In this talk I will present some recent results concerning modelling and simulations of collective behaviors emerging in pedestrian dynamics. Starting from the '70s, a great variety of models have been proposed, spanning different scales of descriptions and approaches. The focus will be on a novel distance-based zeroth-order discrete-in-time model, which offers a powerful tool for simulating crowd behavior at a microscopic level. This model is specifically designed to reproduce key self-organizing patterns typically observed in crowds, as well as the propagation of material waves that emerge in high-densities scenarios. Unlike well-established models of the literature, the proposed model provides a novel perspective by eliminating common issues found in the widely-used social force model, such as unrealistic inertia and oscillatory movements. These refinements make the model more reliable and accurate for practical applications. I will show how the models considered during the talk can handle a variety of real-world scenarios and challenges through a series of numerical simulations.