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This is really cool. It seems that instead of using mipmaps to generate a map, they are using a combination of curves and 2D shapes. This is very smart since th

This is really cool. It seems that instead of using mipmaps to generate a map, they are using a combination of curves and 2D shapes. This is very smart since the data is not only more compact but can also be visualised in a very fluid manner. The bottleneck is now the GPU instead of the data connection. Give me the ability to download a city's map on Android and I'm dropping google maps like a brick.

greggman 12y ago
There's plenty of apps on Android that use downloaded maps. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Android http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Android Unfortunately AFAIK most of them are missing many of the things that makes Google maps useful. Real time traffic data, real time road closure data, updated public transportation schedules and closures, search by something other than address, ... Also I believe online vector based maps teams found that vector map data was actually larger than tiled map data. I thought as you did lines = smaller but lines + colors + line weights + building outlines + elevation contours + street names + road direction info etc adds up were as jpeg tiles can be pretty lossy.
danespringmeyer 12y ago
Yes, the data is fairly compact. Data for the entire world enough for rendering to zoom level 18 generally comes in under 35GB (give or take 10 GB depending on what features you need). If you need to got to zoom levels approaching ~18 then there is no way to do this with image tiles. Vector tiles are the more efficient way. More details on the encoding at https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec and the encoder at https://github.com/mapbox/mapnik-vector-tile https://github.com/mapbox/mapnik-vector-tile
jonas21 12y ago
Google Maps also uses GPU-rendered vector geometry for their maps on Android (since 2010) and iPhone: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/16/google-maps-5-0-hits-android-includes-new-3d-map-view-and-offli/ http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/16/google-maps-5-0-hits-andr...
- incanus77 12y ago
  Yes. Mapbox is 1) completely open source and 2) completely flexible design-wise.

greggman 12y ago

There's plenty of apps on Android that use downloaded maps. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Android http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Android Unfortunately AFAIK most of them are missing many of the things that makes Google maps useful. Real time traffic data, real time road closure data, updated public transportation schedules and closures, search by something other than address, ... Also I believe online vector based maps teams found that vector map data was actually larger than tiled map data. I thought as you did lines = smaller but lines + colors + line weights + building outlines + elevation contours + street names + road direction info etc adds up were as jpeg tiles can be pretty lossy.

danespringmeyer 12y ago

Yes, the data is fairly compact. Data for the entire world enough for rendering to zoom level 18 generally comes in under 35GB (give or take 10 GB depending on what features you need). If you need to got to zoom levels approaching ~18 then there is no way to do this with image tiles. Vector tiles are the more efficient way. More details on the encoding at https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec and the encoder at https://github.com/mapbox/mapnik-vector-tile https://github.com/mapbox/mapnik-vector-tile

jonas21 12y ago

Google Maps also uses GPU-rendered vector geometry for their maps on Android (since 2010) and iPhone: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/16/google-maps-5-0-hits-android-includes-new-3d-map-view-and-offli/ http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/16/google-maps-5-0-hits-andr...

incanus77 12y ago
Yes. Mapbox is 1) completely open source and 2) completely flexible design-wise.