New vector maps for Locus - feedback

[john_percy]

thanks balloni, it's same issue in all cases. We have increased size of tiles in new vector maps to 512x512 and seems they are in rare cases, too big to fit to available memory. I've increased memory limit on 4.0+ devices, so it will work for them in next version. 2.x devices, there is unfortunately no simple solution for now.

1. "Missing tiles" on new Locus maps may be the same tiles as "missing roads" on OpenAndroMaps maps, reported in http://forum.locusmap.eu/index.php?topic=4263.msg33635#msg33635 - certainly the tile from the area near Ruthin is missing when I view your latest Wales map using the latest LocusPro
2. Increasing the size of the tiles has gone a long way to dealing with the horizontal/vertical ways artefacts when rendering closed ways reported in http://forum.locusmap.eu/index.php?topic=3698.msg27520#msg27520 and http://help.locusmap.eu/topic/artefacts-when-rendering-closed-ways-in-vector-maps but not totally removed traces of the false ways. See below (Locus map England and Locus internal theme)

[gynta]

Hmm it's issue. It a shoukd work without restart
edit: hmm I'm unable to simulate it. Any specific map please? Thanks

see clip...

[Menion]

@gynta: thanks, I completely forget on shortcut over Map manager > top download button, fixed

[gynta]

where is the world map?
(see clip)

[Menion]

we are working on it, thanks. Issue caused by new vector maps probably (new size of tiles 512x512 where old in world map are only 256x256).

[Menion]

Am I the only one who is experiencing super slow loading times with the latest map of Germany from the locus store? All other vector maps (freizeitkarte, open andro maps) work fine and load a lot faster. I am using the same theme (locus hiking theme).

Eldron, I was playing with new vector maps a lot and I think we finally found a problem. New maps, as I wrote before, has different tile size (now 512x512 px compare to previous 256x256). This increased speed for high zoom levels because Locus now handle 4 times less map tiles at once. On second side, mainly in Germany (generally all maps) in low zoom levels 8 - 12, loading of tiles seems to be slower. Locus needs to load a lot more information from file and seems that memory even on 4.x devices is quite limited for this task.

Expect improved version of vector maps which will solve this issue. So during Q1/2015. Till then, I'm unable to improve it on Locus side for now ... sorry

[Raddino]

I found a problem with new vector map style. In new style, there's missing names of bus stations from Prague, czech republic. Iam using map from osm.paws.cz.

[voldapet]

@Raddino
Unfortunately it's not a problem. New themes are prepared for new Locus vector maps that contains also the database of POIs. Some captions aren't shown in new themes because with new map lot's of points are click-able and you can quickly get name by clicking on the POI icon.

[Raddino]

I see. Ok, thanks.

[hgmichna]

I have downloaded a few vector maps, but I seem to have some fundamental problems. The biggest one is that I see a white screen instead of the map. It seems that I can only see one map at a time, which is particularly irritating when I look at the border area between two maps or when I zoom out far enough to have two or more maps on one screen.

With other maps the Locus strategy has always been that the map tiles appear when I move the map to another place. Is there any good reason to deviate from the original strategy? It has always seemed OK to me.

More generally I would wish that Locus always shows me a map if I have one for the area I am looking at. What sense does it make to show me a white area? Even when I have vector maps and move to an area for which I have only a raster map, what is better, if I see the raster image or if I see nothing?

Yet another problem was that I had a vector map of Germany and a much more detailed vector map of Bavaria in Germany. Of course, when I look at a place in Bavaria it does not make much sense to show me the much less detailed Germany map. I think, Locus should automatically change to the more detailed map if the user has overlapping maps of different detail and zooms in as far as to actually show the details.

[voldapet]

Hi,

do you mean that you can see white tiles (rectangle) in the middle of some vector map? If yes, would you please send me the screenshot or name of the broken map?
Hovewer Locus has  auto-load feature for vector map - see: Menu > Settings > Map -advanced >Vector maps > Map auto-load. If you enable it, Locus automatically loads map on the border (if exists).

Unfortunately Personal maps and Vector maps are "separated" at this moment. It means that Locus can automatically load only vector map or only personal map. It's not possible to combine automatic loading personal and vector maps.

German versus Bavaria maps. I'm sorry but all vector map have the same resolution and all maps contain the same data (if you use vector maps from Locus Store)

[hgmichna]

Thanks for your quick reply!

No, I did not mean blank areas inside a vector map. I was referring to adjacent maps, but your hint of the auto-load setting solved this problem. Thanks for this!

Actually I am wondering why that setting is even needed. Why not have it always on? Who in the world wants to stare at a completely white map?

As to the maps with different "resolutions", the problem maps indeed did not come from the Locus Store. I will probably restrict myself to the Locus Store to avoid this problem. How about payment by bitcoin? 

[jusc]

Actually I am wondering why that setting is even needed. Why not have it always on? Who in the world wants to stare at a completely white map?

Some maps are overlapping neighbor countries at least some areas near the frontier of them. The autoload setting would change the map in some cases if you are near these frontiers. I have deliberately turned off this setting.

[voldapet]

It's little bit complicated (as jusc wrote). Auto loading would make sense if Locus would support only one own map. But users often use some own custom maps. Even different maps for the same area. For this reason it would complicated to create good logic for auto-loading personal and vector maps.In addition there is also technical complication.

About the resolution of vector maps. I don't know where you downloaded the maps. Users often download them from OpenAndroMaps page and I guess that these maps contain almost the same data as maps from Locus store. BTW you can download first three vector maps from Locus store for free. So you can check the "resolution" And finally only way how to pay in Locus store are Google InApp Billing payments.

[jusc]

Locus maps do not show all buildings
Please look at "Arkaden"  http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/51.95989/7.62658 (tag is k="building" v="retail")