Waoo effect

[Abricot]

Hi,
I just discovered and tried Locus Map (Pro) in MBT on some forest pathes. Waoo ! Very powerful !
My usage is : 'Navigation along a route' from a GPX track I downloaded from the Net before. It had been a long time I had been looking for a tool able to do a voice navigation on pathes (not roads !) from a downloaded track ! It's crazy, I had no route to prepare myself and it worked pretty well ! I found navigation - visual and voice - very efficient and professional (it was GraphHopper - I'll test BRouter soon as well).
As it was a bit too much talkative (on very sinuous pathes) I put 'Frequency of commands' at Low. Then it was OK. I could be guided mainly with the voice and didn't need to look at the screen often (which is essential in 'intense' MTB). Only ~3 navigation errors in 3 hours.
Congratulations Locus map !!

[Menion]

Hello,
I'm glad to read about another satisfied user

[poutnikl]

As it was a bit too much talkative (on very sinuous pathes) I put 'Frequency of commands' at Low. Then it was OK. I could be guided mainly with the voice and didn't need to look at the screen often (which is essential in 'intense' MTB). Only ~3 navigation errors in 3 hours.
Congratulations Locus map !!

If you let BRouter to generate the GPX ( within Locus route planner, or on BRouter web ), or if you use it directly for (offline) navigation, it would provide you visual/voice navigation hints only for crossings/junctions, not for curvy track itself.

[Abricot]

OK, I'll try with BRouter.

[freischneider]

If you start a track from the Internet with navigation, you will receive information in places where none are necessary. Especially on routes with many curves.
Locus has to improve something here. However, there is already a proposal and solutions:
https://help.locusmap.eu/topic/navigation-from-track
You should trace the track with the route planner. Then the result is much better ... even perfect.

[Abricot]

To me a good tool is a tool making easier to live your passion :-). I realized sometimes I was spending a Sunday afternoon preparing a route on a computer instead of hiking or MTBiking... When you think about it, it's a pity, isn't it ?

That's the reason why the GPX tracks sharing is increasing exponentially. It's demultiplying the possibilities to live your passion and its reducing the time you need to spend in searching and preparing.

Only "maps-passionate people" and advanced users spend hours to prepare some routes. They are not a big number of them compared to the mass of people who just want to hike & bike easily. The big market is on the side of the simple & easy-to-be-used apps, which are having an exponential development.

But these simple apps do not offer real navigation - I mean with direction arrows and voice. And in MTB this becomes a blocking point (you don't have time to look at your screen often, it's just not possible). So in MTB you need  real navigation, so you have to invest time in creating some routes... which is a pitty since tons of MTB GPX tracks are published already (in particular by the MTB sites managers in mountains).

Here comes Locus Map Pro with its feature "Navigate along a route" which you can apply directly on an imported GPX track (placing the navigation points for you automatically, based on the line direction changes detection) !

Honnestly I find it very acceptable, considering the time saved. Yes it is telling you "turn to the right" even when it is just a curve and not a real direction change. But I got used to it after 15 kms (isn't the woman's voice charming ?! : -)). If you just accept it, it's ok, I mean you are really well voice-guided and can concentrate on piloting your MTB , you nearly don't have to look at the screen (which is what you need in MTB).

Few improvements could be interesting :

1) Offer to parametrize the automatical routing generation : the user could define the minimum angle below which the tool is not considering a direction change (e.g. below 45° let's consider it is not a direction change)

2) Offer a real feature called "Convert a GPX track into a navigable route" so then you can modify the automatically-generated route (add or remove some navigation points). Same way as described by Menion but packaged in a dedicated function (see in this post : https://forum.locusmap.eu/index.php?topic=7004.0 => open track detail and press  tools > Make a copy => in copy dialog, do not forget to enable "Add navigation prompts" => open copy of the track and in bottom menu choose "Route planner" => in the Route planner, you may then quite simply remove existing navigation points or add a new (by tapping on the trackpoints)).

Well, I was more talkative than BRouter and GraphHopper grouped together !! 

[freischneider]

But it would be a big help if I could load a track into the route planner and have shaping points set there automatically. So I would only have to correct a few digits.

[poutnikl]

But it would be a big help if I could load a track into the route planner and have shaping points set there automatically. So I would only have to correct a few digits.

This is easy to say, not so easy to even come with a suitable algorithm to do so.

E.g. a real turning point in the original track must not become a shaping point, as it would otherwise become an endpoint for a route segment calculated by BRouter. Brouter for obvious reason does not create navigation hints for route endpoints.

Another thing is, how LocusMap would know which points are true turning points, which track points to remove and which to stay to become shaping points ?

As a workaround for such an approach I see:

passing the original track through very strong online track filter like Douglas Peucker algorithm,,eliminating most of less important points, importing the track, turning some of non-true-turning points into shaping points, deleting the rest and letting BRouter to recalculate thr route.

But IMHO much less work would be creating a new route with just a few needed shaping points ( or preferably viapoints for round or near round routes ) in the Router planner, according to the visual pattern of the displayed original track.

But neither of both procedures would work for off-osm-way straight line segments.