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Can someone give a better description of how this initiative relates to OpenStreetMaps? The website says that the "tile dataset [is] based on OpenStreetMap data

Can someone give a better description of how this initiative relates to OpenStreetMaps? The website says that the "tile dataset [is] based on OpenStreetMap data" - so, what's the added value in the commercial tier? And - how, if at all, does this initiative contribute back to OSM as a project?

bdon 4y ago
Hi, the value add in the commercial offering on top of raw OSM is described here: https://protomaps.com/docs/faq#openstreetmap https://protomaps.com/docs/faq#openstreetmap I also maintain open source tooling for anyone to replicate and extract OSM on-demand, as well as a free download portal: https://github.com/protomaps/OSMExpress https://github.com/protomaps/OSMExpress https://app.protomaps.com/downloads https://app.protomaps.com/downloads
- einpoklum 4y ago
  Interesting! I note that: > OpenStreetMap ... standard tile layer ... openstreetmap-carto ... is based on dynamic rendering of raster images, instead of vector tiles that can be customized on the client. so, does OSM really not make vector tiles available? That's too bad.
  - wcedmisten 4y ago
    OSM is really a dataset. They do offer a raster tile server, but it's intended to support community mapping (improving the dataset), and not necessarily for end users using a map for other purposes. Basically they want you to host your own tile server using the OSM dataset. There are also commercial offerings that do this for you, but not for free.
  - bdon 4y ago
    Tiles, vector or raster, to be consumed for general use are not really in the scope of the OpenStreetMap project. This is surprising to many because it's the first thing you see on OSM.org; the tiles there are for the explicit purpose of feedback to data editors, and make a best-effort to synchronize the instantaneous state of the database in the tiles, unlike Protomaps which delivers a snapshot. Paul Norman has a project called Tilekiln to adapt vector rendering for this use case on OSM.org: https://github.com/pnorman/tilekiln https://github.com/pnorman/tilekiln
jillesvangurp 4y ago
It can use openstreetmap as a data source and probably most people self hosting their maps will end up using openstreetmap data and maybe some of their own data. IMHO this is more interesting for people that want bespoke maps as it gives them a cheap way to do that without having to rely on expensive SAAS solutions or a lot of operational complexity. Openstreetmap doesn't really do a lot for hosting maps for third party websites. You would use Mapbox, maptiler or other suppliers for that and libraries such as mapbox/maplibre, openlayers, leaflet etc. that can render either bitmap or vector maps. The trick with protomaps is that instead of deploying gazillions of tile files, you upload a huge single file with all the vector content inside and then use lambda functions to extract tiles from that file. And then you use caching and CDNs to to make sure you don't have a lot of compute overhead . So, the API looks like a normal tile server. The data deployment process boils down to uploading a new file and your usage data is a little bit of compute for the tiles your users ask for and a networking cost related to using a CDN. So, that adds up to a lot of savings potentially. At least, as long as commercial providers don't lower their cost. Obviously, they are free to do similar things technically.

bdon 4y ago

Hi, the value add in the commercial offering on top of raw OSM is described here: https://protomaps.com/docs/faq#openstreetmap https://protomaps.com/docs/faq#openstreetmap I also maintain open source tooling for anyone to replicate and extract OSM on-demand, as well as a free download portal: https://github.com/protomaps/OSMExpress https://github.com/protomaps/OSMExpress https://app.protomaps.com/downloads https://app.protomaps.com/downloads

einpoklum 4y ago
Interesting! I note that: > OpenStreetMap ... standard tile layer ... openstreetmap-carto ... is based on dynamic rendering of raster images, instead of vector tiles that can be customized on the client. so, does OSM really not make vector tiles available? That's too bad.
- wcedmisten 4y ago
  OSM is really a dataset. They do offer a raster tile server, but it's intended to support community mapping (improving the dataset), and not necessarily for end users using a map for other purposes. Basically they want you to host your own tile server using the OSM dataset. There are also commercial offerings that do this for you, but not for free.
- bdon 4y ago
  Tiles, vector or raster, to be consumed for general use are not really in the scope of the OpenStreetMap project. This is surprising to many because it's the first thing you see on OSM.org; the tiles there are for the explicit purpose of feedback to data editors, and make a best-effort to synchronize the instantaneous state of the database in the tiles, unlike Protomaps which delivers a snapshot. Paul Norman has a project called Tilekiln to adapt vector rendering for this use case on OSM.org: https://github.com/pnorman/tilekiln https://github.com/pnorman/tilekiln

jillesvangurp 4y ago

It can use openstreetmap as a data source and probably most people self hosting their maps will end up using openstreetmap data and maybe some of their own data. IMHO this is more interesting for people that want bespoke maps as it gives them a cheap way to do that without having to rely on expensive SAAS solutions or a lot of operational complexity. Openstreetmap doesn't really do a lot for hosting maps for third party websites. You would use Mapbox, maptiler or other suppliers for that and libraries such as mapbox/maplibre, openlayers, leaflet etc. that can render either bitmap or vector maps. The trick with protomaps is that instead of deploying gazillions of tile files, you upload a huge single file with all the vector content inside and then use lambda functions to extract tiles from that file. And then you use caching and CDNs to to make sure you don't have a lot of compute overhead . So, the API looks like a normal tile server. The data deployment process boils down to uploading a new file and your usage data is a little bit of compute for the tiles your users ask for and a networking cost related to using a CDN. So, that adds up to a lot of savings potentially. At least, as long as commercial providers don't lower their cost. Obviously, they are free to do similar things technically.