monopoly-twin_Unreal

Monopoly Twin – Physical-to-Digital Board Game System

A real-time hybrid system that bridges a physical Monopoly board with a digital Unreal Engine simulation, using computer vision, state synchronization, and low-latency communication.

Demo

Video demo here: https://youtu.be/2GvdDb1VBgk

Overview

This project explores how physical interactions can be captured, interpreted, and reflected inside a real-time 3D environment.

Current capabilities:

• Pawn detection via OpenCV
• Board position mapping
• WebSocket communication pipeline
• Real-time sync with Unreal Engine
• Virtual dice system in Unreal
• Camera-based pawn tracking

Why This Project Exists

Most board game digitization stops at UI replication.

This project focuses on:

• Physical-to-digital bridging
• Real-time synchronization challenges
• System modularity for extensibility
• Low-latency event pipelines

It is designed as a foundation for mixed-reality gameplay systems.

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System Architecture

[Camera Input]
      ↓
[Vision Pipeline (OpenCV)]
      ↓
[Game State Engine]
      ↓
[WebSocket Server]
      ↓
[Unreal Engine Client]
      ↓
[3D Visualization + Logic]

Key design principles:

• Decoupled modules (Vision / State / Networking)
• Stateless message protocol
• Real-time event-driven updates
• Engine-agnostic backend

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Tech Stack

• Python – Vision + server
• OpenCV – Pawn detection & tracking
• WebSockets – Real-time communication
• Unreal Engine 5 – Visualization & interaction layer
• HTML/JS – Debug & control UI

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Communication Model

All interactions are driven via a structured message protocol:

{
  "type": "PAWN_UPDATE",
  "player_id": "P1",
  "board_index": 12,
  "timestamp": 1710000000
}

Design goals:

• Deterministic state sync
• Minimal payload size
• Engine-independent messaging

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Demo

See assets/demo.mp4 for current progress:

• Pawn tracking
• Board mapping
• Unreal sync
• Dice interaction

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Project Structure

• backend/ → Vision + server logic
• unreal/ → Engine integration
• client/ → Debug UI
• docs/ → System design & decisions

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Current Challenges

• Robust detection under lighting variation
• Multi-pawn tracking consistency
• Latency smoothing for real-time sync
• Error handling in physical interaction

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Roadmap

• Multi-player support
• Banker control system
• Game rule engine
• Mobile companion app
• AR overlay experimentation

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About Me

Unreal Engine developer with 5+ years in virtual production and real-time systems.

This project demonstrates:

• System design thinking
• Cross-domain integration (CV + networking + UE)
• Real-time pipeline architecture
• Ownership of end-to-end implementation

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Feedback / Collaboration

Open to discussions on:

• Mixed reality systems
• Unreal integrations
• Real-time architecture design