This object is in archive! 

Problem with map switching

Jarosław Strzałkowski shared this problem 4 years ago
Solved

After last update switching map function has severe problem: in most cases it doesn't work at all (it works only in closer zoom and after long delays). It happens for all offline/local maps - including Compass (bitmap) and Locus (vector).

On attached screenshots you may see how it looks on map borders:

From Compass I've bought both parts (east and west), yearlier it switched between those parts without any delay, but now it show only "unknown problem".

On Locus vector map I've bought maps of Greece and Albania but on border maps looks like this - I may only to change map manually.

Replies (11)

photo
1

Good day Jaroslaw,

did you try latest 3.38.7 version? We made quite a lot of changes and improvements in the latest version(s), so switching and auto-loading of maps should be a lot better than in version 3.38.3.

Let me know, thanks.

Jiří M. aka Menion

photo
1

Sorry to say, but nothing changed :-( On map border still it looks like on screenshot (I may manually switch to map covering area on left side, in settings I have auto change set on).

photo
1

Good day Jaroslaw,

a few days ago we published new version 3.39. I'm still not 100% satisfied with the auto-loading system but should be definitely better than in 3.38.x version, so please give it a try. Thank you for your patience.

Menion

photo
1

Yes! It works much better. Thanks!

Sometimes it may be a little confusing when one map ends end there is nothing but white screen but another map appears only after zoom in. But it may have sense (different tiles size of those maps), so I can live with it.

sob., 27 lip 2019, 21:32 użytkownik Locus Map <locus.map@asamm.com> napisał:

photo
1

Perfect, glad to read it.

As I wrote, consider the current state as "work in progress". We will definitely work on improvements.

Menion

photo
1

One snapshot for you: bitmap map with one tile taken from completely random location (in this case - apr. 30km away). This happened to me twice, and this bad tile disapears (is replaced by proper one) only when I scroll or zoom.

photo
1

I may for now only hope, it won't happen too often. What is on your screenshot is really weird, but I'll have to catch this issue on own device.

Thanks for understanding.

photo
1

It happens to me quite often (again yesterday), maybe because of my large collection of "Compass" maps (bitmap: 11 maps bought in Locus + 37 maps bought in external shop, in .tar format). And I have to correct: bad tile disappears _only_ after zoom.

photo
1

And one more thing - I saw it once, in previous, unstable version, so I know that it is possible: when I set for local maps to switch between any type, Locus displayed bitmap maps for areas covered by them, and vector map in all other areas. Now this behaviour dissapeared - no matter what I set in settings, only switching between the same type works - like on attached screenshot.

Of course It is much better to have current, almost stable version, but maybe in future it might be possible to switch seamlessly between bitmap and vector maps. It would be great advantage of using Locus!

photo
1

Hmm combination of 11 SQLite based Locus maps and 37 TAR based maps may be really deadly combination. This TAR format may be the reason why you see what you see.

Does this problem happen always on the same place with the same map or is it quite random?

Any combination of vector maps & raster maps, you are right, this was enabled in one of testing version. It was more by and accident then an intent. Currently, mainly because of performance reasons, this option is disabled, but agree it may be useful and I definitely do not say "no" to this option in the future.

photo
1

Completly random. I think that in all cases it happended with .tar maps, but I'm not sure. Should I think about converting my .tar maps to sqllite version? (probably it's possible; I don't remember tool name, but I think that somewhere exist such tool)

photo
1

Converting to SQLite should most probably solve this weird issue. Locus Map now event can't download online maps to TAR maps (this feature was removed in the last version), so this format should work, but it is not recommended if not needed because of specific map projection.

Random ... worst option. I may ask you to share your maps, but to be true, if the conversion will be an easy task for you, it will save me few hours of work, because this won't be an easy problem. Anyway if conversion won't be possible, may I ask for some of your maps for the test? I have to simulate the same problem on own device, otherwise, I'm unable to fix it.

Thanks for understanding.

