An Efficient Navigation Algorithm of Large Scale Distributed VRML/X3D Environments

Typical shortest-path search algorithm, e.g. Dijkstra algorithm, is difficult to implement in VRML/X3D world directly due to the simplicity of VRML/X3D programming. By using JavaScript with good cross-platform and compatibility with VRML, this paper proposed an efficient back-traceable climbing (BTC) based navigation algorithm, by improving Hill Climbing search algorithm with the destination oriented guidance and loop removal, and amplifying it with simple data structure and flexible interfaces. The BTC based navigation algorithm performs greatly better than Dijkstra algorithm in terms of efficiency, consumed memory and the number of accessed nodes. It also possesses the merits of simplicity, easy implementation and reliability. Experimental results also show that it can provide real-time virtual navigation services with enough precision for large scale VRML/X3D environment.