Method, system and apparatus of recording and playing back an experience in a virtual worlds system

Abstract

A recorded experience in a virtual worlds system may be played back by one or more servers instantiating a new instance of a scene using one or more processors of the one or more servers and playing back the recorded experience in the new instance by modeling objects of a recorded initial scene state of the recorded experience in the new instance and updating the recorded initial scene state based on subsequent recorded changes over a time period, a recorded experience file includes the recorded initial scene state and the subsequent recorded changes and is stored in one or more memories of the one or more servers. One or more client devices are in communication with the one or more servers to participate in the new instance.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A distributed computing apparatus, comprising:
 first servers, comprising one or more client computer systems operating as servers;   first clients, comprising two or more client computer systems;   wherein one or more of the first servers is also one of the first clients, and wherein the one or more of the first servers that is also one of the first clients serves data to one first client computer system that is a different computer system than the one first client computer system serving the data;   a first database, comprising one or more databases operably connected to the first servers, wherein the one or more databases are computers, or are housed on one or more first clients or one or more first servers, or a combination thereof;   wherein the interaction of a human avatar user with the first clients causes the first clients to communicate to the first database, either directly or via one of the first servers, changes to an instance made by the human avatar user.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the first servers create a new instance based on time intervals. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the first servers create a new instance based on one or more avatar user requests. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the first servers create a new instance based on the availability of objects within a different instance. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the changes to the instance made by the human avatar user are recorded in the first database together with the time the changes were made. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 5 , wherein the first database is read by the first clients, or the first servers, to reconstruct the instance based on database entries relative to that instance. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 6 , wherein the first clients display the instance as it existed at an earlier time, based at least in part on the data recorded in the first database relative to that instance. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein the first servers instantiate one or more avatars controlled by an operator of first clients. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 8 , wherein the one or more avatars is programmed to be able to virtually walk through a reconstructed scene substantially identical to a scene as it existed at the earlier time. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the one or more avatars is capable of interacting with objects in the reconstructed scene. 
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more avatars interacts with the objects in the reconstructed scene. 
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the interaction of the one or more avatars with the objects in the reconstructed scene is recorded in the first database. 
     
     
         13 . The apparatus of  claim 12 , wherein the interaction of the one or more avatars with the objects in the reconstructed scene and the time that the interaction took place is recorded. 
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein the time that the interaction of the one or more avatars with the objects in the reconstructed scene took place is recorded as a same time that the scene as it existed at the earlier time was initially recorded. 
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 5 , wherein an initial scene state is recorded in the first database.