CHANGELOG

Changelog

Development progress and improvements in Create GBM

Legend
NEWnew feature or pageFIXbug or defect resolvedIMPROVEenhancement to an existing feature
01MONTH

May 2026

R8 (2026).05.24NEWIMPROVE
3D white relief map editor: clearer data-source credits and bundled CREDITS.txt
  • • The status bar and map corner now credit only the sources actually in use for your session — GSI elevation and basemap tiles, OpenStreetMap for water and infrastructure when fetched, and Wikidata when heritage points are present.
  • • The export dialog lists applicable data sources before download. Every export format now includes a CREDITS.txt file (.3mf bundles it inside the zip; other formats download it as a companion file).
  • • A new public sources page documents what the editor fetches and how Create GBM processes each dataset. Terms of Use §04 has been revised to match the editor's actual data sources.
  • • The bottom credit plate on printed models now lists GSI, GSI vector experiment, and OpenStreetMap sources in compact form, with the OpenStreetMap copyright URL; long lines wrap automatically so the plate width stays unchanged. The © symbol on the plate is slightly enlarged so it reads clearly when embossed.
R8 (2026).05.19NEWFIXIMPROVE
3D white relief map editor: manual place search now has its own category
  • • Points added through name search in Historic sites and natural monuments are no longer labelled as nationally designated historic sites. They appear under a separate Manual search category with a distinct marker colour.
  • • Running automatic retrieval again no longer removes places you added by hand.
  • • Map pop-ups for manual points note that the location comes from OpenStreetMap name geocoding, not from an official cultural-property designation.
3D white relief editor: per-group relief height for hand-drawn lines
  • • In Relief settings, hand-drawn lines keep a parent default; each line group can override height and whether the stroke reads flat or rounded. Groups without an override still follow the parent.
  • • When a group has its own setting, the shared parent no longer applies; reset returns that group to the shared default.
  • • The historical-visualisation preset still sets every hand-drawn line to the same recommended height; any group you customise afterward keeps its own value.
3D white relief editor: map symbols can stand slightly taller in the historical preset
  • • Relief settings for map symbols now include a slightly taller raise option when landmarks need to read above hand-drawn routes.
  • • The “Set recommended values for historical visualisation” preset applies that taller setting to map symbols so historic sites stand clearer above routes.
  • • The Relief panel layer list now follows the sidebar order, with the map-symbol flat-top option always visible and off by default.
3D white relief editor: slope, elevation, and region-colour panels easier to scan
  • • Flat, gentle, moderate, and steep slope bands each sit in their own card with a colour swatch, a “Show” checkbox, angle fields, and colour controls grouped together.
  • • Elevation bands use the same card layout; nothing tints the map until you add a band and turn Show on.
  • • Region colour uses a dedicated “Draw on map” mode: enclose an area on the map, then tint only the interior (separate from hand-drawn lines).
  • • The “Surround and color” control now starts with display off; new regions stay hidden on the map until you turn display on.
  • • Steep slope is now 15° up to (but not including) 53°; a new grey “rocky steep slope” band covers 53° and above.
  • • The flat slope band now defaults to the light-tea preset (terrain only, separate from road colours).
  • • OSM roads default to a yellow–orange scale like road atlases (expressways orange → local roads pale yellow), avoiding greens and browns already used on terrain.
  • • The 3D print simulation now tints elevation bands and region colour the same way as slope zones (toggle: Slope / elevation / region colour).
  • • When slope, elevation, and region colour overlap, the stack is fixed: slope at the bottom, elevation bands above, region colour on top.
3D white relief editor: OSM road colours follow atlas-style yellow and orange
  • • Road levels no longer use brown or green: Lv1–Lv2 orange tones, Lv3 yellow, Lv4 pale yellow (lightest).
  • • Railways use near-black for Shinkansen, navy for conventional lines, and grey for light transit — distinct from road yellows and terrain browns.
  • • Fixed Lv1–Lv2 roads that could still show the old light-tea colour; stale line data is corrected automatically.
  • • Fixed an error that could stop the editor from opening after the road colour update.
  • • The in-editor page title now matches the official name in each language (Japanese: 3D白地図エディター).
Create Terrain landing page: worldwide download total now visible on the flagship card
  • • On large screens the worldwide export total appeared only in the dark hero, so it was easy to miss after scrolling to the white flagship card.
  • • The same total and breakdown toggle now sit on the 3D white relief editor card; expanding the breakdown shows how exports split by format and region just below the card.
News: Geo Exhibition 2026 exhibit and GSI Maps Fan Club talk
  • • Added an announcement for exhibiting Create GBM at Geo Exhibition 2026 (28 April).
  • • Added an announcement for a presentation on the 3D White Map Editor at a GSI Maps Fan Club regular meeting (23 May), with a link to the related post.
  • • The home-page news ticker shows the same two items.
R8 (2026).05.06IMPROVE
Added a "Set recommended values for historical visualisation" preset button to the Relief panel
  • • A single button in the 造形の盛り上げ (Relief) panel now applies a tuned set of extrusion values for maps that centre on historical information: water recessed −0.2 mm (flat), OSM infrastructure raised 0.4 mm (flat), hand-drawn lines 0.6 mm (dome), map symbols 1.0 mm (flat, with peak-align enabled), and administrative boundaries 0.2 mm (flat).
  • • The values express a deliberate depth hierarchy — map symbols stand tallest, hand-drawn historic routes rise above infrastructure, and water sits below the terrain surface — so the printed relief map conveys historical importance through physical height as well as colour.
  • • All settings remain individually adjustable after the preset is applied. The defaults for a new session are unchanged.
Home page flagship card now names every export format the editor offers
  • • The tag under the 3D white relief map editor on the home page listed only three formats even though the tool saves to the full range of download options, including flat images for print.
  • • The tag line now matches the formats visitors will see in the editor’s export menu.
R8 (2026).05.05FIXIMPROVE
Print simulation now shows hand-drawn lines, map symbols, and administrative boundaries by default — the LINE drawing extrude finally takes visible effect on first open
  • • In the print simulation, the toggles for ライン描画 (hand-drawn lines), 地図記号 (map symbols), and 行政区分 (administrative boundaries) used to default to OFF, while インフラ表現 (OSM-imported infrastructure) defaulted to ON. Hand-drawn content was therefore invisible until users found and switched on each toggle, which made the editor's LINE / 地図記号 elevation sliders look as if they had no effect.
  • • All four user-content toggles now default to ON in the print simulation, matching the インフラ表現 default. Lines drawn on the map, map symbols stamped on the map, and any configured administrative boundary lines now appear immediately, and their elevation values from the editor's 「造形の盛り上げ」 panel are visible at first glance.
  • • Each toggle remains available to be switched off when comparing layers in isolation. The change is a default only; saved sessions are unaffected.
Download counters in the editor and on the Create Terrain landing page no longer show a misleading "0 件" before the upstream counter is online
  • • The editor's output dialog used to render "this format has been downloaded 0 times / 0 in total" whenever the aggregated counter Worker was unset or unreachable, even though that "0" was a placeholder, not a real measurement. Visitors could read it as "no one has used this", which is the opposite of what the line is meant to communicate.
