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Since virtual geographic environments (VGEs) were unofficially proposed for the first time at a conference in 1998, nearly two decades have passed. During these years, VGE has experienced several stages of evolution (Chen, Lin, and Lu 2017), and its definition has been modified over the course of its evolution (see Lin and Gong 2001; Lin and Zhu 2005; Gong, Zhou, and Zhang 2010; Lu 2011; Lin, Chen, and Lu 2013; Lin et al. 2013; Chen et al. 2017). Currently, the term VGE can be described as a kind of digital geographic environment generated by computers and related technologies that users can use to experience and recognize complex geographic systems and further conduct comprehensive geographic analyses, through equipped functions, including multi-channel human–computer interactions (HCIs), distributed geographic modelling and simulations, and network geo-collaborations. Generally …