Shinjuku Station in 3D | Hacker News Reader

Shinjuku Station in 3D

satoshi7190.github.io

289 points_6wbq66 comments

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.

Looks like the cutoff is from the source governmental data. It's also missing Tochoumae and Nishishinjuku, even though it has Shinjuku-nishiguchi and Seibu Shinjuku.

Tochoumae and Nishi-shinjuku are not connected underground, at least not in a pedstrian way. you have to exit to the surface then go back down. (unless they added something I'm unaware of). Touchoumae looks like it's connect at a glance on google map but zoom in and they are not.

Travelled through there every day for years but maybe I missed a hallway.

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.

I thought the horror game "Exit 8" was going to be like that when I bought it: having to navigate through a labyrinthine nightmare version of Shinjuku or Shibuya station, trying to remember the passageways and —hey wait... was that escalator there before?

Turns out is was the opposite since the whole game takes place in a single hallway. It was still a lot of fun though!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exit_8

I wasn't aware of this game until AFTER I saw the movie. Made a lot more sense after that. Watching a guy solve the same puzzle over and over felt like an odd narrative choice.

A labyrinthine Shinjuku would still be way cooler. Shibuya station doesn't have quite the same disorienting featureless repetition to it, but offers a more overwhelming MC Escher-like experience where you can often SEE exactly where you want to go in the near-distance, but every path and every turn brings you into a completely different space, and rarely any closer to your destination.

> offers a more overwhelming MC Escher-like experience

That reminds me of one of my favourite games of all time, Knossu [1]. It's a short game from the peak of the indie era, written by Jonathan Whiting (whose post "Why I write games in C" made the rounds a few times here [2]). It's not anything like a train station, but it's non-Euclidean, labyrinthine, and surreal. My favourite part is that despite it being extremely simple (WASD only), and despite having beat it, I still don't really understand the core mechanic. It feels like a dream.

Actually, hell, that reminder reminds me of another similar looking game, LSD: Dream Emulator [3]. One of the many surreal Platstation 1 & 2 "games" from Japan. I haven't played it, but I've been thinking about it lately as it's the cover art for Alt-J's album Relaxer [4].

Which reminds me of another *--STACK OVERFLOW--*

1. https://jonathanwhiting.com/games/knossu/press.html

2. https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Why+I+Write+Games+in+C

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD:_Dream_Emulator

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relaxer_(album)

As far as I remember Tokyo stations are all easy to navigate if you use Google maps. You get a letter for the exit, and you just follow the signs

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.

Exactly these are escalators similar to the representation on existing 2d station maps!

Finally I'll be able to properly follow JJK season 2

That's shibuya

Oh duh

https://github.com/satoshi7190/Shinjuku-indoor-threejs-demo

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.

I was lucky to never hit rush hour when visiting Japan. Shinjuku was however the first station I had to navigate after taking the train from the airport. After the long flight, knowing how big it was, and not knowing if I was going the right way, I was losing it. I was just trying to find a way up to the street level, so my GPS would work and I could get my bearings. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a panic attack, but that’s probably the closest I’ve been.

I was very thankful to find my Airbnb, and once I had an anchor point it was better.

21 people suffocated at the Love Parade event in Duisburg Germany and are no longer with us. 652 injuries in total.

It’s a good thing to be cautious with crowds.

To put it in perspective, if you wanted to say "hi" to every person entering Shinjuku in a single day, and it took you one second to do so, it would take you 35 days of uninterrupted greeting.

Awesome project.

I consider myself someone with a good sense of direction in big buildings, malls, hospitals, etc., maybe a side effect to playing video games and such, but it's rare for me to get lost in big, complex structures.

But man, Shinjuku humbled me badly. That thing is a Metroidvania level IRL. If you ever go there, please don't buy a ticket with only 5 minutes to get to the right platform. Give yourself at least 15 minutes or more.

It's an awesome place, but even with signs in English, it can be easy to get lost.

Can’t help but think of the 3D map of Midgar from FF7 when I look at this

For me it's more metroid prime than FF. Just needs the coloured doors!

Really cool, it's giving me Ghost in the Shell computer UI vibes.

What are the steep angle arrows indicating? Too steep for an escalator/stairs, but not 90 degrees like an elevator would need to be. Anyone know?

It turns off if you uncheck "hokousha/pedestrian network". Based on their placement I'm pretty sure they are elevators, I wonder if they actually do have that angle.

Some of the not quite 90 slopes seem to be due to arrows representing more of topological structure not necessarily accurate geometric representation. Could be elevators with doors on both sides, connect doors on opposite sides and you will get a bit of slope. Some of them might spiral stairways. The vertical spacing between floors is likely also exaggerated for clarity. Underground there might be larger gaps since the train tunnels need to go over each other under the rivers and what not, but there is no way 3 above ground floors (4f-2f) have empty gap 5x the ceiling height of individual floor.

Escalators. The distances between the levels are exaggerated, to make it easier to see what's going on.

I’m on a flight back to the states after a 10 day trip to Tokyo with the fam. We probably rode 100 trains through who knows how many stations, and I kept thinking how cool it would be to visualize the pathways that people take as they navigate through the corridors. Timely and cool find!

