Abstract: This article surveys the state of the art crowd simulation techniques and their selected applications, with its focus on our recent research advances in this rapidly growing research field. We first give a concise overview on the mainstream methodologies of crowd simulation. Then, we describe our recent research advances on crowd evacuation, pedestrian crowds, crowd formation, traffic simulation, and swarm simulation. Finally, we offer our own perspectives on open crowd simulation research challenges and point out potential future directions in this area.