  • • The aggregated stats endpoint now returns an explicit availability flag. When the upstream counter is offline, the editor hides the counter line entirely, and the Create Terrain landing page shows the existing "Counter coming online" message in place of the big number and the breakdown toggle.
  • • Once the counter Worker is connected and starts recording, the editor line and the landing-page summary both light up automatically with the real totals — no further code change needed.
Top-down texture PNG export now includes hand-drawn lines, OSM infrastructure, and optional slope / elevation tints
  • • The plan-view PNG used to composite only the GSI basemap, water, a single combined road mask, administrative boundaries, and map symbols. Roads and railways imported from OpenStreetMap lived in separate infra masks for 3D output and never reached the PNG, so downloaded images often lacked those lines entirely.
  • • The PNG pipeline now reuses the same per-group rasters as solid-model export, stacking masks in the same order as the editor (water, infrastructure, administrative boundaries, hand-drawn lines, map symbols). When slope zones or elevation zones are enabled, their tint overlays appear on the PNG as well.
R8 (2026).05.01FIXIMPROVE
3D white relief map editor thumbnail refreshed with a lighter, current editor screenshot
  • • The flagship card on the Create Terrain page now uses a current screenshot of the 3D white relief map editor instead of the older video thumbnail, so visitors can see the present map, simulation, layer controls, and export workflow at a glance.
  • • The image has been compressed into a local WebP asset, keeping the page lightweight while matching the way other thumbnails are served from the site itself.
3MF export download now keeps the generated file reference alive long enough for large browser downloads
  • • Fixed a browser-side failure that could appear after 3MF compression, especially with heavy road / railway / water / symbol exports. The file was generated, but the browser could lose access to the temporary download reference before the download subsystem had fully opened it.
  • • The generated 3MF download URL is now released after a short safety window instead of immediately after the click, so large multi-object files can be handed off to the browser reliably.
3MF colour palette restored — Bambu Studio / Orca Slicer now load each part with its assigned filament colour again
  • • Fixed a regression where every imported part appeared in a single solid colour because the slicer's recent project-filament validation rejected the embedded palette as incomplete. The exported project now declares matching filament settings IDs, types, and basic profile fields alongside the colour list, so the slicer accepts the project filaments and assigns one to each object on import.
  • • Fixed a related issue where road / railway level colour edits could be lost if the user clicked download within a fraction of a second of changing a colour. The export now flushes any pending colour / width changes synchronously before building the 3MF, so the file always carries the latest palette.
Imported roads and railways now appear in the 3D preview as soon as the import finishes
  • • Fixed a regression where freshly-imported road / railway lines did not appear on the 3D view at all, leaving the editor effectively unusable for that workflow. The infrastructure layer was being rendered through an off-thread compositing path that could silently drop its first batch in some browser conditions.
  • • The compositing now runs reliably on the main thread again, with the per-level cache that was already in place to keep editing responsive. Adjusting widths and colours stays smooth thanks to the existing throttle, and the 3D preview reflects new imports immediately.
3MF colour palette fully fixed — the project header is now declared so Bambu Studio / Orca Slicer accept the multi-colour list and assign one filament per part on import
  • • Diagnosed by reading the slicer's own loader directly: it only treats the embedded settings as a project palette when the file declares itself with a top-level project header. Without that header, the palette is parsed but never reaches the project filament list, and every part falls back to the user's single default filament — exactly the "all parts in one solid colour" symptom that persisted after the previous round of fixes.
  • • The 3MF's project settings file now carries the same project header that the slicer's own exporter writes, plus the matching material identifier alongside the preset name and colour. With these in place the slicer recognises the project palette, populates the project filament list, and links each imported part to its assigned filament slot on first open.
  • • Files that were exported before this fix will still import as monochrome — they need to be exported again from the editor to receive the new palette declaration.
3D white relief map editor defaults refreshed — current thumbnail on the home page, Lv2 as the recommended map-symbol size, and a light-brown default for roads and railways
  • • The top page now uses the same current 3D white relief map editor thumbnail as the Create Terrain page, replacing the old video still so the flagship card reflects the actual editor screen.
  • • Map symbols now start at Lv2 (about 5 mm) as the recommended size. Lv1 and Lv3 remain available when a smaller or larger symbol is needed.
  • • The road and railway palettes now include light brown, brown, and dark brown. Light brown is the new default for imported OSM roads and railways, while the darker tone remains available as a preset for stronger contrast.
3MF colour handling simplified to the open standard path — each exported object now carries its own standard 3MF colour group
  • • Stopped pretending that Create GBM exports are native Bambu Studio project files. The slicer treats files marked as Bambu-made through a private compatibility path, and in that path it ignores standard colour groups unless the private metadata exactly matches the slicer version.
  • • The exported 3MF now uses the simple standard mechanism instead: each object has a one-colour `m:colorgroup`, and the object itself points to that colour with `pid` / `pindex`. Bambu Studio and Orca Slicer therefore import the file as an ordinary coloured multi-object 3MF, with each part visually separated and selectable for manual filament assignment.
  • • Private Bambu metadata files are no longer written. This makes the file less clever but much more robust: object separation and visible per-object colours no longer depend on reverse-engineered slicer internals.
3MF models now slice cleanly in Bambu Studio / Orca Slicer — fixed an inlay-vs-terrain volumetric overlap that could freeze the slicer at 5%
  • • Coloured parts — water, line drawings, infrastructure, slope zones, elevation zones — were silently poking one inlay-depth into the terrain volume at the boundary of every coloured area. Bambu Studio tried to resolve the overlap with boolean operations across millions of triangles per object and the export would appear frozen at about 5% slicing progress.
  • • The bottom face of each coloured part is now aligned to the terrain's real top vertex by vertex, so the inlay collapses to zero thickness exactly at its outer edge instead of dipping below the terrain. There is no remaining volumetric overlap between the terrain and any coloured object.
  • • Slicing now completes normally in Bambu Studio and Orca Slicer for the same multi-zone exports that previously froze. Files exported before this fix must be re-exported from the editor to receive the corrected geometry.
Two parts that happen to share a default colour no longer collapse into a single filament slot in Bambu Studio — each object now reliably lands on its own filament
  • • The default colour for the credit-plate part (light green) coincided with the default colour for the "incline slope" zone, and Bambu Studio's auto-colour-import would silently merge the two into one filament slot. Users who wanted to print the slope and the credit panel in different filaments had no way to assign them separately after import.
  • • The 3MF exporter now detects colour duplicates at export time and shifts later occurrences by one step in a single channel — visually indistinguishable (∆ ≤ 1/255) but treated as a distinct colour by the slicer's matching logic. Every object thus receives its own filament slot.
  • • This works for any duplicate, not just the credit-plate / slope pair. Even if a user picks the same custom colour for two different parts, the export still preserves an independent slot per part for manual filament assignment after import.
