Windows maps download tool for MapThis! by in7ane

[deniska]

Since lots of people, had difficulties with cygwin, in7ane, has come up with a nice gui PC tool for generating the maps...It's still in development phase (as most of this project :-), so if you find a bug, please report it in this thread...

screenshot:
http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/images/gui.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/bin/gmdl21.zip

it does require Microsoft .net 2 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/ (~22Mb)
but installation and usage seem to be much easier and straight forward for average user :-)

[EDIT] Here is a link to a newer version, featuring:
- custom map creation
- GPSFS - map compression format...
- POI/directions support
- numerous map vendor support
- hybrid maps and more
http://www.in7ane.com/psp/gmdl.html

Check the thread for details and latest versions...

[deanspeed]

uhhh.... there's no exe in the zip folder there's just a folder and what looks to be a file but if you double click on it it takes you to a folder and that folder is empty. I'm confused...

EDIT: never mind i downloaded it again and it works now, it was corrupted

[fokia]

uhhh.... theres no exe in the zip folder theres just a folder and what looks to be a file but if you double click on it it takes you to a folder. im confused...



source and exe (in /bin/debug/):


EXE is in /BIN/DEBUG
I'm using it right now! works fine (even faster than cygwin's), still needs some work, but its a fine release!

[trovador]

aplication error:
"Zoom level probably unavailable, direcotry deleted".
Configuration:
zoon: 4
x: 1918
y: 3186
w: 2
h: 2
min zoom: 0

thanks.

[Knups]

It's still useable and a great program, the problem is that on my laptops 1024 * 768 resolution I am unable to see the entire application display. If the program display would resize with the window or scroll bars were added it would be a great help for those who don't have access to large resolution screens. Another option would be to put some of the options at the top of the display, in its own tab, or on an independant tool panel. Just throwing out some options. Shouldn't be too hard to code. Because of this I'm limited to google, but I'm cool with that because I'm still shopping for a receiver right now... It's hard to find exactly what I'm looking for in Japan.

Peace

[Russoxley187]

I like the prog, the only prob I have with it is that its hard to figure out the numbers for zoom and such...

how can I get the restaurnats and such loaded in it?
I seen a test file in deniskas NY map..
do I have to load that manually?
I hope not

[deniska]

how can I get the restaurnats and such loaded in it?
I seen a test file in deniskas NY map..
do I have to load that manually?
I hope not

I provided a script (a quick hack to get restaurants from toeat.com):
./getrest.sh [lat] [lon] [map_size] [zoom]

It's just a proof of concept and pretty slow, but feel free to use it... perhaps someone can improve it or create more scripts & find more sources for POI...

[fokia]

It's still useable and a great program, the problem is that on my laptops 1024 * 768 resolution I am unable to see the entire application display. If the program display would resize with the window or scroll bars were added it would be a great help for those who don't have access to large resolution screens. Another option would be to put some of the options at the top of the display, in its own tab, or on an independant tool panel. Just throwing out some options. Shouldn't be too hard to code. Because of this I'm limited to google, but I'm cool with that because I'm still shopping for a receiver right now... It's hard to find exactly what I'm looking for in Japan.

Peace

Try ebay! in your location you shouldn't have problems finding a dealer!

[Blac OrKhiD]

yeah this program works great. I wish had the skill
to code programs so that i could some how
contribute. deniska have you set up a paypal donation yet. its the least i could do to show
that i appreciate all the work your doing
-----gpslim236 will arrive today.. . finally!

[Russoxley187]

I provided a script (a quick hack to get restaurants from toeat.com):
./getrest.sh [lat] [lon] [map_size] [zoom]

It's just a proof of concept and pretty slow, but feel free to use it... perhaps someone can improve it or create more scripts & find more sources for POI...


do I have to run that with cygwin??
I never tried it out.. you made the win prog...
If I was smart enough I would be all over this, helping out..
I'm just a chippendale's dance....
Not a computer god...
you are the man......
:D

[deanspeed]

is there any way i can get bigger maps? i want to get my hole trip in ther so that i can use this next time i visit my mom 150 miles away.

[Russoxley187]

zoom out...
and make the map bigger
I think...

[deniska]

yeah this program works great. I wish had the skill
to code programs so that i could some how
contribute. deniska have you set up a paypal donation yet. its the least i could do to show
that i appreciate all the work your doing
-----gpslim236 will arrive today.. . finally!

cool, wire your millions to televny at yahoo.com !

Seriously, im am not doing this for money...
but the fact that people like it makes it worth awhile... :-)

[deniska]

is there any way i can get bigger maps? i want to get my hole trip in ther so that i can use this next time i visit my mom 150 miles away.

You should be able to chose any zoom range so you can deside how much detail and coverage you want to fit on your MS...
in the program - go to "advanced" mode and specify min zoom that you want to have... for example you may have a zoom range from 7 to 3....

[deanspeed]

well i tryed zooming out just enough to fit my town and my moms town, witch is from pensacola fl to panama city fl. and it says this: "Area selected with minimum zoom is too big (512 where 256 max)"

[in7ane]

A few changes:
- top left centered screen (with scroll bars) as requested
- pop up 1x and 2x previews
- downloading all 6 sources at once

Note:
- if you get the zoom not available message, could be a timeout, try again (or maybe the zoom level really is not available, then set a higher min zoom in Advanced)
- the maximum map size is 256^2 so 2^(zoom - min zoom) needs to be less than or equal to 256 (I guess this is an issue with the PSP file system, but deniska is a better person to ask)

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl22.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl22.zip

Thanks for the feedback.

[deniska]

well i tryed zooming out just enough to fit my town and my moms town, witch is from pensacola fl to panama city fl. and it says this: "Area selected with minimum zoom is too big (512 where 256 max)"

Actually, PSP/MapThis should be able to handle 512x maps, although I only tested 256x ones...

Keep in mind that every next map size ~takes 5 times more space..
512 would probably consume ~ 2GB...


1024x, on the other hand, would present a problem because of the naming convention that I use..
Not sure if anyone would actually attempt to create one, since it's ptobably gonna take ~4GB on PSP's MS...

[deniska]

A few changes:
- top left centered screen (with scroll bars) as requested
- pop up 1x and 2x previews
- downloading all 6 sources at once

Note:
- if you get the zoom not available message, could be a timeout, try again (or maybe the zoom level really is not available, then set a higher min zoom in Advanced)
- the maximum map size is 256^2 so 2^(zoom - min zoom) needs to be less than or equal to 256 (I guess this is an issue with the PSP file system, but deniska is a better person to ask)

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl22.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl22.zip

Thanks for the feedback.

Good stuff, man...
Just generated 128x map for my trip to NJ tonight, took me less than 5 min with MSN maps!!! Of course loading this map on PSP was much more painfull....

[vibez]

A few changes:
- top left centered screen (with scroll bars) as requested
- pop up 1x and 2x previews
- downloading all 6 sources at once

Note:
- if you get the zoom not available message, could be a timeout, try again (or maybe the zoom level really is not available, then set a higher min zoom in Advanced)
- the maximum map size is 256^2 so 2^(zoom - min zoom) needs to be less than or equal to 256 (I guess this is an issue with the PSP file system, but deniska is a better person to ask)

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl22.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl22.zip

Thanks for the feedback.


Ok this version is unusuable for me. I'm having the problems Deniska was having, but now I can't see the controls on the left :eek:

UPDATE: Nevermind, missed the scroll bars

[in7ane]

I was thinking of automatically creating sets of maps (1-4, 1-16, etc) when the area was too large, but it's true about the resulting size. A better option would be to selectively download different areas down to different levels of detail (since MapThis! handles missing tiles and directories), this way you can have a path of high resolution - this will require a bit of a rewrite, and should probably be incorporated with getdirections.sh functionality (is anyone else looking at it? if not I'll have a go over the weekend once I've finished with the gps cable soldering).

[deniska]

In theory, you can "skip" a zoom level as long as it's not the base one... this may save people some space.. Of course you would see "Data not available" for that zoom on PSP.. I did not test this well though....

Another way to trim the size is to use photoshop batch scrips or image magic to try to reduce the number of colors in the image tiles...

[Video_freak]

Thanks for the app. Should be very usefull. :)

[deanspeed]

@ in7ane - can you get the poi's with this program or do you have any plans to add that?

[seesoe]

ya i was about to ask that, how about trying to add a poi picker.
also something i think shouldn't be to hard to add is the hybrid maps download?


oops im sorry i see the hybrid, the options tab is tricky u have to hold the mouse button on it and move the mouse down and then unclick lol

[deniska]

unlike google/MSN for maps, there is no single free poi data vendor out there that would cover all the countries...
Hopefully, people would start building up and sharing their POIs or specific tools/methods/sources for regional POI data...
I saw someone offering list of speed traps for England on neo flash forums..

It would be nice to create a convertion GUI tool to enter/import POI files to PSP's format, similar to:
http://www.poieditor.com/

[seesoe]

but thee is a way?
u said *unlike google/msn for map* meaning those have poi?lo sorry im sleepy

[deniska]

Actually, I just did a little of "MSN/VE browsing" with IE Inspector on and found a pretty generic way to milk microsoft for POI:
http://local.live.com/search.ashx?a=restaurant&b=&c=40.659929063364&d=-73.89323337448448&e=40.58553164241039&f=-74.04120548141807&g=0&i=2&r=true&mkt=en-us&where1=false"

In this query parameter "a" defines the POI type (could be gas/hotel/restaurant/etc), "c"&"d" define the top right corner of the search area; "e" & "f" - bottom left.
"g" (o,10,20...490) is the current POI number. The application spits them out in chunks of 10 until there is no more POIs in that segment or it reached the top limit of 500...
The trick here is to divide the area in to relatively small segments, so that you'd never had to go over 500....

The data, of course must be parsed out, but it's not a huge problem...
Perhaps in7ane could use this in his tool as "POI import" feature...

The cool thing about it is that it seems to work even for some areas in Europe...

