  Traditionally, a simulation of a dense stellar system required choosing an
initial model, running an integrator, and analyzing the output. Almost all of
the effort went into writing a clever integrator that could handle binaries,
triples and encounters between various multiple systems efficiently. Recently,
the scope and complexity of these simulations has increased dramatically, for
three reasons: 1) the sheer size of the data sets, measured in Terabytes, make
traditional `awking and grepping' of a single output file impractical; 2) the
addition of stellar evolution data brings qualitatively new challenges to the
data reduction; 3) increased realism of the simulations invites realistic forms
of `SOS': Simulations of Observations of Simulations, to be compared directly
with observations. We are now witnessing a shift toward the construction of
archives as well as tailored forms of visualization including the use of
virtual reality simulators and planetarium domes, and a coupling of both with
budding efforts in constructing virtual observatories. This review describes
these new trends, presenting Starlab as the first example of a full software
environment for realistic large-scale simulations of dense stellar systems.
