FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

You need the Unity Editor installed – either a Professional or Standard license. realvirtual.io works as a plugin for Unity projects on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Releases are based on the current Long Term Stable (LTS) release. Within Unity LTS versions, you can always safely update to the latest version.

Usually yes, but only the current LTS release is tested and guaranteed. However, if there is no urgent reason for a higher version, we recommend using the corresponding LTS version.

We recommend a PC with at least 16GB of RAM, 6 or more cores, and a current gaming graphics card.

Unity Personal or Pro is sufficient. Unity Industry is only needed if you want to import native CAD formats such as SolidWorks, CATIA or NX via the Unity Asset Transformer (PiXYZ, included in the Unity Industry license) – realvirtual.io's own CADLink imports STEP, 3MF and JT without it.

Everyone who works with the Unity Editor – i.e., develops digital twins in it – also needs a realvirtual.io license.

You can share the digital twin freely and without license costs – but only as a compiled build, not as an editable project.

Yes, the purchase price is a one-time fee. There is an annual, significantly reduced upgrade package available for existing customers.

Yes, but only on one computer at a time, not on multiple simultaneously.

realvirtual.io uses the extremely powerful Unity Engine as its foundation instead of developing everything from scratch. Direct sales via the internet reduce costs.

Starter is free – ideal for getting started and for demos. The Starter version lacks the CAD interface as well as all interfaces beyond the Siemens systems.

No, both are included in Professional. These are products for customers who only need individual features.

It provides ready-made parametric simulation components for material flow simulation – ideal for system integrators and material handling technology.

Yes – realvirtual.io Starter is available for free on the Unity Asset Store. It includes a complete demo scene with drives, sensors, transport, and a Siemens S7 interface. Professional comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Directly from realvirtual.io with a quote and bank transfer, or via the Unity Asset Store with a credit card.

Options include: purchase Starter and learn on your own, attend training sessions, or "training on the job" – individual support via Teams.

Yes. We train teams on realvirtual (Unity and WEB), build a running digital twin from your CAD and machine data in a one-day pilot, support AI transformation in engineering, and develop interfaces or features on your behalf. All offerings are on the services page; contact us via the contact form.

realvirtual WEB is an open-source, browser-based 3D HMI and machine information system built on Three.js and TypeScript. It connects to real PLCs via WebSocket or realvirtual CONNECT and displays live machine states in 3D – drive positions, sensor readings, alarms, and KPIs. Share a link, and your digital twin runs on any device.

No. realvirtual WEB supports two input paths: export enriched GLB files from realvirtual.io Professional with all metadata and signal bindings, or import any standard GLB/glTF file – straight from Blender, or converted from CAD (e.g. STEP → GLB). Add signal bindings via the open rv_extras schema and custom behavior via TypeScript plugins – no Unity license required.

realvirtual.io Professional is a Unity-based framework for building digital twins – it covers the full engineering workflow: CAD import, behavior simulation, virtual commissioning with real PLCs, and multi-platform deployment. realvirtual WEB is a lightweight browser-based viewer and 3D HMI for delivering digital twins to end users – no installation, no Unity required. They work together: build in Professional, deliver via WEB. Or use WEB standalone with any GLB model.

Dual-licensed. AGPL: free and open source, without support – any project using it must itself be published under the AGPL. Commercial: €1,920 net per developer per year – a development license with support included, needed only while you actively develop; stop developing, stop paying. Per deployment, exactly one deployment fee applies (for overlapping use cases, the highest applicable one): €300 one-time per delivered machine or per simulation/planning study delivered to your customer (perpetual – keeps running without a subscription; €600 one-time with live connection to the PLC, incl. the realvirtual CONNECT runtime), €3,000/year per internal site (incl. the CONNECT runtime: all protocols, unlimited signals and internal users), or €4,900/year per public internet application. Exception: watermarked showroom and demo deployments (purely presentational, no live machine data, no charge – no paid access, not part of a paid delivery scope, no commercial offering built on it) carry no deployment fee. Want to license realvirtual WEB as part of your own software product? Ask us about our OEM model.

realvirtual WEB itself speaks one protocol: rv WebSocket Realtime v2 – openly documented, bidirectional, real-time. Everything else goes through realvirtual CONNECT, the native gateway with drivers for Siemens S7, Beckhoff TwinCAT ADS, OPC UA, MQTT, Modbus TCP, EtherNet/IP, Bosch Rexroth ctrlX, Keba, Festo AX, FANUC, Denso, ABB RobotStudio and SIMIT – including signal history in InfluxDB. Any third-party system that speaks the open WebSocket protocol can feed the scene directly.