[seesoe]

wow this sounds cool:D ima try it now after i post this cool comment:)

great find deniska:)

[vibez]

unlike google/MSN for maps, there is no single free poi data vendor out there that would cover all the countries...
Hopefully, people would start building up and sharing their POIs or specific tools/methods/sources for regional POI data...
I saw someone offering list of speed traps for England on neo flash forums..

It would be nice to create a convertion GUI tool to enter/import POI files to PSP's format, similar to:
http://www.poieditor.com/

http://www.poieditor.com/ looks great. Maybe you could code mapthis to accept an more standard POI format like the ones offered on that site?

[fokia]

yet about PIO's I found this:

http://www.kubicki.pl/GPS_Links.html#POI_handlers

In some sites we can download (for free!) data related to radars

well, data must be parsed to comply with mapview POI format...

[vibez]

Just wondering if we can have multiple icons in one POI file like so

#
!IMAGE:icon1.png,40,40,
#
53.46414185,-2.122920036,GATSO:2943@20
53.50270081,-2.089359999,GATSO:3@20
53.4585495,-2.081409931,GATSO:2939@20
53.46068954,-2.063699961,GATSO:2942@20
#
!IMAGE:icon2.png,40,40,
#
53.44303131,-2.019340038,GATSO:1514@20
51.32798004,-0.137710005,GATSO:364@20
51.46442032,-0.05319,GATSO:3355@20

[fokia]

Just wondering if we can have multiple icons in one POI file like so

#
!IMAGE:icon1.png,40,40,
#
53.46414185,-2.122920036,GATSO:2943@20
53.50270081,-2.089359999,GATSO:3@20
53.4585495,-2.081409931,GATSO:2939@20
53.46068954,-2.063699961,GATSO:2942@20
#
!IMAGE:icon2.png,40,40,
#
53.44303131,-2.019340038,GATSO:1514@20
51.32798004,-0.137710005,GATSO:364@20
51.46442032,-0.05319,GATSO:3355@20

I've checked the source and don't think so...

[vibez]

Thanks for checking.How about the ability to load more than POI file at the same time.

Basically I want to show for example, gas stations and restaurants on the same map at the same time.

[Russoxley187]

Do you have to have different POI files for each map?
or can you just make one huge POI text file for all maps ?

[deniska]

Do you have to have different POI files for each map?
or can you just make one huge POI text file for all maps ?
Different file....
Looking up a huge file will be too time-consuming

[fokia]

Do you have to have different POI files for each map?
or can you just make one huge POI text file for all maps ?


I'm checking the source: as is, I think it can't be done must be reprogramed to aceppt more than 1 POI at the same time... (I'm still learning PSPSDK...)

Yes, you can make a bigger POI file including everything u want but, this way, you lose the icon's for each kind of POI...

[vibez]

My speed camera POI has over 3000 points and it loads just fine. I'll be trying out a 11000 later today. I have a feeling it will load just fine if the map covers only a small area and therefor only a few markers appear, but I have no idea what would happen if the map area was large and it tried to load all 11000 markers at once. Maybe we need some clustering code so that it only loads the POI when we we reach the max zooming in level

[Russoxley187]

WOW..
the mypoi maker is the best thing i seen for making POi's.
I think at least..
Really cool.
It's incredible how fast this evolves..

[vibez]

My speed camera POI has over 3000 points and it loads just fine. I'll be trying out a 11000 later today. I have a feeling it will load just fine if the map covers only a small area and therefor only a few markers appear, but I have no idea what would happen if the map area was large and it tried to load all 11000 markers at once. Maybe we need some clustering code so that it only loads the POI when we we reach the max zooming in level

Just done a test and the 11,000 POI file loads fine beacuse I see you already have code to tell the user to zoom in if too many markers will be shown :) :) :)

[roger99]

Hi, anybody having the same problem as me, just used the windows map download tool to grab a map of my area. Choose a fairly big area and the map ended up as roughly 31500 tiles. Everything downloaded all right and the map is complete but it just wont fit on my (empty) 1gb MS. Veiwing the folder under windows properties tells me it's 87mb's in files and 187mb's on the disk. But when i copy it over to the MS it runs out of space (957mb's free) I've tried zipping the map with no compression but this makes it painfully slow to use. Any other suggestions, other then buy more memory cards that is!

[deniska]

try to format it as FAT32..(on your PC)

I was able to fit 256x map with ~87,390 tiles on 1GB stick
It took ~ 650Mb of space... so I had some space left for other stuff...

[roger99]

Can I do that through the USB connection on the PSP as I have no card reader? Guessed it would be something to do with file allocation but didn't realise I could use FAT32.

Sorry scrap that post, thinking before typing allways helps. Thanks for the suggestion deniska. Will give it a go. Excellent program by the way, keep up the good work!

[kulfsson]

I have tried the gmdl 22 but as I live in Iceland and google apparently does not have maps of my country, I am trying to download satellite images only.

Unfortunately this does not seem to work very well with my country. I would appreciate it if somebody could possibly explain why this is not working. Maybe someone could try ?

[in7ane]

Just added some POI support (in the POI tab, navigate to the area you are interested in, move the map about a bit so location/span is set by the page, enter your search term, and click through the 3 buttons). Deniska, thanks for the Local.Live tip, which this runs off.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl23.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl23.zip

I would appreciate any feedback on this.

Re: Iceland and other areas not covered by Google Maps, navigate to the area using the "Map" option (this is the only one that is supported to get coordinates out), but chose a different source (MSN Map seems to cover Reykjavik), test via the popup previews.

[kulfsson]

I´ve tried that. I have had success by using cygwin and downloading satellite images but your software seems to make it so much easier. I will just have to hope that Google get their act together as the maps from Microsoft are not that great nor the satellite images.

[deniska]

Just added some POI support (in the POI tab, navigate to the area you are interested in, move the map about a bit so location/span is set by the page, enter your search term, and click through the 3 buttons). Deniska, thanks for the Local.Live tip, which this runs off.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl23.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl23.zip

I would appreciate any feedback on this.

Re: Iceland and other areas not covered by Google Maps, navigate to the area using the "Map" option (this is the only one that is supported to get coordinates out), but chose a different source (MSN Map seems to cover Reykjavik), test via the popup previews.


Man, this is IN7ANE!!! Really cool stuff..
I should take a class & learn doing GUI stuff in C#...

BTW, I tried to PM you but could not do it on this forum... Maybe you could create an account with ps2dev and pm from there...

Anyway, there are a couple of small bugs in new version...(partly my fault)
1) Looks like "g" parameter acts funny after 250 count... Take a look at these 2 queries:
http://local.live.com/search.ashx?a=restaurant&b=&c=40.659929063364&d=-73.89323337448448&e=40.58553164241039&f=-74.04120548141807&g=250&i=2&r=true&mkt=en-us&where1=false
http://local.live.com/search.ashx?a=restaurant&b=&c=40.659929063364&d=-73.89323337448448&e=40.58553164241039&f=-74.04120548141807&g=260&i=2&r=true&mkt=en-us&where1=false

The both seem to return same stuff, thus you have duplicates in your file...
Maybe you could check if you start getting same stuff and break out of that loop....


2) Since urban areas, like New York, may have a huge number of POI's (read restaurants) per square inch, it would be neat to let the user enter a "detail factor", ie if detail factor is 10, you split the original search area in to 100 segments, get data for each one of them and combine it in the output...
This way, if someone wants to cover a big area, the search will still be detailed and hopefully return more than 500 points...

But as I said this is really good tool!!!!

[StoneCut]

I was really curious about this app but I can only view the sample maps.

I tried gmdl22 together with Deniska's app but my own maps simply won't load in mapviewer :(

I can download them fine with that nice app. I tried zipping and not zipping them but mapviewer will just show me a blinking memory stick light for a couple of minutes. I use a SanDisk 1GB stick. My map is 19 MB ... what can I do ?

I'm in Germany but the maps showed up and downloaded fine if that makes a difference.

[deniska]

Try checking the map with the HTML files, provided with the release...

[StoneCut]

But which one of the HTML files do I take and where does it go relative to the Map folder location ? I could only find achor points in the HTML :/

I also tried your scripts but despite me having a working Cygwin setup I seem to miss a lot of components you require, so no go there either.

[vibez]

in7ane POI support works great! Thank you!

[martial]

hi,
i'm a french guy and i have a litle bug whith poi options because on Windows XP french, the lat & lon values are '.' (point) for separate decimal number. I must change the points into commas so that it works.

I hope that will help you.

Sorry for my english.

bye

[in7ane]

Another update, this time adding driving directions (Directions tab, search for directions as normal, then click through the 3 buttons). Deniska, the POI is also cleaned up with segmenting the area and checking for duplicates, thanks for spotting that. Also, I am now on ps2dev under the same username.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl24.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl24.zip

Pulling down directions works through a very similar way to POIs and generates a POI file with the way-points. This is also through Loval.Live, and they seem to have excellent worldwide coverage.

Once again, I would appreciate any feedback, as I will probably start cleaning up the code next week.

[seesoe]

dude thsi crap is getting crazy

very nice in7ane
you have made mapthis so much more
keep it up

[deniska]

Another update, this time adding driving directions (Directions tab, search for directions as normal, then click through the 3 buttons). Deniska, the POI is also cleaned up with segmenting the area and checking for duplicates, thanks for spotting that. Also, I am now on ps2dev under the same username.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl24.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl24.zip

Pulling down directions works through a very similar way to POIs and generates a POI file with the way-points. This is also through Loval.Live, and they seem to have excellent worldwide coverage.

Once again, I would appreciate any feedback, as I will probably start cleaning up the code next week.


Very nice! you are reading my mind, man!
I was gonna ask you to do directions ;-)

POI works really good now, I was able to pull a few thousands restaurants off a relatively small area (just a few miles)
Well, as always, a few suggestions...
I am rethinking the POI display logic..
want to alocate 38 chars for desscr1 and 60 chars for desrc2. Could you put the comma after the POI name (desrc1) and put the rest (addr/phone) in to descr 2 ?

