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Organic Maps

organicmaps.app

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Re: Organic Maps

#391

Post by ihatehn »

fuzzy2 wrote: post #203
biodranik wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please make sure that you have up-to-date app and maps data, and tell us where you see cross-border routing issues. There's an easy way to report it from the app using "Report a bug" button in the About dialog.

IIRC, that was over a year ago near Oberstdorf, at the border between Austria and Germany. You could not get an on-foot route from the Kanzelwand Bergstation[1] to Fellhorn[2]. The hiking path follows the border closely, crossing it multiple times. That location seems to work fine now. I’ll make sure to report it in the future! [1]: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/252814925 [2]: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/…

I remember hearing about issues like this and I agree things are probably better lately after some fixes.

Re: Organic Maps

#392

Post by ihatehn »

prometheon1 wrote: post #78
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #64

Started using Organic Maps during the pandemic, this is the app that weaned me out of Google Maps. At the moment I only really use Google Maps to check opening times of certain shops. Also way better routing for cyclists than Google maps.

Do you use the search functionality a lot, and is it giving you the results you want? And if so, do you have any tips on how to write search queries? I love Organic Maps, but when I try to search, I think I find what I'm looking for about 1 out of 5 times.

Are you searching for street addresses or business names? Coverage of those is highly dependent on openstreetmap volunteer contributions.

Re: Organic Maps

#393

Post by ihatehn »

Aachen wrote: post #112
baz00 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Organic maps is also 100% free unlike OSMAnd.

So how do they finance the servers from which you download the sizable map files, if there's no "pay to unlock unlimited downloads" like in OsmAnd?

Also consider that with Google you have to redownload your area of the map almost constantly since they're online maps, whereas it's only even possible to download a ~100mb map file from OrganicMaps monthly-ish when they release app updates and most people don't update. 100mb per user is nothing.

Re: Organic Maps

#394

Post by ihatehn »

fizwidget wrote: post #42
ynoxinul wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Importing GPX tracks and displaying it on the map. For my bike trips I do my planning in advance on a computer using brouter or openrouteservice, then import the created file into OSMAnd.

OrganicMaps supports this too though?

It's new, many people aren't aware.

Re: Organic Maps

#395

Post by stavros »

Symbiote wrote: post #230
sanderjd wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a great system! US "zip codes" are pretty useless by comparison.

As an example, with a postcode "N1C 4DN" we soon learn that means North London (the N), the innermost district (the 1) and the innermost bit of that (the C). Stick it in https://www.royalmail.com/find-a-postcode and we have 5 addresses to choose from. There are usually 10 to 30 — if you work in a large office it probably has a postcode just for that office, for houses you share with 20-30 or so others. (Very large bu…

> we have 5 addresses to choose from

(8 if you scroll down)

Re: Organic Maps

#397

Post by ryukoposting »

ex-googlemaps wrote: post #325
pja wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google maps is still terrible for pedestrian / cycling use. OSM is much, much better but I guess Google refuses to pull OSM data because it would require them to open up their own maps.

For cycling, yeah, that’s why I said I’m very sorry I wasn’t successful. For pedestrian, I’d disagree. At least in places I go, I find Google’s walking directions to be top notch.

If you're a pedestrian in a city and you're walking between two locations with mailing addresses, then yes, Google is great. For anything outside of those boundaries, OSM is head and shoulders above Google Maps. GMaps is basically unusable for hikers and outdoorsmen because of the asinine offline UX and lack of topo data. I've also seen it make some outright unsafe routes when walking around suburbs and smaller towns.

Re: Organic Maps

#398

Post by fuzzy2 »

orbital-decay wrote: post #58
fuzzy2 wrote: post #7

Organic Maps is super awesome. The routing feature is really good, too. It even works on Apple CarPlay! There are some glitches to be aware of though: Routing across region borders is often broken. Also, a warning about OSM in general: Do not blindly trust it. Map data can be very out of date in some places, especially on remote-ish hiking trails.

Instead of trusting or not trusting any map by default, try understanding how they're made, then you'll have a good idea what could go wrong with it. OSM in particular doesn't use third party registries and surveys due to the licensing issues, relying on volunteer work instead, and has a participation-based culture (aka "if you want to have a map of something, make it yourself"). Armchair mappers are using satellite…

I agree with what you’re saying. I just find myself lulled by OSM’s ridiculously high quality in the places I usually go. And I suspect many others feel the same.

Re: Organic Maps

#399

Post by brianpan »

Tijdreiziger wrote: post #285
aikinai wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This lowbrow criticism is really old. Google doesn’t do much offline for the same reason almost no one does offline anymore; it’s hard and the number of users affected is very small. Do you honestly think Google is looking at the number of maps users that go offline and saying, “We absolutely need their data!” rather than “Eh, not worth rearchitecting everything for.” Not to mention they have done a lot for it even i…

This post is about an offline maps app which is maintained by volunteers, so it can't be that hard for the likes of Google.

Supporting offline would take design, effort, and testing.

Anything can be done. But you can't do everything.

Re: Organic Maps

#400

Post by bb611 »

aikinai wrote: post #327
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post is about an offline maps app which is maintained by volunteers, so it can't be that hard for the likes of Google.

Google could certainly design a basic offline mapping app. They even have offline mapping in their app today. I’m actually not even sure what the complaint is actually about since I don’t use offline myself, but I know that Google Maps is a massive app with tons of teams all working on a myriad of features in parallel and a huge dependency tree. So I’m not surprised at all if there are a bunch of features with online…

As an egregious google maps power user, these are the ones that bother me:

1. Offline maps don't actually download all the destinations in the mapped area

2. Google maps is bad at displaying densely packed businesses - this is an issue online as well

3. No offline bike or transit directions

These are the 3 I checked immediately in organic maps, and all work significantly better there.

I think your point is reasonable, but I'm also a very high income person who thinks nothing of buying data plans when traveling internationally and has an unlimited plan in the US. I routinely meet people while traveling who have the opposite set of financial priorities, organic maps is probably a great choice for them.

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