Visual Interactive Simulation: A methodological perspective

The ideas and methods of Visual Interactive Simulation (VIS) are nearly fifteen years old, yet are still often misunderstood or misrepresented. It is argued that VIS is primarily a methodology, a way of solving problems with simulation modeling, not necessarily a way of building simulation models. Two distinct methodologies are identified, namely active and passive VIS. It is shown that simulation languages and packages tend to implicitly employ a particular methodology, and that each approach requires a different problem-solving life cycle. Present research, and necessary future research, are reviewed from the present methodological perspective.