[Theme] OS Map (v20210216 for v3 and v4 maps); New: Road Surfaces

Tapio · November 14, 2020, 10:59:15

Thanks guys, sorry, missed your reply. I'll try to display it only at closer zooms or totally remove it. Farms are unimportant for me.
EDIT: increased min zoom from 14 to 17 in line 3147 of the day v4 xml.

karlchick · January 03, 2021, 20:50:39

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.

jeffreyk · February 05, 2021, 08:05:04

Thanks for this, much better for overlanding/offroading then the hike theme.

karlchick · February 11, 2021, 11:12:13

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.

Andrew Heard · February 12, 2021, 01:46:57

Hi Karl, I notice your theme doesn't distinguish between sealed & unsealed roads. Unfortunately very few Locus themes do, which seems odd as you'd think cyclists would be quite interested in the road surface. Bernard's Desert theme (www.maiwolf.de) is the best for this - his on LHS compared to yours on RHS. Voluntary is the only other one that shows any difference but it is very hard to discern.

for example in my screen cap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/edit#map=16/-42.5113/147.6427
compares surface=unpaved with surface=Asphalt

karlchick · February 12, 2021, 09:06:51

Hi Andrew,

Road Surface is something I have been thinking about a lot. What I haven't figured out is how to represent the road surfaces in a way that doesn't distract from the Ordinance Survey look and feel.

I want to implement something though... probably as an overlay option so OS purests can revert to OS map look/feel. Perhaps there is a way to apply patterns/PNGs to the road cores...

I'm also wondering if the grade1/2/3/4/5 of tracks needs to be represented somehow too... I know John introduced varying lengths of peck/dash to the casings...

poutnikl · February 12, 2021, 09:45:13

Quote from: Andrew Heard on February 12, 2021, 01:46:57
Hi Karl, I notice your theme doesn't distinguish between sealed & unsealed roads.

Hi Andrew. You probably mean sealed & unsealed roads as highway=unclassified and higher, don't you ? The main probably is the most theme developers are from developed countries where is implied the default state sealed/paved. But when I was in Uganda in 2012, most secondaries and all tertiaries were rather like highway=track tracktype=grade5 surface=ground.

Andrew Heard · February 12, 2021, 21:53:43

Quote from: karlchick on February 12, 2021, 09:06:51
I want to implement something though... probably as an overlay option

nice

Quote from: karlchick on February 12, 2021, 09:06:51
I'm also wondering if the grade1/2/3/4/5 of tracks needs to be represented somehow too... I know John introduced varying lengths of peck/dash to the casings...

personally I found the peck/dash too subtle to see but everyone will be different; even for the DesertV4 theme I have made my own modifications so unsealed roads are more visible at lower zooms - see attached

Quote from: poutnikl on February 12, 2021, 09:45:13
You probably mean sealed & unsealed roads as highway=unclassified and higher, don't you ?

for this specific example https://www.openstreetmap.org/edit#map=16/-42.5113/147.6427 feature type=secondary road, but I have had similar experiences in France where I've planned a day-route only to find mid-way the road becomes unsealed, and our cycling experience has gone from pleasant to very annoyed. Of course, this may have been due to incorrect OSM annotation rather than a theme issue; not something to analyze mid-trip.

poutnikl · February 13, 2021, 08:32:16

In Czech Republic, it is not thinkable that secondaries or even tertiaries would be unsealed. Even if tertiaries may have low quality or broken asphalt.

Sent from my Xiaomi MI A2 / Android 10, via Tapatalk

karlchick · February 13, 2021, 14:48:24

I'm thinking about using some transparent PNG surface textures to overlay the road cores for "surface" and "tracktype", see attached (mock up in powerpoint).

Wondering what you think of this idea?

Andrew Heard · February 14, 2021, 03:09:15

Quote from: poutnikl on February 13, 2021, 08:32:16
In Czech Republic, it is not thinkable that secondaries or even tertiaries would be unsealed. Even if tertiaries may have low quality or broken asphalt.

@poutnikl maybe so, but better not to be assumed when the app is used world-wide

Quote from: karlchick on February 13, 2021, 14:48:24
I'm thinking about using some transparent PNG surface textures to overlay the road cores for "surface" and "tracktype"

@karlchick on a PC screen the textures are subtle, so in my opinion will be quite hard to distinguish on a smaller Android screen. The "peck marks" used by John with the Voluntary theme are also too subtle (for me). I modified Bernard's Desert theme XML to make unsealed more evident; that is the great thing about XML compared to a binary format.

poutnikl · February 14, 2021, 10:36:17

Quote from: Andrew Heard on February 14, 2021, 03:09:15
Quote from: poutnikl on February 13, 2021, 08:32:16
In Czech Republic, it is not thinkable that secondaries or even tertiaries would be unsealed. Even if tertiaries may have low quality or broken asphalt.
@poutnikl maybe so, but better not to be assumed when the app is used world-wide

Well, I do assume this your idea as well, in fact I have pointed that in context of default Brouter profiles long time ago.
Roads what would be here considered as secondaries are not sealed in Uganda. Many car roads in underdeveloped countries are unsealed. Even in developed countries, if supported by terrain, climate, area and inhabitant density.

Sent from my Xiaomi MI A2 / Android 10, via Tapatalk

karlchick · February 14, 2021, 11:51:57

Quote from: Andrew Heard on February 14, 2021, 03:09:15
@karlchick on a PC screen the textures are subtle, so in my opinion will be quite hard to distinguish on a smaller Android screen. The "peck marks" used by John with the Voluntary theme are also too subtle (for me). I modified Bernard's Desert theme XML to make unsealed more evident; that is the great thing about XML compared to a binary format.

I've prototyped the road surface textures in the OS map theme and do find it a bit too subtle at low zooms... I am trying different colours and textures and transparency to make them easier to see and differentiate.

At higher zooms it works very well. I am thinking of adding a emphasise road surfaces/grades option to allow easier route planning at low zooms... probably colour coded to the quality of the road surface somehow.

BTW, I am implementing surface textures for cycleways, tracks and all roads except motorways. I have found a few examples of unclassified roads that are compacted/grade2/grade3... might make these into tracks...

Andrew Heard · February 14, 2021, 22:14:41

Quote from: karlchick on February 14, 2021, 11:51:57
I am thinking of adding a emphasise road surfaces/grades option to allow easier route planning at low zooms... probably colour coded to the quality of the road surface somehow.

wow - nice

BTW you have a checkbox for <Drive on left & right side>. I'm just curious what affect this has - no other theme has this feature.

karlchick · February 14, 2021, 23:10:14

I originally introduced the left/right driving option initially to place OS road labels (which are dy offset pathtext) on the outside of dual carriage ways. The labels appear on the passenger side of the road in dual carriage ways. It also has an impact for cycle lanes. The other use of left/right driving is the choice of post box symbol, uk vs continental...