Adjacent coloured regions (Lv1/Lv2 OSM roads, 傾斜/急傾斜 slope zones, etc.) no longer overlap volumetrically at their shared boundary, finishing the Bambu Studio slicing-stall fix
  • • Even after the earlier inlay-vs-terrain fix, two adjacent coloured regions still both claimed the boundary quad they shared (because the inlay quad-mask used an OR-of-corners rule). At the quad centre each region kept around a quarter-millimetre of overlapping volume, and across a typical map this produced tens of thousands of overlap micro-prisms. Bambu Studio's boolean disambiguation could not keep up, and the slice would stall near 5% — even on the fixed multi-zone biwako export.
  • • Quad ownership is now resolved in a single priority pass before mesh generation: heritage > drawn lines > admin > OSM infrastructure (新幹線→鉄道→小型→Lv1→Lv4) > water > elevation zones > slope zones. Every boundary quad is owned by the highest-priority inlay present at any of its four corners; lower-priority neighbours yield the quad entirely.
  • • The claiming inlay's bottom face is now driven by the union of all coloured masks instead of its own mask alone, so its base sits flush on the carved terrain at every corner (including corners that belong to a yielded neighbour). Result: no inter-inlay overlap, no air gap toward terrain, only a sub-pixel "bleed" of the higher-priority colour into the lower-priority region at the boundary — invisible in print at typical resolutions, and the slicer no longer has to do CGAL boolean disambiguation across millions of triangles.
Erasing part of a slope-zone overlay with the brush now carries through to 3MF / GLB / STL / OBJ exports — the file matched the 3D preview before only for water and admin lines, not for flat / gentle / steep slope masks
  • • The live 3D preview subtracted the eraser from flat, gentle, and steep slope zone masks, but the export pipeline rebuilt slope masks from the DEM alone, so carved slope inlays could reappear in the downloaded model even though they looked gone on screen.
  • • Export now resamples the same editor-resolution erase bitmaps onto the export grid before mesh generation, using the same geographic mapping already used for water and administrative boundary erasing.
3D white relief editor — rolled back the May "Phase 3" UI lightweighting: the live preview always stays at full mesh resolution again, and OSM road / railway width and colour changes apply to LineGroups immediately
  • • Half-resolution terrain preview while dragging sliders, sweeping the eraser, or right after a road or railway fetch is removed. The 3D view again matches export detail at all times during editing.
  • • The 220 ms batching of LineGroup updates for infrastructure +/- and colour pickers is removed; every change runs the full preview pipeline immediately, as before Phase 3.
3MF export colours are literal again — the exporter no longer nudges duplicate hex values so that every object forced a separate filament slot in Bambu Studio
  • • The previous release silently shifted later objects by one RGB step whenever two parts shared the same `#RRGGBB`, so auto colour import always opened with one slot per object.
  • • That behaviour is removed: each part now carries exactly the colour chosen in the editor. When two defaults still coincide, the slicer may merge them into one filament until you assign materials manually — a simpler, more predictable file.
Coloured inlay parts are once again simple closed shells — slicing now completes reliably even on multi-zone exports that previously stalled in Bambu Studio
  • • The May fixes that fitted each inlay's bottom face to the carved terrain per vertex were producing coincident coplanar triangles around the boundary of every coloured object. Bambu Studio reported the result as hundreds of thousands of non-manifold edges and either stalled the slice or required a heavy auto-repair.
  • • Each inlay's bottom is once again a single flat plane at terrain − inlay depth. The intentional one-millimetre overlap with surrounding terrain at boundary quads is well within slicer tolerance and the meshes are manifold by construction. Adjacent coloured regions may share a small boundary overlap as well; that has always been acceptable for printing and was not the cause of the original 5%-stall behaviour.
  • • Files exported before this fix should be re-exported to receive the simpler geometry.
02MONTH

April 2026

R8 (2026).04.30NEWIMPROVE
A new "Definition · FAQ · Compare" trio that becomes the centre of how Create GBM is described — and the old "About the Project" page is folded into it
  • • A single canonical definition page has been added at /definition. It carries the core definition, the extended definition, and the tagline of Create GBM as one fixed block of text — every other page that cites the definition now reads from the same source string, so the wording can never drift. The page has also been given a stronger visual hierarchy: large dark opening, modern white card, rounded definition panels, and pathway cards that make the formal content easier to scan.
  • • A new FAQ page at /faq groups about twenty short questions into five themes (basics, concepts and learning, analysis, comparison, and use in education). The top standard definition and every answer now use the same boxed definition treatment as /compare: a short definition callout first, followed by a plain explanatory sentence. Non-canonical FAQ definitions use polite Japanese consistently, while the fixed Create GBM definition remains unchanged. The same questions are also published as FAQPage structured data so that AI assistants can quote them directly.
  • • A new comparison page is published at /compare (no longer under /project/) and clarifies what Create GBM is by clarifying what it is not — versus GIS, versus 2D maps, versus 3D map viewers, and versus generic 3D Terrain models — so that AI tools answering "what is Create GBM" do not blur it into adjacent categories. Each comparison now presents the definition sentence in a separate boxed callout and uses polite Japanese consistently; the whole Definition / FAQ / Compare trio now shares one modern, high-contrast reading system rather than feeling like a plain reference sheet. Small section labels were also cleaned up so the decorative rule is not followed by a second dash. The previous /project/compare URL still works and now permanently redirects to /compare.
  • • The "About the Project" page (/about-project) has been retired. Its project explanation, "what you can do here" block, data sources and credits, and changelog call-to-action have all been folded into /definition (and into /en/definition and /zh-TW/definition for the locale mirrors). The old three-pillar phrasing has been reworked into four pathways — reading terrain conditions, testing with simulations, creating 3D white relief maps, and connecting to resources — so making things is treated as a core part of Create GBM rather than an afterthought. The credits paragraph now foregrounds the educational vision: learning history through 3D terrain as a way to approach people's thoughts and values in a region. The old URL permanently redirects to /definition in every locale, so existing external links and bookmarks continue to work.
  • • A minimum English version of the definition is published at /en/definition, and a Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese) mirror at /zh-TW/definition. Both link back to the Japanese source-of-truth page.
  • • The homepage now exposes the same definition as DefinedTerm and AboutPage entries in its structured-data graph, and a small /llms.txt has been published so that large-language-model crawlers can retrieve the canonical wording as plain text without parsing HTML.
  • • The Project column of the footer is now ordered: 1. What Create GBM is (Definition), 2. FAQ, 3. Compare, 4. News, 5. Changelog. FAQ and Compare appear in Japanese only for now; English and Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese) show What Create GBM is + News + Changelog and reach the localised definition through the language switcher and from /definition itself.
