breve

Update 10/2015

The breve project, website and this site are no longer maintained since about 2009, but I still receive inquiries and support requests about the software from time to time.  

Though some of the original site content has been lost, I’ve restored a limited set of the content from the original site, including a link to the OS X breve download for those who are interested.

See also breve.js a much smaller multi-agent simulation toolkit written in JavaScript.

Thanks, 

jon klein, breve author

What is breve?

breve is a free, open-source software package which makes it easy to build 3D simulations of multi-agent systems and artificial life. 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.

breve is available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows in the download section.

breve 2.7.2 for Mac OS X now available for download [02/19/08]

breve 2.7 adds some major new features, including:

  • Support for non-convex shapes.
  • Support for importing shapes from 3DS.
  • Improved support for writing simulations with Python.
  • Improved graphics and rendering.

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 and borrows many features from languages such as C, SmallTalk and Objective C. Regardless of which language is used, users without previous programming experience will find it easy to jump in. More information on both languages can be found in the documentation section.

Interface With Your Own Code

breve features an extensible plugin architecture which allows you to write your own plugins and interact with your own code. Writing plugins is simple and allows you to expand breve to work with existing projects. Plugins have been written in breve to generate MIDI music, download web pages, interact with a Lisp environment and interact with the “push” language. To develop your own plugins, you’ll need to refer to the plugin documentation.

Feedback and Bug Reports

Please send feedback and bug reports to jk [at] artificial.com. Bugs can also be reported on the breve discussion forums.

About the Author

breve was written by jon klein [mail].