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    breve

    Category  Cross-Omics>Agent-Based Modeling/Simulation/Tools

    Abstract  breve is a free simulation environment designed for ‘multi-
    agent simulation’.

    breve allows users to define the behaviors of ‘autonomous agents’ in a
    continuous 3D world, then observe how they interact.

    breve includes support for a rich ‘visualization engine’, realistic physical
    simulation and an easy-to-use scripting language.

    breve can be used as a tool to explore any type of ‘simulated world’.

    breve has been used for a wide variety of ‘simulation applications’:
    simulated virtual creatures, artificial ecosystems, simulations of
    ‘molecular biology’, visualization and much more.

    breve facilitates the construction of complex ‘agent-based simulations’
    by automatically handling agent communication, representation in 3D
    space, graphical rendering, physical simulation and a number of other
    features which are useful to ‘agent-based simulations’.

    Some of the breve's strong points/capabilities include:

    1) Built for 3D simulations; 2) Built in simulation of realistic physics; 3)
    Integrated scripting language; 4) Rich, 3D OpenGL display; and 5) Free,
    open-source.

    Based on these features/capabilities, breve is a good choice when you
    need features such as:

    1) Simulation in 3D spaces; 2) Simulation of realistic physics, for
    robotics applications, for example;

    3) High-quality visualization and graphical output; and 4) Rapid, simple
    simulation development.

    Write Your Own Simulations --

    breve simulations are written in the popular ‘Python language’, or in an
    easy-to-use language called steve, which is object-oriented (OO) and
    borrows many features from languages such as C, Smalltalk &
    Objective-C.

    Regardless of which language is used, users without previous
    programming experience will find it easy to jump in.

    Using Python or using a simple scripting language called steve, you
    can define the ‘behaviors of agents’ in a 3D world and observe how they
    interact.

    breve includes ‘physical simulation’ and ‘collision detection’ so you can
    simulate realistic creatures, and an OpenGL display engine so you can
    visualize your simulated worlds.

    As of breve release 2.6, breve offers (the above mentioned) two (2)
    choices of scripting languages for writing simulations: "steve" and
    Python.  

    Python support in breve is new, and is therefore Not expected to be as
    robust as the "steve" front-end.

    However, in the long run, Python will be the recommended language
    front-end for all new breve development.

    The "steve" language is still supported, but will Not have any new
    development.

    For the time being, the following considerations may be useful when
    deciding which front-end language to use:

    Advantages of steve:

    1) Somewhat faster than Python for many tasks.

    2) Has been part of breve since the first release and is generally stable
    and well-integrated.

    3) Supports breve object archiving and networking, a feature which has
    Not yet been integrated into Python.

    4) Full support for all breve classes and demos.

    5) The primary language used in the documentation for breve.

    Advantages of Python:

    1) Huge amounts of existing code and modules that can be integrated
    into simulations.

    2) Generally speaking a far more ‘advanced language’ for developing
    and integrating new functionality.

    3) A popular and well-used open-source language with applications far
    beyond breve.

    Interface with Your Own Code --

    breve features an extensible plug-in architecture which allows you to
    write your own plug-ins and interact with your own code.

    Writing plug-ins is simple and allows you to expand breve to work with
    existing projects.

    Plug-ins have been written in breve to generate MIDI music, download
    web pages, interact with a Lisp environment and interact with the "Push"
    language (see G6G Product Number 20445).

    Note: The "Push" language is designed specifically for ‘genetic
    programming’ and other evolutionary computational applications. Push
    is designed to avoid most of the complications that can arise when
    evolving code.

    (Also see 'Genetic Programming' Systems/Tools in the G6G Software
    Product Abstracts by Application - AI Section).

    Visualization --

    breve includes a rich OpenGL display engine that lets you explore
    simulated worlds from any angle and using a variety of effects, like
    shadows and reflections. breve also lets you take snapshots and ‘make
    movies’ of your simulations.

    Simulated ‘Molecular Biology’ --

    Glorious Tsui, in Christian Jacob's lab at The University of Calgary, has
    used breve to simulate the ‘molecular workings’ of a virus.

    The lambda-switch is one of the most studied ‘gene regulatory’
    systems of a virus called lambda.

    The switch determines whether the virus will ‘reproduce and destroy’
    the host cell, or hide in the cell's DNA and await another opportunity.

    This simulation makes use of breve's ‘3D simulation engine’ and its
    object-oriented programming language (OOP), steve, to model the
    lambda-switch.

    Repressor Dimer agents (objects consisting of two spheres joined by a
    black string), CRO Dimer agents (green spheres) and the RNA
    polymerase agents (purple rectangular blocks) compete for binding to
    the binding sites at the ‘control area’ (three stationary blue rectangles)
    of the DNA segment.

    The control area determines whether the CI gene (yellow stationary
    block) or the CRO gene (orange stationary block) gets read by the RNA
    polymerase agents, thus determining the fate of the cell.

    System Requirements  

    breve is available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows.

    Manufacturer   

    Jon Klein
    Complex Systems Group
    Department of Physical Resource Theory
    Chalmers University of Technology and
    Goteborg University
    SE-412 96 Goteborg, Sweden
    And
    Cognitive Science
    Hampshire College
    Amherst, MA 01002
    E-mail: jk@spiderland.org
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