I want to store waypoints in the same structure as POI on PSP, although I'll probably display them in bigger font.. so I was thinking, it would be best if you could merge everything after the lat/lon in to one line and spit it in to segments (37 & 60 chars long) with a comma.
Second descr field could be longer than 60 - it'll be truncated by PSP.. but there should be a closing comma at the end (ie number of commas on each lime must be 4
The way point file must have:
!WAYPOINT

line, - this way I would know that I need to display it differently....

I'll try to release a new version with improved POIs and some other stuff in a few days...

[MJ DwaTrzy]

I have an error :

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/912/aufnahme3py4.jpg

How to fix it?

[kAraCHo]

Hi!

First I must say that this is a very nice tool, thx to deniska also!!
I think I fund the bug that martial mentioned. The decimal Parser in the function poiList_Click() is culture dependant. I live in Germany and here we have a decimal comma instead of a point, so when I click on the "List" Button, I always get 0 Poi's returned.
By adding Decimal.Parse(poiLatS.Text, NumberFormatInfo.InvariantInfo) the funtion seems to work, so I get Poi's but the Lat/Lon Values in the List don't have a decimal point anymore... I don't have experience with c#, but I hope that it helps a bit.
Another way to fix it is to set English(USA) as default in region and language options in the system settings, but I don't want to do that everytime ;)...

[in7ane]

kAraCHo, thanks for looking into that - that seems to fixed now (this should fix martial's probalems, and maybe also MJ DwaTrzy's - although that also looks like the search terms are not specific enough, try them out in "Driving Directions" on Local.Live first)

Deniska, the program should now comply with the new POI format. For anyone running it in the older version of MapThis! there is a legacy mode option in the top right corner.

Also, what are the exact instructions for formatting the Memory Stick in Fat32, if somebody could point me in the direction of a screen by screen guide it would be much appreciated - I've tried with a 2GB memory stick duo one and failed. Or is the map container format likely to come soon?

Someone asked about custom maps, as far as I can see it can be done as long as you match up what the numbers would be in Google Maps, the file format is: first horizontal tile index first vertical tile index zoom level (in 1x folder). Also keep in mind that you will need at least the most zoomed out directory with the 4 base tiles. And consider that this will be a lot of work, and is very likely to go wrong somewhere along the way (scale, alignment, order of tiles, etc.) - if you can program/script a graphics package, that would probably be the best approach, and everyone else will benefit as well from another source. Deniska's scripts should be useful, as I recall there is one that converts lon/lat into tile coordinates.

Someone else asked to post maps - don't, you will most definitely be in violation of Google/Microsoft terms of use. Anyway, the requirement is .NET 2 (which will run on anything back to Windows 2000 or so), not XP SP 2. And will install regardless of whether or not you made peace with WGA.

Others may have run into this as well - Google seems to cut you off from downloading satellite imagery after you hit a certain threshold, this lasts a few hours during which time you will get the "imagery not available" message.

Regarding the free BaseMap from Garmin, thanks for the suggestion, but it seems to be in a proprietary format (and probably vector). I would be interested in getting NASA World Wind working first. (Ask and Yahoo are also potential 256x256 compliant sources which would be reasonably easy to implement - if anyone can see them as being better than Google/Local.Live)

To summarize, in this version:
- midpoints in directions
- an attempt at supporting "," decimal points
- new POI format (option to disable in the top right)
- selective levels of detail, the screen will appear for max_zoom - min_zoom > 2 (max maps now 512*512) if the option is checked in advanced - it seems you need the corners for the map to work though
- Yahoo as a POI source, thanks deniska (yes, the mile radius will eventually be automatically calculated)

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl25.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl25.zip

Deniska, a few questions/requests: Would it be possible to draw lines between waypoints? Satellite (and Local.Live map) imagery goes to below zoom 0, is there a way to implement support for this? And, if you do implement a container format for maps, is it possible to change the file name format to allow for larger maps than 512*512?

[martial]

thanks you very mutch :)

[seesoe]

great work again, im wondering whats the best version of mapthis you found? it seems to mee the odler ones are better the latest one i got from neo had bugs and for some reason my gps didn't work*yes i did the noob checklist, yes my gps worked before* i use the green screened gps stat viewer later today to conferm if its the new mapthis thats not right.

btw when will this be made into single .exe file? *if planed*

[deniska]

Also, what are the exact instructions for formatting the Memory Stick in Fat32, if somebody could point me in the direction of a screen by screen guide it would be much appreciated - I've tried with a 2GB memory stick duo one and failed. Or is the map container format likely to come soon?



1) Turn On USB mode on you psp and connect the cable.
2) Right click on the drive, coresponding to your PSP's mass storage device in "My Computer" section
3)Select "format" option.. you should get this screen:

http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/images/format.jpg

[A Fn NOOB]

[quote=in7ane]



Regarding the free BaseMap from Garmin, thanks for the suggestion, but it seems to be in a proprietary format (and probably vector). I would be interested in getting NASA World Wind working first.



I figured it was worth a look since its fair game for anyone to use. I read something recently about a concept being implemented; an open-source mapping project where people send in their tracks and it goes into a database. I think at Sourceforge.

[fokia]

Great work! keep improving...

[joeschmoe.lyt]

First of all, let me say: Deniska, if you don't win that contest (is it over yet?) I pledge to paypal you $20. Isn't NeoFlash a profiting company? corporation=corruption
I can load up the globalmap.zip and use my GPSlim 236 just fine. However, I can't figure out this custom map thing. Which one is better? This windows dl'er or the msn/local.live? I tried one of the gmdl versions, but the map wouldn't ever finish loading within mapthis!...zipped or unzipped. (It finished loading on the ms0 fine, though the unzipped folder was very slow to transfer!)I formatted my ms0 to fat32, I've read all these threads.
Here's what I got:
Map of 472 x 825 at 6 to 0
zipped to 390 MB
~21000 files


Totally unrelated to that dump, I got the error: "Something's not quite right with this map" when I used the hand to "drag" the map around then tried to save it. I found that using the arrows to shift the map (east in my case) a predetermined (rather large!) amount did not result in this error.
Maybe I just need to try the 2.5

[deniska]

First of all, let me say: Deniska, if you don't win that contest (is it over yet?) I pledge to paypal you $20. Isn't NeoFlash a profiting company? corporation=corruption
I can load up the globalmap.zip and use my GPSlim 236 just fine. However, I can't figure out this custom map thing. Which one is better? This windows dl'er or the msn/local.live? I tried one of the gmdl versions, but the map wouldn't ever finish loading within mapthis!...zipped or unzipped. (It finished loading on the ms0 fine, though the unzipped folder was very slow to transfer!)I formatted my ms0 to fat32, I've read all these threads.
Here's what I got:
Map of 472 x 825 at 6 to 0
zipped to 390 MB
~21000 files


Totally unrelated to that dump, I got the error: "Something's not quite right with this map" when I used the hand to "drag" the map around then tried to save it. I found that using the arrows to shift the map (east in my case) a predetermined (rather large!) amount did not result in this error.
Maybe I just need to try the 2.5

Thanks for your support and appreciation...

Trying to download the dallas map ;-)?
Ok, try to do this:
1) Get the latest gmdl25.zip file...
2) Locate your area and select adavanced mode.
3)Make sure your settings are as on the attached screenshot & test the preview (go with msn street maps - they seem to be the fastest to d/l)
4)don't zip the file - it would take forefer to open with MapThis. - Just drop the directory in to maps - yes it will take some time :-)

(your new map should have 21845 files in it)

If this doesn't work for some reason, try a smaller map first (zoom in a bit closer)
Also you may want to re-format your MS, to make sure there are no bad sectors, etc..

[joeschmoe.lyt]

I hate to spam and ask a noob question, but...this will do hybrids right? Without taking a super long time to load into mapthis!? The ladies sure do love my unit. Well, they will when I convince the dumb ones that they are looking down on top of themselves in the screen, as I point to any old red car in the picture.

[kAraCHo]

Hi!

I had a Problem getting the Directions to work (Always got 0 Poi's again ;))... It seems that you always get 0 Pois when the start and end location are not specific enough, and in Ger seem to be many locations which are too unspecific :).

The webpage directions.ashx returns something like a selection list in that case, which doesn't even contain the string "new VE_RouteInstruction"...

I added a few lines after the first WebClient.download... which looks for the String "new VE_Location", if that's in there, the downloaded page is the "selection list", then i take the lat and lon values from the first entrys for "start" and "end" and download a new page with lat and lon values only...

....
string page = client.DownloadString(url);

if (page.IndexOf("new VE_Location") != -1)
{
int posnewVELocation = page.IndexOf("new VE_Location");
int startlatfrom = page.IndexOf("',", posnewVELocation)+2;
int endlatfrom = page.IndexOf(",", startlatfrom);
Decimal latfrom = Decimal.Parse(page.Substring(startlatfrom, endlatfrom -startlatfrom), NumberFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);

int startlonfrom = page.IndexOf(",", endlatfrom) + 1;
int endlonfrom = page.IndexOf(")", startlonfrom);
Decimal lonfrom = Decimal.Parse(page.Substring(startlonfrom, endlonfrom - startlonfrom), NumberFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);

int posVEDir = page.IndexOf("VE_Directions.Disambiguate", endlonfrom);

posnewVELocation = page.IndexOf("new VE_Location", posVEDir);
int startlatto = page.IndexOf("',", posnewVELocation) + 2;
int endlatto = page.IndexOf(",", startlatto);
Decimal latto = Decimal.Parse(page.Substring(startlatto, endlatto - startlatto), NumberFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);


int startlonto = page.IndexOf(",", endlatto) + 1;
int endlonto = page.IndexOf(")", startlonto);
Decimal lonto = Decimal.Parse(page.Substring(startlonto, endlonto - startlonto), NumberFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);

url = "http://local.live.com/directions.ashx?startlat=" + latfrom.ToString().Replace(",", ".") + "&startlon=" + lonfrom.ToString().Replace(",", ".") + "&endlat=" + latto.ToString().Replace(",", ".") + "&endlon=" + lonto.ToString().Replace(",", ".") + "&units=" + dirDist.Text.Substring(0, 1);
if (dirShortest.Checked)
url = url + "&type=s";

page = client.DownloadString(url); // i=2 does nothing but seems to be required, can be any number, r=true ensures no adds(?)