Yes. realvirtual WEB is a standard Vite production build – a static file server is sufficient for serving the application. For live PLC connectivity, add realvirtual CONNECT: the native gateway streams signals into the browser and includes signal history in InfluxDB. Deploy on your own infrastructure with full control – no cloud dependency, no login required.

Yes. Via WebXR, realvirtual WEB runs on all AR and XR devices out of the box – Meta Quest, Apple Vision Pro, HTC Vive, Android/iOS AR. No native builds, no app store submissions. One URL works everywhere.

The EU Machinery Regulation (effective January 2027) enables fully digital machine documentation. realvirtual WEB is ready: link PDFs, technical drawings, and spare part lists directly to 3D components and failure messages. Version control via Gitea ensures traceability and 10+ year availability. Technicians open a link, click on a component, and see the relevant documentation in 3D context.

Nothing beyond the development work: watermarked showroom and demo deployments carry no deployment fee – even self-hosted on your own infrastructure and publicly reachable, with your models staying proprietary under the Commercial license. Three conditions: the realvirtual watermark stays visible, the content is purely presentational (no live connection to real machines), and no money changes hands – no paid access, the showroom is not part of a paid delivery scope, and no commercial offering is built on it. Only the developer license (€1,920/year) is needed during active development. As soon as one of these three conditions falls away, a deployment fee applies: for a public application under your own brand, or with paid access for end users, that is €4,900 per year. Keeping the watermark is not enough on its own once end users pay.

Yes, under AGPL-3.0, and you may charge your own customers for it. The AGPL does not restrict commercial use, it restricts secrecy. If you take this path, the complete product you deliver has to be published under AGPL-3.0: your own application code, the configuration, and the GLB files including your own 3D models and their rv_extras metadata. The realvirtual watermark stays visible and there is no commercial support. Most companies choose the commercial license instead, because their machine geometry and their application would otherwise become public. Open source is the condition of the free path, being free of charge is not.

Three steps. Publish everything you build under AGPL-3.0, including your 3D models: €0. Keep your models, code and configuration private, with the watermark visible, the application free of charge for end users and no live machine connection: €1,920 per developer and year, no deployment fee. Run it under your own brand or let end users pay: €1,920 plus the internet application fee of €4,900 per year, so €6,820 per year for one developer. Embedding always means working on the source, our TypeScript layer and the build, so the developer license applies to every variant that stays proprietary.

No. Commercial is a single tier: the full engine with all modules as code in your own deployment, priced per developer plus exactly one deployment fee. There is no module-based pricing, no per-user pricing and no asset-only package. The example scenes that ship with it, such as the campus demo and the logistics models with conveyors, transfers and turntables, are part of the delivery and not a separate asset pack. The lever for a lighter entry is the deployment situation (watermark visible, free of charge, no live data), not a smaller feature subset.

A native gateway shipped as a self-contained application for Windows and Linux: it speaks Siemens S7, Beckhoff TwinCAT ADS, OPC UA, MQTT, Modbus TCP, EtherNet/IP, Bosch ctrlX and Keba on both platforms – plus Festo AX, FANUC, Denso, ABB RobotStudio and SIMIT on Windows – and streams the signals live into realvirtual WEB in the browser. The complete realvirtual WEB is embedded, demo scene included – plus signal mirroring, signal history in InfluxDB and the AI diagnosis backend.

Free for up to 20 signals (community registration, node-locked). Unlimited signals: Annual €1,250/year net or Lifetime €3,900 net one-time. For production use with realvirtual WEB, CONNECT is already bundled: the internal site fee includes the CONNECT runtime, and machine-companion delivery with a live 3D HMI is €600 one-time per machine (WEB + CONNECT, perpetual). One CONNECT license is also included with the realvirtual WEB server. Full details on the CONNECT product page.

Neither. Internet is only needed for activation and deactivation – at runtime CONNECT validates its license purely locally, even air-gapped; offline activation is available for networks without internet. And Unity is not required: CONNECT is the standalone and browser leg of the platform – inside Unity, the realvirtual interfaces talk to controllers directly.