[Halop]

Yeah I feel like this is re-inventing the wheel - as a topographic map is a solved problem from (100?) years ago. Regarding the learning curve - it takes a maximum of 15 minutes to understand how to read them. After you 'get it' you can visualize the flat map in 3d.

The one issue of using topo maps for city navigation is that the contour lines are sometimes hard to make out when having buildings, streets and other noise in the foreground (I'm using OsmAnd contours as an example).

The blog post itself is really nice of how it goes in-depth. The final product reminds me of those ski-resort maps that show the downhills. The final product works really well as a tourist informational map.

[Arn_Thor]

If you're new in town and want to go to location X, what is better? Glancing at the map and immediately grasping that the street is up a hill, or looking at a probably unfamiliar topographical map and possibly spending 5 to 15 minutes learning how to read it? I'd kill for a map like this for any hilly town I'd visit, and I know how to read topographical maps