"Reference Architecture" v1.0 codified — a second brand design principle that governs all PROJECT and LAW pages, distinct from "Academic Editorial" v1.0 for content pages
  • • The design system built for Definition, FAQ, Compare, News, Changelog, Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy has been formally named "Reference Architecture" v1.0 and set as a standing operating principle, parallel to the existing "Academic Editorial" v1.0 that governs main content pages. The two principles share the same brand tokens but are otherwise different systems, with a clear decision rule: pages that primarily define, document, or regulate use Reference Architecture; pages that inspire, explore, or narrate use Academic Editorial.
  • • Reference Architecture is built around five core elements: (1) SeoPageShell — a shared page shell that scopes decorative overlays inside the hero so the footer is never tinted; (2) SectionHeader — a numbered chip + eyebrow + h2 heading that gives long-form reference pages a scannable rhythm; (3) a mandatory in-page table of contents at the top of every content card; (4) a Definition callout box that frames canonical text without altering it; and (5) SeoLinkRow — a two-column button row that splits the label and the path onto separate lines.
  • • The new visual system has been applied to all six page groups: the definition trio (/definition · /faq · /compare), the news archive (/news), the development changelog (/changelog), and the legal documents (/terms-of-use · /privacy-policy). All locale mirrors (Japanese / English / Taiwan Mandarin) receive the same treatment through shared components.
  • • A Cursor rule file (.cursor/rules/reference-architecture.mdc) has been published to enforce this principle on all future edits to PROJECT and LAW pages, including a distinction table, component reference, typography guide, and decision rule for agents.
Primary navigation label refined — the "Start Inquiry" entry in the header, footer, and hero now reads "Begin Exploring" for a more inviting tone
  • • The main entry point labelled "探究する" in Japanese — visible in the top navigation, the site footer, the hero call-to-action, and the home section heading — has been updated to "探究をはじめる". The change signals an open invitation rather than a plain verb, and is consistent across all four surfaces.
  • • The card link text inside the inquiry listing pages ("探究する →") has also been updated to match.
Global download counter for the 3D white relief map editor — total exports plus per-format and per-country breakdown
  • • Each time someone exports a relief map from the editor (.3mf / .glb / .stl / .obj / .png), an aggregate counter is recorded — total, by format, and by country. The Output Settings dialog now shows how many times the chosen format has been downloaded and the worldwide total alongside it.
  • • The Create Terrain landing page now also shows the worldwide total, with a "See breakdown" button that reveals two horizontal bar charts: downloads by format, and the top 10 countries / regions. Both charts read from the same live counter.
  • • Privacy: only aggregated counts are stored. No IP addresses, no user agents, no sessions, no fingerprints. The country dimension is read on the edge from the request itself and is never transmitted by the browser.
3D white relief map editor — Performance pass: width / colour edits no longer freeze the editor when many infrastructure objects are loaded
  • • Editing the print width or colour of a road / railway level used to walk every imported OSM stroke and rebuild the entire stroke array on every keystroke or held-arrow tick. Width and colour are now read from the line group at rasterisation time, so a width change patches one object instead of thousands. Nudging Lv1 1.4 mm → 1.2 mm now lands instantly even with thousands of OSM segments loaded.
  • • Numeric width inputs in the road / railway panels are debounced by 250 ms. Holding ＋ / − or typing a multi-digit value now only commits the final value once the user pauses, so the heavy 3D pipeline runs once instead of 30–60 times per second.
  • • While the user is actively editing a width or colour, the 3D preview mesh is rendered at half resolution (1/4 the vertices). The display returns to full resolution about 0.4 seconds after the last interaction. The exported file is unaffected — this only changes the live preview during interaction.
3D white relief map editor — Performance pass II: per-level raster cache, water cleansing now uses the same fast preview, and the 3D mesh buffer is reused across edits
  • • Each road and railway level (Lv1 expressways / Lv2 national / Lv3 prefectural / Lv4 local; Shinkansen / general railway / light transport) now keeps its own cached raster image. Editing only one level's width or colour now repaints just that level — the other levels are reused at zero cost. With four road levels and three railway classes loaded, this cuts the per-edit work to roughly one seventh.
  • • Water cleansing (eraser sweep over rivers / coast / lakes) now also activates the half-resolution preview while the brush is in motion, so the 3D view stays responsive during long sweeps. Full resolution returns after the brush stops.
  • • The 3D preview mesh's underlying buffer is now kept alive across edits. Earlier, every mask change allocated a fresh 1024×1024 plane — about four million floats of indices and UVs — only to throw it away on the next change. The same buffer is now reused as long as the preview dimensions don't change, releasing pressure on the garbage collector.
3D white relief map editor — Performance pass III: rapid +/- presses are coalesced, infrastructure compositing moved off the main thread, and finishing a road / railway import settles smoothly
  • • The +/- buttons and colour pickers for road / railway levels now show their new value instantly but only commit one change after a short pause (about 220 ms). Holding the − button or rapidly tapping it no longer queues a stack of expensive 3D rebuilds; the editor waits for the user to settle before doing the heavy work once.
  • • The per-level raster compositing for OSM-imported roads and railways now runs in a dedicated Web Worker. The 3D preview shows the previous mask while the worker computes the new one, so adjusting widths or colours never freezes the editor — the user can keep moving the slider, opening other panels, or rotating the view while the new mask is being prepared in the background.
  • • The terrain slope map (used for "flat / gentle / incline / steep" zone displays) is now cached separately from the per-zone masks. Eraser strokes that only affect a slope zone no longer trigger a full recomputation of the underlying slope map — they reuse the cached one and only redo the cheap masking step.
  • • Finishing an OSM road or railway import now temporarily drops the live preview to half resolution for about 1.2 seconds, smoothing over the burst of rasterisation work that follows a successful fetch. The view returns to full resolution once the new strokes have settled.
R8 (2026).04.29NEWFIXIMPROVE
3D white relief map editor — Infrastructure layer: now drawn in the print simulation, with a unified "Lv" naming for roads and railways and refined default widths
  • • The 3D print simulation now renders the Infrastructure layer (OSM-imported roads and railways) alongside hand-drawn lines, water, map symbols, and administrative boundaries. A new "Infrastructure representation" toggle in the simulation header controls it independently of hand-drawn lines, so both can be reasoned about side by side.
  • • Road levels and railway classes are now labelled with a unified "Lv" prefix: roads as Lv1 expressways & toll / Lv2 national & major prefectural / Lv3 prefectural & main city / Lv4 other local & private; railways as Lv1 Shinkansen / Lv2 JR & private lines / Lv3 light transport (monorail, tram, funicular, and cable-car lines including aerialway=cable_car). The "Lv1 first" stacking priority that was already in force now reads the same way in the UI as in the docs and exports.
  • • Default road print widths have been re-balanced for printability at typical 150 mm output: Lv1 1.4 mm (was 1.8) and Lv2 1.0 mm (was 1.2). Lv3 0.8 mm and Lv4 0.4 mm are unchanged. The number can still be edited per level.
  • • Vertical-scale adjustment is now linked between the main simulator and the print simulation. Moving either control updates the other (across tabs) and is saved back into the simulation data, so both views stay in the same relief exaggeration.
