3d.city

About

SimCity (1989) by Maxis pioneered the city-building simulation genre; the simulation engine this project runs on is itself descended from the original SimCity source. 3d.city renders a live city simulation in full 3D, directly in the browser via WebGL2 or WebGPU, with no download required. It pairs Three.js for real-time rendering (custom shaders, textures, and models) with micropolisJS — an open-source simulation engine descended from the original SimCity source — running in a dedicated Web Worker so simulation and rendering don't block each other. The README describes it as a long-term, still-evolving project.

How it differs from the original

Where the underlying simulation core (micropolisJS) is a fairly faithful port of SimCity's original logic, this project's own contribution is the real-time 3D presentation layer built on top of it — camera, models, shaders, and effects.

Getting started

Playable directly in a browser tab, no installation needed. Two versions are offered: a WebGL2 build for broader compatibility and a WebGPU build for browsers that support the newer API.

Known issues & limitations

• feature: Save and loading functionality needs to be fixed.
• feature: Disaster effects need improvement.

Media