Messages

About content of settings-only backup: I'll think about it. Presets: right, they are some kind of settings. Dashboard are more a "content" than a setting...

I disagree, but also think that it's most important to include presets, especially as I (and most others, I presume) tinker with these regularly. Can live without including dashboards...

One more thing about the Backup:
I still think that "Back up settings only" should backup data\dashboard and data\presets directories, too. To me, they're integral settings. Right now, when I do manual backups, I always do the full backup and then delete the data\database folder from the ZIP to save space.

[Arrows:]

Often, you don't need something fancy - just some generic markers. Built-in, Locus only offers down arrows, crosses, dots (open and filled) and traingles in 4 colors. And low-res.
I took some time to make tons of icons in better resolution, different sizes and many colors. Please use the attached iconpacks freely (CC BY SA 3.0):

• Arrows: Arrows in 8 directions (up, down, left, right and in-between), 4 sizes and 10 colors.
• Dots & Crosses: Dots, Donuts (dots w/hole), crosses (X's) and some extras, in 3-4 sizes and ca. 17 colors.
• Markers: Google-style balloon pins (with and w/o star), needles in 3 sizes, pushpins in 4 sizes, all in ca. 16 colors
• Flags: All ISO country flags plus dependent territories and some subdivisions (like Scotland, Wales, etc.), but just as-is (no border or anything)

All packs apart from "Flags" have English and German sections and tooltips (long tap).

@Menion: Feel free to replace internal low-res icons. Also, please add to the store - free, of course. Thx!

Update: Now I did improve the flags, with continents as sections and tooltips, adding some missing ones. While they're also free to use, I would however not like to see them in the Locus store, because some descriptions may be politically, well, difficult (eg. Palestine).

Thanks balloni. It works for you correctly?
The great advantage is that in case you use the app mainly in the landscape, you may have full top bar with buttons, no matter, how long is it, if you use a tablet or tiny old small phone, etc.

Hi Menion
It's an improvement, sure, but I still would've liked to see a years-old proposal of mine: Different icon setups for portrait and landscape. I don't find the flowing very useful, because for example I always have specific icon in the upper right. However, e.g. I can have separate points and tracks icons in landscape, but the combined points/tracks icon in portrait. And so on...
Any chance for that?

[@slarti76]

@slarti76
- during last days I've found a few more problems with maps, so you issue with OruxMaps may be the same, already fixed, issue.

Thx, but I think the real problem was what I wrote later about the magnifying: I was already in highest available zoom level, and then it didn't do anything, no matter what the (raster) map.

- the switch is in advanced settings.

Ah, I see the misunderstanding. It says "Optimize raster map resolution... based on dpi". I thought there was a switch to turn off the whole dpi concept, but I remember you don't want to keep the old system at all, so obviously no switch. All fine!

- the problem in route planner: this happens on both your devices? Seems you have some super-huge screen resolution, it is on your Note 4?

Actually, I could solve the issue with a "Clear Cache" from Android's App Info for Locus. Thx to Tapio, who mentioned possible caching issue - that seems to have been it. I think, whenever there is something wrong with icons, you should first clear cache. Can't hurt, anyway...

38.2: "Increase map resolution" is absolutely ineffective for raster maps. Doesn't matter if "Select map resolution automatically" is on or off. Also, the map resolution increment in all my presets was reset to 100%. Not that bad, as I have to find new best values with the new system anyway, but still...

Apart from that bug: I know it's more complicated, but all the problems with "Increase map resolution", especially for raster maps everyone seems to be having, I think the only feasible solution is to make this a property of the map. It's obvious that different raster maps look best in different zooms/resolutions.
It's nice and well that Locus choses the base resolution based on dpi, but then the user has to have the ability to adjust this according to reality and personal tastes.
I would propose that every map gets a "Resolution adjustment factor" from, say 25% to 500%. At least all offline maps. Then there's still the general "Increase map resolution" in settings/presets which allows to adjust resolution based on activity (e.g. biking needs more zoom because I look at it from further away).

What do you think, too difficult?