3D white relief map editor — Output Settings dialog now shows the list of objects that will be written to the .3mf file, with a colour swatch per object
  • • The Output Settings dialog now lists every 3D object that will be emitted: terrain_base, water, each LINE group, each Infrastructure level/class (e.g. Lv1 高速・有料道路, Lv1 新幹線), heritage, admin, slope zones (SLOPE-平地 etc.), elevation zones (ELEV-100m etc.), credit-plate and credit-icon — each with its currently assigned colour next to it.
  • • The names match exactly what shows up in slicers such as Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer, so it is easy to plan ahead which filament colour goes to which part before sending the .3mf to the printer.
  • • Slope zones are again emitted as required SLOPE-* colour objects, but now with the correct inlay command: every higher-priority mask is subtracted first, terrain_base is recessed one layer to create a matching groove, and the slope object is inserted into that groove. Flat / gentle / steep colours therefore remain assignable in the slicer while never covering map symbols or other higher-priority objects.
  • • Colour controls now accept direct RGB values and a small Japanese preset palette (white, grey, black, blues, greens, red, brown, yellow, orange, pink, and purple). The default slope, road, and railway colours have been rebalanced to a calmer print palette, and the Output Settings object list is now a single column with Japanese colour names and RGB values; the same detailed list is included when copying or printing the output information.
  • • 3MF exports now include a small Bambu Studio / Orca Slicer compatible metadata block so each colour part is auto-assigned to its own filament slot when the file is opened. The exact colour palette used in the editor is pre-loaded into the slicer's project filament list, so the imported model already shows in its real colours instead of every part defaulting to filament 1. Geometry is unchanged.
  • • The credit-plate place-name font has been reduced by approximately 0.5 pt (from 34 px to 33 px at the plate's 3.64 px/mm canvas scale) so a full 7-character Japanese name — e.g. "日光・華厳の滝" — now fits without truncation. The input limit has been updated to match: Japanese 7 characters / English 14 characters.
R8 (2026).04.27NEWIMPROVE
Knowledge Repository — two new entries that clarify "how to read a city": an at-a-glance street-pattern visualiser, and Japan's official indicator dashboard
  • • City Roads (anvaka) has been added to the Geographic Primary Data layer: type any city name and the tool draws every road found in OpenStreetMap as a single line-art plate, so the shape of a city — grid, radial, or organic where rivers and coastlines have reshaped it — reads at a glance. Two cities can sit side by side for comparison.
  • • Japan Dashboard (Economy, Finance, Population, and Everyday Life) has been added to the Statistics & Open Data layer: an official dashboard jointly built by the Cabinet Office, the Digital Agency, and the Cabinet Secretariat that exposes about 1,000 indicators at the prefecture and municipality level, across population, economy, social security, education, living, social infrastructure, and local public finance. It pairs naturally with e-Stat and RESAS as a window into Japan's regional differences.
  • • The new cards are translated into Japanese, English, and Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese) in the same pass.
Homepage footer — the masthead edition date now tracks the topmost changelog entry automatically, so the publication date no longer drifts
  • • The "Edition" line at the bottom of every page now reads from a single source that is updated alongside the changelog. When a newer dated entry is added, the footer edition updates in the same commit.
  • • A standing operating rule has been codified to keep the two in lockstep, alongside the existing rules on changelog style, changelog auto-update, and three-locale translation sync.
R8 (2026).04.26NEWFIXIMPROVE
3D white relief map editor — a broad usability overhaul for tablets and stylus pens: scrollable dialogs, two-finger panning that no longer drops stamps, and everyday pen taps now registering as button presses
  • • Export settings, the road-drawing panel, the eraser panel, and the map-symbol picker are now fully scrollable on phones and tablets, so the Print / Apply / Close controls are always reachable.
  • • iPad pen input now behaves like a finger tap on buttons and toggles, not just on drawing strokes — so the whole editor can be driven by the stylus end to end.
  • • When a symbol is being placed, two-finger panning on touch devices moves the map cleanly without dropping extra symbols; the placement commits only on a deliberate single-finger tap.
3D white relief map editor — safer editing and clearer controls: a confirmation step before discarding, Undo from the very first action, 12 distinguishable line colors, Shinkansen line style, and larger sliders
  • • The clear-bounds button has been spaced apart from the undo arrow, and tapping it now asks for confirmation before discarding work. An accidental tap no longer loses a build.
  • • Undo now tracks every action from the start — placing a symbol, drawing a line, changing an elevation zone — not only the eraser.
  • • The line-drawing palette has been expanded to 12 perceptually distinct colors that remain distinguishable for colorblind viewers, and a Shinkansen line style has been added alongside the existing railway style.
  • • Line width, vertical scale, and eraser size can now be adjusted on a larger pop-out slider, which is far easier to use on a touchpad, a pen, or a fingertip.
  • • Map-symbol stamps now have three size presets (Lv1 ≈ 4 mm, Lv2 ≈ 5 mm, Lv3 ≈ 6 mm) that are selectable from the stamp tool bar. Lv1 stays the default, so existing projects are unchanged.
  • • In the Cultural Properties (historic sites, scenic beauties, natural monuments) panel, the auto-fetch button has been moved to the top so it is always reachable, and the data-source list now reflects only what the editor actually queries — Wikidata via SPARQL and OpenStreetMap Nominatim for name-based geocoding.
3D white relief map editor — slope and elevation zones become discrete 3D objects, and the 3D simulation now reflects the picked colors, so the printed result is easier to imagine
  • • Slope zones have been redefined on a four-band scale: flat (0°–3°), gentle (3°–8°), incline (8°–15°), and steep (15° and above).
  • • Elevation zones export as their own named 3D objects inside the output file, so multi-color slicers such as Bambu Studio can assign a different filament to every elevation band. Slope zones remain a surface-colour reading aid in the editor and simulation, sitting below all higher-priority objects.
  • • In the 3D simulation, roads and other drawn lines now display in the colors they were drawn with, and slope / elevation zones in the colors they were assigned — so the preview matches what the print will look like.
  • • The output-relief panel now offers a -0.2 mm "carve-down" option for the water layer, so rivers, lakes, and coasts can be recessed 0.2 mm below the terrain surface for a clearer read while printing. The water-width correction selector also includes 0.22 mm as an always visible option.
  • • A new sidebar panel, "インフラ表現" (Infrastructure representation), pulls OSM road and railway center lines into the model as a category kept separate from hand-drawn ライン管理. Roads split into four levels (expressways & toll / national & major prefectural / other prefectural & main city / other local & private). Railways split into three classes (Shinkansen / general railways i.e. JR & private lines / light transport such as monorail, tram, funicular), with Shinkansen defaulting to a 1.6 mm dedicated double-track line and the general railway default width set to 1.2 mm. Each level or class loads as its own colour-coded line group, prints as its own 3D object, and can be switched on / off, colour-picked, and dialled in mm individually — unchecking clears the imported lines immediately, as the water layers already do. The "造形の盛り上げ" (relief) panel now has a dedicated slot for インフラ表現 sitting between 水系表現 and ライン描画, so imported infrastructure can be raised or lowered independently of both water and hand-drawn lines. The object stacking rule is now documented and enforced: map symbols > later-drawn LINE > administrative boundaries > railways (Shinkansen first) > roads (L1 first) > water > elevation zones > slope zones > terrain. OSM tag mapping is documented in the project README.
