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New offline map issues


Chris

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Hi Nic,

I have been trying out the latest update over the past couple of days and have been very pleased with all the new features, you've done a fantastic job making a great app even better!

I have however run into a couple of issues and wondered if you could help. The new offline maps for the Uk are different to what was being used before (I think it was Openstreet?)  it's a great facility to have the whole uk downloaded onto the phone and whilst they carry some useful extra information, especially showing trig points, it's posed a few problems whilst out in the field, for me at least. (Using an iPhone 5s, no sim, just GPS)

What I've noticed is that the offline mapping used before showed footpaths in detail without having to zoom right in, it's been particularly useful in the forests/woods when planning where to go next and getting an idea of what is available to walk over when in a large wooded area for instance. I've found that the new maps only show these footpaths when you're really zoomed in which makes planning that move much more difficult, you lose a sense of where you need to head as the area is so small and you revert to endless scrolling. Having to do this and zooming right in has also caused quite a lot of void spaces to appear and it is taking an age to download that particular tile. Before it was instant and most of the time you didn't have to zoom in so much to get the detail up.

Is there a way to have Openstreet as the default offline map or am I stuck using the whole of Uk map and having to zoom right in to bring up the detail required? Perhaps I have missed something but have tried all I can think of with no luck. Other than this one thing which unfortunately is proving to be a massive user friendly issue the rest of the update is great.

Thanks.

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The new maps are Open Street Maps. However, we use our own custom style sheet to style the map and display data on the zoom levels we specify (meaning, I can change the zoom level that footpaths and other data show on). So here are some questions:

  1. Can you give me coordinates of where the footpaths are so I can take a look?
  2. What zoom level do you wish footpaths showed up on?
  3. Does the slow rendering only happen at high zoom levels, or always?

I hope together we can fix these issues.

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Hi Nic and thanks for the swift reply.

Hopefully the attached pictures will explain what I mean, two different areas with the same results. The rendering on the newer maps is slow mostly when at high zoom (which unfortunately is what I'm having to use) although it is also happening at lower zoom levels too but seems to correct itself quicker. I'm guessing it's a trade off between having a large map but keeping the space required for it as low as possible therefore some detail is being lost? Hope it all makes sense.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Chris said:

I'm guessing it's a trade off between having a large map but keeping the space required for it as low as possible therefore some detail is being lost? Hope it all makes sense.

The new maps render the tiles on the fly and do not rely on actual image files being preloaded on the device. I am working to speed up the rendering significantly.

Can you give me some coordinates of where on the footpaths are on earth? I want to be able to look at the same location that you are when I am updating our map styles.

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7 hours ago, Chris said:

That looks so much better, although presented slightly differently it has all the necessary detail. If that were available offline it would be so much more user friendly at those levels of zoom. Can't fault the customer support, thanks again for all your hard work.

Other things can always be adjusted, I have unlimited amount of control over it. :)

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Just now, Chris said:

just updated to 2.01 and have seen the map changes. Thank you very much for sorting this, it'll make a massive difference to using the app offline whilst out and about.

In my opinion the app was second to none before version 2, now it's streets ahead of the competition, fantastic job.

Thanks for the compliments.:)

Let me know if you notice any more map objects that are not showing at certain zoom levels or things you might have input on changing. 

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12 hours ago, barefootguru said:

Might be worth making play areas more green than aqua, as blue implies water — see screenshot with lake on left and play area on right.

Thanks, that would be easy to change.

12 hours ago, barefootguru said:

I'd like to see contour lines, but realise that could make the map too busy.

This is something that I have looked into but I am worried about the extra file size that it will add to the map downloads. It is still on our list.

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13 hours ago, barefootguru said:

Just noticed our cable car tracks are missing (New Zealand):  OSM shows them but not Cachly.  This is halfway between 2 stations:  S41 17.115 E174 46.109

Is this what you were hoping to see?

Simulator Screen Shot Dec 18, 2016, 9.36.05 PM.png

That rail type is called funicular: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:railway=funicular?uselang=en-US

It looks like we were missing the style definitions for that type of railway, but I have added them now so that those types of railways show. Thanks for alerting me about this!

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