My first thoughts of the new system:

• Vector maps look much nicer
• Overall feels slower, also had the odd crash, but mostly some missing tiles. Is to be expected, I suppose, but stability has to be improved.
• "Increase map resolution" on vector maps muuuch better due to not just enlarging the tiles. That said, it is a little confusing: My standard setting was 250%. But not all elements seem to be zoomed by 2.5. Streets get only about 50% wider, labels are perhaps double the size. That's at least confusing. Furthermore, now that vector and raster maps are handled differently, "map resolution" seems not the right term for both operations. For vector, resolution may be right, but for raster maps, it's more an "enlarge map".
• Clickable POIs from my vector maps now also appear on my downloaded raster maps. That's kinda nice, but I don't see where that could be turned off - icons may overlay icons within the map, which is not great. Also, icon size seems to be fixed.
• Love the fact that you can now overlay anything other anything. I had some overlays that I couldn't use before (like hiking trails), which work great now. However, now that I copied them back to my phone, they clutter up the "Quick Map Switch" menu. As they're only overlays (with alpha channel), they make no sense to use on their own. Please add a flag to mark a map  as "overlay only". Or at least a "Don't show in Quick Map switch".
• Like the tilting, but as I wrote in main thread for current version, user should be somehow informed about the functionality. Easily confusing.
• The "zoom lock" restructions also bother me a little. As I wrote in main thread, I think user should not be restricted for no reason to zoom to lower than 50%. Sure, things get slower, but that's up to the user to decide whether it's OK still. On my HDPI devices, I love the overview+details I can get by zooming out with zoom lock.

Apart from that, I must admit, the whole MapForge V3, V4, V5 discussion has me confused. By now, I seriously wonder if I'm missing out on functionality that would be possible if I just used the right maps/themes. I can't even seem to figure out what the default Locus Maps + Internal Themes combination uses. Perhaps it doesn't matter much, but I'm wondering if I would gain a lot by using OpenAndroMaps plus their themes again. Perhaps some Knowledge Base article would be nice together with the next version - or did I miss something?

I stumbled upon the new Quick Action Menu. Did I miss something or has that not been mentioned here/in the release notes? I like it, but when is it planned to go live? Does look basically ready to me...

One more thing about the icons:
Why are the "Locus (Track)" icons hardcoded only for tracks? Many of those would make perfect sense for folders in the Points section. Even "Tennis" would make more sense there. I don't see a good reason to restrict the user here...

Thx Menion for that outlook - much appreciated. Also that you have sync on your mind

A little proposal: I remember that a while ago you made a little survey to find out what settings users need most in Preset system. I'm aware that the exact definition and expectations of "sync" probably differ from user to user. Off the top of my head, the following questions arise:

• Sync only between devices (same user)?
• Sync between different users? With permissions (Read or Read/Write)?
• Always complete database, or tracks/points separate, or even on per folder basis?
• If sync between users on folder basis, is it ok to only sync whole database among devices of a single user?
• etc.

Perhaps another survey would be helpful to find out what users really want so you have a better basis for technical decisions.

If I may give a - in my view - example of a very well-done sync: The database app Memento not only offers own cloud space (another source of income), but also manages the sync very well. So far, I never had missing entries or the like, even when syncing with other users.

Ok, perhaps content for a separate topic

After the release of 3.29 I wondered if there is a somewhere on the forum where Menion informs about the "Next Big Things" planned for Locus. I didn't find anything - I also filtered the Helpdesk list of Ideas for "Planned", but that only shows fairly minor stuff (<10 votes). So I'm starting this thread 
I know, such a list would always feel at least partly like a commitment to some new feature. I can gather a few things from the discussions in the "current version thread" and from the Beta version (like track statistics customizable with dashboards). Still, I think it would be possible to, like, give a list of the next 3-5 bigger tasks that are planned or already in progress.

And I admit, I'd also like to ask about my personal and everyone else's favorite (by far most votes): Database sync (http://help.locusmap.eu/topic/cloud_map_and_data_storage_sync).
The cloud storage part of that is now more or less done, but there's no current statement about the sync. And even if some of the voters may be happy with backup-to-cloud only, I'm sure that a majority is still hoping for a real sync...
Opinions welcome! 

Wow! Congratulations, Menion!
Probably the single most amazing new feature since I started with Locus! The editor is so clean and intuitive - great.
And thx to everyone here discussing the development progress - it really paid off!

@balloni55: complicated task ... what about people (I believe most of users), who does not use "Presets"?

I'd strongly advise against removing customization options just because they're also doubled in the presets feature. As Menion says, many users, especially beginners, won't use presets, so they'll be put off if they don't find an intuitive way to change the buttons or other settings.
Granted, as is obvious even among us power users, the presets feature is easily mistaken for a "profile" feature and therefore misunderstood. However, it is what it is now and should stay like this - once you understand it, it can be extremely useful. But those who don't use it shouldn't "lose" anything!