A Minimalist Cyberpunk City Generator That Fits in 1.1 Megabytes

ALPHA VERSION

• A WebGL experiment in generative architecture and audio-reactive lighting
• No download required — just press play and float through the noise
• The whole thing fits on a single floppy disk

Welcome to SynthCity, an interactive navigable city in minimalist, cyberpunk, and retrofuturistic style, built in WebGL with Three.js. The project weighs approximately 1.1 MB and integrates an audio analyzer that breaks down frequencies in real-time. The city is structured in vertical layers, each level featuring different districts with unique objects and atmospheres.

LAUNCH SYNTHCITY

The path proceeds through a fairly wide central corridor, bordered by two invisible walls.

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Features

• Procedurally generated infinite city populated by 6,000 synths – the cubic inhabitants of SynthCity, some carrying neon-handled umbrellas
• Functioning train system throughout the cityscape
• 8 different rotating advertisements
• Flying vehicles and blimps populating the airspace
• Vertical city structure: each altitude level represents a different district with unique objects
• Panopticon buildings with eyes that follow the visitor
• Real-time audio frequency analysis that influences the city’s visual response
• Rain particle system and dynamic neon lighting
• Ground vehicles navigating the streets (simple composite parallelepipeds) – they occasionally phase through buildings because, well, they exist in a digital and ethereal dimension
• Headlights that scan the sky
• Lights that pierce the city
• Rotating advertising system

Notes

• The project was developed as a hobby. I’m not a programmer and for me this work is the equivalent of building a digital model railway. SYNTHCITY is just a glide over an infinite city.
• The city contains numerous bugs, annoying black frames, many clipping issues, and various consistency problems, especially because generating it procedurally makes everything more complicated. Despite this, the explorable area is very extensive and every now and then the view can look pretty nice.
• SynthCity can also become an audio visualizer: by loading tracks, the city reacts to the rhythm of the music. Audio mode is more demanding as it dynamically controls thousands of lights and colors simultaneously
• Over time, if possible, updates will arrive to fix some bugs and introduce new modules.
• The cars and flying vehicles clip through things because… they’re in a digital and ethereal world (what a pathetic excuse!)
• “Camera rotation (looking up/down for dramatic views) was temporarily disabled due to technical issues, but may return in future updates” “Blimps originally featured advertising megascreens, removed to reduce black frame issues”
• Originally SynthCity also included an editor to modify frequencies, colors, and details of every model in the animation. This feature was removed from the interface because it introduced additional errors that I wasn’t able to solve. I also had to give up numerous other elements that I wasn’t able to optimize properly, but I hope to be able to add them in one of the upcoming patches.

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