Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Yes, that is also included in my plans.

About the icons: Zoom in and zoom out are similar and are symbolic but search icon is photo realistic. I would prefer all icons to follow the same theme: either all of them are symbolic or all photo realistic.

The search icon reminds more of a night goggles because of the blue color. It would be not so easy to think of searching after looking at this icon.

3D cube is a not straightforward representation of 3D mode for me. It is a mapping application and I think that 3D road icon would do better for this purpose.

Overall impression is that the icons do not fit together. I do like that your theme wants to integrate with native OS look (which is very hard because many users use different themes). I is very nice that you use only one color besides the gray. Too much colors in one theme would be an overkill.

Please do not take my comments as an offense but as a positive criticism. I hope that you find them useful and they will encourage you to make even a better icons.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Hi dwaradzyn!
thank you for your suggestions, i can understand your point of view and i'm trying to make a better work...
...you know, icons should be always at half way from beautiful graphics and easy understanding... so find the right compromise is not so easy.
Concerning the road symbol for the 3d map, it was my first try but i found that it seems a track.. so i'm still looking for it.

At the end of work, replace only the clear blue to adapt to different themes color is the easiest part. (there will be one blue, one red, one green and so on....)

Concerning the satellite bars, is it possible to modify the color when the fix happens?

PS.
the modified zoom function using the SHIFT key is very very useful. Really great! When used in offline mode maybe interesting if it was also possible to have a lock for this.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

It will be possible to specify the colour in skin properties file.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

@dwaradzyn

Do you like this? ;)

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

new updates, new bugs.. sigh

with new cssu update, while in portrait mode cloudgps refuses to start.
Starting in landscape and then rotating still works but it seems to be a little slower than before while rendering already downloaded tiles..

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

I have spent the last few days using intensively this gret app....
...really.... really fantastic!
The last step has been the conversion of the partition containing MyDocs in ext3.. this has been a real burst of speed for cloudgps. (and also a reduced gigabytes usage)


@dwaradzyn
Which will be the next features you are planning for the next version?

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

First priority:
- bug fixes,
- onscreen settings,
- update UI look to be more modern,
- gps (position, speed, altitude, satellites info, etc.), accelerometer, compass - rewrite to use QT and work on harmattan too
- multi font + national characters support (national characters using hw keyboard and on screen keyboard support are still very huge problem I do not know how to address), optimized text rendering,
- optimized route rendering,
- pass the QA for publishing CloudGPS for Nokia N9 in OVI store

Second priority:
- support for saving and loading routes, tracks
- search history
- support for multiple tile layers
- sqllite storage support
- POI support
- UI theming
- non blocking download api
- clipboard support
- gps data extrapolation

More distant future:
- track calculator,
- 3d globe,
- 3d terrain,
- more complete 3d building support
- ruler tool
- use custom image as map (+ calibration support)

BTW. There is a TMO bug that makes this thread have old title. I have changed it several times since 0.4.8 and it is right now set to 0.5.6 now but somehow it still displays 0.4.8.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Hi dwaradzyn,

I have cloudgps version 0.5.6.
When I search for "new york" cloud gps always segfaults.
This does not happen for several other searches.

nicolai

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

@dwaradzyn

Thank you for the explanation of your future plans...
Sincerely, to me, to most waited feature is the use of custom map, in the detail, oziexlorer calibrated map (jpg + map).
At this moment, i'm using cloudgps for offroad mountain navigation but i really need some maps that describe detailed mountain roads (that osm cycle map does not has)
Now, i'm trying to write a script to convert the jpg in 256x256 tiles in an osmtracker format... but until now with poor results.. :( ... Do you have any suggestion for the conversion?
Is there something i could do to help you?
Or something to put this feature in a release not so far in the future?

thanks for your great work!

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Oh yeah!! :D

Just found someone that has a solution for my needs!!

oziexplorer map --> cloudgps tiles
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=57469

And full package at:
http://code.google.com/p/tilers-tools/

For cloudgps this is not a transparent and painless way to manage this kind of maps, but anyway.... it's a solution! (something is better than nothing!)

Now i'm making some "real wild world testing..." ;)

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Love the work you've done with this. :)

I haven't been able to work out how to set a route between two points yet. If there are some instructions in the thread I've missed, my apologies.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Take a look at the following video (especially section 2. Route setup):
http://vimeo.com/27126585

There are other video links in first post.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Oh wow, you're quick! I managed to work it out by using "O" to drop a pin, and then "U" to route to it from current location.

Only issue is the blue line of the route seems to disappear momentarily every few seconds. Normal?

And scrolling across the map slowly can be a bit difficult to control. Is there a way to customise this?

Edit: also press 'n' hold menu (for routing) doesn't seem to work in portrait mode.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

"O" creates a marker (not very usable right now, because markers are cleared after restart) that has nothing to do with routing.

"U" only works properly for first press so I would recommend to use popup menu for route control (as shown in video). "U" creates a route from current GPS location to center of screen.