  • • Heavy projects with OSM roads and railways imported across a wide area now export reliably to the end: a staged progress bar shows which step is running, and the browser no longer triggers a "page not responding" prompt before the .3mf / .stl / .obj / .glb is ready — the rasterization stage of thousands of imported lines is an order of magnitude faster, and large 3MF files are compressed at a lighter level when they exceed a threshold to keep the main thread responsive.
  • • Fixed a defect where exported 3D files carried a stray, unprintable sub-millimetre speck on the outside (a ~0.5 mm brown pillar). It appeared when an OSM tram, monorail, funicular or similar light-rail way only nicked the edge of the selected area — the tiny in-bbox nick was being emitted as its own 3D object and then flagged by Bambu Studio / OrcaSlicer as an unprintable warning object. The fetch pipeline now drops OSM ways whose in-bbox footprint is shorter than 10 m, and the rasterizer drops any remaining group whose footprint is under 0.25 mm². Hand-drawn lines are untouched.
3D white relief map editor — print-ready polish: administrative boundary default width set to 0.4 mm, a wider credit plate, and more characters for the place name
  • • The default stroke width for administrative boundaries is now 0.4 mm for a new session — a thin line that matches common FDM nozzle scale. The earlier 4 mm default read far too boldly at typical 150 mm prints.
  • • The credit plate on the back of the print has been extended 1 cm to the right. Japanese place names can now carry one more character, English names two more.
R8 (2026).04.22NEWFIXIMPROVE
SEO and GEO-style discovery metadata refreshed across Japanese, English, and Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese) — clearer portal positioning, terrain-led inquiry, and 3D white relief map editor visibility
  • • Homepage and hub descriptions now state more clearly how terrain-led inquiry connects history and geography, and how the 3D white relief map editor turns Japan-wide terrain into printable teaching models with exports such as 3MF, GLB, STL, and OBJ.
  • • Locale-aware titles and summaries are aligned for major entry pages, including the Knowledge Repository and News, with consistent cross-language linking where the site offers Japanese, English, and Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese) routes.
  • • The public sitemap now lists additional teaching tools and city viewers, including GeoLab and the 3D editor route, with refreshed dates so crawlers see the full breadth of the platform.
Unified naming for the third locale — Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese) — in the language menu and in operating rules
  • • The language switcher label for the third route is now locale-aware: Japanese UI shows 台湾華語（繁体字）, English UI shows Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese), and the Traditional UI shows 台灣華語（繁體字）.
  • • README and the i18n Cursor rule now codify that **Japanese** maintainer-facing prose must name this locale **台湾華語（繁体字）**; English prose uses Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese). Technical codes and paths remain `zh-TW`.
Knowledge Repository — a new "Weather and Clouds (a sense of wonder)" layer, and a major content expansion that carries a child's question from kids' weather portals to the WMO International Cloud Atlas and research-grade climate data
  • • A new layer, "Weather and Clouds (a sense of wonder)", has been inserted between Learning in the Field and Geographic Primary Data. Everything about the sky now lives on one shelf — JMA kids' portals, the WMO International Cloud Atlas (the world's standard cloud classification), Himawari real-time satellite imagery, and climate data from NOAA and NASA.
  • • JMA Weather Statistics, the Himawari satellite, Met Office (UK), DWD (Germany), and KMA (South Korea) — previously shelved under Geographic Primary Data — have moved into this new weather layer, so international comparison of weather and climate now sits naturally in one place.
  • • About 130 new resources have been added across the 11 layers. From ministry kids' pages and the WMO International Cloud Atlas to climographs, Hinata GIS, ADEAC, ColBase, Europeana, Gallica, folk-tale libraries and iNaturalist, a learner can now move from the elementary-school entry to university- and research-level verification within the same portal.
  • • The Google Earth card now also notes Voyager — 3D tours of World Heritage sites, and stories on endangered species and the SDGs — so visitors discover that side of the tool from the card itself.
  • • The homepage Knowledge Repository preview now reflects this expansion. The "Today's gateway" featured card has been updated to Earth NullSchool — an animated wind-and-current map — as a direct entry point, and "Weather and Earth Science" has been promoted to one of the four primary browse-by-theme cards.
Knowledge Repository — quality refinement pass: featured-resource tier redesign, 44 gateway resources translated into English and Traditional Chinese, and data accuracy corrections
  • • Featured resources are now organized into three tiers — Gateway (for kids and first steps), Pillar (cornerstone inquiry resources), and Deep Dive (primary sources and research-grade archives) — so visitors can orient at a glance.
  • • English and Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese) translations added for 44 gateway-tier resources, covering all featured children's portals, kids' weather and space sites, and key map and archive tools. Descriptions and inquiry tips are now readable in all three locales.
  • • Accuracy pass: the resource count badge now reflects the actual total (300+); grade levels corrected for one resource; structured data for the page now includes meteorology.
  • • The Weather and Clouds layer introduction rewritten as a leading question — "Why do clouds form?" — to front the inquiry posture from the first line.
  • • Build stability fix: a guard has been added so featured-tier classification handles resources with optional auxiliary tags safely, and duplicate EN / Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese) resource overlays have been removed to keep production builds deterministic.
  • • AdSense display ads restored: Content Security Policy headers were extended to allow the ad-delivery domains that the security hardening pass had unintentionally blocked. Ads are excluded from tool and simulation pages so they do not interrupt hands-on learning.
Knowledge Repository — full i18n completion: all 329 resources now carry English and Taiwan Mandarin (Traditional Chinese) titles, descriptions, and inquiry tips
  • • Translations for the remaining 107 resources — from ministry kids' pages, real-time weather tools, and geology databases to classical literature archives, performing arts platforms, and regional GIS — have been added in this pass. Every resource card in the Knowledge Repository now displays in all three locales without falling back to Japanese.
  • • Wave 2 (29 resources) covered the Weather and Clouds layer in full, plus featured pillar and archive resources across layers B, D, G, and T. Wave 3 (78 resources) completed the rest: government kids' portals, disaster preparedness tools, historical place-name databases, law indexes, and academic society resources.
R8 (2026).04.20NEWIMPROVE
Two standing operating principles newly codified, and a refined homepage opening — the "Academic Editorial" brand design principle v1.0, and the changelog "Entry Classification System" v1.0
  • • The "Academic Editorial" brand design principle v1.0 has been formally codified — "the composure of a scholarly journal, with the presence of a documentary film" — and applied site-wide; every new page or feature from here on must be built to the same principle.
  • • The changelog "Entry Classification System" v1.0 has been codified alongside it. Every dated entry now carries one or more of NEW / FIX / IMPROVE marks, and on mixed-update days the color of the vertical accent on the left of the entry is derived from the combination.
