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How about a setting that allows only "easy" zoom levels?
With old Erik's weary eyes probably only 200, 400 and 800% are needed. I think these zooms can be rendered a lot faster than e.g. 350%.

There do not appear to be any easy zoom levels. Not the "doubles" either. Tried and tested.

Also, there is not as much weary eyes as the maps are just tiny on 1080x1920 screens. Check out the screenshot and step away a couple of meters or three from the monitor so it resembles a 4,7 inch display in size. Then try to read the house number and street names

***
, but you may be sure it is something I'm aware of and I count with work on this issue in the end of this year or start of next. I know it needs to be done (GPU rendering) at all cost.

 

Just had a little brainstorm... How about a setting for downscaling the screen itself (lowering the resolution) instead of upscaling all the map tiles?
That would surely save countless CPU-cycles, battery etc?
Problem is the GUI will also be downscaled and look horrid plus misaligned unless it was re-done for this mode.
Just brainstorming... I don't know if downscaling is even possible on android 

An observation regarding framerates. Sorry if this has been discussed before but I could not find it.

A short while ago I retired my trusty old Samsung S2 that has a quite poor resolution of 480x800. My new phone is a much stronger HTC One with a full HD screen. The HTC One runs circles around the S2 without breaking a sweat. Usually...

The thing is that I only use rasterized maps since they are far superior detailed compared to vector based concerning topographics. And after having upgraded from a 480x800 screen to a 1080x1920 screen, I now have to scale the maps 150-200% to be able to read them. This kills the framerate badly. I will estimate that the framerate is around 10ish when scrolling. I understand that scaling is a nescessary evil on rasterized maps however.
-All in all, my Galaxy S2 kills the much beefier HTC One in terms of Locus performance.

-Could some major redesign of the graphics engine save the day? ( CPU-->GPU )
-Tweaking of SQLite?

I think that this will be a big issue as more and more people make the transit to full HD. I see this issue partly on my Nexus 7 too (ver 2013 - 720p)

Recently I noticed from my battery stats page that Locus used over 80% of my battery. Worst of all, Locus was not even started and the phone was freshly rebooted with a full battery.

It turned out that having the proximity sensors active was the culprit. (The function to turn off the display by waving the hand in front of the phone). This service is always active on my HTC One regardless if Locus has been started or not.

Recently I had an experience with Locus that really saved me big time. I was paddling in my kayak on a longer trip of ca 26 km. The major challenge was a crossing of 7,5km over open sea. The day started quite nice with calm weather and ok weather reports.
But... about 1/4 into the crossing things changed drastically. It started to fog up very quickly and soon my visibility was reduced to no more than 200m in all directions. The fog was so dense that I could not even determine where the sun was, the light was totally flat. North could be east for all I knew...

The sea was quite calm so I was determined to carry on. But soon after, I entered the currents from the fjord to my starboard as the tide rushed out of it. -Things started to get a bit hairy now and I still had half that crossing left. Now I had zero visibility AND a bumpy ride. This could have been a disaster had it not been for Locus and the "course bearing line". By banking approx 20 deg offset into the currents so that the course bearing line ended up onto the mainland on the other side I was able to compensate for the drift from the tide's strong currents. And then I mean 100% compensate too. My tracking showed a way travelled as straight as a ruler and I landed exactly where I intended!

My thanks. Had it not been for Locus and Maptweaker (high quality offline maps for my local area -had no cell coverage), I probably would have ended up in the North Sea somewhere. -Made it home for dinner and a lesson richer

[attachment=1:2pdhmvli]Screenshot_2013-07-20-20-12-27.png[/attachment:2pdhmvli]

[attachment=0:2pdhmvli]Screenshot_2013-07-20-20-10-00.png[/attachment:2pdhmvli]

Best developer ever 8-) Thank you so very much

Lately I have realized that to be able to zoom with hardware buttons while the screen is locked is not only "nice to have", but quite essential in wet / marine environments

Real-life scenario: I was paddling the other day with Locus as my navigation unit through some narrow straights. This area was like a miniature maze of tiny islands. I needed to constantly zoom in and out to get my main bearing (zoom out) plus avoiding reefs, dead ends, etc (zoom in). As always I have the screen locked because of the water that splashes onto my screen, and makes the unit respond erratically.
-As soon as I unlock the screen to zoom the wet screen starts to act up and I try to wipe the screen dry. Not an easy task when everything is wet including my hands, my clothes etc. The relative easy operation to zoom takes sometimes minutes under such conditions. And when zooming takes place several times per kilometer, one can imagine the hassle. Everything comes to a stop.

Conclusion: When the "use hardware buttons" is enabled, they should also work also when the screen is locked. Not only is this very handy and efficient, but also a "must have" Please, please

Yup, I have cast my vote there
-Crossing my fingers for the active volume buttons during screen lock.
I really think this will be a valuable combination for effectiveness with a wet display that is sometimes uncontrollable and a bit self-determined to mess things up.

One more thing comes to mind: -When the "Use Hardware Buttons" is enabled, can they be excluded from screen lock?
So it is possible to zoom with volume up/down while the screen itself is locked?

Lifesaver

As the title says, could it be possible to have the function "Screen lock" put into the "quick switch"-choices? Or even better, to put this function along with the litte lock-icon at the right-most bottom? (see picture for suggestion, but with a lot bigger spacing than what I did in "Paint")

The screen lock is an extremely useful function when at sea and in rain to avoid input from a wet screen that messes around wildly with random results. At times catastrophically. Especially at sea when things go a bit rough, it would be priceless to have the ability to turn this quickly on with just a single key.

[attachment=0:afyhtq9x]Screenshot_2013-06-27-08-47-06.png[/attachment:afyhtq9x]

They do not seem to work from ver. 2.6

Have been doing some testing myself on a test version. Very pleased with the new heading line. At first I found it a bit jumpy, but that was just when walking. Enabled heavy filter in the Locus sensor settings and took a trip at sea with my kayak. Totally better results then. I guess the phone's sensors are getting pounded from the shaking in my hands when I was walking. At flat sea the heading line was much smoother. But yes, calibration is needed before taking a trip (smartphone issue). I verified with a regular compass and it was all good.

As for the name of the older course heading line (azimuth line), projected track will also do. The main goal is that people intuitively understand it. Perhaps even the new heading line could be named "compass line" too. I am not too sure all people now the difference between heading, bearing and course heading etc.

The arrowheads in the line could also have a measuring property as someone said. Perhaps they could be drawn with the distance from each other that represent the scale of the map? (the little bar furthest down and left as seen in tommi62's screenshot, 3 posts up)

After testing it on the field, now I noticed that indeedly I haven't understand yet what the arrow means.
On these screenshots, taken while I was walking:
http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images ... 8-orig.jpg
http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images ... 9-orig.jpg
I have my "Azimuth line" directing to where I am heading directionly, but the blue Arrow (my location), is pointing just somewhere, I don't know where to.
I have checked the hardware compass on.

All is correct here. The red line shows your direction of movement and the blue arrow shows where you point your phone when compass is enabled. If you disable the compass, the blue arrow and red line will show the exact same.
(the blue arrow has a dual function based on whether compass is on or off)

But as Menion said, we will have to see what the next version brings. Two separate lines, one for compass and one for movement direction will probably save some confusion AND bring better navigational possibilities.