3D Map Project Ideas

These are recommended example projects that are not already covered by the current examples/ catalog. The emphasis is on ideas that exercise different parts of forge3d: terrain, overlays, buildings, animation, labels, lighting, and temporal data.

Recommended Next Projects

Project	What it would demonstrate	Why it is distinct
Coastal Storm Surge And Evacuation Routes	Animated coastal water levels, road closures, shelters, evacuation corridors, and exposed neighborhoods.	Extends flood mapping beyond a single city scene into emergency-routing and coastal-risk storytelling.
Wildfire Spread And Smoke Exposure	Terrain-based fire perimeter growth, wind direction, smoke plume overlays, and population or asset exposure.	Adds a hazard workflow that combines time, terrain, atmospheric effects, and thematic overlays.
Urban Heat Island Map	Building and block-level surface temperature, tree canopy, impervious surface, and shade patterns.	Uses 3D buildings and raster overlays for a city-climate story that differs from flood and transit examples.
Bathymetry And Coastal Terrain Viewer	Land elevation, seafloor relief, depth contours, ports, coastlines, and above/below sea-level styling.	Adds a water-and-seafloor terrain example, while existing terrain demos focus mostly on land.
Solar Potential And Shadow Study	Sun path animation, roof suitability colors, shadows over time, and candidate solar surfaces.	Exercises lighting, day-cycle logic, buildings, and practical urban analysis in one workflow.
Earthquake Shake And Landslide Risk Map	Fault lines, intensity rasters, landslide susceptibility, infrastructure, and terrain exaggeration.	Adds geological risk mapping with line, raster, terrain, and infrastructure layers.
3D Flight Paths And Airspace Map	Airport context, altitude-colored tracks, approach corridors, noise contours, and labels.	Uses the vertical dimension directly, unlike rail and road examples that are mostly surface-bound.
Watershed And Rainfall Runoff Simulation	Animated rainfall, flow accumulation, streams, basin boundaries, and downstream gauges.	Turns terrain into a process-oriented hydrology example rather than a static river view.
Archaeology Or Historical City Layers	Modern terrain or city context with a time slider for historical roads, walls, sites, and land use.	Demonstrates temporal layer management and label-heavy storytelling.
Bike Comfort And Street Slope Map	Street network colored by grade, traffic stress, protected lanes, climb effort, and access.	Adds a human-scale mobility example that is distinct from transit and travel-time demos.

Suggested Top Three

1. Wildfire Spread And Smoke Exposure: visually strong, clearly different from the current examples, and a good test of temporal hazard overlays.

2. Solar Potential And Shadow Study: uses existing city, building, lighting, and day-cycle capabilities in a practical urban analysis workflow.

3. Bathymetry And Coastal Terrain Viewer: fills a terrain gap by showing seafloor relief and coastal cartography.

Selection Notes

• Prefer projects with a clear visual result and a concrete map-reading task.

• Avoid duplicating the existing OSM city, flood, terrain landcover, rail, transit, point cloud, and population spike examples.

• Use temporal animation where it adds interpretation, not just motion.

• Keep each example focused on one primary story so it remains runnable and understandable from the command line.