Messages

[new Beta version 4.12.1.2]

Hi guys,
interesting new Beta version 4.12.1.2 just published.

What to expect?
- downloading of geocaches directly over the app > future of G4L is unsure so I've decided to implement all necessary features directly into app
- a test version of the new system for full-screen mode ("Expert settings" where probably remains)
- a test version of the activity recognition system for track recording > new option "Auto pause" in the setting of recording profile. I've not tested it in the field yet so use on your own risk. The top bar on the main screen may display a "Custom" panel with current info about the detected activity.
- and many fixes ... uff. Enjoy weekend!

---

@balloni55
- NMEA simulation is visible only if any NMEA message is in the Locus/cache/nmea directory
- memory problem > I was not checking it yet, but thanks, next week

@joeloc
not as easy, but I'll look at it and let you know

Hello
good news, today there was an update
at the first attempt i was able to update all my geocaching folders without any breake

Version 3.0.8:
• Improve detecting membership type when user disallow sharing personal data
• Fix updating Geocaches
• Do not offer opening Geocaching forum links with app
• Update app localization

New release now available v20210210.

I have updated the first post with the latest release notes and links. I'm now using google drive to release the theme in a shared folder that contains all the releases and the PDF legends.

Mainly improvements are made for:

• Added new/missing elements: customer/private parking, forest cutlines, ditch barriers, earth banks, gullies, hedges, military bunkers, post boxes, public artworks, town halls
• Major improvement to rendering of all waterways (using casings/cores now)
• Made visible some elements that got hidden by water areas: piers, tidal-flats
• Added option to highlight cycle lanes/tracks - useful if you want to plan cycle routes using them

Many other small changes/fixed, see release notes for details.

Note that post boxes have alternative renderings based on if you set "drive on the left side" or "drive on the right side" overlay options:

• left side = red circles as most left hand side driving countries use round red post boxes.
• right side = yellow squares as most right hand side driving countries use square yellow post boxes.

NB: Remember that the default overlay options in the theme are set to hide non-OS symbols and road furniture. You'll need to switch these on to see them.

New release now available v20210103.

i have updated the first post with the latest release notes and links. I'm now using google drive to release the theme in a shared folder that contains all the releases and the PDF legends.

Mainly improvements are made for:

• Improved hiking route emphasis/highlights, using green for iwn/nwn/rwn and yelllow for lwn/uwn
• Improved cycling route emphasis/highlights, using red for icn/ncn and blue for rcn/lcn/ucn
• Added cycle lanes and cycle tracks

Route emphasizes/highlights are visible from zoom level 7 (depending on when/what the map shows) and include a colour coded route label too. From zoom level 15 routes are as in previous version of the theme.

Attached are screenshots showing examples of new cycle lanes/tracks and improved route emphasizes/highlights.

The colours are picked to match the route labels used already. I decided the keep national walking routes with green and use yellow highlight for local walking routes.

Note, in the third screenshot you can see that, at low zoom levels, the ncn/nwn routes get a fainter highlight than icn/iwn so you can more easily pick out the international hiking/cycle network routes.

Thanks, as I've already wrote in topic with a recent version, I'll have to look at it.
Colored corners are there only for testing purposes to see from where the image comes (memory, disk cache, downloaded).

Btw. seems that our few months long work starting to work https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=666660640589165

[Link to latest release:]

The OS Map theme tries to emulate the Ordnance Survey 1:25k and 1:50k map styles as closely as is possible within the constraints of Locus Map and data provided by the vector maps. It should work with both LoMap and OAM maps (v3 and v4). I must give credit to John Campbell for his Voluntary UK theme that I used as a starting point (v. 190101).

The OS Map theme also provides a darker variation of OS style of map designed for use at night-time to help avoid spoiling night-vision whilst keeping a recognizably Ordnance Survey style of map.

The theme now consists of four main theme files, day/night for v3 maps and day/night for v4 maps. There are two PDF map legends, one for day and one night.

