Edushi: Beautiful, isometric city maps for China

The inaccuracies are actually very interesting since I can't fathom why the creators think it's OK. The high level of detail on a map suggests accuracy, which is deceptive. It's one thing to add obvious design elements outside of the context of the information, but in this case they've actually decided to be creative with the information itself.

(The company behind the maps, Aladdin Information Technology, is based in Hangzhou. I can't wait until they expand to non-Chinese cities around the world!)

It is very impressive, although I would have liked to be able to rotate around the compass - but presumably they are using the fake 3d to keep load times down, especially given the potential for traffic spikes on the Chinese internet. Obviously there is some potential for painting over any underisarable information (no half-finished buildings here, everything is neat and shiny!), but there is also utility in the 'cartooned' abstraction. I wonder to what extent it was generated vs. hand-textured.

Also a good excuse to repost this: http://www.c3technologies.com/ (warning, noisy video autostart). Astounding working demo under 'Reference' menu.