Architecture of Virtual Reality Systems

The creation of VR systems to support virtual environments (VE) is a challenging problem requiring diverse areas of expertise, ranging from networks to psychology. Developing VEs is a very expensive task in terms of time and financial and human resources. VEs can be applied in a broad range of areas, such as scientific visualization, socializing, training, psychological therapy, and gaming (for more details, see the “Applications” part of this book). Such a diversity of applications produces a set of requirements that make it very dif- ficult, if not impossible, to build a single system that fits all needs. The result has been the creation of monolithic systems that are highly optimized to a particular application, with very limited reusability of components for other purposes.

According to Oliveira et al. [179], the problem of lack of reusability is due to the current trend in the VE community: developing a new VE system for each different application. The “reinventing the wheel” and “not invented here” syndromes limit the innovation and delay the use of VEs in wider areas for the general public.