Here is a comparison of the same map rendered with: Internal Theme, Voluntary UK, OS Style and my new 4 OS map styles:


SCROLL TO VIEW THE COMPARISONS >>>>

Here are the list of all the changes made for each release:

v20200427
Initial release for v3 maps only

v20200529
Added v4 map support
Added option to highlight toll roads (default is not highlighted). Highlight means orange outline and orange dots as you zoom in.
Added option to set OS style roads names (pathtext) for countires that are left hand traffic or right hand traffic. This is only applicable to dual carriage ways.
Added drawing of footpaths and bridleways that are on dashed track/service roads.
Added thicker dashed 1:50k style for airport runways (was using thinner 1:25k for 1:50k before)
Added defibrillator symbol (non OS symbols)
Added OS text symbols for: Libraries, Shelters, Cairns, Caves, Adits [Mines, Mines (dis)], Waterfalls (Falls in blue)
Added library buildings to list of important building, i.e bolder outlines.
Added place markers for towns/cities (similar to Elevate theme) at low zoom levels (e.g. 5-7).
Added support for sizing of town/city names based on population density (popcat)
Changed borders (admin_level) to improve support for non-UK counties by grouping togther Parishes=9/10, Districts=7/8, Counties=5/6, National=2/3/4
Changed pharmacy amenity symbol to also include chemist shops (non OS symbols).
Changed order of options, putting least changed options towards bottom of list.
Changed embankments to draw at a higher level priority to avoid them being overdrawn by water ways and residential areas.
Changed footbridges to draw at a higher level priority to avoid them being overdrawn by water ways.
Changed tunnels to use smaller dashes for better match OS map style.
Changed 1:50k trunk_link and motorway_link roads to use correct/matching outline widths on bridges.
Changed highway labels at zoom levels 7-12 to use captions instead of pathtext for OS labels
Changed priorities of several symbols to improve visibility of churches, information and museums at lower zoom levels.
Changed car parks at lower zoom levels (upto zoom 15) to only show ~|destination|customers|public car parks.
Changed hill name sizes slightly larger
Changed (corrected) selection of national hiking routes to only include iwn|nwn, i.e. remove rwn|lwn|uwn.
Changed (corrected) selection of national cycling routes to only include icn|ncn, i.e. remove rcn|lcn|ucn.
Changed (corrected) wells so they now get displayed.
Changed doctors captions from red to black text.
Changed v3 theme place names to match/harmonise to style used on v4 theme.
Removed tourism brown dashed ways accidentally left in from donor theme (UK Voluntary)
Removed access cross hatchings on footpaths accidentally left in from donor theme (UK Voluntary)
Removed surface dashes on 'white' roads accidentally left in from donor theme (UK Voluntary) - If this is going to be in the theme then I need to think about how to do it in an OS style way...

v20200530
Fixed validation errors (one was a real issue in V4 theme for railway stations at zoom 13, rest were technical errors but not impacting display of maps).

v20200607
Split v3 and v4 theme files into separate day and night theme files so they can have different map=background tags, different PDF legends and increase performance.
Added night mode symbols for transmitters, windmills, wind turbines, lighthouses, ruins/archaeological, battlefields, telephones, helipads, bollards.
Added night mode PDF legend.
Added four .lnk files to map the two PDF legends to relevant four theme files.
Changed priority of cemetery symbol lower than church symbol.
Changed night mode track core colour to match service/residential roads.
Changed night mode tunnels to use own night equivalent of day tunnel colours.
Changed night mode steps to look similar to day time steps and less like a ladder.
Changed night mode turning circles and passing places to be more visible.
Changed area ways for residential roads to match residential road outlines for all map themes.
Changed AED, playground and shooting symbols to remove white outline/background to match other symbols.
Changed 50k toilet symbol to fix errors in tiny-svg rendering.

v20210103
Added cycle lanes and cycle tracks with display option "cycle lanes/tracks".
Added option to hide hiking route diamonds.
Added option to hide cycling route circles.
Changed emphasise hiking routes to highlight routes with route label from zoom level 7 to 14, 15 upwards as before.
Changed emphasise cycling routes to highlight routes with route label from zoom level 7 to 14, 15 upwards as before.
Changed emphasise hiking routes highlight colours, green for national and yellow for local.
Changed emphasise cycling routes highlight colours, red for national and blue for local.
Changed (renamed) option "left/right hand traffic road labels" to "drive on the left/right side" as this option now also affects oneway cycle lanes/tracks.