Menion

photo
1

could you recommend me tool for such conversion? I've searched for it but now I'm lost in web...

photo
1

Only tool we know and use quite often is called mapc2mapc. I'm anyway not sure if this tool is able to work with TAR maps or if it need an original JPG/PNG + calibration. We use it mostly for some GeoPDF > SQLite and similar calibration. Hope this helps.

photo
1

OK, It's a little stupid to pay 15 pounds for program without CLI (I've spent more than hour converting all my .tar maps) instead of writing simple script to convert them all (but I couldn't find decent file Ozi "tar" file description). But it works: after converting to sqlite there are no random tiles. So far.

But now I have another problem: Locus switches between maps in my collection like crazy! Mayby I could fix this problem eg. by adjusting/cutting problematic maps, but I have no idea which map is currently used, so I can't detect what is the real reason of problems similar to shown on attached screenshot.

In maps menu, highlited item points to map previously selected by me, not that auto-selected by Locus.

Is this possible to change this behaviour? Just highlight map used after auto switch?

photo
1

Complicated task/problem :). (btw. mapc2mapc should have CLI if I remember correctly).

Is there a possibility to share your maps with me? The highlight of selected maps is a problem, so only option (which I'll do as well if you send me some of your maps in the problematic area) is playing with it and add/remove maps from Locus/maps directory.

Menion

photo
1

Of course I may share you my maps for testing purpose. Write me an email: ???@gmail.com

photo
1

You are right: map2mapc has cli. So I've lost one hour of my life without real need :-(

photo
1

Oki thanks, email sent, thanks.

photo
1

Interesting fact: mapc2mapc program shows no white border of the map which you may see in Locus. I tried to crop map and remove this border, but there is no border at all!

Even better: this white border surrounding a map is much larger in Locus after converting it to sqllite.

So I suppose that this border is a problem inside Locus itself.

photo
1

Hello Jaroslaw,

sorry for the delay. I've finally found a time to download and test your map.

To be true, I do not know where to start. You have 40 maps that are completely randomly distributed ... here is coverage visible in my test version:

/d7d539fe12090ea3311f4ba02b4c0a28

This is crazy :). This really worked before? I'm surprised.

You wrote that maps are from two different sources. From my point of view, best try should be to

  • put all maps from Locus Store in its original folder "Compass.pl" (not 100% sure about its name)
  • put all maps from compass.krakow.pl show into one folder "compass.krakow" (for example)
  • disable automatic loading for raster maps

With these settings, you should see in Locus Map only two (multi) maps named by two mentioned folders. With disabled auto-loading, the app should work only with maps in one selected folder. Maps from Locus Store should have minimal (if any) overlap.

Your setup is really too complicated. If the method I wrote about won't work, I may for now really only suggest reducing map that overlap (split) or downgrade on older Locus Map version.

This problem will be most probably solved one day, but I currently do not have in head some easy-to-implement algorithm that should correctly handle this.

If there will be anything you may need to explain etc, feel free to write to me. Thanks for understanding.

Menion

photo
1

As I wrote you in email:

Files with uppercase letters in names are bought in Locus, other - bought in external shop (https://www.compass.krakow.pl/) as "TrekBuddy" format, converted to sqllite by mapc2mapc program).

So you may easly divide this map set to eliminate problems connected with switching between two "groups" of maps.

Where to start? In Cracow ans its surroundings, where there is two or more maps coverting the same area: eg. 2 files for North of Malopolska, 2 files for South, one file for "Wyzyna Miechowska" and one file for "Okolice Krakowa" (Cracow surroundings).

In old Locus versions situation was simple: Locus seamlessly "glued" 4 files of "Malopolska" but needed direct switch to more detailed maps (Cracow surroundings, etc). Now Locus has 2 problems:

1. Each map got huge white border (this border is "virtual" - only Locus sees him, mapc2mapc program sees no border), so Locus can't make seamless join of map files

2. Locus randomly switches between maps covering the same area.

photo
1

I've made as you say: to make it simple I bought some Compass maps in Locus store (instead using raster maps from external file), so I may use only maps from Locus store.

