A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap • Hacker News Board

Re: A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap

#11

Post by ourguile » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 8:29 PM UTC

c0nsumer wrote: post #5

This is really interesting to me. I do a lot of mapping of natural surface single track trails (for hiking and mountain biking) along the way be sure to properly name things, add intersection markers, and create relations (routes and superroutes) to document the systems. The biggest downside thus far is a good way of displaying the data. mtb.waymarkedtrails.org gets close, but I'd really like something that displays…

Have you used GaiaGPS at all? I use it along with ridewithgps for looking at trail conditions and mapping points of interest on my rides and hikes. You can import your own custom map layers as well.

The developers are fairly consistently adding new content as well, might not hurt to reach out.

Re: A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap

#12

Post by mourner » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 8:37 PM UTC

This is very nice! Happy to see a few of my libraries in the dependencies :)

Also check out https://github.com/kothic/kothic-js, an older but similar attempt at making a full-fledged map renderer using 2D Canvas. It has a pretty good label rendering in particular which you might find useful.

Re: A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap

#13

Post by incanus77 » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 8:40 PM UTC

Tomte wrote: post #2

> Existing formats like MBTiles are based on SQLite. This limits the ability to self-host maps to those confident running a server in production. Is that comical, or is there a deeper meaning I don't understand?

Originally, MBTiles was designed for mobile offline. Then, Mapbox started serving directly from the SQLite for web & other clients, creating the Node.js SQLite bindings in the process. Eventually, they had an unpacker for MBTiles uploads that would stick the tiles in CDN. So, really no more complex than old school static content hosting.

Source: I created MBTiles ;-)

Re: A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap

#14

Post by loa_in_ » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 8:45 PM UTC

iandanforth wrote: post #9

Very interesting, I'm currently using Google My Maps as a dead-simple custom mapping tool. I'm using it to collect layers of information as I conduct a nationwide housing search. It would be great if there were a solution that was as simple to get started with as My Maps but also had the flexibility to easily add custom data layers programmatically.

> It would be great if there were a solution that was as simple to get started with as My Maps but also had the flexibility to easily add custom data layers programmatically.

I believe _with some trickery_ you can use Google Earth for that

Re: A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap

#15

Post by xrd » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 8:52 PM UTC

mourner wrote: post #12

This is very nice! Happy to see a few of my libraries in the dependencies :) Also check out https://github.com/kothic/kothic-js , an older but similar attempt at making a full-fledged map renderer using 2D Canvas. It has a pretty good label rendering in particular which you might find useful.

This looks great.

I am super excited about the parent tool, but unsure whether/when I can generate these bundles programmatically. I tried the web based tool and it works great, but what if I need to do it many, many times?

Can your tool do this easily? Is there a way to generate tiles (tiles.pmtiles) that are imported in the same way?

If I had stumbled on your project, I would not have been enthusiastic about it with just the writeup as-is. Seeing the parent project makes me see the possibilities: a completely independent mapping solution, free of any server/service tie in and additional costs. That is super exciting, and I would love to know if and how your project compares.

Re: A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap

#16

Post by alwayshumans » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 8:57 PM UTC

You can already host vector tiles within S3 that work with Mapbox and other libraries.

Not really sure what problem this is trying to solve.

Re: A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap

#17

Post by xrd » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 9:14 PM UTC

alwayshumans wrote: post #16

You can already host vector tiles within S3 that work with Mapbox and other libraries. Not really sure what problem this is trying to solve.

Is this a simple process? Can you share a link to how this is done, I'm interested. I always assumed it was fairly complicated.

Re: A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap

#18

Post by wizzwizz4 » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 9:16 PM UTC

loa_in_ wrote: post #14

iandanforth wrote: post #9

Very interesting, I'm currently using Google My Maps as a dead-simple custom mapping tool. I'm using it to collect layers of information as I conduct a nationwide housing search. It would be great if there were a solution that was as simple to get started with as My Maps but also had the flexibility to easily add custom data layers programmatically.

> It would be great if there were a solution that was as simple to get started with as My Maps but also had the flexibility to easily add custom data layers programmatically. I believe _with some trickery_ you can use Google Earth for that

The computer version, not the web version, right?

Re: A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap

#19

Post by DoreenMichele » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 9:22 PM UTC

iandanforth wrote: post #9

Very interesting, I'm currently using Google My Maps as a dead-simple custom mapping tool. I'm using it to collect layers of information as I conduct a nationwide housing search. It would be great if there were a solution that was as simple to get started with as My Maps but also had the flexibility to easily add custom data layers programmatically.

I'm curious what sorts of data you are collecting and how it helps to have it in map form rather than some other file format.

Re: A new way to make maps with OpenStreetMap

#20

Post by tppiotrowski » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 9:28 PM UTC

Super excited for your project. I have been using map tiles from Mapbox, MapTiler, OSM Buildings for my project and am coming to the point that I need to merge elevation data with building height data in order to cast realistic shadows across the earth. Unfortunately elevation data and building data come from two different tile sets from two different tile providers and it's a lot of download/processing overhead to merge the two data sources. I need to make my own tiles!

I spent part of today on the OSM wiki trying to wrap my head around Mapnik, how tiles are generated, how I am going to host this cheaply because my project is non-commercial, and then the HN gods smiled on me. Thank you for taking this on and I'm coming along for this journey!