v20210210
Added captions for beaches, mud flats and sand banks.
Added captions for fells.
Added customer and private parking symbols.
Added cutlines (in woods/forests)
Added ditches that are barriers.
Added earth banks using typical OS slope pattern.
Added emphasise cycle lanes/tracks options using purple highlight colour.
Added gullies, rendered as OS cutting pattern.
Added hedges as a non-os option.
Added military bunkers (active and dis-used) symbols.
Added post boxes with red circle for left hand traffic and yellow square for right hand traffic - symbols to match the typical post box shape/colour used in LHT/RHT countries.
Added public artwork symbol.
Added town hall as an important building (bolder outline of building).
Added town hall symbol.
Changed abandoned/disused railways to render before rivers.
Changed climbing symbol to be larger.
Changed embankments for footpaths to be narrower.
Changed grade1 tracks to be thinner and matching the rest of the tracks.
Changed many railway/highway tunnels to render as transparent dashed outlines.
Changed OS 50k cycleways (single black dashes) to appear sooner from Z14.
Changed piers and walls to render after waterways to avoid being hidden by waterway areas.
Changed tidalflats that are hidden under water areas to be visible.
Changed waterways (in a major way), now they are all rendered as casings first and then as cores to avoid blue lines where they join.
Removed erroneous rendering of "water_park" as water, this was an incorrect understanding of its purpose (thanks John Percy for the hint).

v20210216
Added "dash unsealed roads" overlay option to give unsealed roads a dashed outline/casing.
Added "road surface/grade textures" overlay option to give unsealed roads a texture pattern that represents the type of surface, from Z14 onwards.
Added "emphasise road surface/grade textures" overlay option to highlight roads surfaces at lower zoom levels, from Z12 onwards.

v20231013
Removed springs and wells from 50k maps, as per OS map's convention.
Added support for LoMap v4 maps.
Added options to control what is shown as psuedo public right of way: "accessible footpaths" and "designated footpaths".
Added mountain bike routes using purple cirlces with options to hide routes, circles or highlight the routes.
Added option to emphasise public rights of way using colours that align with the UK signage arrows.
Added permissive footpaths and steps in orange.
Added tidal footpaths, steps and tracks in light blue.
Added support for private footpaths in dark red.
Added naming of pedestrian ways (including sealed footways/paths)
Added naming of ferry routes.
Added allotments, ATMs, banks, breakwaters, fire stations, groynes, hunting stands/butts, ice cream vendors, police stations, recycling, sewage works (OAM), water works (OAM).
Added mountain range support for gullies and saddles (passes betweem mountains).
Added support for additional types of bridge: cantilever, aqueduct, boardwalk, trestle.
Added on street parking.
Added new types of parking (for public, customer and privte): underground parking and covered parking.
Added hollow circle markers for off-road cycle routes, on road routes remain as solid circle markers.
Added support for OAM to show covered reservoirs, cuttings, tree rows, os_open_data crags, peninsulas.
Added support for OAM peak distances to introduce and name mountain peaks in order of importance/size.
Added support for LoMap v4 maps to represent "public rights of way" using proper OS map symbology for public footpaths/bridleways, byways open to all trafficm restricted byways, other routes.
Changed for OAM maps to pseudo-represent "public rights of way", i.e. green/pink dashes for public hiking routes, designated footpaths and bridleways (note OAM does not support PROW tags).
Changed default options for 25k to be feature rich, and 50k to be OS minimal features.
Changed "public rights of way" to use slightly large dashes to be more visible and closer in style to OS maps.
Changed buildings in 25k views to merge as you zoom out, avoids clutter of lots of small buildings.
Changed order of drawing of features that were hidden under water, e.g. sand banks, rocks, tidal mud, etc.
Changed beaches to be transparent so the coastline shows through as represents a high tide water mark.
Changed what is included in residential areas to be closer to OS maps.
Changed garden symbol to be limited to public gardens only.
Changed contours to be slightly lighter and more in line with OS maps.
Changed spacing of route markers (diamond and circles) to be spaced slightly further apart.
Changed sealed footpaths to be shown as solid pedestrian ways.
Changed tidal mud and inland marsh to render more like OS maps, mud is just brown with no symbols, marsh is just blue marsh symbol.
Changed mini-roundabouts to be slightly larger to be more visible.
Changed golf symbol to also include miniature golf courses.
Changed naming of commons to appear sooner and lower zoom levels.
Changed preserved railway symbol to also include funicular and narrow_gauge railways.
Changed embankments to be slightly shorter triangles, reduces self erasure when they overlap or are close together.
Changed priorities of various symbols to prioritise those that align with OS map conventions first.

