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Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

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Re: Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

#181

Post by plomme »

cannoneyed wrote: post #136
anonymous908213 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That quote seriously rubs me the wrong way. "Dragging little boxes around" in a DAW is creative, it constitutes the entire process of composing electronic music. You are notating what notes to play, when and for how long they play, what instrument plays them, and any modifications to the default sound of that instrument. Is writing sheet music tedious? Sure, it can be, when the speed of notating by hand can't keep up…

I'd say that deciding where a transient should go" is creative, manually aligning 15 other tracks over and over again is not (not to mention having to do it in both the DAW and melodyne)... I agree that "push button get image" AI generation is at best a bit cheap, at worst deeply boring. Art is resistance in a medium - but at what point is that resistance just masochism? George Perec took this idea to the max when he…

> It doesn't matter what you make or how you make it. What matters is why you make it and what you have to say.

I want to add one point: That you make/ ship something at all.

When the first image generating models came out my head was spinning with ideas for different images I'd want to generate, maybe to print out and hang on the wall. After an initial phase of playing around the excitement faded, even though the models are more than good enough with a bit of fiddling. My walls are still pretty bare.

Turns out even reducing the cost of generating an image to zero does not make me in particular churn out ideas. I suspect this is true for most applications of AI for most people.

Re: Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

#182

Post by PetitPrince »

ant6n wrote: post #135
cannoneyed wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here, and to reiterate another reply - all of the critique of "pixel art" is completely fair. Aesthetically and philosophically, what AI does for "pixel art" is very off. And once you see the AI you can't really unsee it. But I didn't want to call it a "SimCity" map, though that's really the vibe/inspiration I wanted to capture, because that implies a lot of other things, so I used the term "pixel art" even th…

It’s almost like sim city (2000), but not quite. It night help if the overall mayo was fully square.

More like Sim City 3000 methinks. Sim City is more pixel artsy / lower resolution, while 3000 have enough resolution to feel more like an illustration rather than a videogame.

Re: Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

#183

Post by rob74 »

crazygringo wrote: post #127

I just want to say this isn't just amazing -- it's my new favorite map of NYC. It's genuinely astonishing how much clearer this is than a traditional satellite map -- how it has just the right amount of complexity. I'm looking at areas I've spent a lot of time in, and getting an even better conceptual understanding of the physical layout than I've ever been able to get from satellite (technically airplane) images. Th…

High-res pixel art? Maybe adding an extra zoom level so people can actually see the pixels as big fat squares would help? Of course purists would probably still not call it pixel art, but as you wrote, leaning more into the "pixel art" aspect would hurt the realistic representation.

Actually, if you only look at (midtown and uptown) Manhattan, is looks more "pixel art"-y because of the 90-degree street grid and most buildings being aligned with it. But the other boroughs don't lend themselves to this style so well. Of course, you could have forced all buildings to have angles in 45° steps, but that would have deviated from "ground truth" a lot.

Re: Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

#184

Post by rob74 »

ProjectBarks wrote: post #65

I was extremely excited until I looked closer and realized how many of these look like ... well AI. The article is such a good read and would recommend people check it out. Feels like something is missing... maybe just a pixelation effect over the actual result? Seems like a lot of the images also lack continuity (something they go over in the article) Overall, such a cool usage of AI that blends Art and AI well.

For projects like this (that would have been just inconceivably too much work without the help of AI), I'm fine with AI usage.

Re: Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

#185

Post by dmacj »

nonethewiser wrote: post #157
jasondigitized wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pixel art, just not the types of pixels most people want in pixel art.

It's pixel art in the same way that everything rendered on a computer screen is pixel art. It's all pixels.

That is reductive, why not call all everything CGI then? Or call CGI pixel art as well? As we’re talking about “art”, it’s necessarily going to be subjective, but pixel art has certain style aspects such as use of 2x1 lines (https://www.the-pixel-artist.com/articles/top-ten-things-new...). This is just an example, while I’m not saying that every convention must be met in order to qualify as pixel art, not having any doesn’t make a useful definition of a genre.

Re: Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

#186

Post by rob74 »

wedog6 wrote: post #179
bigwheels wrote: post #7

Very impressive result! are you taking requests for the next ones? SF :D Tokyo :D Paris :D Milan :D Rome :D Sydney :D Oh man...

How about Staten Island next?

I second that! I know that Staten Island isn't that well liked by the other boroughs, but the only time I visited New York so far, I stayed at an AirBNB (actually it was a HomeAway) there and have pleasant memories of seeing Manhattan in the distance through the window and using the ferry each morning to get there...

Re: Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

#187

Post by fsmedberg »

I created an account just to say that your map is amazing! It's beautiful and very interesting to look at, because of all the details. Thank you for documenting your method of creating this! I've been looking for a way to create a similar map for the island I'm living at, and maybe your method will work for this. Thank you so much for documenting the steps!

Re: Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

#188

Post by dark-star »

cannoneyed wrote: post #132
crazygringo wrote: post #127

I just want to say this isn't just amazing -- it's my new favorite map of NYC. It's genuinely astonishing how much clearer this is than a traditional satellite map -- how it has just the right amount of complexity. I'm looking at areas I've spent a lot of time in, and getting an even better conceptual understanding of the physical layout than I've ever been able to get from satellite (technically airplane) images. Th…

Author here, and to reiterate another reply - all of the critique of "pixel art" is completely fair. Aesthetically and philosophically, what AI does for "pixel art" is very off. And once you see the AI you can't really unsee it. But I didn't want to call it a "SimCity" map, though that's really the vibe/inspiration I wanted to capture, because that implies a lot of other things, so I used the term "pixel art" even th…

just FYI, there are some very obvious inaccuracies (stitching artefacts?) in this map, especially noticeable e.g. on Roosevelt Island around Roosevelt Bridge, or naround Pier 17 next to Brooklyn Bridge
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