This is beautiful. I went there 20 years ago and my mind was blown then how big it was but I really had no idea!

It is still the busiest train station in the world by far:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_railway_statio...

Probably. They count journeys involving Shinjuku as an interchange as two separate, independent journeys.

This is off-topic, but I find it surprising that relatively small Stockholm is so high on the list.

Funny to see this as well as the Gaussian splat cathedral on the HN front page at the same time.

While the Gaussian splat is impressive, I kinda still dig the wireframe…

NO WONDER I've become lost in Shinjuku Station on at least 3 occasions!

anyone who hasn't been lost in Shinjuku-eki has not been to Shinjuku-eki. Or has been, but it was Golden Week and the place was nearly empty.

Shinjuku isn't the worst - it's big, but every part of it has its own distinct feel, you never get confused about where you are. I actually think Ikebukuro is the worst - there are too many places where you can rotate 180 degrees, or move up or down a floor, and find yourself looking at an exactly identical scene.

Every person I know me included got lost there multiple times, yet some users here get offended by this somehow.

If you take the gross area of Shinjuku, including its multiple maze-like levels, it is comparable to the size of city centers of Florence or Bologna.

Very cool and very performant

thanks, I'm still trying to find an exit, maybe this will help me

This looks straight out of Metroid Prime. Really cool design.

very cool project. would you create more of this for other stations in Tokyo? or other famous stations on different cities

Now we just need an app that links your location in 3d space so you can finally easily navigate Shinjuku.

Please don't do this. The station is very busy and the commuters do not have time to navigate around people focused on their smartphones.

Instead, familiarize yourself with the general layout. There's no need to memorize the entire map, only the portion you will be using. Inside the station there are plenty of signs overhead and even on the floor to help navigate.

The signs are incredibly confusing and often will all point to each other from every direction.

Do you have an example? Your comment seems like an exaggeration, I have never seen any signs pointing to each other from every direction.

Also, I am curious of the justification. Why would anyone place signs that "... are incredibly confusing and often will all point to each other from every direction."

The problem I would typically have (not just in Shinjuku) was with directions that did not repeat/update as you continued on through junction points. It made navigation more stressful.

No they aren't. People who say this have never spent a significant amount of time there.

Yes they are. Every time I visit Tokyo I try to avoid Shinjuku because it is extremely confusing and I always get lost.

Signs are mostly useful for people who are new to a place, if you need a significant amount of time to familiarize yourself then they are useless.

No, it's incorrect that signs "point to each other."

There are multiple ways to get to various lines' platforms. This is not signs pointing to each other, this is signs in different places pointing to the same destination.

I live in Tokyo and while I do not go through Shinjuku often as I mostly live and work on the east side, I have no issue using the signs to find the platforms and exits I am looking for.

If you pay attention to what the signs have written on them, they will take you where you are trying to go.

TIL 21 years is not enough time to notice confusing signs.

Two signs pointing at each other (I've seen way more of this but here is one example): https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSe-8IR...

In addition to signs pointing to each other, you also see several signs at once pointing to the same thing in opposite directions: https://skyticket.jp/guide/wp-content/uploads/pixta_46188735...

Or signs pointing the same direction for both East and West exits: https://basyauma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_5141-2-1...

and https://owl-eat-drink.s3.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/tokyo/...

Same thing at Ikebukuro: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....

There are many, many more examples of this.

All of those signs legitimately point towards the destinations on them. I don't understand what your argument is.

Not only that but Shinjuku is under massive renovation work which makes the signs genuinely outdated at times.

For what it's worth I was joking. I've only been Shinjuku as a tourist, so I unfortunately won't be able to familiarise myself with the layout, but I do feel your pain. I've seen the same thing in smaller stations in the London and absolutely hate it.

I appreciate your comment.

How do you expect tourists, including people coming from other regions of Japan, to familiarize themselves with the layout?

I've been in Shinjuku few times, I've always got lost.

Found a "hack" where I would go upstairs to the mall and then go down closer to the spot I need.

Shinjuku is way too massive (and now has plenty of diversions due to work om the station itself) to be understood easily by a tourist.

I always tell friends to just go to any east exit and make their way outside. That's most likely where they're headed and it's easier to navigate outside the station than inside.

My wife had a terrible fear of loosing me in this station, afraid she would loose me and never find me back :-) .

It felt like the biggest station we knew before, multiplied by 10 and then molded and warped like a ball of dough.

IIRC there is a multi-level bus terminal at this station too that we had to use to get to Narita airport, which we had never seen before for a bus terminal.

Would love to go to Japan again, but when the kids are a bit older and we don't have to fear loosing them in this station.

Tell her to hold you tighter, she'll lose you if she loosens her grip.

get stuck at the center where I can't zoom or move around anywhere.

love this. reminds me of glitching out the map in a ps1 game

looks like a doom level

Doom cannot have hallways above or below other hallways without teleport hacks.

But you could do it in Quake.

Or Descent. Pity the fool who hits the map key mid-multiplayer fight.

This is awesome!

Train station: :\

Train station, Japan: :D:D:D <3

Train station: :D :D :D <3

Train station, Japan: :D :D :D <3

Transit infrastructure is really cool

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