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Topic: alternative maps (Read 21983 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: alternative maps

Reply #15 –
OK, I created a Bing Maps key instead of using the Azure one I have for the previous screenshots above. Now when I show the OS map it looks more like what you showed. But, honestly it looks bad to me! Is this really how Bing OS maps look on mobile? How can anyone use them?

Am I missing something? The tile server URL is exactly what Locus maps app uses. Something seems off to me.
 

Re: alternative maps

Reply #16 –
OS maps are best used for showing footpaths etc in the countryside. Your screenshots, while they don't look great as they are showing a city centre, are fine. Presumably, when you zoom in they will switch to 1:25k?

Re: alternative maps

Reply #17 –
They are exactly what the OS Bing raster maps show and they don't switch resolutions once you get to a certain zoom level. There is some problem in getting the official OS Leisure raster maps to even work and I'm waiting for OS tech support to resolve it before I can add Leisure maps to Geooh.

If you've got comparison screenshots showing footpaths in Leisure versus Google maps, that may help in understanding.

Re: alternative maps

Reply #18 –
Did you get anywhere with implementing the Bing / Locus format of OS maps?

As I said before if you made the use of quadkey available, then I could use my personal licence

Re: alternative maps

Reply #19 –
Nope... it got way too messy for what's it would be worth for small use cases. I strongly encouraged the OS group they needed to make it easy to load the 27700 tiles (which you were looking for) using a normal tile server like they do for their other tile sets. The last email months ago said they were looking into it, but my guess is development there doesn't care and really aren't doing anything. Someday they may.

Re: alternative maps

Reply #20 –
I'm struggling without a Geocaching app that has a Bing OS tiles layer.   Is there definitely no way you can allow a quadkey parameter {q} in a tile server URL  in the similar way that we can use {x},  {y} and {z}?  
As we discussed, the generation of {q} from (x}, {y} and {z} is a relatively simple calculation.

Obviously, I do not know how your code works - maybe you just link to some API that handles all the URL parameters and map tile display?

Re: alternative maps

Reply #22 –
My apologies for persuing this, but I do not understand the OS group issue.

I have successfully used Microsoft's Bing OS map tiles by just specifying the virtualearth.net URL in three applications:

Geocaching Map Enhancements:
https://t{s}.ssl.ak.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{q}.png?g=3440&productSet=mmOS&key=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

GCdroid:
http://ecn.t{I=0,1,2,3}.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{Q}.png?g=3440&productset=mmOS&key=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

LocusMaps*:
http://ecn.t3.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{c}.png?g=41&productset=mmOS&key=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

where {Q} is a parameter that the app replaces with the quadkey and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is my personal Microsoft API key

*locus maps is slightly more complex in that the url is specified in a providers xml file where {c} is the map coordinates, and the need to calculate a quadkey is specified by specifying a map type of 5
see https://docs.locusmap.eu/doku.php?id=manual:advanced:customization:online_maps

I have had to reinstall all my phone apps and I'd like to use Geeoh GO as a replacement for GCdroid which is no longer available on PlayStore. I don't think GME is available for Android devices and Locus Maps Geocaching option is too cumbersome.

Re: alternative maps

Reply #23 –
I've said this before... I tried to use OS Bing maps and it got very messy internally to support for minor usage. I have an outstanding OS group ticket for them to resolve (on their end) the ability to use their 27700 maps (what Bing and others use) via their tile server API (which Geooh uses). If/when the OS group responds to the ticket, I'll be able to implement 27700 maps.

Re: alternative maps

Reply #24 –
Thanks.  I imagined that it was just a question of generating the appropriate tile's URL and displaying the result but now realise that it's also necessary to be able to move around that tile and fit the required section to the screen size (along with other functionality).

I'll wait hopefully. Is there any enquiry/pressure I can apply to the OS group as a user?

Re: alternative maps

Reply #25 –
Since my last post on this topic, I've been successfully using an alternative geocaching app using a Bing quad key, but now that Microsoft are focussed on Azure which doesn't support OS maps, I'm wary about how-long that key will work.
I've obtained an OS map API key with which I can access their Leisure_27700 maps, but can't get their tile address to work as an alternative map.
All I get is a white map, so I guess it's returning an error message.
The address I'm using is https://api.os.uk/maps/raster/v1/zxy/Leisure_27700/[z}/{y}/{x}.jpg?key= followed by my personal key.
If I hard-code {z}/{y}/{x} an OS Leisure map tile is displayed, but obviously it's not the correct one for my coords.

Is there any change I can make to get these to work?

Re: alternative maps

Reply #27 –
no. That's just a mistake in my post here.  I've double-checked my parameter.
Is there a error code/message I can check?

Re: alternative maps

Reply #29 –
not that. I suspect it's an incompatibility between the url and my key as although I can use a hard-coded version of that link and my key on my browser, it doesn't work in that form on the Geocaching Map Enhancements add-on either.

I'll search to see if I can find any specific working examples