Nicheloom visits: 58,345 all-time · 7,637 in the last 7 days

The opportunity tracker for new startups.

Today: 1,008 launches · Niche of the day: specialized calculation tools · See what launched today →

Tokyo Trains

Get picks like this daily. Today's launch numbers, the top launches, AI and tech news, and a daily opportunity pick, straight to your inbox.

Want to reach these readers? Sponsor an issue.

Semi inspired by the 3d Shinjuku station that was posted again recently, I noticed it was missing a large portion of the "complex" where "complex" is defined loosly has how far you can walk without stepping outside.So I asked Claude to make a 3d map of all Tokyo Trains, no libraries, and let you zoom into stations, and the first version with both map and the Shinjuku complex was ready in about 3 hours. It spent another 7 or so in various nit picky things I asked for to get to the current version.I know these will only get better but I think the thing I find most interesting is no libraries needed. Claude can write the shaders from scratch, it can do both WebGPU and WebGL, and it can often write optimal solutions. For example, the entire map/station/trains is rendered in 5 draw calls. I didn't ask for that, it just did it.This one has lots of imprefections. Most of that comes down to data and/or deciding how to use the data provided. For example, AFAICT there is nothing that says "these parts make the complex". It's something you either need to derive or hand code rules/lists (include this, don't include that).Anyway, I know not everyone is into it but I'm having fun.

HN · launched Aug 11, 2026 · 13 upvotes (top 34%) · 0 views

Niche: interactive mapping platforms · 191 launches, 16 in the last 7 days ▲ +7% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags

  • Travel & hospitality
  • B2C
  • Not AI
  • Hobby / open-source project

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

Could you build this?

Yes The author explicitly had Claude generate this single-page vanilla JavaScript and CSS 3D transit map visualization using raw Canvas/WebGL APIs and static transit coordinates.

Discussion

2 comments analyzed.

Concerns raised: Difficulty in defining station complex structure and maintaining data relationships as they change

Feature requests: Clarification on timer functionality

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 280 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #110 of 281 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 284 days after the earliest competitor.

The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.