}



...please excuse the ugly code, also i didn't test that well, but it seems to work for me ;)...

[joeschmoe.lyt]

This thing kicks arse! v2.5 was smooth as butter! Just for the record, I went with a 5 to 0 zoom and split the city into quadrants. I used your directions, but I clicked "get numbers" because this map is different...piece of cake, and beautiful hybrids, no lags!
I'm finally going to register over there now just so I can vote for you.
In7ane, I hereby vote for you too...for...kicking arse!
Psst, has anyone noticed a particular value here? Think ps3 vs. a $1000 blu-ray player.
Manually upgrading to v0.2: a 0 byte gps.txt file keeps reappearing in my mapthis folder. When I try to copy over the 53 KB gps.txt file from v0.2 It errors: file is corrupted or unreadable. Is this important? Another file keeps appearing: stdout.txt. My pc tells me this file is corrupt and I should run checkdisk.
Furthermore, the maps I left in the "maps" folder don't show up in the program.

[deniska]

Make sure your maps start with "_" ... the file chooser ignores everything else in the maps folder..
If they already do - the whole folder is probably corrupted... you'll need to format the MS...

The unreadable files are the signs of MS corruption..
You can live w/o new gps.tx - it's there just to demo the waypoint thing...
One way to go around it is to try to re-name those files to something else and then copy the new ones..

Eventually I would recoment re-format the memory stick though...
Sorry, this is still a beta version so stuff can happen... ;-)

[joeschmoe.lyt]

I just formatted my ms0. I forgot that little part about beginning with an underscore. So now I may have to format again? I hope not.

[deniska]

I just formatted my ms0. I forgot that little part about beginning with an underscore. So now I may have to format again? I hope not.
No, you should be fine for now... just add the underscore

[joeschmoe.lyt]

I tried that and it listed the map but shut off the psp after a few seconds trying to load. I erased that folder, renamed the one on my pc, then re-copied it over. Same result...

[bgruselle]

Hi
i am just reporting a bug here
I Use w2k sp4 + Firefox latest version and I get a "micro$oft internet explorer" error window saying "undefined"
it would be great if we could use it with firefox....
cheers
Ben

[joeschmoe.lyt]

bug? We're all too quick to use that word. It looks to me like this downloading tool is neither firefox nor ie. It sure doesn't have either of their symbols in my bottom bar.
Can anyone say which of our suppliers might have the newest maps? The maps from msn are a couple of years old.

[kulfsson]

I have been trying for some time now to DL the satellite images for Iceland. Unfortunately the software uses google maps to determine the lat/long and google does not have sufficient coverage at the zoom level that I want, so I cannot download the satellite images.

MSN however does have coverage at a very high zoom level. Would it be possible to use MSN maps to select the area and dl google satellite images ? The MSN satellite images are lower in resolution.

[in7ane]

Deniska, thanks for the Ask maps - those are now in (satellite seems to time out quite a bit though, but maybe just on the areas I checked). I've changed the max POI logic - thanks for spotting that. The midpoints I generate myself (extrapolating between the direction points that Local.Live gives), there seem to be some numbers that are sent back to draw the actual path, but I haven't determined how they translate into coordinates yet.

kAraCHo, thanks for that - the directions search code is now in (it can be disabled via the checkbox for anyone it doesn't work for).

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl26.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl26.zip

kulfsson, I'll look at that tomorrow - didn't realize that it didn't get the numbers out at all.

bgruselle, it is unlikely that I'll port it to use the Firefox engine at this stage (as far as I know there is not a nice Firefox reference that I can just drop into VisualStudio). Although you can just enter the numbers by hand if it's on the navigating to the area or the preview that it falls over on (if it is on the download - please tell me as I can probably change that much easier).

---

kulfsson, you can get the map this way: navigate to the area you want in satellite view, then switch to map view, and even though it says there is no detail at that zoom - the numbers it needs for downloading the other maps will be extracted ok (i've just tested it on Reykjavik for Google Satellite and MSN Map and it works this way). I will add pulling the coordinates out of Satellite view in the next version as well though.

[deniska]

Great work, in7ane! Really useful stuff and, I wish I could code that fast! ;-)

Well, a couple of NEW suggestions, as always :-) :
I am not sure if you rotate between the map servers for google & ask requests (sorry, was too lazy too look in to your code). If you don't, may be you could code this in.. Basically google & ask front ends tend to send requests to different servers (in case of google, I think, it's mt,mt1,mt2) - it that case it's better load balanced and therefore faster and more reliable... MSN seemd to have internal balancer...

Another idea/request would be a map editor:
Right now the biggest problem of "MapThis!", aside from my incompetence to come up with a bug free application :-), is the map size. The user must negotiate between the level of detail and coverage.
Most of the overall map size (~4/5) is contributed by the most detailed zoom tiles.. and not all of them are really needed (since some cover lakes / oceans / mountains /etc). So it would be nice if there was a map editor tool, that would allow to remove base zoom tiles from selected areas, thus saving space.
Map this is already designed to handle missing tiles gracefully...
So the way I see the interface is you could split the least detailed zoom level view (the one from test folder) in to, say, 256 segments and allow user to select/higlight the areas that he/she wants to remove from most detailed zoom level. Then you remove the image files, corresponding to selected segments ( there could be more than one, depending on the zoom range)....
Well, I am not sure if you want to actually implement it.. just an idea....

[DarcyWood]

I know you have a full plate, but I wanted to suggest semi-real time traffic integration. Something that could say wi-fi up right before you left the office, to give you an idea of the traffic.

[in7ane]

Another of the daily updates :)

Deniska, there is a kind of map editor functionality (I've turned it on by default now for maps with 4 or more zoom levels - it can be turned off via a check box in Advanced or just clicked through), is this the kind of thing you were thinking of? Also, it needed all the corner tiles at the lowest zoom level in MapThis! 0.1, haven't re-tested in 0.2 yet.

Also, load balancing is now in for everything except Yahoo Satellite - which seems to only use one server (their maps are in .swf not .png). Looks like this will be one of the last sources - unless it's easy to change MapThis! to use 512x512 tiles from NASA - then we would have US topographical maps too (or I get around to looking at cutting up images).

Automatically copying POI icons to new maps can now be disabled (checkbox in Advanced). Also now works with all icons in the icons directory, and gives the option to set them for POI files at creation time. And a popup for converting lat/lon to Google tile coordinates.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl27.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl27.zip

If anyone has found other possible POI and directions sources that have good worldwide coverage (and return lat/lon coordinates - HttpAnalyzer is handy for checking this) please let me know. And last of all - any topographical and maritime map sources that have 256x256 tiles.

[deniska]

LOL, I was just about to PM you the info on the yahoo sat maps :-)
Nice touch with the editor, for some reason I never noticed it before.

About the corners: you don't need all 4 of them: MapThis! looks at the top left tile (1x/000/1x000000.*) to determine the image format - if 1x000000.jpg exists - it defaults to jpeg, overwise - to PNG. Basically, this means that you can remove top left corner for regular (not satelite) maps without any problems.

Map this! checks the last (bottom right) tile to determine the map size - so that one must be present all the time... the other corners can be deleted...

About, 512x512 maps - I'll need to make a bunch of changes in the code to be able to display those...

Can you compile me a sample map, using the same naming format, so I have data to experiment with?
No rush there...
Good stuff, as always :-)

[Blac OrKhiD]

every time i make a directions or poi using this program i place the file inside the map folder on the psp. once i try to load the attraction in the mapthis! program the psp will freeze and reset. im not sure what im doing wrong. is there something that im missing?

[deniska]

You probably din't put the icon images in your map's folder

[Blac OrKhiD]

im not sure where the icons are located.
ive been seaching up and down this forum
there doesnt seem to be any info on how
to load poi properly with icons

[deniska]

sample icons are bundled with gmdl27.zip (linked in the begining of this thread)
POI file format is also described in README file in MapThis distribution...

[Blac OrKhiD]

O.K. I got it now. i just ordered psp speakers and a audio jack. im going to experiment with my data cable to see if i can get sound.http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g320/blacorkhid/T10023403621.jpghttp://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g320/blacorkhid/P-1021-BLK-soft1.gif

[deniska]

BTW, I found a bug with display of 512x512 maps..(it will display them 128x maps)...
I'll release a patch, once I get to my work pc..

[fokia]

Isn't possible to parallel download of several maps at the same time? Since there's a button to get from several sources in one click why not do it at the same time?

[in7ane]

Deniska, congratulations!!!

Continuing with the almost daily releases for those who want to be running the very latest version. There are some small improvements (automatically creating missing corners, deleting empty folders, creating a log of errors if tiles are missing, etc.), but otherwise not much.

You can run multiple instances of the application at the same time and download maps (with different names) at the same time that way. The code is a bit messy - relying on values in the text boxes throughout the download process, so until I get around to cleaning that up use the multiple instance approach.

vibez, thanks for those speed camera POI - looking at them on the map in the M25 area is scary :)

Someone asked if there could be a feature to stitch the tiles together - the answer is no, since that would serve no purpose with MapThis!, and Google have already shut someone down for that. But I'm sure there are other tools out there that do.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl28.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl28.zip

Deniska, could you check ps2dev when you have time - about the NASA sources.

[fokia]

Deniska, congratulations!!!

You can run multiple instances of the application at the same time and download maps (with different names) at the same time that way. The code is a bit messy - relying on values in the text boxes throughout the download process, so until I get around to cleaning that up use the multiple instance approach.

Haven't tried that (didn't cross my mind...) but would be much better do it in the same app...

About POI's, don't want to push my luck but, couldn't you include a POI converter for different POI sources (other devices) to PSP/MapThis format? Maybe DENISKA can make some concessions here and change MapThis POI format to get closer from other formats promptly available in the web for several devices...

Just thoughts...

If anyone like to take a peek at other formats one can find here (bellow) for TOMTOM and ROUTE66 (Portuguese, though) has a lot of info about radars in Iberic Peninsula - useful for Spanish Friends...

