[Xastir] New Online Maps in Git (Canada & U.S.)

[Curt Mills]

Yea, these new maps are only available at certain zoom levels. If you want
to be smart about it you can go into map properties for each one and set
zoom levels at which they will activate. Using that method you can also
have Xastir auto-switch to different map sources at different zoom levels.
If you do that then you select multiple map sets in Map Chooser. The trick
is to make only one type of raster map activate at a time, else you'll end
up loading one raster on top of another, which is counter-productive.

You can also load vector maps on top of raster maps. In that case you can
load unlimited vector maps on top of one raster and see them all, assuming
none of the vector maps have areas that fill. If that's the case then you
have to select which layer each loads at to create the map stackup you want.

No significance to the black vs. grey except that they probably send us a
small tile that says "error" or something, and that's the background color
for that tile.

The not found in cache message is because a local cache was added quite a
while back to speed up drawing if you're not moving around much, or if you
stick to certain centers/zoom levels and the arrow keys for moving around.
In that case you can eventually get the cache loaded with what you
regularly use and not have to fetch from the 'net' much. Not sure whether
we should change the messages: I find it useful to know that I didn't get a
cache hit and that it will take longer to load.

I don't think there's any way for Xastir to know enough about the remote
server to be able to display messages like "not available at this zoom".
The remote server can change at any time, so if we hard-coded these in,
we'd be wrong half the time. Better to leave it generic. You'll get to know
the map sources the more you use them.


On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 8:26 AM, David Ranch <xastir at trinnet.net> wrote:

>
> Hey Curt,
>
> Playing around with the new maps say aerial.geo, it works from a zoom
> level of 1 to 64 but with a larger zoom level like 128, the screen is black
> except for the various APRS objects when zoomed a bit.  Other maps show all
> grey.  Does the black vs. grey have a significance?
>
>    National.geo        - the screen is light grey except for the various
> APRS objects
>    Sub_National.geo    - the screen is light grey except for the various
> APRS objects
>    Sub_Regional.geo    - the screen is light grey except for the various
> APRS objects
>    Aerial.geo:         - works for zooms 1 to 64 then the screen is black
>    ShadedRelief.geo    - works for zooms 1 to 8 then the screen is light
> grey
>    Topo1-10.geo       - works for zooms 1 to 8 and then the screen is
> light grey
>    TopoRelief1-78.geo - the screen is light grey except for the various
> APRS objects
>
> Other maps like Regional, Coutours, Hydrography, and transportation work
> fine.  Maybe the black vs. grey behavior is known in Xastir but since I'm
> still new to it, I'm not aware of it.  Maybe there is a way to display in
> the UI something like "map not available at this zoom - try  1 to 64".
> That would be a lot more user friendly.
>
> I'm also seeing with this new Xastir version when loading these new maps,
> it's not saying "loading tiles.." in the lower left.  It says "Map not
> found in cache...".  Is there a way to make this a little more intuitive?
> Maybe change this to "Loading map from network..." would be more intuitive?
>
>
> Thanks again for adding these new maps!
>
> --David
> KI6ZHD
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xastir mailing list
> Xastir at lists.xastir.org
> http://xastir.org/mailman/listinfo/xastir
>



-- 
Curt, WE7U
http://we7u.wetnet.net
http://www.sarguydigital.com