A Virtual World Web Client Utilizing an Entity-Component Model

The popularity of virtual worlds has increased considerably in recent years. Currently, many service providers are trying to make it easier for users to access their virtual worlds. However, accessing a virtual world typically requires a client application that needs to be versioned for each device platform and operating system configuration. Using WebGL, an interactive 3D environment can be used on a cross-platform supported web browser. In this paper, we present a system architecture that utilizes an entity-component model, and a prototype implementation of a WebGL-based virtual world client to provide a plug-in free, extensible and open source web client for 3D virtual worlds. The performance of the web client was evaluated in terms of frame rate, CPU load, memory consumption and scene processing speed. Based on the results, the performance of the web client was good on a desktop PC, but mobile hardware specific optimizations are required to provide a good user experience on mobile devices.