[deniska]

good stuff!
A few comments...
Can you change the 512 size limit to 1024? I think the current tile naming scheme (XXX/NxXXXYYY.png) should be able to support it just fine. Basically, you keep mandatory 3 decimal places for X & Y if they are less than 1000 and put an extra digit if they are >1000. ie, you can have following combinations: XXXX/NxXXXXYYY ; XXXX/NxXXXXYYYY or XXX/NxXXXYYYY
I think, in all these cases there should not be any overlapping....

I PM'd you about the NASA maps - I need an algorithm to go from lan/lon to tile # and back to make the positioning work...Let me know if you have it...
Did not get a chance to play with the sample you gave me yet...

[vibez]

The thing is with POI formats, is that Deniska's format is more flexible than others that I have seen, because it allows 2 description fields. Most only allow the 1. So I would prefer to keep the format we already have.

I'm sure there must be an open source POI convertor somewhere on the net that we can hack to convert existing POI into MapThis! POI format

[vibez]

or maybe in7ane could knock something together seeing as he seems to be able to code at a fantastic rate :)

[fokia]

or maybe in7ane could knock something together seeing as he seems to be able to code at a fantastic rate :)

You can easily convert a POI in *.CSV format (as the ones in route66 and others) to fit the fields in MapThis! format using excel and some string functions... You can change any POI in less than 2 min...

I could post an example but wouldn't be reproducible by everyone, I guess...

[vibez]

That is how I created my speed camera database POI. I was just thinking it would be nice if we could automate the process like http://www.poieditor.com/ does

[vibez]

Any idea why i'm getting zero POI files in my driving directions?

Here is a screen shot showing that have correctly searched for directions on LocalLive

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/8408/untitledtz3.th.jpg (http://img503.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitledtz3.jpg)

[in7ane]

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl29.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl29.zip

In this version:
- KML (Google) POI import
- CSV (Navman, Garmin, generic) POI import (TomTom later maybe, for now use poieditor.com and a two stage conversion)
- Google POI search
- Google directions, including proper midpoints (on the road)
- 1024 map size limit, with the 3+ format (does this mean any size will work?)

If anyone wants to test the google POI (you have to use .co.uk for the UK) and directions (.com seems to work everywhere) searches on the country specific sites, I would appreciate any feedback.

fokia, if you got any documentation / sample code for reading the TomTom format tell me and I'll implement it.

vibez, add , uk to the post codes - it seems to be something about how Local.Live recognizes where you are (based on the map location?) but not when it is queried directly.
From:
dn17 2tp, uk
To:
dn16 1bp, uk
works fine.

deniska, I've found this for translating coordinates:
Terraserver: http://www.dasnet.org/other/gmaps/terrahack/changes.txt
also, http://www.dasnet.org/node/101 which now seems broken.
Still got to look for worldwind.

[fokia]

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl29.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl29.zip

In this version:
- KML (Google) POI import
- CSV (Navman, Garmin, generic) POI import (TomTom later maybe, for now use poieditor.com and a two stage conversion)
- Google POI search
- Google directions, including proper midpoints (on the road)
- 1024 map size limit, with the 3+ format (does this mean any size will work?)

If anyone wants to test the google POI (you have to use .co.uk for the UK) and directions (.com seems to work everywhere) searches on the country specific sites, I would appreciate any feedback.

fokia, if you got any documentation / sample code for reading the TomTom format tell me and I'll implement it.

vibez, add , uk to the post codes - it seems to be something about how Local.Live recognizes where you are (based on the map location?) but not when it is queried directly.
From:
dn17 2tp, uk
To:
dn16 1bp, uk
works fine.

deniska, I've found this for translating coordinates:
Terraserver: http://www.dasnet.org/other/gmaps/terrahack/changes.txt
also, http://www.dasnet.org/node/101 which now seems broken.
Still got to look for worldwind.

YOU'RE INSANE!!!! Great work!

About TOMTOM format don't have anything but I'll crawll the web for it...

[EDIT]

found this, its JAVA don't know if you can use it over C++/VB


1.
public class POI {
2.
private double longitude;
3.
private double latitude;
4.
private String name;
5.

6.
public POI(String name, double longitude, double latitude) {
7.
this.name = name;
8.
this.longitude = longitude;
9.
this.latitude = latitude;
10.
}
11.

12.
public double getLatitude() {
13.
return latitude;
14.
}
15.

16.
public double getLongitude() {
17.
return longitude;
18.
}
19.

20.
public String getName() {
21.
return name;
22.
}
23.

24.
public static List getPOIs(InputStream is) throws IOException {
25.
List res = new ArrayList();
26.
int b = -1;
27.
while ((b = is.read())> -1) {
28.
if (b == 0 || b == 2) {
29.

30.
long total = readLong(is);
31.

32.
double longitude = (double) readLong(is) / 100000.0;
33.
double latitude = (double) readLong(is) / 100000.0;
34.

35.
byte[] r = new byte[(int) total - 13];
36.
is.read(r);
37.

38.
POI p = new POI(new String(r), longitude, latitude);
39.
res.add(p);
40.
}
41.
}
42.
return res;
43.
}
44.

45.
private static long readLong(InputStream is) throws IOException {
46.
long res = is.read();
47.
res += is.read() <<8;
48.
res += is.read() <<16;
49.
res += is.read() <<24;
50.
return res;
51.
}
52.
}



I'll keep searching...

[NEW EDIT]

about POI format
http://www.tomtom.com/support/ce/downloads/ttnavsdk3_manual.pdf

Found VB.NET2 Script leave as attach Is said to be for mac users that don't have poiedit for mac...

don't know if you can use it... Couldn't find anything in C#...

[vibez]

in7ane. Just tested all the new features and they all seem to work fine from a uk perspective :)

I'm i'm loving the POI convertor :) :) :)

[kididio]

Thank you for the great new features, now we kann make easyli poi lists for germany :)

[kAraCHo]

Any idea why i'm getting zero POI files in my driving directions?

Here is a screen shot showing that have correctly searched for directions on LocalLive

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/8408/untitledtz3.th.jpg (http://img503.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitledtz3.jpg)

Did you enter those names for start and end point yourself? Afaik the tool only finds routes to and from City names(Like London, England), and not for places you named yourself(It can't know where that place is, Local.live uses the coordinates then, but the tool isn't able to "grab" them...)

Excuse my bad english, I hope you undestand what I mean ;)

[deniska]

Good work, in7ane.
I only wish I could be as productive with MapThis! as you are with your application :-)

Anyway, I had no problems running 1024x1024 maps with my patched version.. I think it may work with even a higher number but it really gets impractical because of tremendous storage size...

Nice hack of google directions! Just one suggestion: could you put a white space in the first description field for MIDPOINTS? The empty string there screws up my parsing and display logic a bit:
40.622250,-73.965700,,MIDPOINT,
should be changed to:
40.622250,-73.965700, ,MIDPOINT,

Also, I do require "MIDPOINT" in the second field to properly proces it...

[in7ane]

fokia, thanks for that - TomTom (OV2) POI import is now in, and seems to work for files generated by poieditor.com - please let me know if anyone encounters files that don't.

deniska, I've put in the space for Google POI midpoints. Is it just midpoints, or will having an empty part of the two part name always cause problems? If so I'll need to go back through the code and put in a check to change ,, to , ,

I've just slipped in the changes to:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl29.zip

There seems to be a bit of talk about route planning features lately - this is my opinion on the matter, to get in on the popular issue: to have the PSP do the route planning on its own the following would be required: maps (probably vector) which contain such information as direction of roads and speed of roads (I do not know of a public source for such), an algorithm to work out the shortest/quickest route (I do not know of a publicly available implementation of this, traveling salesman problem anyone?), a POI database of road names, numbers and post codes and lots of other locations (this could potentially be pulled from publicly available sources). Overall I would imagine that it would be impossible to get all of those components for such a wide coverage as the current setup provides, but I may be wrong and Route 66 / TomTom / etc. may be cracked for their components.

In the meantime could I request a few related features:
- Point in the direction of a selected POI and give distance (kind-of like the compass does now, and would also require the selection of a given POI from a file).
- Jump to a POI.
- Lines to connect the midpoint POI in directions (so only the 'corner' ones need to be created). (I will put the Google ones in correct order)
Well actually the first two could be useful in competing with Sony's golf features :)

[deniska]

tx for the update...
I'll look in tothese features...
Meanwhille I have a question:

Am I the only one, getting javascript errors while trying to access google maps main page through IE?
At the same time Firefox seem to work just fine...

[deniska]

tx for the update...
I'll look in tothese features...
Meanwhille I have a question:

Am I the only one, getting javascript errors while trying to access google maps main page through IE?
At the same time Firefox seem to work just fine...


[EDIT] Never mind, I cleaned the cache and cokies and it's working now...

[vibez]

Did you enter those names for start and end point yourself? Afaik the tool only finds routes to and from City names(Like London, England), and not for places you named yourself(It can't know where that place is, Local.live uses the coordinates then, but the tool isn't able to "grab" them...)

Excuse my bad english, I hope you undestand what I mean ;)

They are uk postcodes. They work fine now thanks to in7ane's tip about adding ",uk" at the end of each postcode.

Local.Live and google maps can both translate postcodes and I persume zipcodes into coordinates

[vibez]

In7ane, I'm going to PM you some official TomTom OV2 that seem to differ from the ones that POIeditor make. I'm not sure what the deal is with them, do TomTom encrypt the data?

[fokia]

fokia, thanks for that - TomTom (OV2) POI import is now in, and seems to work for files generated by poieditor.com - please let me know if anyone encounters files that don't.


There seems to be a bit of talk about route planning features lately - this is my opinion on the matter, to get in on the popular issue: to have the PSP do the route planning on its own the following would be required: maps (probably vector) which contain such information as direction of roads and speed of roads (I do not know of a public source for such), an algorithm to work out the shortest/quickest route (I do not know of a publicly available implementation of this, traveling salesman problem anyone?), a POI database of road names, numbers and post codes and lots of other locations (this could potentially be pulled from publicly available sources). Overall I would imagine that it would be impossible to get all of those components for such a wide coverage as the current setup provides, but I may be wrong and Route 66 / TomTom / etc. may be cracked for their components.



