Power Network Tycoon Logo

Real Time Graphs and Data Visualisation

13 August 20252 min read

Featured image for Real Time Graphs and Data Visualisation

Who doesn’t love data? Watching your power grid come to life is one thing, but seeing it perform over time adds a whole new layer of depth. Based on feedback from players asking for better ways to understand system performance, I’ve added real-time graphing to help visualize what’s happening.

What You Can Track Now you’ll see graphs that track key metrics in real time. These include things like:

  • Current being drawn
  • Temperature of conductor/substation etc
  • Power (active power or apparent power, depending on the asset)
  • Battery charge levels

These graphs update live as your network runs, so you can spot spikes, dips, and optimise solar panel directions etc. Whether you’re optimising efficiency or trying to figure out why the lights just went out, this should give you a powerful new tool.

A Visual Window Into the Grid The game itself is built in Unity, which doesn’t have a nice plug-and-play graph tool. I tried a few things to get the graph to work how I wanted it to but what I ended up using was a combination of dots and lines. The dots show the data point and a line would be stretched between the dots. In some cases such as for each phase on a conductor, I was also able to change the color of them to show more data on the one graph.

What’s Next? I’m planning to expand the graphing system to include overlays, history logs, and maybe even export options for the data nerds out there. If there’s a specific stat you’d love to see tracked, let me know. Thanks again for your support!

You may also be interested in:

Featured image for Community Spotlight: An Engineer's Guide to Power Network Tycoon

Community Spotlight: An Engineer's Guide to Power Network Tycoon

A fantastic fan-made guide for Power Network Tycoon, 'Voltage, Chaos & Morty: The Engineer’s Guide to Not Blowing Up Your Grid,' created by Tadswana on Steam Community.

15 September 2025
Featured image for Balancing Complexity and Clarity. Making a systems game playable

Balancing Complexity and Clarity. Making a systems game playable

My approach to teaching complex concepts without overwhelming new players.

6 August 2025