u/Ready-Drummer-2136

https://reddit.com/link/1vm7kb2/video/5p470iarfwih1/player

This started as “what if a map was drivable?” and immediately became a pile of harder questions.

Today’s one was traffic. I didn’t want Iceland and Tokyo to feel like the same empty diorama, but I also didn’t want a realistic traffic jam because that is a terrible toy.

It’s still a prototype and it still does dumb things. That’s kind of why I’m putting it in front of people now.

You can pick a place and drive here: https://world-drive-game.vercel.app

Free browser prototype, no account and no install.

Please do this exact little test:

1. Start in Reykjavík and drive for about two minutes.

2. Change location to Shibuya/Tokyo with the same car.

3. Tell me the first moment where traffic became annoying rather than fun.

I also want to know if the location picker makes sense without instructions, and whether you ever hit an invisible car or a road that clearly doesn’t match the map.

Feedback in the comments is perfect. Build: https://world-drive-game.vercel.app

https://reddit.com/link/1vm7iue/video/z4ldt61bfwih1/player

Pick a place, choose a car, and drive. It runs directly in a desktop browser.

The newest update adds local traffic: quieter places stay light, dense cities push more cars into the road network, and everything is capped so it stays an arcade game.

There’s no login and nothing to download. I’d especially like feedback on load time and controls from Chromebook/laptop players.

Play: https://world-drive-game.vercel.app

I’m building a browser driving prototype where the starting point can be a real public road. OSM is the road/source layer; I compile a bounded driving graph and stream only a local corridor around the player.

This week I added traffic demand. Important clarification: this is not live traffic data. It is a gameplay model informed by the local road/world context, then deliberately capped. Reykjavík should feel sparse; Shibuya should feel pressured; neither should become a literal simulation of rush hour.

The edge cases I’m still watching are driving side, divided roads, complex junctions, service roads that look too important, and what happens when the source geometry is sparse or malformed.

If you work with OSM-derived routing, I’d genuinely like to know which tag/geometry mistakes usually create the worst false road hierarchy. Playable example: https://world-drive-game.vercel.app

I tried the obvious version first: busier real place = more cars. It was “correct” for about thirty seconds, then it felt like waiting at a red light in a game with no destination.

So I’m cheating. Tokyo is still much busier than Iceland, but the simulation thins openings around the player and never tries to recreate a literal jam. The traffic is there to make a line risky, not to stop the run.

After 10 minutes, I want traffic to create stories instead of queues.

Old arcade racers cheated constantly and were better for it. I’m curious where people here draw the line: how fake can ambient traffic be before you notice the trick?

15-second Reykjavík vs Tokyo clip and playable prototype: https://world-drive-game.vercel.app