v20231218
Removed residential roads from filled in residential areas at zoom level 12.
Removed unused categories and tidied up style menu definitions
Added colour icons to style menus to indicate options by colour groups, green=hiking, orange=cycling, purple=mtb, brown=urban, black=roads, white=non-OS.
Added option "Show symbols earlier" so you can have less symbol intrusion at Z15 and lower, useful in urban/city areas.
Added option "Building names earlier" so you can have more building namers appear earlier from Z16 onwards.
Added option "emphasise all sealed roads too" so you can selectively also highlight ALL roads that are sealed, or disable (if you prefer a less distracting urban view).
Added footpath names visible from Z16.
Changed "surface textures" options to also include all steps, footpaths and bridleways.
Changed option "road surface/grade textures" to "surface textures" to be shorter menu entry.
Changed option "emphasise road surface/grade textures" to "emphasise surface textures" to be shorter menu entry.
Changed size of covered reservoir symbol at Z13/Z14 to be smaller.
Changed unclassified roads to appear from Z12 (was Z13).
Changed smaller service roads to appear from Z13 (was Z12).
Changed 50k pylons to be smaller at high zoom levels.
Changed place name priorities to work better.
Fixed missing bridges casings at Z13/Z14.
Fixed symbol/pattern filenames to be have matching cases in both theme and filing system - enables theme to work correctly with OruxMaps.

From v20210216  onwards the theme now supports road surfaces and sealed/unsealed roads:


The theme ZIP files and PDF legends are too large to attached to this post (limit of 2MB) so, I am now releasing everything via a shared google drive folder:

    OS Map Theme Releases

Link to latest release:

    OS Map v20231218.zip

Links to the latest OS Map Legends:

    OS Map Day Legend
    OS Map Night Legend

The theme is now provided in a ZIP file form that can be simply copied into Locus Map's _theme folder, e.g.:

\<root>\Android\data\menion.android.locus.pro\files\Locus\mapsVector\_themes (i.e. for LM Classic)
\<root>\Android\data\menion.android.locus\files\Locus\mapsVector\_themes (i.e. for LM 4)

No need to unzip the theme file anymore.

If you have already started using the earlier OS Map theme version then you probably should delete it before installing this updated version as it uses the same theme folder called "OS Map" but now uses four different named theme files - to cover day/night themes for v3/v4 maps.

Note that the legends are now included in the theme and can now be viewed directly from the theme menu in LM 3.46+ via a long press of the theme icon, see attached screenshot.

From v20231218 onwards, the theme now includes support for public rights of way (currently only LoMap v4 maps). There is now an appendix in the PDF legends that explains how these are interpreted, which is mostly UK specific:

This is a general problem of the app for many years, not just planned LM4 ... I know ... terrible .
Hmm, maybe these temporary items should have its place in new "Map content panel" (just thinking loud) ...

a very old wish
make lines, circles a.s.o. created by the "geocaching tool" permanent, so user can display it or not similar POI´s and tracks

Having used UK Ordnance Survey (OS) maps all my life, when I started using Locus Map I was desperate for a map theme that looked similar. After using both Voluntary UK and OS Style themes for a while, I still hankered after something closer to the style of the original UK OS maps. So I decided to create my own theme that tries to emulate the Ordnance Survey 1:25k and 1:50k map styles as closely as is possible within the constraints of Locus Map and data provided by the vector maps. It should work with both LoMap and OAM maps. I must give credit to John Campbell for his Voluntary UK theme that I used as a starting point (v. 190101).

There are 6 maps styles provided in the theme:

• Explorer 1:25k
• Landranger 1:50k
• Dynamic Scale
• Night Mode 1:25k
• Night Mode 1:50k
• Night Mode Dynamic

Dynamic Scale automatically switches from 50k to 25k at zoom level 16.
Night Modes provide a darker colour scheme for night usage that preserve the OS colour, but muted a bit. I don't like the built in night mode as it inverts all the colours.

There are also several overlay options:

• non-OS  symbols
• non-OS road furniture
• demanding paths
• hiking routes, national
• hiking routes, local
• emphasise hiking routes
• cycling routes, national
• cycling routes, local
• emphasise cycle routes
• fill in residential areas
• grow 50k buildings into town masses
• emphasise land access
• OS style road labels
• level road labels
• boxed road labels

I used google translate to define the translations, so let me know if there are more appropriate translations.