Yes that is a known bug - route does not show up when direction arrow is on screen (ie. you have GPS fix and you are moving). Next release will be after MCC2011 ends and this bug will be fixed.

Are you referring to scrolling during the dragging of marker? If so the speed depends on how close the marker is to screen edge - you can control it during dragging .

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Scrolling without the marker selected (as in roaming the map, if you like). Like looking over the surrounding area.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

I want to download maps on my pc and transfer them to the phone. What zoom shoul I choose?

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Hmmm.
https://garage.maemo.org/projects/cloudgps/
0/0 bugs

It´s probably in this thread. First message reformatting & update or dedicated wiki-page? Need help?

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

I think that you refer to scrolling that is a little different than usual. Other programs (all mapping apps, web browser, image viewer) move the contents with pointer movement on screen. Since pointer location is not refreshed that often on N900 I decided to go the other way to provide smooth scrolling.

I do not want to talk math here but I can say that implementing two strategies for scrolling (usual scrolling and the one which is in CloudGPS right now - the "gliding one") will be rather easy. I will add an option for that once the onscreen settings are there. I personally prefer the current gliding strategy but I think the usual one should be the default.

It is really up to you. One should consider the number of tiles to download and needed detail level. I never do bulk downloading but sometimes I explore the places I am about to go to using CloudGPS. I almost always walk on my feet so my preferred zoom level is 17 or 18. For the road between start and end of trip I do not need much detail because I only use CloudGPS to check the route progress. Zoom level 9-10 is often enough for me.

Yes, please. It is a great idea. Wiki page will be appropriate place to store project info. You can start creating a page template and I will fill the missing bits in next couple of days.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

I would like to express my great appreciation for those who donated to this project. It really means a lot for me to see that you care and support this project. Thank you very much.

Since I got N950 I have not been using my N900 much (can't blame me for that :) ). Two days ago I have tested the latest release on N900 and well, it is very buggy. The MCC rules do not forbid (at least they did not forbid the last year) to make a bugfix only release and since I consider the crashing issue and route flickering issue a serious ones I decided to make a bugfix release this weekend. If there is some other bug that annoys you very much please post it here and I will try to fix it in next release.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Personally, the only real problem I see is the route flickering (which you're aware of). The scrolling I described above is only a preference thing, and if you decide to include a second option then it's a bonus. Otherwise it's the best mapping program I've used for the N900.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

...please don't forget the N900's users.... Like me... ;)

Support this great project is simply a pleasure ...because... it's fantastic!
I wish you will continue fixing and implementing new features to make this app a reference tool to be envied by users of other platforms!

For the next bugfix release, i would suggest you to increase the delay time of the messages on the upper left part of the screen (often is a little difficult to read completely a message) and add a little symbol when offline mode is active or not.

In the meanwhile, i'm completing the tests with the imported oziexplorer maps to write down a few lines for who needs the same solution....

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

I am not leaving N900. I plan to make all future releases simultaneously for N900 and N9(50).

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

:D ...thanks! I was i little scared... :eek:

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Bugfix version 0.5.7 uploaded to extras-devel. The changelog:

• Fixed: crash for some search results when using Cloudmade
• Fixed: distance to destination was not accurate
• Fixed: popup misaligned/not showing when map is rotated
• Fixed: markers lying on ground in 3D
• Fixed: route flickered when used together with gps
• Fixed: map was sometimes not shown due to arithmetic error saved in config file
• Fixed: message display time on statusbar was too short

Note that popup is always displayed in landscape, even if the app is in portrait. Future releases will have very different popup (much more finger friendly).

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

i dont know if this is N900 gps issue or what ,but i dont get most accurate gps position ,i always get around 10Km far from my actual location .
is this me only or some one else has the same issue ?

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Just after startup, on the upper part of screen still appears "cloudgps 0.5.5".

The routing part now seems bug free... but i noticed some kind of delay/hang before it starts to download tiles.... i'm not sure, i have to make some check with tcpdump to be sure there is no connectivity issue.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Just to give you some encouragement, I'd really like to see your notes on how to do this. I tried to do it once before but had some problems I couldn't resolve (sorry, can't remember what they were).

The whole of the UK is available at 1:10K under the OS OpenData project, it would be really sweet to have some or all of that loaded on my N900 SD card and useable from CloudGPS. I know a little python, and a bit about map projections and datums, so I'm hopeful :)

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Well, concerning the conversion from ozfx3 to cloudgps tile store, this is what i'm using and testing:

Download:
http://code.google.com/p/tilers-tool...ar.gz&can=2&q=
(from http://code.google.com/p/tilers-tools)

Extract the tar.gz and copy all the tools in the folder containing the maps.
(i'm using one linux Fedora machine with an i5 cpu and 4GB of ram)

We may suppose to have: MAPFILE.map and MAPFILE.ozfx3

Steps:
./ozf_decoder.py ./MAPFILE.map ### this will convert the ozfx3 into a tiff file and will create MAPFILE.tiff.map and MAPFILE.tiff
./convert2gdal.py ./MAPFILE.tiff.map ### this will create ./MAPFILE.tiff.vrt to be used in the next step
./gdal_tiler.py -r --zoom=9-15 ./MAPFILE.tiff.vrt ### this will create the tile store from zoom 9 to 15 with antialias (-r) and a gmaps.html that we may use to check the map aligment over google maps.

