When it comes to network-connected 3D applications, there is about 25 years of knowledge on the subject before now. For the most part, that 25 years of experience is game development. With the recent move of mixed reality out of complete obscurity, comes along a use for 3D applications and 3D models that do not require logging into Xbox Live to yell at seemingly entitled children.

When you are playing a 3D game by yourself, the computer is handling all the incoming data and responding to it at real time. It can track the position, rotation, and scale of all the objects in the scene, all while playing sound effect that responds to certain events happening and also doing a numerous number of other things.

When you do something that creates an object, it does not require much for the computer to track and update all the various properties associated with that object.

In a multiuser, real-time 3D application or game, there can be anywhere from 2 to 32 people using it at the same time; the standard forms of object creation do not do what we need.

In this case, the server computer is receiving updates from all the users at once, and then has to sort through each of those messages. The server then sends out or broadcasts update responses to each object that it is trying to manage.

So, if you are playing a first-person wargame and as you run by a barrel, it gets shot and explodes, the server is receiving the input from all the players and then broadcasting relevant information to each relevant object. This kind of knowledge can help understand this whole process a bit better.