  • • The homepage opening has been re-balanced: Start Inquiry and Create GBM now sit as a pair of flagship gateway cards, with the main headline leading the eye first and the two gateways quietly supporting it.
Knowledge Repository — restructured around a child-first axis, with Teacher redrawn as a peer of the grade levels
  • • The first two layers have been re-curated by one question: does this let a child begin? "First learning" now keeps only truly universal entry points (a map everyone uses, kids' map-literacy and kids' statistics pages, a museum video channel, social-studies shorts), and "Widening learning" keeps curiosity-first materials (world museums, a world-of-life encyclopedia, historical world maps). Teacher-oriented introductions have been removed from these two layers.
  • • A new "Learning in the field" layer has been inserted between Widening learning and the geographic primary-data layer — cultural-heritage and historic-site videos and museum materials now gather here, so a child can move from "wonder" into the gentle pull of "I want to go and feel this place myself".
  • • A dedicated "Teachers' Commons" layer has been added, split into two tiers that match how teachers actually work: one for lesson plans (new teachers), and one for teaching materials and instructional guidance (mid-career and veteran teachers).
  • • The grade row has been rebalanced: "Teacher" is now a peer of elementary / middle / high / university / researcher, each with its own distinct icon (the High-school and University icons have been refreshed to end earlier collisions). The Teacher chip itself has been set free as an independent audience filter, so combinations like "Teacher × Video" or "Teacher × Cultural Heritage" now stack cleanly instead of cancelling each other out.
Knowledge Repository — labels, pills and filter rail brought into one honest, legible surface, and the homepage aligned to match
  • • Content-type labels have been rewritten to match the actual reading experience: Academic → Research, New Teacher → Lesson Plans, Veteran Teacher → Teaching Materials & Guidance.
  • • Eleven auxiliary tags (Kids' Entry / Disaster / Earth Science / Cultural Heritage / Natural Science / Open Data / GIS / Official Video / API / English / Multilingual) have been promoted to first-class "Theme tag" filters alongside layer / grade / content-type. Every pill now carries a visible border, so the whole repository reads as one consistent surface.
  • • The hero counter has grown up: instead of a hand-written "80+", the badge now reads the live count from the data itself, so "120+ free resources" stays honest as the collection grows.
  • • The homepage has been aligned to this new shape. Below the four flagship "Browse by method" cards (Video / Statistics / Map / Primary sources) the remaining content types are lined up as small pills, and a new "Browse by Angle" block gives every one of the eleven theme tags a homepage entry point. Each flagship card now lands on a cross-layer summary of its own type — clicking "Learn through video" opens a true video collection, not a learning-stage title.
Knowledge Repository — a major content expansion so that one portal carries an inquiry from "ask about your town" to "ask the world the same question", from elementary students to researchers
  • • For children and general readers, the "short route to overseas primary sources" has been widened. Open-access collections from the world's museums, geographic search of historical maps worldwide, a global encyclopedia of living things together with the official Red List of threatened species, and full-text archives of out-of-copyright classics are now reachable directly from the widening-learning layer. Two university-level OpenCourseWare tracks are lined up beside them, viewable without registration. Each card carries a gentle cue that "even in English, images and numbers will carry you".
  • • For teachers, the shortest route to Japan's regional and specialised archives has been substantially broadened (modern public records, classical books, imperial-household records, regional history, women's history, military history, integrated cultural-heritage databases), and sector-specific national statistics have been added (economy and fiscal, forest and forestry, infectious-disease surveillance, biodiversity). In the Teachers' Commons, the Library of Congress's teacher-facing page that pairs primary sources with questioning examples has been brought in as a reference model for classroom design in Japan, and the go-to teaching hubs run by Japan's leading social-studies textbook publishers — a textbook-aligned ICT teaching-materials library, and a family of free teacher periodicals covering lesson research and recent scholarship in geography, history, and civics — have also been wired in.
  • • The academic staircase for university students and researchers has been deepened another step. World-standard preprints (life / medical / social sciences), the world's largest open-access paper cross-search, and a researcher-identifier ID — the "backbone of international peer review" — have been added. On the Japanese side, six national research institutions (ICT, basic science, statistical science, Japanese language, economics and industry, fisheries) have joined, and both a U.S. research-library consortium digital library (full-text out-of-copyright books) and university-level OpenCourseWare are now wired in.
  • • A whole international layer has been built out so the world can be read at the same resolution as your own town. Official surveying, geological, and meteorological agencies from multiple countries; satellite and Earth observation; global population and administrative-boundary datasets; statistics from international organisations (economy / energy / health / labour / human rights / refugees / nuclear / trade); national statistical offices of major countries; national archives and national libraries worldwide; official access points to international law and treaties; and the global scaffolding of biodiversity data have all been added, each linking directly to the primary source in the issuing country. Japan's Statistics Bureau directory of foreign government statistical agencies is placed alongside as a hub, so the inquiry path "ask in your town, then ask the world the same question" can be followed through a single line in every field.
  • • About forty existing resources whose character was already implicit (disaster / cultural heritage / open data / GIS / official video / English / multilingual) have been tagged accordingly, so the filters finally match the reality of what's inside; the Official Gazette card has been refreshed to reflect that, since 2025, the electronic edition is the authentic, official version.
R8 (2026).04.19NEWIMPROVE
Homepage-wide UI overhaul — a cinematic opening, and a single editorial feel running through every page
  • • The background film on the homepage now drifts slowly and carries a subtle vignette and a faint film-like grain — giving the opening the air of a geographic documentary.
  • • The four flagship homepage sections (Start Inquiry / How to Ask? / How to Create? / Knowledge Repository) now share the same composition, spacing and typography, so the page reads as one coherent publication.
  • • "How to Ask?" has been rebuilt as a three-step learning path, with a companion panel on the right that shows a raw question being gradually refined into a verifiable one.
  • • The Knowledge Repository block has returned to a bright, highly legible layout where grade, theme and learning method can be grasped at a glance — friendly again for younger readers.
  • • The same editorial treatment has been extended across the rest of the site — News, About, Terms, Privacy, the Concept page, and the regional inquiry pages — so every page now shares one consistent feel.
  • • Reviewed and tightened the English and Traditional Chinese (Taiwan) translations to match.
Knowledge Repository: link category review, link additions, multilingual support
  • • Added a new "For Teachers" filter, and 3 new resources centered on teaching materials and lesson plans. Existing teacher-oriented sites have been retagged accordingly.
  • • Added 2 new all-ages featured resources, each with official tutorial / explainer video links.
  • • Added 2 new history & geography resources usable from elementary level onwards.
  • • Reviewed each resource description, and supplemented several newly-available official tutorial / explainer videos.
  • • Standardized the secondary-link wording (unified to "Tutorial videos") for consistent UI.
  • • Implemented full multilingual support for the entire Knowledge Repository: every resource title, description, tip, layer name, mission, and grade guide is now translated into English and Traditional Chinese (Taiwan).
