Demo

The cathedral stands its ground; the walkers reach for their umbrellas when it rains. Down by the Rhine, the bridges enter the picture, including a train crossing Hohenzollern Bridge. Traffic eases at night. A living city does not need to stage rush hour at two in the morning.

Find your view of the city

Click and drag across the scene to turn the view; use the mouse wheel to zoom. On a phone, drag with one finger to turn and pinch with two fingers to move closer or further away.

The viewpoint selector takes you straight to landmarks such as Cologne Cathedral, Central station or Holy Apostles. The compass marked N turns the view north. The symbol at the top right opens the scene in fullscreen.

On a phone, open More 3D controls for the additional buttons. View sequence takes you through several viewpoints automatically. Pause animation holds the movement while you have a proper look around.

You are in charge of the weather

Choose a setting in the Weather lab: sunshine, a sun shower, a thunderstorm, snow, fog or a gale. The time slider changes the time of day too. Try the same view in bright midday light and in rain after dark.

Tour moves through weather conditions, times and places automatically. Film plays a prepared sequence of camera moves and weather changes. Select Live weather to return to the weather data for the city.

These weather settings are experiments. Ordering a rain shower just to see what happens is perfectly possible here. At least the little people remembered their umbrellas.

Weather you can watch

Rain and snow change intensity, while wind moves precipitation and trees. Windows and streets light up as night falls or the weather darkens the city. Cars and walkers are animated, with their numbers responding to the time and weather. Your browser keeps calculating the scene as you explore.