Hi, Petr--
I wonder if you would consider some sort of intermediate application
(for say $50 or $100 or whatever) which would tile very large or
unlimited-size images, albeit slowly, with the rest of the features
from the current applications?
I am definitely in the 'hobbyist' category. I volunteer (unpaid) for
two non-profit family history organizations; I assemble large
historical map images from scanned archive fragments (using simple
programs: PhotoShop Express and GIMP), then tile those images and
create viewers for web browsers. Many of those maps are plain images
and not aligned to the earth:
http://maps.geshergalicia.org/
but some are, and others have very simple OpenLayers vector features also:
http://www.ckcckc.org/m/f/horn/cadmap/cmv_rohatyn_1846a.html
http://www.rsrg.org/rohatyn/map/hnl/hnl.html
Working part-time, it takes me weeks to assemble a large map, so
tiling speed is not an issue for me; I can wait a day or more if I
need to. Many of our maps are large; we have only one gigapixel map
to date, but there are others in the queue for me which I believe will
approach 50kpx a side.
Since 2011, I have been tiling maps using the open-source version of
MapTiler on an old Mac. I like MapTiler so much I donated $50 to the
project because I can't donate code, and I credit the program on the
front page of our map site (first link above) and in the comments in
every viewer file, as well as in the reference page where I describe
how we do our work. I am not a programmer (to me, a python is a
reptile I hope never to meet); I am just a tool user.
So the image size limitation in the new App is a problem for me; I
recently replaced my old Mac and bought the Start version of the new
App on the new Mac, and yes I saw the size limitation when I bought it
so I'm not asking for my money back. What I'm hoping for is an App
with no practical limitation on image size for tiling, and I'm willing
to pay for that and to wait for large maps to tile. I can't justify
the cost of the cluster version (and couldn't manage the server for it
anyway).
For now I am hanging on to my old Mac, just to run MapTiler. When the
Mac dies, I guess I'll look for another used one somewhere that hasn't
had its OS updated. From my remarks and other comments here recently,
you can probably see that there is a market for a large-image App that
doesn't need the cluster capability. Unless there is a technical
limitation to image size in the code for the App, I'd be grateful if
you'd consider this.
Thanks,
Jay