Exploring Shinjuku Station in Stunning 3D Using Public Data
Shinjuku Station in 3D
I transformed indoor map data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism into an interactive 3D experience of Shinjuku Station. Using Three.js, I processed the raw geospatial dataset to create a navigable virtual environment. This project demonstrates how open government data can be visualized to help users understand complex urban spaces without needing to visit them physically.
Turning raw government geospatial data into a walkable 3D world reveals the hidden complexity of the world's busiest station.
- socalgal2
They're connecting Tokyo and Nihonbashi stations underground which will effective connect 10 stations in total with underground passages so that would be another interesting 3d map
Also, that map seems incomplete by at least a 3rd. The connection between it and Shinjuku-3-chome station is missing (the hallways just arbitrarily stop on that map) and the tunnels from there to the south entrance of Shinjuku station are missing as well as 3 more train platforms. I suppose you could argue that's a different station which is fine, but the fact that tunnels don't end where they appear to on this map is misleading.
- nayuki
This is an excellent visualization! I would love to see someone adapt this data into a first-person navigation game. The game should put you at some location in the station complex and ask you to navigate to some location. This would be excellent training for people visiting the real-life Shinjuku station for the first time.
- kazinator
I don't understand some of the pedestrian passages between the levels. They are way too steep to be escalators or stairs, yet Shinjuku does not have elevators with slanted shafts, does it?!
I think this is more of a schematic in the sense that the vertical dimension is not to scale; the levels are farther apart than actually, which exaggerates the slopes.
Also, some of the passages may be indicating elevators with opposite exits. I see one which has two rectangular prisms that are directly above each other, but connected by a slanted line which may be indicating that pedestrians enter/exit on one side of the elevator at the vestibule level, and the opposite level at the platform level.
It would be cool for there to be a slider which controls the vertical scaling. Similar to how that guy did the mechanical watch animation where you can control how exploded the view is, from fully integrated to widely spread.
- ggm
I've never really had crowd fear, but after a crush event at an agricultural fair underpass, I acquired it. Shinjuku just before rush-hour brought it back on, and I basically ran away and sat under a tree for an hour or so.
I've been in Tokyo and Ikebukuro at busy times, but nothing has been like Shinjuku to me. Maybe it's the escalators and a certain ordered-but-relentless ant-army mentality getting to the platforms.
- tech_ken
Finally I'll be able to properly follow JJK season 2