Frequently Asked Questions


HyperVerse Browser Troubleshooting



HyperVerse Project





I cannot see any avatars and I cannot chat with other users.

The problem might be, that your computer is behind a NAT (Network Address Translation) Router. The HyperVerse Browser can currently not traverse NAT. We are however working on this problem.

I only see a black screen.

This is a known issue with certain graphics card models. We are working on a solution to this problem. For certain ATI graphics cards in notebooks, the problem can be solved by installing the latest ATI Catalyst 8.7 driver.

When I start the browser, I only see a red X and I receive an error message.

Currently, this issue occurs on devices without hardware acceleration support. We are working on a solution to this problem.

When I get too close to the surface, I see X-es rather than the surface.

The HyperVerse service relies on data that are freely available from NASA's LandSat missions. The data available so far will allow you to view cities, rivers, mountains and lakes all over the world. We are in the process of significantly upgrading our data basis to a level that will allow you to see individual buildings.

Screenshot 1

The HyperVerse Browser keeps telling me that it cannot connect to the Backbone Service!

Please ensure that you are connected to the Internet. If it still does not work, please drop us a line

Loading of data takes a long time

Since the HyperVerse is totally dynamic, we do not predistribute any data with the Browser. All data are distributed on demand. On first start this can take some time when using slow Internet connections. Although we are working on limiting the amount of data that needs to be transferred, we strongly recommend a broadbad Internet connection to use the HyperVerse.

What is the HyperVerse?

Looking at the evolution of the Internet, in recent years we can identify a clear trend towards virtual communities. These communities are either 3D worlds like "SecondLife" and "World of Warcraft" or Web portals which enable the user to participate actively and richly. The HyperVerse project intends to leverage this trend in order to create a next generation Internet in which content is not consumed by navigating through Web pages, but by moving an avatar through a consistent 3D representation of the world. Interaction with content like objects, shops, auction platforms or other avatars is an integral part of this concept. Supported by advances in the field of human interface devices, interaction between users is likely to become more immediate and responsive, which will lead to increasing latency requirements. Experiencing such a next generation Internet is more immersive, intuitive and conforms naturally to the human mind's cognitive capabilities.

Which challenges does the HyperVerse pose to the underlying infrastructure?

It is obvious that the realization of a HyperVerse scenario poses severe technical challenges to the underlying network infrastructure. The according to our opinion most important questions that arise when thinking about a 3D Web are:


What is the aim of the HyperVerse project?

The aim of the HyperVerse project is he provision of a distributed basic infrastructure suitable for a global scale 3D Web. In order to verify the usability of our approaches we are developing a prototype HyperVerse browser relying on our concepts.

Which infrastructure does the HyperVerse rely on?

In order to retain the decentralized nature, scalability, independence and reliability of the WWW and the Internet in general, for the provision of a HyperVerse scenario it is not eligible to rely on centralized server farms that are controlled by a single instance. Thus we embrace Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technologies in order to support the targeted global scale. While a variety of existing approaches for global scale MMVEs are based on highly-structured Peer-to-Peer client overlay networks, for the HyperVerse we propose a two-tier Peer-to-Peer infrastructure, combining both highly and loosely structured Peer-to-Peer technologies in order to utilize the advantages of the two approaches while overcoming their particular drawbacks. In our concept a loosely structured P2P overlay interconnects the user clients and a highly structured overlay network interconnects a federation of so-called Public Servers that constitute the reliable and persistent backbone of the HyperVerse.

What is a Public Server?

Although it differs in some respects, you can think of it as a Web server for the HyperVerse. Many thousands or even millions of them can constitute a single massive virtual world which supports millions or even billions of concurrent users. For this - other than Web servers - all these servers must work together, so they are interconnected using an efficient spatial index overlay. More detailled information on the technologies behind this can be found in our Publications section.

Can I set up my own Public Server?

Yes, you will be able to set up your own HyperVerse Server soon. Although we have a server running at our site, there is however not yet a release-ready software which we can give to you. So, we need to ask you for some more patience :-)

Why would I like set up my own Public Server?

Well, the most important reason is that you'd like to publish content in the HyperVerse. Just like in the WWW for this you will either have to set up your own server or pay a commercial provider which runs a server.

What is the difference between the HyperVerse and MMOGs like World of Warcraft?

The main difference is that there is no provider which can actually set rules or has the sole right to manage the world. For scalability reasons, there is also no central instance which hosts the world.

Is data in the HyperVerse predistributed like in today's MMOGs?

No, we are currently shipping the HyperVerse browser without a single byte of virtual world data. This is important since we cannot afford multi-GigaByte installations when adressing a 3D Web scenario. Furthermore, other than in MMOGs, data in the HyperVerse are dynamic. Anybody can add, modify or create new objects and data.

How is the data distribution in HyperVerse managed?

You probably know the BitTorrent protocol, which can be ued to efficiently distribute very large files to a large number of users. For the HyperVerse, we have developed a very similar technology. The basic idea is that clients will redistribute data that are hosted on Public Servers. By this we can achieve high scalability without predistributing data. For more details on this technology, we refer to the Publications section.

What is the difference between the HyperVerse and Second Life?

First of all, Second Life is a centralized infrastructure. There is a single provider which can set the rules and which regulates access to the virtual world. There is no such instance in the HyperVerse. Second of all the centralized infrastructure of Second Life limits scalability to no more than a few dozens of avatars per world region.