Skip to content
Materials
TouchDesigner
3D City Visualization with PLATEAU

3D City Visualization with PLATEAU

Updated: 2026-05*

1. What PLATEAU Is

PLATEAU is Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s project to realize a digital twin of Japan’s cities. Buildings, land, and roads are organized as 3D city model data and made publicly accessible.

Official: https://www.mlit.go.jp/plateau/about/

Detailed 3D models currently exist mainly in urban areas. Local areas are still being populated, but national-level promotion of urban data utilization has begun, and adoption is expected to grow.

Reference: What 3D city models enable — PLATEAU (Japanese)

Beyond the database itself, PLATEAU publishes guides for Unity, Unreal Engine, and TouchDesigner usage:

https://www.mlit.go.jp/plateau/learning/

2. The Exercise

2.1 Overview

  • The main work is understanding the 3D city model spec and preparing data
  • The TouchDesigner network uses PLATEAU’s published sample

2.2 Final piece

Based on PLATEAU’s official TouchDesigner tutorial, with Sumida-ku model + replaced music + color tweaks:

PLATEAU’s official tutorial video:

Finished example (Sumida-ku version built in this exercise):

3. 3D City Model Data Spec

LOD (Level of Detail) is the spec for 3D city model fidelity. For buildings:

Most data on G空間情報センター is LOD1. Only some areas in major cities have LOD2 available.

References

Even the Sumida-ku data has LOD2 only for Skytree and some buildings; the rest is LOD1:

4. Preparing Sumida-ku 3D City Model Data

4.1 How the data is prepared (overview)

G-Spatial Information Center publishes CityGML, not OBJ / FBX. CityGML must be converted to OBJ using a Unity SDK before use.

We distribute pre-converted OBJ data for this exercise.

CityGML → OBJ conversion (via PLATEAU SDK for Unity) will be covered in a separate page (coming soon).

4.2 Distribution of Sumida-ku OBJ data

Unzip sumidaku_complete20240424.zip (124MB).

The folder sumidaku_complete20240424 contains 42 files — sumida-ku_testA1.obj is the object data:

4.3 Optional: verify in Blender

Open sumida-ku_testA1.obj in Blender:

Without adjustment the object is too large to see. Open the sidebar with N, change View tab > End to 10000m:

Keep Viewport Shading on Solid, switch Color: Texture:

Switch Color: Attributes. We won’t use the model’s color / textures here, but Color Attributes can drive particle colors in TouchDesigner:

5. Download Music

From YouTube Studio’s audio library (Google account required), download Icelandic Arpeggios - DivKid.mp3:

6. Download PLATEAU Tutorial Data

From GitHub, download TD-PLATEAU-ParticleSample-main.zip:

https://github.com/hisahayashi/TD-PLATEAU-ParticleSample

Unzip:

Move into the TD-PLATEAU-ParticleSample-main folder:

  • sumidaku_complete20240424 folder
  • Icelandic Arpeggios - DivKid.mp3

7. Visualizing in TouchDesigner

7.1 Intro

For full tutorial details, see PLATEAU’s official TouchDesigner explanation (Japanese). This page only covers model / music swap and color edits.

7.2 Launch the sample project

Double-click sample_particle_01.toe:

The fullscreen Perform Mode appears — press ESC:

Press H for full network view:

7.3 Background display

Stop Timeline playback if needed for editing.

Turn on the Display button on the rightmost Out TOP (out1):

Insert RGB Key TOP between Null TOP (null1) and Out TOP (out1):

7.4 Swap the music

In Audio File In CHOP parameters > File, swap to Icelandic Arpeggios - DivKid.mp3:

7.5 Swap the Sumida-ku model

The leftmost File In SOP loads the model:

SOP / COMP are heavy — use the Viewer button to preview as needed:

Drag sumida-ku_testA1.obj (inside sumidaku_complete20240424) into TouchDesigner:

Reroute File In SOP (sumida-ku_testA1) → Transform SOP (transform1):

7.6 Scale and position

Transform SOP (transform1):

  • tz: +250
  • Scale: 0.4, 0.4, 0.4

7.7 Wireframe color

Level TOP (level1):

  • RGBA tab > High R: 0

  • Post tab > Opacity: 0.6

7.8 Particle color

Level TOP (level2):

  • RGBA tab > High R: 0

7.9 Edit upper-left text

Edit the active Text DAT (text2):

8. Exporting a Movie (for submission)

Movie File Out TOP exists but is too heavy for real-time rendering — frame drops occur. Use Export instead:

Steps

  1. File > Export
  2. Input > TOP Video: drag Out TOP in
  3. Input > CHOP Audio: drag Audio File In CHOP in
  4. Resolution: 1280 × 720
  5. Movie FPS: 30
  6. Codec: MPEG 4 (Part 2)
  7. End Frame: 500 (short is fine for assignment submission)
  8. Click the folder icon next to Out > Filename
  9. Click Start under Render Movie

Note: Movie File Out TOP is the right tool for real-time capture of external data (camera, sensors).

9. Variations

9.1 Hino Campus scan model

Above, polygon color (Color Attributes) drives particle color. Settings:

Node Setting
Sprinkle SOP (sprinkle1) Surface Attributes: ON
SOP to CHOP (sopto1) Color RGB: ON
Geometry COMP (geo1) Instance 2 tab: R: cr, G: cg, B: cb

9.2 Human body scan

Swap to a human body scan or other geometry for endless visual variations:

9.3 Blender-based city video production

PLATEAU also publishes Blender-based video production tutorials:

10. Related Pages

Slit ScanOptical Flow + ParticlesGPU