Take a look on Mapsforge in 2.5/3D context

[jaakl]

Hello,

 I integrated Mapsforge as one of base map layer types to Nutiteq 3D Maps SDK. The guide is here: https://github.com/nutiteq/hellomap3d/wiki/Mapsforge-layer. You probably want to get started with Nutiteq SDK http://nutiteq.github.com/hellomap3d/ first, and then try to use Mapsforge layer instead of default OpenStreetMap online tile layer. Feel free to experiment with it and comment it.

 Nutiteq 3D maps SDK is technically OpenGL texture manipulation engine which is specifically made for fast map tile loading to flat surface. Target has been to have very smooth touch-based rotation, zooming, panning and tilting. There are various sources of textures as "Layers", assuming that eventually they are 256x256 pixel bitmaps: online or offline raster tiles, offline generated tiles like mapsforge. You can also have overlays with the bitmaps, but no more than 1 currently. And it has vector overlays: basic texts, points,lines and polygons, plus 3D markers and 3D polygons (polygons with height). Most complex elements are 3D models what you can put to the map. Also you can draw custom OpenGL animations (there is sample with GPS location). The vector overlays are optimized for smaller number of objects, and they are not very good with texts. So for proper map generation this is not good enough, this is why Mapsforge fits to the picture very well.

 What are my plans related to Mapsforge:

1. Extend wiki pages to show how to add 3D markers and buildings (reading data from Mapsforge database), maybe also placenames from Mapsforge map file and render them better in 3D context. This almost works, just give me few days to finalize it.

2. Make Nutiteq SDK core available as opensource community project. But for this we need some contributors.

Thanks,

Jaak Laineste

[Karsten Groll]

Hi,

your project looks quite nice. The buildings remind me of Microsoft's
Flight Simulator and the 2.5D view reminds me of good old SNES games
:)

I have added your project to our project list [1] and will try it out
next weekend.

Greetings,

Karsten

[1] http://code.google.com/p/mapsforge/wiki/MapsforgeApplications
(Please tell if something is wrong with your entry.)

2012/9/17 jaakl <ja...@nutiteq.com>:

[Jamel Charouel]

Hi,

I see that you mentioned you wanted to show how to add 3D models using mapsforge. Is there anywhere I can find a tutorial to do this from scratch?

Thanks

[Jaak Laineste]

Hi,

Fast forward to 2015 - Nutiteq has updated Maps SDK to version 3 which is rewrite to cross-platform C++, and has own full offline vector map rendering with 3D. It uses mapbox vector tile instead of mapsforge for offline file format. You can still use mapsforge as raster background renderer library (Android only), or even as offline file format (if you do C++ file reader for all platforms), but we (in Nutiteq) have no ready code for it. 

Jaak

Nutiteq

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Jaak Laineste

[Emux]

Thanks for the info.

On 02/07/2015 12:33 μμ, Jaak Laineste wrote:

It uses mapbox vector tile instead of mapsforge for offline file format.

Can you elaborate more on this,
what are the benefits / why you choose this way?

BTW a comparison of the two formats would be beneficial too.
Are Mapbox vector tiles truly offline, are they totally free (without subscription), same country size comparison etc.

--
Emux
Cruiser - Atlas

[Jaak Laineste]

It uses mapbox vector tile instead of mapsforge for offline file format.

Can you elaborate more on this,
what are the benefits / why you choose this way?

There are some technical advantages. With vector-tile approach we can combine easily several maps, which can have different geographical coverage or level of detail. Also we can use practically the format for online and offline maps, and combine them. My understanding is that mapsforge .map is one monolithic file from mobile client point of view.

Also maybe even important for us are business-level question, as we are a business with a lot of commercial customers. We need to evaluate whether specific technology is stable enough. With university project there is always question about 5-10 year perspective of the project - students graduate, funding ends and noone supports it really.
 

BTW a comparison of the two formats would be beneficial too.

I have not studied mapsforge format really in detail, but from compression point of view it is probably smaller (I would guess around 25%). You can see our package sizes here: https://developer.nutiteq.com/guides/packages . These are a bit bigger than mapsforge files for same countries, as vector tile approach means significant duplication of data on lower zoom levels. That's the price for better flexibility.

