Digital Twin Performance : Unity as a platform for visualizing interactive digital twins

Abstract: The project set out to construct a proof of concept for surface deformation in the Unity Engine using available assets and tools compatible with the Unity Engine, and via the proof of concept investigate which factors in a mesh deformation simulation that affects performance in terms of frames per second, memory usage and usability the most. This while looking into suitable data structures in the Unity Engine for handling expected data in a physics simulation of a surface deformation, such that of mining or scraping a cave wall. The project aims to answer these questions via testing and trail and error, performing tests while recording data which is plotted and discussed. To save time and start testing faster the usage of a premium assets called Digger Pro is used, allowing for quick set up of mesh manipulation inf both editor and play mode. Testing shows that one of the major factor for performance degradation is mesh resolu-tion, as it directly contributes to an increase in data points that needs to be kept track of and calculated. The Unity Engine and Digger PRO man-ages fairly well to stay above the targeted 30 frames per second limit even with medium level settings for meshes, all while maintaining acceptable memory usage levels. All this ties into the idea of an increased usage of digital twins in many different scenarios, and therefore the scientific community’s view on digital twins main challenges are summarized and discussed, hoping to shed further light on the current status of digital twin technology.