command is timestamped G+L+2M (10 in this example) and sent to the server. This approach provides confidence that the train command will arrive at user A's machine before it is needed there.

Suppose, therefore, that the avatar A and the train T collide at time t=6, that is, A(6) and T(6) overlap. Again, there is no problem on the server, which calculates the effect of the collision on A, i.e. A(7), when t=7. Neither is there any problem on A's machine or on T's machine. That is, the collision is detected on A's machine at time t=5, when A's machine calculates A(7), and on T's machine at time t=9, when T's machine calculates A(7). Thus, a consistent result is achieved across all machines when calculating A(7), i.e., the effect of the collision on A.

Thus, a method and apparatus for consistent, responsive, and secure distributed simulation in a computer network environment have been described. Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.