 

Are Mapbox vector tiles truly offline, are they totally free (without subscription), same country size comparison etc.

"Mapbox vector tile" means several different things really:
 - Vector tile encoding (https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec) which is general way to encode map data.

 - Commercial Maps as a Service provided by MapBox- (mapbox.com), which uses same encoding and specific data schema on top of it (mbstreets for example with OSM data, also they have aerials, outdoor/elevation etc). It is free for lower usage level (freemium model), and it does not really provide offline map packages. You can cache in client side if you want.

developer.nutiteq.com provides real offline packages, using also same MapBox Vector Tile specification as base format, and from this  you can get versioned OSM data for countries, or smaller regions (e.g. city) with one API call. But it is totally not free, we sell subscription packages. The cost should be not really be an issue for anyone who does serious app development; compared to app development it is really small.

There are also others who provide vector tiles as service - Mapzen and Thunderforest come to my head, they all are based on Mapbox vector tile format.

Jaak

 

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Emux
Cruiser - Atlas

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Jaak Laineste

[Emux]

(as I'm one of current Mapsforge developers)

Our map file format is used mainly for vector maps.
Mapsforge supports also online tile sources (aka raster tiles), and in offline storages.
All of these appear as layers on map view and can be combined in several ways (e.g. with transparency), stacked vector and raster maps all together.

On 06/07/2015 07:57 μμ, Jaak Laineste wrote:

Also maybe even important for us are business-level question, as we are a business with a lot of commercial customers. We need to evaluate whether specific technology is stable enough. With university project there is always question about 5-10 year perspective of the project - students graduate, funding ends and noone supports it really.

About Mapsforge beginnings I prefer to let Ludwig, as he is older in the project.

Thanks Jaak for the detailed information.

[Ludwig]

Well, historically Mapsforge was started at the University of Berlin by Jürgen Broß and Thilo Mühlberg, but they both have moved on and the project now has no connection whatsoever to any academic institution. There is no funding, no staff, no nothing. We do not have a five-year plan either, let alone a ten-year plan. 

We would however very much welcome enthusiastic and capable programmers etc to move the project forward. It is open source after all. 

Ludwig

On 6 July 2015 at 19:16, Emux <deve...@gmail.com> wrote:

(as I'm one of current Mapsforge developers)

Our map file format is used mainly for vector maps.

Mapsforge supports also online tile sources (aka raster tiles), also in offline storages.
All of these appear as layers on map view and can be combined in several ways (also with use of transparency), i.e. stacked vector and raster maps all together.

On 06/07/2015 07:57 μμ, Jaak Laineste wrote:

Also maybe even important for us are business-level question, as we are a business with a lot of commercial customers. We need to evaluate whether specific technology is stable enough. With university project there is always question about 5-10 year perspective of the project - students graduate, funding ends and noone supports it really.

About Mapsforge beginnings I prefer to let Ludwig, as he is older in the project.

Thanks Jaak for the detailed information.

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Emux
Cruiser - Atlas

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On 6 July 2015 at 19:16, Emux <deve...@gmail.com> wrote:

(as I'm one of current Mapsforge developers)

Our map file format is used mainly for vector maps.

Mapsforge supports also online tile sources (aka raster tiles), also in offline storages.
All of these appear as layers on map view and can be combined in several ways (also with use of transparency), i.e. stacked vector and raster maps all together.

On 06/07/2015 07:57 μμ, Jaak Laineste wrote:

Also maybe even important for us are business-level question, as we are a business with a lot of commercial customers. We need to evaluate whether specific technology is stable enough. With university project there is always question about 5-10 year perspective of the project - students graduate, funding ends and noone supports it really.

About Mapsforge beginnings I prefer to let Ludwig, as he is older in the project.

Thanks Jaak for the detailed information.

--
Emux
Cruiser - Atlas

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[Emux]

+1

An excellent initiative, if I may say so.

Now we're two developers with Ludwig, having also to take care our day jobs.
:)