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

Post by fortran77 » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 9:07 PM UTC

cannoneyed wrote: post #159

fortran77 wrote: post #155

Why is so much NJ on the map?

a) couldn’t decide where to draw the edges b) I live in NJ ;)

Post by mxfh » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 11:51 PM UTC

azlen wrote: post #148

rafram wrote: post #115

> This project is far from perfect, but without generative models, it couldn’t exist. There’s simply no way to do this much work on your own 100 people built this in 1964: https://queensmuseum.org/exhibition/panorama-of-the-city-of-... One person built this in the 21st century: https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/truckers-viral-scal... AI certainly let you do it much faster , but it’s wrong to write off doing so…

It feels like whether or not it's possible to make a model of new york misses the point. This kind of project could just as easily scale up to be an isometric map of the entire world, every city, every forest, every mountain hut, and update continuously as new buildings are built and cities grow. Expensive yes, for now- but the speed and scale to make and maintain such representations will absolutely be outside the r…

Post by iammjm » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 9:25 AM UTC

jaredcwhite wrote: post #233

I don't understand why an interesting demo is buried here inside of some of the most ridiculous propaganda I've ever read on the topic of genAI. It really makes me not have any interest in the actual thing you're showing. Imagine if Wendy Carlos wrote an article about how it's cool she could use this new piece of technology called a Moog Modular synthesizer to create a recording of Bach, and now harpsichords are dead…

Post by wonsukchoi97 » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 12:11 PM UTC

Post by ProjectBarks » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 3:20 PM UTC

cannoneyed wrote: post #83

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.

Yeah it leaves a lot to be desired. Once you see the AI it's hard to unsee. I actually had a few other generation styles, more 8-bit like, that probably would have lended themselves better to actual pixel-art processing, but I opted to use this fine-tune and in for a penny in for a pound, so to speak...