DataLink digital-twin data layer (preview)
Dawn Engine DataLink is a planned first-class orchestration Gem family (first-release entry Gems/DataLink, with planned VideoFusion and DataViz tracks). It binds MQTT / OPC UA / Kafka / WebSocket telemetry and surveillance video into one query-and-binding model over 3D scene entities, and exposes heatmaps, flow fields, geofences, and POI labels as visualization outputs.
Maturity: planned / product preview. This page describes target capabilities and rollout stages—not available product APIs. Enabling any future Registry gate must leave existing World Streaming, Cesium, Dawn Stream, and Script Canvas paths unchanged when DataLink is off.
It does not replace a business middleware or SCADA stack: DataLink consumes normalized telemetry and video streams; device-protocol adapters, auth gateways, and historians stay at the project or external-service layer.
What problem it solves
Digital-twin projects often split “ingest → bind entities → visualize → demo” across fragile glue code, stretching PoC timelines. DataLink is intended to provide:
- A unified real-time data bus and property binding (entity / component fields / material parameters / Script Canvas variables);
- Protocol adapters (MQTT, OPC UA, Kafka, WebSocket) enabled on demand via Registry;
- Surveillance video (RTSP / GB28181) projected onto 3D surfaces, with camera calibration and multi-stream management;
- 3D visualization primitives: heatmaps, flow arrows, geofences, POI labels, and lightweight chart panels;
- Coordination with double-precision large worlds, Cesium, and Dawn Stream—so bound scenes can also be viewed in the browser.
Planned capabilities
Ingest and binding (DL0–DL4)
| Milestone | Focus |
|---|---|
| DL0 | Gem scaffold, Registry opt-in (default off), binding model, headless unit tests |
| DL1 | MQTT / WebSocket adapters, property binding, Script Canvas / Lua query nodes |
| DL2 | OPC UA / Kafka adapters, reconnect / back-pressure policy, sample Prefabs |
| DL3 | Spatial-index binding with World Streaming cells / Cesium Globe Anchors |
| DL4 | Server-authoritative relay mode, quality tiers, performance gates, shipping docs |
Video fusion track (VF1–VF3)
Depends on the ingest bus’s entity and calibration pipeline; does not replace it:
| Track | Focus |
|---|---|
| VF1 | RTSP pull, decode, planar / curved projection, single-stream calibration editor |
| VF2 | GB28181 integration, multi-stream management, occlusion and LOD policy |
| VF3 | Remote viewing path with Dawn Stream; multi-channel projection on cluster displays |
Visualization track (DV1–DV3)
| Track | Focus |
|---|---|
| DV1 | POI labels, geofences, basic numeric panels |
| DV2 | Heatmaps / flow arrows with binding-driven color maps |
| DV3 | Timeline playback hooks; optional bridge to a record/replay system |
Point clouds (LAS / LAZ / E57) and BIM / CAD (IFC and similar) import are later candidate tracks, outside DataLink’s first-release scope. The design reserves the same spatial index and double-precision query interfaces.
How it will work
MQTT / OPC UA / Kafka / WebSocket / RTSP
│
▼
DataLink Core (normalized telemetry + binding graph)
│
├─ BindingBus ──► entity properties / materials / Script Canvas
├─ VideoFusion ──► decode → projection mesh / Overlay
├─ DataViz ──► heatmaps / fences / POI / panels
└─ StreamBridge (optional) ──► Dawn Stream browser sessions
Design rules in the specs:
- Orchestrate, do not reinvent: no second renderer; visualization uses existing Atom / LyShine / Overlay paths.
- Double-precision spatial queries: bindings and fences use
AZ::Vector3d/AabbD; GPU quantities stay render-origin-relative. - Default off: projects that never enable DataLink pay zero runtime cost (Registry / subsystem gating).
- Projects own protocol truth: the engine ships adapter contracts and samples—not a bundled vendor cloud.
Explicitly out of scope for v1
| Not in v1 | Notes |
|---|---|
| Full SCADA / MES replacement | Real-time binding and visualization orchestration only |
| Historical time-series database | Hooks only; storage is project-layer |
| Lossless import of arbitrary CAD formats | BIM / CAD is a later candidate |
| Full productization of massive point clouds | Point cloud is a later candidate track |
| Out-of-the-box on-device AI recognition | Video may feed external inference; no built-in model training |
Related systems
| Topic | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Double-precision rendering | Large-world precision for fences, POI, and projection anchors |
| World Streaming | Bound objects load/unload with cells |
| Cesium 3D Tiles | Geospatial anchors and global basemap context |
| Dawn Stream | Browser viewing of bound twin scenes |
| ClusterDisplay | Venue / CAVE multi-channel presentation |
| SensorSim (planned) | Simulated telemetry can write into the same binding model |
Status and next steps
This chapter is a product preview. When DataLink ships, the guide will grow Quick start, Registry keys, protocol adapter samples, and Script Canvas node notes—consistent with chapters such as PolyTerrain and Dawn Stream.