And... nothing changed. In places where more than one map may be shown, Locus changes them like crazy. For example in my last trip Locus screen looked like on attached screenshot.


This is deeply frustrating - the more you pay for Locus (and in Locus store) the poorer is the final result :-(

photo
1

Hello Jaroslaw,

sorry to read that you still have a problem with the maps. I've just downloaded two maps you purchased recently (Northern Lesser Poland and Żywiec Beskids), but it seems to work correctly to me.

May you please write me coordinates where this weird case happens? What maps do you now have in your Locus/maps directory? May you give a try to only compass maps downloaded from Locus Store?

photo
1

Snapshot was taken here: https://www.google.com/maps/@49.7372126,19.6752489,942m/data=!3m1!1e3

This area is covered by two maps: "Beskid Makowski" and "Małopolska Południowa".


As I said, now I use Locus only with maps from Locus Store - now I have in my device 14 maps from "Compass" bought in Locus Store.

photo
1

Hello Jaroslaw,

I've finally downloaded some maps covering Makow Podhalanski city (thanks for the link to this place) and indeed found some really weird switching of the maps during movement. Even it's now not perfectly solved, I believe it will be a lot better. So please give a try next version 3.46 (during next 14 days) and let me know.

Thanks and thank you for the patience as well!


Menion

photo
1

Wow! Great news! I'm looking forward to this update.

photo
1

New version is much, much better! Now maps are not switched randomly, but Locus decides once which map should be displayed in specific area and keeps this decision permanent. Great!

But still it might be better - some decisions are innacurate, eg. in center of Kraków map looks like on attached screenshot - one part of city is displayed on map "Plan miasta" (detailed city plan - map scale on paper is 1:20000) and another on "Okolice Krakowa" (surroundings of the city - 1:55000). I have no idea why east part of city is shown on better (more detailed) map, while west part - on worse one.

photo
1

Hello Jaroslaw,

so finally some positive news, thanks :).

I'm checking your second mentioned issue, and it currently a lot harded. Both maps has same range of zoom levels, so app is unable to detect which one is better. Map with Krakow sourounding has last level rescaled from the zoom 13 as I see, but it is how data are stored directly in the SQLite database (map) file. So sorry, I have currently no idea how to improve it here. It is a little stupid, that Compass maps lay one on another. For example Czech Shocart maps touch only on borders, so life is a lot easier :).

I hope your experience will be better based on last change and thanks for the big help with it!

Menion

photo
1

Have you thought about possibility to set "priorities" for maps? Just a simple number which may decide which map choose in situation where two of them have "same range of zoom levels". It may be even without any GUI - eg. just a simple text file with map name and number. It might be a very powerful feature for Locus...


BTW, I still dream about possibility, thant Locus may seamlessly glue vector and raster maps. So instead displaying "no map for this location" when using raster maps, Locus may always display some map - vector map in worst case. This would be a "killer feature"! With priorities for raster maps it would mean that Locus shows you always best map for any place. This might be nice, don't you think? :-)

photo
1

Hello Jaroslaw,

I was thinking about the "priority" idea ... and I like it :). I can imagine a simple set of low/mid/high priority value for all maps directly in UI.

Idea added to our "Maps - TODO list". Unfortunately, it will have to wait a while, due to other priorities. I'll let you know here once there will be progress. Thanks

Menion

photo
1

Great to hear it! But I think that priority value as number might be better than low/mid/hight. In Kraków surroundings I have area covered by 4 maps :-)

photo
1

I reckon my problem is the same. I upgraded to 3.39.3 a few days ago. Since then, my maps will not load properly - only in patches and at arbitrary zoom levels. I am using offline downloaded raster maps. I have played around with "offline maps autoload" and this helps a little (or it's just a coincidence). But autoloading still doesn't work (even though I have set "autoload maps of identical type) - I need to move between maps by selecting each map as I move around.

Replies have been locked on this page!