Smart Spatial: digital twins for the Ethiopian railway system
Smart Spatial is a digital twins startup doing impressive work on post-occupancy, IOT-fed, and infrastructure twins powered by Unreal Engine. The company, with offices all around the world, prides itself on creating true digital twins that seamlessly combine data and high-fidelity 3D visualization, operating as intelligent, connected environments.
The creation and operation of large, complex commercial digital twins calls for interaction between technologies like Unreal Engine, IoT, and Pixel Streaming. Up until recently, you would need thousands of pages of schematics for every building showing things like sensors in every room, but even that representation wouldn’t be true to life.
Now, Smart Spatial says, developers can have the equivalent of X-ray vision: the ability to see through digital walls and create spatial awareness for complex systems, which makes for increased efficiency in detecting, identifying, and repairing issues.
Now, Smart Spatial says, developers can have the equivalent of X-ray vision: the ability to see through digital walls and create spatial awareness for complex systems, which makes for increased efficiency in detecting, identifying, and repairing issues.
Building a smart railway with Unreal Engine
Smart Spatial is currently working with an infrastructure operator in Ethiopia to modernize the country’s railway system, putting sensors on every train.To find out more about how Smart Spatial leverages Unreal Engine for their projects, particularly the Ethiopian train system, we talked to Dennis Khvostionov, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Smart Spatial.
Images courtesy of Smart Spatial, Inc.
How is Smart Spatial using Unreal Engine?
We’re using Unreal Engine to create real-time digital twins of complex infrastructure and commercial environments. Our work goes beyond visualization—we’re streaming real-world data into 3D environments to provide operators with actionable insights. Unreal Engine gives us the horsepower to render these systems spatially and in real time, making it possible to interact with data like never before.
What is the value of Unreal Engine for Smart Spatial?
Unreal Engine enables us to bridge the gap between raw data and spatial context. Traditional interfaces—thousands of pages of schematics—force operators to interpret issues across fragmented dashboards. Unreal Engine helps us visualize infrastructure as it exists, in context. We call it “X-ray vision”—the ability to see not just that there’s a problem, but exactly where and why. This level of insight translates directly into better operations, faster maintenance, and smarter decisions.We’ve worked in building automation and IoT for years, but until recently, 3D remained out of reach due to performance and hardware limitations. Our earlier companies had to stick to 2D interfaces because GPUs simply couldn’t handle the load. Unreal Engine changed that. Now we can integrate real-time sensor data into immersive environments without sacrificing performance. It allows us to bring 3D to life in ways that were simply not possible a few years ago.
Images courtesy of Smart Spatial, Inc.
How do potential customers react to seeing real-time digital twins?
Our demos speak for themselves. Whether it’s a data center or a railway control hub, when customers see a real-time, spatially accurate digital twin of their facility—in their browser or even on a phone—they immediately get it. The reaction is always: “Wait, how are you doing that?” That’s where Unreal Engine becomes our competitive differentiator. It’s not just about the visual fidelity; it’s about usability, speed, and delivering insights they didn’t even know were possible.How is the use of real-time technology beneficial to your customers?
Spatial awareness drives efficiency. Instead of guessing where an issue is based on a dashboard alert, our clients can walk virtually through a facility, see sensor data in its actual location, and make a decision. That means reduced downtime, more targeted repairs, and fewer costly errors. For training, it’s transformative—facility managers can onboard faster and learn systems through exploration rather than manuals.Images courtesy of Smart Spatial, Inc.
Tell us about your work on the Ethiopian railways.
In Ethiopia, we’re working with local partners to modernize the country's only railway system, which is a critical lifeline for people and goods. Each train is being fitted with sensors, and every station will feature a digital twin that shows the real-time position and condition of incoming trains.Imagine a large screen where passengers and staff see the train arriving on screen in real time—mirroring reality. Unreal Engine allows us to do that. Instead of a 2D map, it’s a living system.
The railways can now be visualized at each station using Unreal Engine; instead of getting a 2D dashboard, it’s a proper digital twin, with a huge screen when the train comes in, to see it in real time!
Images courtesy of Smart Spatial, Inc.
Do these benefits give you a competitive advantage?
Absolutely. We’re solving complex infrastructure problems using a game engine that most of the industry doesn’t yet understand. That gives us a unique position in the market—especially as firms race to modernize with shrinking talent pools and aging infrastructure. Unreal Engine allows us to deliver fast, beautiful, and functionally powerful solutions that others simply can’t replicate with traditional tools.The industry overall hasn’t been thinking about how to use technologies like this. And though game engines were perhaps not meant to be used for this, it’s a pressure we are willing to bear, and even enhance, as the benefits are huge.
We also have noticed the impact of these technologies when it comes to training facility managers and attracting new talent to the industry. From a workforce perspective, that’s critical—many facility managers are aging out, and tools like Unreal Engine help attract and train the next generation.
There’s also a benefit for facility managers when they prepare to go to congress and lobby. Unreal Engine helps infrastructure projects become more transparent and efficient, and helps government stakeholders and the public truly see what's being proposed or built. That means fewer delays, smarter budgeting, and more accountable spending.
What is your favorite Unreal Engine feature?
Pixel Streaming. It changed everything. It allows us to deliver high-fidelity 3D applications directly to clients, without any heavy-duty hardware. Just a browser. The experience is smooth, impressive, and immediate. For our use case—where clients want results without technical overhead—it’s a game changer.Images courtesy of Smart Spatial, Inc.
What is Smart Spatial’s vision for the future?
Our mission is to bring spatial intelligence to every critical asset on Earth—from buildings and railways to satellites. We started Smart Spatial to solve a problem we couldn’t before: representing the complexity of real-world systems in a way that’s intuitive and actionable. With Unreal Engine and IoT, that dream is finally within reach. We’re building not just services, but a commercial platform that will help industries operate smarter, faster, and more sustainably.The next chapter? Real-time, global infrastructure intelligence.