I can't tell you precisely how it was done but I worked at a company with many different types of hardware that contained many complex configurations of FPGAs, lasers, optics, and microcontrollers, coupled to a computer and they managed to simulate it quite well for what seems like a decade. One of the scientists there was one of the few geniuses I've ever met and they managed to simulate all those devices and a sufficient amount of their variations. So I can confirm it's possible, maybe it just requires an overworked genius?