MapWorld

A VRChat world where you can stand anywhere on Earth. Type a place name or a lat,lon pair into the world's search field, and MapWorld builds about 64 m of the real terrain and buildings there from open map data, then streams it to the world as a video.

Everyone in the instance shares the same destination: when one player searches, the whole group lands in the same place, late joiners included.

Searching from inside the world

  1. Go to the search kiosk. Its URL field already holds the MapWorld address, ending in ?q=.
  2. Type your search on the end and press Enter.
  3. The world plays the result. If the place is new, a status screen shows while it is built, and the world reloads it by itself until it is ready.

You can search for:

  • a landmark or place name, such as eiffel tower;
  • an address;
  • coordinates as lat,lon in decimal degrees, latitude first, such as 45.4236,-75.7009.

A + between words works the same as a space. Searches can be up to 200 characters. If a name matches several places, MapWorld builds the best match and lists the others on screen; add &n=2 (up to &n=5) to the end of the URL to pick another.

What the status screens mean

Building …
The place is being built for the first time. The world reloads automatically every few seconds until it is ready.
No match
Nothing matched the search. Check the spelling, or type coordinates instead.
No map data
There isn't enough open data for that spot to build a tile. Try somewhere nearby.
Busy
Too many requests or builds at once, from you or overall. The world retries by itself after a short wait.
Search is paused for today
Today's place-name search budget is used up. Coordinates and the place buttons still work, and name search comes back at midnight UTC.
This destination has expired
The video for that destination is no longer kept. Search for it again.

Prebuilt places

These load instantly from the place buttons in the world.

Parliament Hill, Ottawa
Château Frontenac, Québec
Lincoln Memorial, Washington
Louvre, Paris
Cité de Carcassonne
Basilique de Fourvière, Lyon
Grossmünster, Zürich
Staubbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen
Markthal, Rotterdam
Westerkerk, Amsterdam
Kölner Dom, Cologne
Brandenburger Tor, Berlin
Plaza Mayor, Madrid
Sagrada Família, Barcelona

How MapWorld works · Privacy · Terms