>   I think keeping a userid and the coordinates of the avatar in space suffice.

You want to write a class User with these attributes/fields/member
variables, yes.

>   As far as the coordinates my senses tell me that something like integers x, y,
>   x would do. I am not sure about z unless the avatars jump or climb mountains.

We could use integers but OpenGL deals more natively with real numbers.  We
could skip z in our first version, but we won't be able to draw the atrium
with the ramp and steps up to the classroom area very accurately without a
z.  Put in a z, but it can be left constant for now.

>   All of this with some kind of a getPosition function I imagine?

The server probably maintains a database with users' positions when they aren't
logged in, and responds to a client login procedure by sending the user their
initial position (along with other stuff).  Clients send position changes to
the server, probably often, we may need UDP to make this as cheap as possible.

>   On a different note, do you want me to incorporate some kind of 
>   groupping so that people can talk to a certain group kinda like the 
>   specs you gave me. Or is this a later thing?

Please work incrementally and plan to deliver many successive milestones such as:

	version 0: everyone hears every message, no user/avatar positions
	version 1: add user/avatar positions via slow TCP
	version 2: add ability to send messages to specific users
	version 3: add ability to send messages to groups
	version 4: speedup user/avatar positions by adding UDP channel
	...

>   I just have to make sure I have a clear picture of what we are doing 
>   before I start to hack it together.

By all means.  I want you to ask questions, and to have thought about it enough
to write down at least a sketchy design description, before you hack it together.

>   Also will the vicinity of the avatar be calculate by me or the graphics 
>   people. Seems like this is a graphics task since the landscape is 
>   transparent to my code.

Totally a graphics people problem. Your job mainly to store and forward
information they send on to other clients when relevant.

Dr. J