I'm glad I could help...

About the travelling man problem: I think this is a problem that could be solved wit a Simplex Linear programming algorithm (easilly found on the net). But the way to implement it is still undefined 'cause we don't have anything but tiles... Hacking/cracking some vectorial maps is the way to go...
Otherwise, we should have some image processing tool that could "read" the maps roads/direction and create a database for that map... huge task! So that an algorithm could be implemented... I don’t even know if this is feasible...


[edit]

I think everyone may find this info usefull:
http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx


NOTE: This bookmarklet can create a GPX file based on driving directions, an address search or a local search. The GPX file will contain a route, a single waypoint, or up to ten waypoints, respectively.

this is pretty much what gmdl already does and the code is a bit dated but could be helpfull in some way...

[in7ane]

vibez, that's fixed now - I was not handling the header record properly.

The fix is once again slipped into:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl29.zip

fokia, thanks - that looks interesting, I'll have a closer look to see if they extract the Local.Live path. And I'm going to see about implementing the elevation data.

deniska, it seems to be a Microsoft security patch related issue (I don't get the errors at home on an un-updated XP SP2, but loading up at work on a fully patched SP2 gives the error, sometimes).

[vibez]

Thanks in7ane. Works a treat now :)

[deniska]

BTW, I submitted a "beta" 1.5 FW eboot with some fixes and new features in following thread:
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=212656#post212656

Feel free to try it...

[in7ane]

A small update to implement deniska's latest changes, namely multiple icons in a single POI file.

Also, I've finally put in some user friendly features - automatic checking for updates (which can be disabled via config.txt)

And the Google directions now have the midpoints in the correct order.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.10a.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.10a.zip

[nforce100]

Hi!

Im from Austria. Sorry for that english

Very good work Deniska and In7ane!! I follow this projekt since beginning. But now i have a question to In7ane:

Will there a way to load maps/poi/Routing from Map24.de ?
They have good information from Europe. The others dont know much from Austria.
thanks :)

[fokia]

A small update to implement deniska's latest changes, namely multiple icons in a single POI file.

Also, I've finally put in some user friendly features - automatic checking for updates (which can be disabled via config.txt)

And the Google directions now have the midpoints in the correct order.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.10a.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.10a.zip


Once more great jb!

[kulfsson]

Hi In7ane,

I second the Map24.com request. I know they have a AJAX API available so if you could add support for their maps it would be awesome. I would finally have good quality Icelandic maps on my PSP :D

[kididio]

For the error file, can you build in, in the gmdl, an option that the links inside this file will be tried again after downloading the rest, or per user interaction ? That were very cool.
When there a only a couple of files download manual is no problem, but when the i-net connection where interruptet on download there are about 100 files, and this to load manualy sucks ;)

[deniska]

about map24 requests:
They don't seem to return main maps as images.
This is going to make it extremely hard to capture this data, since MapThis! needs images...
The satelite imagery could still be captured though, but I am not sure if they have better sat coverage, than other vendors...

[fokia]

about map24 requests:
They don't seem to return main maps as images.
This is going to make it extremely hard to capture this data, since MapThis! needs images...
The satelite imagery could still be captured though, but I am not sure if they have better sat coverage, than other vendors...


Well, here's the AJAX API from MAP24.de:
http://api.map24.com/ajax/1.2/?init=default&v=12
if some one can do something with it I dunno...

[edit]:

I forgot to tell that I get that info from MAP24.de page source - other scripts can be found trough there...

[nforce100]

ok i understand.
But is there a way only get out the routing information? the Maps are good but local.live
has not good routing infos for austria.

[nforce100]

I wrote a tiny script in mirc where you can change map24.com waypoints in a readable file for !MapThis.
If there is any interest pls let me know.

[deniska]

sure thing.. post it here!

[fokia]

I wrote a tiny script in mirc where you can change map24.com waypoints in a readable file for !MapThis.
If there is any interest pls let me know.


post it here, please... it migh come handy...

[nforce100]

Ok!

Its a very young version i began it to write yesterday.
Usage:
Download mirc
go to map24
give your routing points in the fields and press enter
after it press the right mouse button in the field where the routing information is and source code
save the file in /mirc
start mirc, load the script, go in a channel and type
downhalf <input file> <Output file>
<input file> the name of the file you saved
<Output file> the name of the file you want to make

Sorry thats in mirc but i dont know other languages good.
Like i said its a concept but i try to make it better.
So i dont take any responsibility of the right of the coords etc!!

on *:input:*: {

if $1 == downhalf && $2 != $null && $3 != $null {
%file = $2
%file1 = $3
/header
timer1 0 0.5 /down1

}
else { //echo Usage: Files must be in /mirc: 12Downhalf 12<Inputfile> 9<Outputfile> }

if $1 == poi && $2 != $null && $3 != $null {
%file2 = $2
%file3 = $3
/header1
timer2 0 0.5 /poi

}
else { //echo Usage: Files must be in /mirc: 12poi 12<Inputfile> 9<Outputfile> }

}

/header {
/write -i %file1 $chr(35)
/write -i %file1 !IMAGE:waypoint.png,10,5,
/write -i %file1 !WAYPOINT
/write -i %file1 $chr(35)
}

/stop {
%tile1 = 1
%tile2 = 1
%1 = 1
timer1 off
//echo 4All Lines Wrote!
%var1 = 0
%var2 = 0
%var3 = 0
%var4 = 0
%aaa = 0
%file = 0
%file1 = 0

}
/down1 {

%var1 = $calc($gettok($read(%file,%tile1), 6-6,39) / 60) $+ $chr(44) $+ $chr(32) $+ $chr(44)
%var2 = $calc($gettok($read(%file,%tile1), 8-8,39) / 60) $+ $chr(44)
%var3 = $remove($gettok($read(%file,%tile2), 14-14,39), $chr(44))

%aaa = %var2 $+ %var1 $+ $replace(%var3,$chr(124),$chr(32),ß,ss) $+ $chr(44)
{
if 0 $+ $chr(44) $+ 0 isin %aaa { goto end }
else {

/write -i %file1 %aaa
}
}
:end
%tile1 = %tile1 + 1
%tile2 = %tile2 + 1
%1 = %1 + 1
//echo Wrote Line %1
if Fahrtziel isin %aaa { /stop }
if arrived isin %aaa { /stop }
}

/header1 {
/write -i %file3 $chr(35)
/write -i %file3 !IMAGE:food.png,40,20,
/write -i %file3 $chr(35)
}

/poi {
%vab1 = $calc($gettok($read(%file2,%tile4),4,34) / 60) $+ $chr(44)
%vab2 = $calc($gettok($read(%file2,%tile4),6,34) / 60) $+ $chr(44)
%vab3 = $remove($gettok($read(%file2,%tile4),12,34), telefon: ,fax: ) $+ $chr(44) $+ $chr(32) $+ $chr(59) $+ $chr(32) $+ $chr(59) $+ $chr(32) $+ $chr(44)

%bbb = %vab2 $+ %vab1 $+ $replace(%vab3,$chr(124),$chr(32))
if 0 $+ $chr(44) $+ 0 isin %bbb { goto end }
else { /write -i %file3 %bbb }
:end
If %tile4 == 1000 { /stop1 }
%tile4 = %tile4 + 1
%bb = %bb + 1
//echo scan Line %bb
}

/stop1 {
%tile4 = 1
%bb = 1
timer2 off
//echo 4All Lines wrote
%vab1 = 0
%vab2 = 0
%vab3 = 0
%bbb = 0
%file2 = 0
%file3 = 0

}

the variables are:

%1 1
%aaa 0
%file 0
%file1 0
%tile1 1
%tile2 1
%var1 0
%var2 0
%var3 0
%var4 0
%var5 0
%var6
%bb 2
%tile4 2
%file2 0
%file3 0
%vab1 0
%vab2 0
%vab3 0
%bbb 0

added poi support!

Usage: map24 / search / the place you want / enter / right click / source /save
poi <inputfile> <outputfile>

[in7ane]

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.11a.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.11a.zip

Custom maps are now in, as a pop up under Advanced, with automatic zoom layer creation and potential matching up to Google's tiles (to be usable for navigation). The source image needs to be square and 512*2^n pixels per side (512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048, etc. max 262144x262144 = 1024x1024 tiles)

I'm glad to hear that it's not just me going mad, and other people have also run into similar issues when converting lat/lon to x/y - so automatically positioning the source map is disabled for now.

As an example of custom maps, and what could be a neat feature if I can get the projection correctly. I've created maps out of NASA's star maps from http://maps.jpl.nasa.gov/stars.html the source 2880x1440 images are scaled up to 4096x4096 and then run through the application.

http://www.rarhost.com/download-ymrr5o.html

and New York, Toronto, London, and Moscow subways:

http://www.rarhost.com/download-t0m5mh.html

If there is someone who knows what the correct projection for star maps would be please let me know. Also, any help with extracting the correct constellation map (and POI maybe) out of http://pp3.sourceforge.net/ would be much appreciated. And, last of all, does anyone know of a source where/how I could get a POI set which would draw out the continental borders - to overlay the star maps, making them useful when running Map This! without GPS.

I suspect that there are a lot of maps that are public domain (national parks, government geological survey, some subway system maps, etc.) so if you create a Map This! compatible map from one of the public domain sources please post it on here. And if there is enough interest I, or somebody else maybe, could setup a repository.

nforce100, thanks a lot for the script - I'll try and put it in in the next few days. As for the free Map24 API - that is unfortunately a non-runner, as you have to actively agree to their TOS when signing up for the program.

kididio, you now get prompted to try and re-downlaod missing tiles at the end of the load (it can be disabled under Advanced). As I have not encountered many problems with timeouts lately I haven't been able to test this - please let me know if it works.

[deniska]

Nice touch with custom maps...
I really enjoy heaving NYC Subway map in my pocket...
Perhaps, someone could add POI data to it with bus transfers and other stuff...

I am thinking about custom map lat/lon calibration...
not sure what would be the best aproach though...

[nforce100]

Have anyone tested it?
i know some bugs but i try to eliminate them.