PAY ATTENTION:
1 - you need a good pc with a lot of ram and a really fast hard disk.
2 - map files MUST have at least 3 georeferenced points (better 4... With 2 it gives an error before starting conversion)
3 - If you start from a TIF file, it MUST be an image with a palette of 256 colors without transparency.
4 - don't try to copy this HUGE tile stores into your n900 if your MyDocs partition is a FAT32 filesystem because the size of clusters is too big and you fill completely your internal storage.

After this... good luck and.... every suggestion is welcome!! ;)

P.S.
At this moment i'm going crazy to create a unique tile store from more maps partially overlapping the others (so the external tiles are irregular and partially white... ARGGG#! ...and the merging of the map's stores overwrites the correct tiles...GRRR)

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Thanks for that, I spent a little time playing with this today, with some good results.

It appears your first step should read :-

./ozf_decoder.py ./mapfile.OZFX3

This runs without displaying any error. Unfortunately the tiff file it generates is blank. Since I generated my oxfz3 files from tiff in the first place, that doesn't cause me a problem at the moment.

The remaining steps seem to work for me now, I have generated a folder structure with viewable .png files inside.

Can you tell me what you expect to see using the gmaps.html file? I opened it in FF and in IE, I see the google map of the correct area, but I can't see any overlay, even if I adjust the transparency parameter. Not sure what I expect to see, but I guess I should see my tiles overlaid on the google background?

Now I need to read about and play with the settings in providers.ini to get it useable.

I appreciate why it's a bad idea to upload a huge map cluster onto a FAT32 partition. What is the best solution to this? Should I convert MyDocs to ext3, or create an ext3 partition on my SD card and link it, or is there some better solution. (I've not read around this yet, so sorry if It's a repeat question). My usual PC to connect to the N900 is windows based :o

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Until now, i think that the best solution is to convert the MyDocs partition in ext3 to have smaller clusters and an otimized storage for small files onto a fast flash memory...

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

After last CSSU Cloud GPS don't work in portrait.
I was trying to blacklist as other programs but it didn't help.

Do you know how to blacklist it properly or any work around?

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

same here...
Start it while in landscape mode. After this, it runs also in portrait.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

You can as I have done, create a directory in /opt for your maps and have it mounted at '/home/.maps' when you boot/plug, unplug the usb.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

@vi_
yes it maybe a solution, but keep in mind that one tif of 40Mbytes converted for zooms from 8 to 16 needs about 500-600 Mbytes of free space...

Considering zooms from 8 to 15, about 200 Mbytes....

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

You may repartition Your eMMC to gain more space on /home (second partition, ext2) and loose some on MyDocs (first part., FAT).
Personally I would prefer that now (but still have standard layout).

Or,
look here:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=74415
and create a storage file on MyDocs, keeping all Your map data (max. 4GB).
This is, what I have now (a 4 GB file on MyDocs, formatted as FAT with 512 kB cluster size).

One may also consider, that one file per map provider is possible. So mounting takes places
NOT on /home/user/MyDocs/.maps
BUT on /home/user/MyDocs/.maps/OSM I (e.g.)

Whatever solution You choose, the standard eMMC (with 64kB cluster size) is the worst.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Yes, but it is using half of the screen this way, other half is black.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

@hardkorek

please check the latest cssu updates and pay attention to the ini files changes (the update procedure asks if you want replace them - you should..).
On mine n900 cloudgps rotates perfectly with no black screen.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Do your original maps overlap each other, or just the generated tiles?
My source maps do not overlap, but because of the map borders, there are multiple versions of some tiles generated.

I couldn't get tiles_merge to work for me, so I hacked up some python to do the same job. It copies all the generated source files into one destination tree. If the destination file already exists, then the two tiles are joined with ImageChops.lighter(im1, im2) from PIL.

This seems to give a reasonable join, but there may be a better method.

Of course, if your source maps overlap, it's going to be more difficult.

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

My maps are offroad maps with white border with coord info and some date and producer detail...
So the white border covers an area already described by another map which i have already converted in another tile store folder....

I'm sorry but i can't understand the purpose of
ImageChops.lighter(im1, im2) where im1 im2 are pieces of maps.....
maybe that your images are black with white lines?

Now i'm writing something to compare the size of the tiles before overwrite (the white one is smaller)

Re: [WIP] CloudGPS 0.4.8 - smoothest maps for N900
 

Because my maps don't overlap, if I generate two tiles for the same location, then each one is transparent where there is no map information. Using lighter just uses the brightest pixel from either image (transparent registers as dark).

Since your source maps overlap, the problem is a little different. The png file size seems to depend on the number of colours and the amount of detail, so file size is probably a good guide to detecting which on is the 'better' tile to keep.