Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back • Hacker News Board

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#61

Post by dolmen » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:13 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #59

fab1an wrote: post #5

Too bad, maps.me was by far the best maps application for non city use, and ideal for hiking. Commendable initiative to bring it back in its original version! A few examples of why it was so great: Simple, non social bookmarks. As in: place a bookmark so you don't get lost while hiking, or when you find a nice spot you want to come back to later. Yep, a utility feature that doesn't somehow map to some stoopid busines…

Or use a real map, and don't risk running out of batteries.

While I love paper maps (especially for hiking), digital maps are more convenient in cities. Also, I'm running out of pockets.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#62

Post by stelios313 » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:16 AM UTC

Man, i did TMB with the help of maps.me..literally a life saver on those mountains! So glad to see this efford

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#63

Post by dolmen » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:19 AM UTC

h4kor wrote: post #2

Are you planning to build this as an open source project?

MAPS.ME is already Open Source. The issue for maps apps is the cost of hosting the tiling service.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#64

Post by zelphirkalt » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:20 AM UTC

pxtail wrote: post #28

fab1an wrote: post #5

Too bad, maps.me was by far the best maps application for non city use, and ideal for hiking. Commendable initiative to bring it back in its original version! A few examples of why it was so great: Simple, non social bookmarks. As in: place a bookmark so you don't get lost while hiking, or when you find a nice spot you want to come back to later. Yep, a utility feature that doesn't somehow map to some stoopid busines…

OsmAnd fits description perfectly, you can place bookmarks, no account required, maps from OSM, offline maps which can be used even without internet connection.

OsmAndroid sucked so badly with its seemingly hours of loading time. Search queries never worked well unless you entered exactly the string, including case and sometime whitespace. It would sometimes not find anything, unless I entered a useless whitespace after my words. In comparison to maps.me it is really really bad user experience and not to be recommended on any old phone. Your old phone will just laaaag and you will curse the search function.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#65

Post by wraptile » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:25 AM UTC

rob74 wrote: post #55

pxtail wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OsmAnd fits description perfectly, you can place bookmarks, no account required, maps from OSM, offline maps which can be used even without internet connection.

Yeah, I would have pointed out OsmAnd too, but you were faster :) I'm not a subscriber yet as the features of the free version are enough for me, but someday my conscience will probably guilt me into supporting them anyway...

FYI They currently have a sub deal for like 8$/year!

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#66

Post by RivieraKid » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:27 AM UTC

But we have it back - Mapy.cz. It's basically like Maps.me but better across most dimensions.

I'm always confused why nobody know about it.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#67

Post by yc12340 » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:32 AM UTC

betwixthewires wrote: post #49

Osmand is not good enough?

Maps.me uses it's own map file format and it's own 3D map renderer. It was created in 2014, — OsmAnd used to be quite slow and clumsy back then (not sure how they compare today)

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#68

Post by vetinari » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:38 AM UTC

lucideer wrote: post #39

petre wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It becomes trvial if one uses MapTiler or Mapbox with their own styles and overlays. And even self hosting has much improved since the days of raster tiles.

Self-hosting has improved but is still non-trivial. MapTiler and Mapbox are expensive.

You can use openmaptiles to create the vector tiles (it is made by the Maptiler guys) and serve the tiles with tileserver-gl (or tileserver-gl-light, if you don't need raster tiles).

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#69

Post by vetinari » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:39 AM UTC

bambax wrote: post #58

petre wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It becomes trvial if one uses MapTiler or Mapbox with their own styles and overlays. And even self hosting has much improved since the days of raster tiles.

I tried to self-host tiles from OSM in 2013; it was possible but quite difficult indeed; how has it improved since then?

Today, you would generate vector tiles (thus taking much less disk space) and you can style or re-style them after they are generated.

Re: Maps.me is gone, and we must bring it back

#70

Post by BoumTAC » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:39 AM UTC

MrMid wrote: post #37

tmoravec wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For hiking, check out https://en.mapy.cz/turisticka . While it focuses on central Europe, it regularly imports OSM data worldwide and I found the coverage pretty good.

They also have a mobile app with downloadable maps. Look for Mapy.cz. I used it throughout whole Europe, and found it superior to even local apps (map content) and OSMAnd (map rendering).

can you contribute to OSM like with maps.me ?