A companion control application that drives a live Unity automotive HMI scene over a network link. Screens, cameras, studio lighting, car paint, doors, wheels and full drive-mode "looks" are all adjusted in real time, turning a game engine into a designable, director-controlled cockpit for prototyping in-car experiences.
The project is split into two programs that talk to each other in real time. The Simulator is a desktop control panel (built in Python / PySide6) that acts as the "director". Unity runs the 3D car, the studio and the HMI, and listens for instructions. They are connected by a simple newline-delimited JSON-over-TCP link.
PySide6 control panel. Send a command (switch screen, recolour a light, open a door, apply a drive mode).
Applies each command to the live scene and renders it. Every controllable announces itself back, so the panel builds its own controls automatically.
Crucially, Unity announces what it can control back to the Simulator when it connects. Add a new light, material or car part in the scene and tag it as controllable, it appears in the panel on its own, with no extra wiring on either side. The control surface is generated from the scene itself.
Each tab in the Simulator drives a different layer of the scene live:
Switch the active HMI screen, from Home to Console or Charging and blend the cinematic camera to match.
Normal, Sport, Comfort, Eco, Quiet, as each re-themes car paint, lighting, mood and the HMI accent in one synced transition.
Real-time HDRP area lights, colour, intensity and on/off for the virtual photography studio.
Body colour, rims, glass and leather; headlights, DRLs, indicators and brake lights driven by function.
Open any door, hood or boot, steer the front axle and spin the wheels.
Save and recall a complete look as a single named preset.
The HMI follows one rule: two layers, never opaque. A flat UI canvas (Home, Drive Console, Charging) is composited on top of a real-time 3D vehicle, so the car is always visible behind the glass, exactly as it would be on a real cluster display.
Every screen is generated by reproducible C# editor-builders from a single set of design tokens, not hand-placed by dragging boxes. Change a colour, radius or margin in one place and rebuild. Because the HMI listens on the same link as the scene, a drive-mode change can retint the car, the studio and the UI accent together, in one smooth, synchronised transition.
Designers, engineers and stakeholders can try drive modes, themes, camera angles and lighting moods live, together. No rebuild, no rebake. Decisions happen in the room.
The interface is always composited over the live vehicle, so legibility, contrast and layout are judged in the actual context they'll ship in.
New lights, materials or car parts appear in the control panel automatically. The rig scales to a full vehicle without bespoke UI work for every feature.
Presets capture an entire scene state, so a polished demo, a marketing render or a regression check can be recalled identically, every time.
