Case: Digital Twin of an Automobile Plant

The calculations are approximate, but the real numbers show the true reason why such projects often fail to launch. Let's examine a specific case. We'll take a realistic example—creating a digital twin of an automobile plant for virtual training and production process planning.

Case: Digital Twin of an Automobile Plant

Project Goals:

    Visualization of the entire production cycle

    Employee training on equipment operation

    Planning optimization of production lines

    Integration with real SCADA system data

Calculation 1: Traditional UE5 Development from Scratch

Team and Time Investment

Stage 1: Pre-production & Architecture (3 months)

    Technical Lead UE5 × 1 ($140k/year) → $35,000

    Systems Architect × 1 ($130k/year) → $32,500

    Project Manager × 1 ($100k/year) → $25,000

Stage 2: Core Development (9 months)

    Senior UE5 Developer × 4 ($120k × 4 = $480k/year) → $360,000

    DevOps Engineer × 2 ($130k × 2 = $260k/year) → $195,000

    Technical Artist × 3 ($110k × 3 = $330k/year) → $247,500

Stage 3: Content & Assets (12 months)

    3D Modeler (hard surface) × 6 ($85k × 6 = $510k/year) → $510,000

    Environment Artist × 4 ($90k × 4 = $360k/year) → $360,000

    VFX Artist × 2 ($100k × 2 = $200k/year) → $200,000

Stage 4: Integration & Polish (6 months)

    UI/UX Programmer × 2 ($110k × 2 = $220k/year) → $110,000

    QA Lead × 1 ($90k/year) → $45,000

    QA Engineer × 3 ($70k × 3 = $210k/year) → $105,000

Total Direct Team Costs:

Pre-production:    $92,500

Core Dev:         $802,500

Content:          $1,070,000

Polish:           $260,000

────────────────────────────

Total Salaries:   $2,225,000

Infrastructure Costs (18 months):

    Build Farm (20 servers): $300,000

    Software Licenses (UE5, Perforce, Maya, Substance): $180,000

    Workstations (25 high-end PCs): $375,000

    Cloud Infrastructure (CI/CD, testing): $150,000

    Total Infrastructure: $1,005,000

Overhead (30% of salaries):

    Office, administration, management: $667,500

Total Cost of Traditional Development:

Salaries:        $2,225,000

Infrastructure:  $1,005,000

Overhead:        $667,500

──────────────────────────

TOTAL:           $3,897,500

Timeline: 18-24 months

Team Size: 25-30 people

Calculation 2: Development with VR Sandbox Constructor

Team and Time Investment

Stage 1: Design (1 month)

    Industrial Designer × 1 ($90k/year) → $7,500

    Technical Designer × 1 ($80k/year) → $6,667

Stage 2: Content Creation (3 months)

    Content Creator × 4 ($70k × 4 = $280k/year) → $70,000

    3D Scan Specialist × 1 ($75k/year) → $18,750

Stage 3: Logic Configuration (2 months)

    Logic Designer × 2 ($85k × 2 = $170k/year) → $28,333

    Integration Specialist × 1 ($95k/year) → $15,833

Stage 4: Testing (1 month)

    QA Tester × 2 ($60k × 2 = $120k/year) → $10,000

Total Direct Team Costs:

Design:          $14,167

Content:         $88,750

Logic:           $44,166

Testing:         $10,000

────────────────────────

Total Salaries:  $157,083

Infrastructure Costs (7 months):

    VR Sandbox License: $50,000

    Cloud Infrastructure: $25,000

    Workstations (8 mid-range PCs): $80,000

    Total Infrastructure: $155,000

Overhead (20% of salaries):    $31,417

Total Cost with VR Sandbox:

Salaries:        $157,083

Infrastructure:  $155,000

Overhead:        $31,417

────────────────────────

TOTAL:           $343,500

Timeline: 4-7 months

Team Size: 8-10 people

Comparative Analysis

Direct Cost Comparison:

Traditional Development: $3,897,500

VR Sandbox Approach:    $343,500

─────────────────────────────────

Difference:            $3,554,000

Savings:               91.2%

Time Investment Comparison:

Traditional: 18-24 months

VR Sandbox:  4-7 months

Acceleration: 75-80%

Team Size Comparison:

Traditional: 25-30 people (highly specialized)

VR Sandbox:  8-10 people (versatile specialists)

Reduction:   68-70%

Key Factors for 11x Cost Efficiency

    Elimination of Development Stages:

        No engine and core systems development

        No creation of basic tools

        No CI/CD pipeline setup

        No compilation and build processes

    Reduced Specialization:

        UE5 Developer → Technical Designer (40% savings)

        Technical Artist → Content Creator (50% savings)

        DevOps Engineer → Integration Specialist (30% savings)

    Elimination of Infrastructure Costs:

        Build farm $300k → Cloud $25k

        Software Licenses $180k → Single License $50k

        Workstations $375k → $80k

    Accelerated Iterations:

        Before: 2-3 days to test changes

        Now: 5-10 minutes to verify edits

Long-Term Economics

Support and Updates (Annual):

Traditional:

- Support Team: 8 people × $120k = $960,000

- Infrastructure: $200,000

- Total: $1,160,000/year

VR Sandbox:

- Support Team: 2 people × $80k = $160,000

- Infrastructure: $50,000

- Total: $210,000/year

Support Cost Savings: 82%

Scaling to Other Projects:

Traditional: each new plant = 70-80% of the first cost

VR Sandbox: each new plant = 20-30% of the first cost

Conclusion

For the "Digital Twin of an Automobile Plant" case:

Traditional Development: ~$3.9 million, 18-24 months

With VR Sandbox Constructor: ~$340k, 4-7 months

Savings: 91% in cost, 75% in time

This represents a significant reduction in costs, although it does not reach a 100-fold reduction due to the need for specific content creation and integration with industrial systems. However, for more standard projects (offices, shopping malls), savings can indeed approach 95-98%.

In summary: The potential for cost reduction is analogous to the emergence of web CMS like WordPress and other specialized solutions. Where 20 years ago, creating a website could take days or weeks, now entire pages and websites can be generated with AI, and a site can be created from a template in the cloud in 10 minutes, with most of the time spent on content creation.

Similar results can be achieved in the creation of digital virtual spaces.