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Switch to OpenStreetMap

switch2osm.org

41–50 of 210 posts

Re: Switch to OpenStreetMap

#41
I recently looked into using OSM for a side project and after going down a rabbit hole of researching 3rd party tools for generating (vector) tile sets and how to setup a tile server I eventually gave up (my mapping knowledge is limited to using Google Maps through their JS API). Can anyone point me in the direction of a more complete resource/tutorial that would help? Eager to get back on it at some point.

I clicked "Use an all-in-one solution" on the Serving Tiles page but it 404'd.

Re: Switch to OpenStreetMap

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maps.me is what finally has allowed me to mostly switch with offline maps, good routing, and support for all modes of transit I use consistently. https://maps.me/

Unfortunately it looks like they may share your data with third parties, which includes their parent company, mail.ru. I personally don’t trust them.

Oh wow, I wasn’t aware of this. I will definitely be re-evaluating them…

Re: Switch to OpenStreetMap

#43
post #32

Timely. Just started a project to document Bosnia and Hercegovina's remaining minefields on OSM. The build system consumes PDFs from the European Union Force as they are updated, georeferences them and pushes the features to OSM. Many tile sets on live maps are updated within the week!

Do you georeference them by grid coordinates and corners of the map or are doing something not so simple?

Yes, using the topo map grid lines.

Re: Switch to OpenStreetMap

#44
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Osmand for Android is pretty good, they should promote it.

Is there anything that renders the mapps prettier? The difference between osmand and Google maps is jarring.

I quite like OSMand's look: much more information, and quite easy to pick features apart. But you can also switch the map style inside the app itself.

Navigation is modal in OSMand (you can define your own modes, as well as use the predefined ones), so you can for instance have a hiking mode with a topographic view, or a car mode that hides finer details like trees and cycleways.

Re: Switch to OpenStreetMap

#45
For anyone that doesn't know, it's trivial to load OSM onto a Garmin GPS and use is for turn-by-turn navigation, for free.

I've used it in over 40 countries (including Africa, Europe, North America) and it is staggeringly complete and accurate. From the mega capital cities to the tiniest village, it has every single dirt track, school, hospital, gas station, roundabout, intersection, etc. etc.

I can count on one hand the number of times it hasn't been utterly perfect in 4 years of driving around 90,000 miles through 40 countries.

I have no idea how the maps can be so shockingly good in rural Ivory Coast or Burundi, but they are.

Re: Switch to OpenStreetMap

#46

With all due respect to OSM, isn't "the world’s best map data" an exaggeration? Especially if we count satellite images as map data.

Best is one of those loose terms that works well for marketing - it could be best because it's the largest set that's free-gratis & free-libre, for example.

Did you have a "best" in mind.

I'd definitely not consider plain satellite imagery to be map data.

Re: Switch to OpenStreetMap

#47
It's very unfortunate the site does not have a clear path for caching pre-rendered tiles (from OSM.org for example). The only real choices you have are either the ones from leaflet-provider or rolling your own render server.

For something like having a single country at couple decent zoom-levels, I would rather not go through the trouble of setting up a complete render pipeline when pre-rendered tiles that are cached and hosted locally would suffice.

Re: Switch to OpenStreetMap

#48

I recently looked into using OSM for a side project and after going down a rabbit hole of researching 3rd party tools for generating (vector) tile sets and how to setup a tile server I eventually gave up (my mapping knowledge is limited to using Google Maps through their JS API). Can anyone point me in the direction of a more complete resource/tutorial that would help? Eager to get back on it at some point. I clicked…

I don't have experience of generating vector tiles myself, but I do have a lot of experience with osm2pgsql and PostGIS now. From a quick look around, https://sparkgeo.com/blog/vector-tile-server-using-postgis/ looks quite accessible, but glosses over how to use them in the frontend.

Re: Switch to OpenStreetMap

#49

With all due respect to OSM, isn't "the world’s best map data" an exaggeration? Especially if we count satellite images as map data.

I found OSM to be better than the competition for hiking (it has more trails mapped) and walking in cities (pedestrian only shortcuts are well mapped).

Re: Switch to OpenStreetMap

#50
post #27

How can I, as sole map user, can help Open Street Map to thrive?

I find StreetComplete to be a handy tool on the phone that lets you enrich OSM data https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/StreetComplete

StreetComplete is fantastic, alas there's no iOS version.

And after a while getting used to it you may want to configure the "questions" StreetComplete asks you.

Better not answer every type of question than get discouraged or fed up with the umpteenth "is there street lighting?".

Of course, if you can stomach being bombarded with questions every few meters, more power to you!

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