[deanspeed]

i cant seem to put hybrid maps on the psp using
this program. am i doing something wrong?

[in7ane]

Map24 POI and directions support is now in - thanks nforce100 (works a bit differently than others - do the search on the page and the results are then taken from the screen).

Local.Live POI changed a bit due to an update to the site.

Custom maps can now position any map once you put in the coordinates of the top left and the bottom right corners of your source image (which needs to be north facing). There is also a limit of a 32x32 resulting map - this seems to be due to a limitation of the Bitmap object - which I will look into.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.12a.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.12a.zip

deanspeed, do the hybrid maps download and test ok within the application? If not, post the setting here. If the maps crash when you try to load them in Map This! - you need to download the latest (v02b) EBOOT from http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33947&page=9

For anyone camping in Ontario - the map of Algonquin from the screenshot is up at http://www.rarhost.com/download-m41sb4.html

[nforce100]

nice that i could help you :)

it crashes when i try to download from map24

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.mshtml, Version=7.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. Das System kann die angegebene Datei nicht finden.

[deanspeed]

hey in7ane why cant i choose the intermittent when i choose google? can you make it so that i can have more than 350 poi's with google?

[deanspeed]

with the latest version i get an error when i click on "List" for getting directions poi's

[nforce100]

@deniska

Could you make it that i could choose the
size for the font which is draw at the routing?

[deanspeed]

is there not a Google hybrid to choose for a source?

[in7ane]

nforce100, I've put in the missing DLL - please redownload.

deanspeed, you are probably experiencing the same problem as nforce100, so redownload too. If not, let me know. As for Google intermittent - I use the ones that are part of the path - I'll see about enabling the mid-midpoints between those for the next version.

As for Google hybrid - it's an overlay of two images - I'll see about processing them into one at some point.

[deanspeed]

cool, thanks in7ane :D ill go redownload it.

EDIT: yep that was the problem.

[nforce100]

google works

but at map24 it says Something went wrong.

Please report site, search therms

[deanspeed]

when i use Local.live and check the intermittent check box the poi don't fallow the road correctly, is there something I'm doing wrong? or is this normal for now?

[in7ane]

nforce100, I think this was due to Globalization again - should be ok now if you redownload. If not, let me know exactly what you searched for, where, and what your OS configuration is.

deanspeed, yes - Local.Live do not place their waypoints on every corner (so the extrapolation cuts those corners off), and I haven't extracted the path part yet.

[nforce100]

<Useless information was there>

[deanspeed]

In POI tab I get "Something went wrong, please report: site, search terms" when i click on "List"

in Directions tab i get "Something went wrong" when i click on "list"

but the get values tab is also greyed out.

[in7ane]

Re-re-release of the botched initial release of Map24 support (if anyone cares - mshtml seems to behave differently depending on if you have the development environment installed or not) the DLL is no longer required either.

Thanks a lot for helping out with tracking this down nforce100 and deanspeed.

As for the this.parent.mapdoc error - that is an error in the scripts on the page (which I can not do anything about), if you click yes everything seems to work fine.

denspeed, the get values etc. is grayed out because the Map24 pull gets the results out of the webpage you see on the left.

nforce100, about the php file and the portal - could you elaborate (are you trying to open/save just that frame? if so, there's no need), or did it go away as well now?

[nforce100]

morning!

Great!! Works fine now :)

the portal thing was the javaplatform

Keep on going with that program!

[nforce100]

the directions look like
40.714181,-74.006307,and head towards Hudson St/James Burroughs Triangle for 314 yrd.,You start at Chambers St,

Can you make them:

You start at Chambers St and head towards Hudson St/James Burroughs Triangle for 314 yrd

Can you also take the miles after the coords?

like
40.714181,-74.006307,MILES OR YARD HERE,You start at Chambers St and head towards Hudson St/James Burroughs Triangle for 314 yrd,

in source the miles or yard are everytime between
</div></td><td class="rlr2"> 5 min<br> 2.92 mi</td></tr>.

[in7ane]

Google and Ask hybrids are now in, replacing the useless transparent options (keep in mind that the preview only shows the transparent layer, and re-downloading the combined tiles is not enabled).

Mid-midpoints for Google directions have now been added (you can get a continuous path that follows the road exactly). To have the path midpoints but not the mid-midpoints delete the contents of the create intermittent value field.

nforce100, the Map24 directions now have the time/distance in the first line.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.13a.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.13a.zip

[nforce100]

one last thing:

can you make that you could choose if you want
time only
distance only
nothing
time and distance

and

That you can choose self terms that you want to cut out of the route. like a box where you can write in.
Cause some austria streets have very loooong names. thanks a lot for map24 addon :)

have you tried if you could save the map files while downloading directly on the cardreader/psp ? copying needs so long time.

[deniska]

Google and Ask hybrids are now in, replacing the useless transparent options (keep in mind that the preview only shows the transparent layer, and re-downloading the combined tiles is not enabled).

Mid-midpoints for Google directions have now been added (you can get a continuous path that follows the road exactly). To have the path midpoints but not the mid-midpoints delete the contents of the create intermittent value field.

nforce100, the Map24 directions now have the time/distance in the first line.

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.13a.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.13a.zip

Nice work with image manipulation for hybrid maps...

[nforce100]

i posted this before 2 days but it gone under

@deniska

Can you make it that i could choose the size of the font at the routing function and if i want the attention triangles left and right in the config.txt ? cause at long text you could only read 5 words at beginning. thanx

[deanspeed]

nice work, and thanks for these addon's :D

[deanspeed]

i cant seem to download the Google hybrid map.

also was wondering, could you add a feature to be able to cancel a download?

[deanspeed]

I like the local.live because each midpoint tells you how many more miles to go till you reach your next turn. the only problem is that the midpoints don't fallow the road correctly witch you've already explained why. but is there a way you could add this feature to Google? so that each midpoint tells you how many miles there are before you reach your next turn?

[deniska]

i posted this before 2 days but it gone under

@deniska

Can you make it that i could choose the size of the font at the routing function and if i want the attention triangles left and right in the config.txt ? cause at long text you could only read 5 words at beginning. thanx
The problem is that the length of text is limited to 37+59 characters... I load the 400 POIs closest in memory, to make access/rendering fast, so if I increase the length of text, I'll probably need to decrease the number of POIs to preserve memory... Besides, I am having problems reading smaller fonts while driving...

[GIS]

Thanks for "Google Maps Download", in7ane, great job

[nforce100]

@deniska

okay. How works that with the 37+59 characters?
47.000000,11.000000, 37 here , 59 here , ??

[fokia]

Great job,this is growing BIG!!
An interruption for the script would be nice (without have to quit the app...) to cancel the ongoing download...

Keep up!

[Burnt Cobba]

anyone who got it working please can do some brief tutorial pls?

thanks for any help

[deniska]

Hey in7ane,
someone was asking me if we could display maps of China from Mapbar. Here is a link:
http://service.mapbar.com/localsearch/largemap.jsp?nid=BARILNFPTOHVC&query=%B1%C8%C8%F8&City=%B9%E3%D6%DD%CA%D0&raster=1

The API is a bit different fro Google though:
300x300 pixels per tile... and so far unclear correlation between GPS coords and tile numbers...
Perhaps someone would be willing to investigate this further... - we just might add another billion people to our coverage area ;-)

[in7ane]

Looks like they use a different projection, so may not be possible to get away with just resizing the tiles:

http://img.mapbar.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/W/0_0/0_0.png

http://mt3.google.com/mt?n=404&v=w2.21&x=2&y=1&zoom=15

Or maybe it won't matter as China doesn't go that far noth - I'll try and put in some support for it this evening.

[deniska]

yeah, I figured that it would be tough to link it to GPS coordinates. w/o changing MapThis..

but even w/o gps support it may be usefull to some people...

Perhaps if someone provides me with the algorithm of how to link those tiles to gps lon/lat - i'll create a separate version of MapThis for China....

[in7ane]

On closer examination the different projection is a problem, for example:

http://img.mapbar.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/1/0_0/6_1.png
and
http://mt3.google.com/mt?n=404&v=w2.21&x=26&y=13&zoom=12

So this will take a while longer (I'll take a look at the other Chinese source as well), and if anyone has the formula to translate tiles to lat/lon and vice vera it would help with this as well (then I can do google -> lat/lon ->mapbar).

nforce100, I've slipped in choosing dist/time in Map24 into the last version. You can edit the POI/direction text in the datagrid that lists the details.

deanspeed, canceling a map download can now be done via a checkbox in the top right (it will delete the map).

http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.13a.zip

strikerranger, place the generated POI file inside the map directory (then choose it on the PSP - see Map This! manual).

[nforce100]

Nice! Very well :)

Thats an application with good support hehe!

[chi80]

Hi deniska,

I found the rule of the picture name.

http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/6/23_10/1_1.png

notice: /6/23_10/1_1.jpg

----------------------------------------------------------

scale zoom/level_1/level_2.png

.1 km 12/465_199/19_34.png
+1/ *2 /0~49_0~49.png (50*50)

.2 km 11/232_99/34_42.png
+1/ *2 /0~49_0~49.png

.4 km 10/116_49/17_45.png
+1/ *2.5 /0~49_0~49.png

1 km 9/46_19/27_47.png
+1/ *2 /0~49_0~49.png

2 km 8/116_49/3_9.png
+1/ *2 /0~9_0~9.png (10*10)

4 km 7/58_24/1_9.png
+1/*2.5 /0~9_0~9.png

10 km 6/23_9/2_9.png
+1/ *2 /0~9_0~9.png

20 km 5/11_4/6_9.png
+1/ *2 /0~9_0~9.png

40 km 4/5_2/8_4.png
... ...
-----------------------------------------------------------

it's a little different from zoom 9, the level_2 from 10*10 to 50*50.

i think the formulas and algorithms is not too difficult.


variable:
level_2 number: w (less zoom 9 w=10; more than zoom 9 w=50)
scale: r (ruler) 100m, 200m, 400m, 1000m,2000m,4000m,......
level_1: x1 , y1
level_2: x2 , y2

void Get(int r,int w,int x1,int y1,int x2, int y2, int _r, int _w, int& _x1, int& _y1, int& _x2, int& _y2)
{
_x1 = ((x1*w+x2)*r)/(_r * _w);
_x2 = (((x1*w+x2)*r)/_r)%_w;
_y1 = ((y1*w+y2)*r)/(_r * _w);
_y2 = (((y1*w+y2)*r)/_r)%_w;
}

if zoom(-) it's enough.
if zoom(+) we should add some other picture whit Get(...) return value.(it's easy).

