LIVE · Workshop
Peer-to-peer Syncing and Live Editing of Shared Virtual 3D Spaces: Challenges and
Opportunities
Part of the Proceedings of the Seventh Workshop on Live Programming (LIVE 2021).
Abstract
As groundwork for a virtual live programming collaboration environment, we built a peer-to-peer network of devices designed for 2D and 3D interactions that independently host, edit, and sync the state of a virtual space in real time. Both updates driven by a Unity-based peer’s game engine and updates driven at 60 Hz by a browser-based peer (running in a reactive JavaScript notebook) were observed. Our system showed significantly lower latency than a popular client-server networking service for Unity, and we observed realistic physics-based interactions for over 100 shared objects using a naïve algorithm that allows a peer to claim temporary ownership of an object’s physics. We see peer-to-peer networks like this as increasingly relevant to remote and in-person collaboration on a variety of tasks including learning and programming, and identify opportunities for improvement in the tools involved in their implementation.