  • • The Knowledge Repository block on the homepage has been redesigned — with prominent grade buttons, a "Today's Gateway" pick, five learning-method cards (now including "For Teachers"), and a teaser for the upcoming "Expert Perspectives" column.
R8 (2026).04.07NEWFIX
Tablet/mobile guidance and map-layer UI adjustments
  • • Repositioned STEP 1/2/3 guidance overlays upward so buttons remain easy to tap on tablet and smartphone screens.
  • • Fixed the tablet map-layer switcher UI so the dropdown menu opens correctly.
  • • Added 1 new history & geography resource to the Knowledge Repository — a historical-map overlay tool usable from elementary through specialist level.
R8 (2026).04.05NEWFIXIMPROVE
Coastline time machine reliability improvements and map display fixes
  • • The water-level slider now follows smoothly, even during rapid operation.
  • • The world-map base layer has been switched to the more reliable CartoDB service, so regions outside Japan now display stably. Mainland Japan continues to use GSI (Geospatial Information Authority of Japan) hillshade and pale-color overlays.
  • • Credit lines in all three languages have been updated to reflect the new map-source composition.
3D white map editor touch selection improvements
  • • Fixed tablet and smartphone touch input for region selection.
  • • Reworked touch handling to support one-finger selection with two-finger pan/zoom.
  • • Adjusted guidance overlay to not block map interaction.
Knowledge Repository update
  • • Added 1 new history resource accessible from elementary school level, with a tutorial video link. Set as a featured resource.
R8 (2026).04.04NEWIMPROVE
Coastline simulator map update and heritage UI enhancements
  • • The coastline-simulator base map has been rebuilt as a hybrid composition: OpenStreetMap for global coverage, with a high-detail GSI (Geospatial Information Authority of Japan) hillshade and pale-color overlay layered on top for mainland Japan. The world can now be surveyed on a single consistent map, while Japan keeps the detailed terrain read-out it had before.
  • • Coastal heritage points have been reorganized for easier discovery, with expanded global candidates and richer descriptions for each.
  • • Added a function-based legend for coastal heritage points, while keeping every point visible on the map by default.
R8 (2026).04.01NEW
Public release of the 3D white map editor
  • • 3D white maps overlaid with OpenStreetMap waterways can now be edited directly in the browser.
  • • Maps can be composed by combining area selection, road line-drawing, heritage stamps and administrative boundary display.
  • • Slope-zone and elevation-zone coloring make the shape of the land easy to read at a glance.
  • • Finished maps can be exported in five formats — 3MF / GLB / PNG / STL / OBJ — so the same map can be used for 3D printing, in-browser viewers, and print.
  • • A simple pre-export simulation (line-width and vanishing-detail checks) confirms whether fine details will 3D-print cleanly.
02MONTH

January 2026

R8 (2026).01.30NEWIMPROVE
Completion of the news release display feature and major update to "How to Create?" content
  • • Added a ribbon on the homepage that automatically cycles through recent announcements.
  • • Added a dedicated announcements page (in all three languages).
  • • Added buttons that take readers directly to the full external article.
  • • Added a link from the footer to the announcements page.
  • • Redesigned the language switcher icons so they render cleanly on every device.
  • • Added two tutorial videos under "How to Create?" — how to use GSI maps (Geospatial Information Authority of Japan), and an introduction to terrain modeling in Blender.
  • • Added a preview section introducing upcoming directions — AR, generative AI, layer features, and classroom integration (all planned).
  • • The homepage "How to Create?" block has been refreshed into a horizontally-scrollable layout showing multiple themes side by side.
R8 (2026).01.27NEW
3-language support and 3D terrain viewer feature additions
  • • Added 3-language support: Japanese, English, and Traditional Chinese (Taiwan).
  • • Implemented a feature in the 3D terrain viewer that allows movement in a first-person-like view by tilting a tablet or smartphone.
  • • Added the Kanazawa-area 3D terrain viewer: explore the castle town of Kaga Hyakumangoku between the Sai and Asano rivers.
R8 (2026).01.26NEW
New Fukuoka-area 3D terrain viewer added
  • • Made 3D terrain data for the Fukuoka area explorable in the browser.
  • • Implemented two viewpoints: Giant Mode (bird's-eye view) and Exploration Mode (first-person view).
  • • Added a "discovery learning" feature to reveal microtopography by changing the sun angle.
  • • Added operation guides for desktop, smartphone, and tablet users.
  • • Added a MakerWorld download link for 3D-print data.
R8 (2026).01.18NEW
  • • Visualization of seasonal winds, jet streams, and ocean currents.
R8 (2026).01.15NEW
  • • Official public release of the Create GBM portal site.
  • • Completion of the privacy policy (Google AdSense support and explanation of operating costs for generative AI features).
R8 (2026).01.14NEW
  • • Completion of the top page.
  • • Expanded and revised the Knowledge Repository.
  • • Completion of "What Questions to Ask?".
R8 (2026).01.13NEW
Completion of the Coastline Time Machine
  • • Interactively experience 15,000 years of sea-level change, from the Jomon transgression (+5m) to the Ice Age (-120m), via a single slider.
  • • Switch between 15 era presets — from the Paleolithic through to the present — to watch coastlines shift.
  • • Major archaeological sites and shrines across Japan are pinned on the map as landmarks.
  • • Covers ancient global landforms too — Doggerland, Sundaland, the Bering Land Bridge, and more.
  • • Inquiry hints and prompt questions are provided to help learners reason about "why".
R8 (2026).01.12NEW
Creation of the Knowledge Repository — curated history & geography links, organized by level up to specialists
  • • Established an inquiry-focused development principle that prioritizes cultivating questions over memorizing answers.
  • • Prepared a comparison of six map types as an entry point for inquiry.
  • • Expanded the content pages for 3D terrain (GBM).
  • • Expanded the content pages for water-system and related themes.
  • • Built out the Knowledge Repository — a curated collection of history- and geography-related links, organized by level from elementary through to researchers.
Made the site easier to discover — for both search engines and generative AI
  • • Restructured the site so it is easier to find from both search engines and generative AI.
R8 (2026).01.11NEW
Completion of water-system data display content
  • • 12 cities supported: Saga / Osaka / Kurashiki / Kofu / Nagoya / Takamatsu / Niigata / Kushiro / Tokyo / Kanazawa / Matsue / Hiroshima.
Release of the Create GBM test site
R8 (2026).01.07NEW
Implementation of water-system data display content
Implementation of generative AI features
R8 (2026).01.04NEW
Implementation of map features
POLICY

Development Policy

Create GBM is a history-and-geography education platform that utilizes 3D terrain models (GBM) and continues to improve and expand its functions. Through map expressions that spark intuitive ideas simply by looking,and through GIS-based data visualization, it offers ideas for problem-finding and inquiry-based learning.
By providing highly reliable data and information and continuously improving UI/UX,we aim to help users explore history and geography more intuitively.

03MONTH

December 2025

R7 (2025).12.26NEW
Start of building the Create GBM portal site