About this project

Kurunegala in 3D is a fun experiment: an explorable, stylized model of the city of Kurunegala, Sri Lanka, that runs right in your browser.

Why I made this

I wanted to see how far I could take a playful idea by working together with Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant. I started with a simple question: could real map data become a small living version of Kurunegala that anyone can wander around? This site is the result of that experiment, built step by step, one idea and one fix at a time.

What you can do here

• Fly around the town, Elephant Rock and Kurunegala Lake, built from real map and elevation data.
• Ride a tuk-tuk or a boat, jog around the lake, or climb the stairway to the Buddha statue.
• Change the time of day and the weather, from clear skies to rain and thunderstorms.
• Watch traffic and people go about their day, and turn on sound to hear each place.

Still a work in progress

This is not a finished or accurate model, just an experiment. Many details are still missing, and I plan to add them in the future.

• Most buildings are simple shapes, and their heights are estimated.
• Landmarks, equipment and decorations are artistic impressions, not exact copies.
• There are many more places still to be added.
• Some sounds are real recordings, and others are still generated by code.

Please don't rely on it for directions or real-world information.

How it was made

Built with Claude using Three.js, with map data from OpenStreetMap contributors and elevation from Mapzen Terrain Tiles. Recordings come from Wikimedia Commons, listed in the sound credits.

Developed by Uthpala Sam