A research framework for exascale simulations of distributed virtual world environments on high performance computing (HPC) clusters.

Distributed virtual environment simulators such as OpenSimulator and SecondLife have become popular over the last decade. However, these simulators pose a greater challenge with increased load due to High-Fidelity of simulations, higher number of objects and agents, and increased levels of interactions. In this paper we propose a framework for distributed virtual environment simulator research on high performance computing (HPC) clusters. Our proposed framework would be very useful to virtual world researchers as HPC clusters are more freely available as compared to setting up their own dedicated cluster for virtual environment simulation. Although we implemented and validated our framework on the Stokes Cluster at UCF Advanced Research Computing Center and OpenSimulator virtual world; this framework is generic enough to be extended to other HPC clusters and distributed virtual environment simulators.