The entire city of San Francisco as a video game
- ID
- 17442
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 25 Aug 2026, 1:05 AM
- Fetched
- 26 Aug 2026, 5:01 AM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://sf.thijs.gg/
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 26 Aug 2026, 5:05 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coders
What happened
A web-based interactive demo renders the entire city of San Francisco as a playable 3D environment at sf.thijs.gg, using what appears to be Apple Maps city data. Users can walk, drive, fly with a glider, and teleport around a textured 3D reproduction of SF streets with WASD/mouse controls, tile streaming, and neighborhood-level detail loading.
Why it matters
Demonstrates that real-world city-scale 3D data from major platform providers (here, Apple's city models) can be streamed and rendered in a browser with game-engine-style controls. Builders exploring geospatial apps, digital twins, or location-based experiences should evaluate whether Apple Maps' detailed city data is accessible for their own projects, and how tile-streaming approaches handle city-scale rendering performance.
Discussion angle
What does this imply about the accessibility of Apple's 3D city data for indie builders, and how does the tile-streaming approach compare to Google Maps' 3D tiles or OpenStreetMap-based rendering for Malaysian city use cases?