Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1. What is Verse?

Verse is a platform for building networked applications centered around sharing and processing 3D data. It consists of three parts, on different levels of abstraction: the data model, the network protocol, and the programming interface. Below are condensed descriptions of these three parts, hoping to convey a general idea quickly.

Data Model

Verse defines a data model, which in turn defines exactly how data is formatted and stored. The model is optimized and tailored for handling data suitable for building very dynamic and highly interactive virtual worlds.

Network Protocol

In order to make the data model accessible remotely, Verse defines a set of commands that can be used to interact with data hosted on some computer. This set of commands is encoded on the network in the exact manner described by the network protocol specification.

Programming Interface

To make creating applications that use the Verse data model and protocol easy, a reference application programming interface (API) has been created.

The sections linked by the terms above provide plenty of additional detail about these three parts of the platform, and appear in the order recommended for reading them.