I also created PDF legends for the 25k and 50k themes to show what is supported/different using a similar style to the original OS legends with screenshots from Locus Map and the theme's own symbols etc.

Last attachment is a ZIP of the theme. (now with .nomedia files, thanks Henk van der Spek for pointing that out).

Install in the usual way of unzipping in Locus Map's _theme folder, e.g.:

\<root>\Android\data\menion.android.locus.pro\files\Locus\mapsVector\_themes

I've only tried this on my phone (Samsung Galaxy A3) and tablet (Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014). It is quite a big theme file now (~10,000 lines)  because it contains so many different categories and overlay options. I am interested to know if it works OK for everyone. I have considered creating a "lite" 25k only option to see it is works faster or not...

I am putting this theme out there as I feel it might be of interest to others. It is provided as is.
I am not inclined to spend a lot of time working on it, but you are welcome to modify it for your own purposes.

Let me know if there some major problems with the theme.

Here is a comparison of the same map rendered with: Internal Theme, Voluntary UK, OS Style and my new 4 OS map styles (also attached as ThemePreviews_LORES.jpg but lower resolution):


USE SCROLL BAR TO VIEW THE REST >>>>

UPDATE 2020.04.27
I have fixed:
   - couple of  mistakes in the legends
   - added to the legends some additional overlay footer notes.
   - country borders to include admin_levels 2, 3 and 4 now.
   - rounded locks in rivers now square
   - some syntax errors I found during porting to v4 (which is now about 50% completed).

I've updated the attachments with new versions, hence their counters are reset.

Some thoughts to the new point screen:

At the first glance it looked good great ... but after some playing with it I found some annoying things.
Normally I used the popup screen to examine an unknown cache area and page threw the caches to see D/T, Favorites, latest log icons ....
Now I have a huge window which covers a lot of the map. The position of the active cache isn't shown directly. I have to press the lower left button. When tapping the next cache this focus doesn't change.
Many of the shown information in the screen isn't useful ( for my geocaching view) ... and to switch to full description I have to press the lower cache-button. Some information is missing ( favorites).

BTW 🙄.. would be (very 😊) nice to have the ability to upload a picture directly with a trackable log.

Just for fun, I've produced a theme that mimics the UK Ordnance Survey styles as far as possible. It's available for free download here.
|
left: Actual Ordnance Survey
right: OS-Style theme

Updated 9 March 2018
Corrected 11 March 2018

Good topic .
Let's discuss basic plans for year 2018

I'll give here, at least, current state in our small team.

Little history:
I had (still have) large hope in live tracking system. Two years ago, I've hired one guy who wrote for me server side solution in nice Clojure language (after more then year of work!). And when first part was finished, he stopped to communicate. Nice .. btw. no one know Clojure . My mistake ...

In November, some of you probably noticed, that our team had increased to 6 person. Milan > finally developer who should help me with Android. His first task was (still is) Wear add-on. Nice work I think ...
Since January, he work on 1:1 conversion of old Live tracking system to something, we may continue work on it and improve. ETA till middle of March. Then, Milan will work on new UI & various stuff around Live tracking system, also based on feedback. I expect, it will be work on few more months. And then ... sync server? ( most probably ).

Because number of people involved in work on Locus increased and for my suprise, all wants their monthly salary, and also because of number of sold Locus Map is still +- same ( slowly growing ), we needs to invest more work into interesting content, that may bring additional income. Because of this was created and published new Store, because of this I now needs to work on new system for login, new Start screen and third bigger thing will be new Map manager ( which is currently terrible user-experience ).

Most wanted feature: synchronisation. Some users wrote, it's now easy task with some existing stuff. Well, with Petr and Milan, we spend on discussions around this many many hours and we still do not have simple universal solution, that may be done within few weeks. Anyway few ideas are in our heads ... EDIT: and we also have it in list of top priorities!

Except few priorities, that I wrote before and that have to do ( even it's not kind of developement I like ), I really wants to focus in first half of year on:

• better logging system for geocaching
• fine-tune route planner
• fine-tune track editor

And in second half of year

• new design for main map screen ( close to what is visible in Route planner)
• new track detail screen with better stats, chart, weather, etc.
• improve Dashboard system & custom "dashboard" for track screen

My time estimates are really bad, so be aware of it ...
Uff, too long post ... sorry .