The GPS coordinates is a problem, i don't know how do you get them from Google?
i think it's relational with file name, scale and picture pels. if the map is correct i think we could create formulas and algorithms for it.

The picture size, file names, folder names are different with your map which get form google. Could you please update your program to support it? it's a greate work for china psp guys.
You are welcome to Beijing for 2008 Olympic Games with your psp china map.

the attachment is a simple tool to download pic from baidu.



David(chi80).

[deniska]

FYI below are some google-like maps for ~170 cities of China:
http://treehouse.ofb.net/go/en/node/407
http://bendi.google.com/ (http://bendi.google.com/)

pehaps someone will be able to hack and adopt those... (the tile size is 200x200) with some encoding ...

[chi80]

I can't send or receive private message???

why??

[fokia]

I can't send or receive private message???

why??
You need some number of posts before you can do that...

[chi80]

before i confirm and reply the register email, i could see and send private messages...... :(

[strikerranger]

Hello,

I've got a question about poi's. I'm using the program from in7ane, looks really cool and i think it is a great tool for using map this, but i'm a noob and can't found answer on this forum.

How can i put poi's into my psp. the gps works perfect and looks so cool, i really want the poi's.. but i reaaly don't now how to put these things into the psp. somethimes it happend that the display in the right give me lots of cordinates, but i don't now how to use them.. or what. can somebody make a smaal tutorial for it, that will hel a lot, not only for me but also for other people on this forum.

i hope you guys can help me, i really like this program!!

Greets,

InsideR

[in7ane]

Chi80, unfortunately the *2.5 zoom jumps break the logic of what is compatible (zoom levels need to be *2), so Baidu, and therefore MapBar are incompatible.

These two look like they could be (particularly the Google one):

http://api.51ditu.com/js/maps.js
for
http://maps.51ditu.com

and

http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/maps2.63.cn.js
for
http://bendi.google.com (using http://web.mapabc.com/localsearch/thememap.jsp which does not appear to be queryable directly)

If anyone wants to do a bit of reverse engineering and make sense of the Bendi URLs (http://mapb.mapabc.com/mapabcgoogle/maploadg?p=iAIcLAClCL) I’ll put it in.

[in7ane]

strikerranger, place the generated POI file inside the map directory (then choose it on the PSP - see Map This! manual).

circle to list POI files
x to select
triangle to show/hide POIs in map view

[nforce100]

@in7ane

In some directions on map24 theres a , or a ;
in it. when you write them can you replace them with a space or something else?

the header of the files look like

#
!IMAGE:waypoint.png, <-------- 10,5, fails
!WAYPOINT
#

and at the pois the 40,20, fails

[in7ane]

nforce100, I think you may be running an older version of Map This! (tested POI and dir with large and small icons without size values) - make sure to get v02b from http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33947&page=9

If not, post your POI/dir file here, and I'll take a look.

In Map24, and elsewhere, I replace , with ; do you want to be able to do batch replaces within the grid?

Yes, a manual would be handy - especilly if it can be stuck on a wiki somehwere (http://www.wikibooks.org seems like a good option, or failing that wikihow)

[in7ane]

looks like 51ditu is definitely usable:

http://52ditu.googlepages.com/english.htm

[nforce100]

ah okay. i run the newest version of map this.

but on some coordinates the psp hangs out. when i do the 10,5, sometimes it works sometimes not. hmm

then i must look what it is.

as german i must replace ö with oe ä with ae ü with ue and ß with ss cause map this

couldnt show them:

do you want to be able to do batch replaces within the grid? <--- yes! a box where you can write in what things in the grid you want to replace in all sentences!

[deniska]

before i confirm and reply the register email, i could see and send private messages...... :(
For some reason I could not reply your either.. so you may just want to communicate thru this thread untill this get's sorted out..

[strikerranger]

strikerranger, place the generated POI file inside the map directory (then choose it on the PSP - see Map This! manual).

circle to list POI files
x to select
triangle to show/hide POIs in map view


That's the problem, i start your program, make a route.. than i press "list" and the program give's an error: "the lat/lon/s nubbers are bad, or something else is wrong. And where can i find the poi file, if i made a route..does the program save it somewhere? it looks so simple but i'm trying for 1 week now and every times it give's a error.

when i start your program i'm using the maps download.exe and not the vshost.exe that also give's an error.

i hope you can give me answeres.

InsideR

[in7ane]

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Map_This%21

Please contribute.

I'll parse in deniska's Map This! manual in a sec if that's ok.

[strikerranger]

i fixet all the problems.. i'm so close now, when i'm loading the data in "map this" the psp is waiting waiting....... black screen, what happens... i know for sure that the cordinates are oke, sombody else with the same problem ?

greets,

InsideR

[in7ane]

nforce100, I've put in the replace (and the 4 you specified as one button) into:

http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.13a.zip

strikerranger, I suspect you are not running the latest Map This!
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33947&page=9
get v02b_EBOOT.zip
replace EBOOT.PBP in /GAME/mapViewer/

deniska, chi80, there is also the, disabled for now, Baidu tile code if somebody is looking at Chinese sources.

[chi80]

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=10315&stc=1&d=1158729545

it will get all the sub tiles automatically.

i hope Deniska's MapThis could support this maps,
even if without GPS support.:)

[nforce100]

great! Thanks a lot in7ane! Youre the man :D

it seems that more and more ppl get interested :eek:

I have more good ideas. Let me know if you want hear them!

[strikerranger]

Thanx a lot in7ane and deniska for the link and tips, gps works perfect now and the directions are verry simple to use. keep on the good work, i love map this and the whole system.

btw .. are you guys making a newer version of mapthis in the future ?, will be great !!

Thanx for all the hlp,

greets,

InsideR

[deniska]

in7ane,
thanks for the wiki page and all the effort you put in to this development...

Strikerranger,
about updates - I am aware it's been a bit of slowdown on my side - I got really busy at work.
But the project is far from dead - you'll definitely see updates to MapThis! in the future... How long -hopefully not too long ;-)

[nforce100]

I had a PSP.Brick Virus on my PC. Not from here!!!

Users should install an antivirus before they send files
to psp!!!

[in7ane]

Baidu Maps

An example of the incompatible zoom jump:

http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/9/45_11/14_28.png
to
http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/10/113_28/10_44.png
(you can not rescale the second image to fit in the bottom left quarter of the first)

But that’s not all:

http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/10/113_28/11_45.png
to
http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/11/226_57/22_41.png
to
http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/12/452_115/44_32.png

10zoom x = 113 * 50 + 11 = 5661
10zoom y = 28 * 50 + 45 = 1445

11zoom x = 226 * 50 + 22 = 11322 = 2 * 5661 (OK)
11zoom y = 57 * 50 + 41 = 2891 != 2 * 1445 (BROKEN 2890)

12zoom x = 452 * 50 + 44 = 22644 = 2 * 11322 (OK)
12zoom y = 115 * 50 + 32 = 5782 = 2 * 2891 (OK)

The logic seems broken – inconsistently so as well.

I’ve enabled the somewhat broken support for what’s there, but to be of any use we really do need Google or 51ditu tile URLs made sense of.

http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.13a.zip

nforce100, sure, any ideas are certainly welcome.

---

Re: PSP.Brick see (may not be the virus):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psp_homebrew#Trojan.PSPBrick
And whatever you run - don't just run some random exe's - make sure you have the source too.

[nforce100]

ahh okay. Think it was the downgrader.

* Language support

* Save files while downloading directly on
cardreader/psp

* at map24 there are sometimes double coords or more

* a way that you can show your saved icons with a tiny preview example: in poi when you take icon ....
you see a tiny preview

more will come :)

[chi80]

Baidu Maps

An example of the incompatible zoom jump:

http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/9/45_11/14_28.png
to
http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/10/113_28/10_44.png
(you can not rescale the second image to fit in the bottom left quarter of the first)

But that’s not all:

http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/10/113_28/11_45.png
to
http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/11/226_57/22_41.png
to
http://mappng.baidu.com/maplite/mapbank/baidu/12/452_115/44_32.png

10zoom x = 113 * 50 + 11 = 5661
10zoom y = 28 * 50 + 45 = 1445

11zoom x = 226 * 50 + 22 = 11322 = 2 * 5661 (OK)
11zoom y = 57 * 50 + 41 = 2891 != 2 * 1445 (BROKEN 2890)

12zoom x = 452 * 50 + 44 = 22644 = 2 * 11322 (OK)
12zoom y = 115 * 50 + 32 = 5782 = 2 * 2891 (OK)

The logic seems broken – inconsistently so as well.

I’ve enabled the somewhat broken support for what’s there, but to be of any use we really do need Google or 51ditu tile URLs made sense of.

http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.13a.zip

nforce100, sure, any ideas are certainly welcome.

---

Re: PSP.Brick see (may not be the virus):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psp_homebrew#Trojan.PSPBrick
And whatever you run - don't just run some random exe's - make sure you have the source too.



thanks very much for your suggestions.

the name of google china map's file names are encrypted. it need to be decrypted first. or find out the real tiles URLs...

i could try to made sense of 51ditu's URLs..

[deniska]

FYI,
here is a list of subway maps for major cities:
http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/02/psp-subway-maps-from-around-the-world/

I did a sample convertion of the sydney map (below) just to test gmdl tool...
Basically, you need to resize it to a 512,1024,2048, 4096.... square; save as png and let gmdl convert it..

[deniska]

thanks very much for your suggestions.

the name of google china map's file names are encrypted. it need to be decrypted first. or find out the real tiles URLs...

i could try to made sense of 51ditu's URLs..

Search around chinese forums - maybe someone already hacked it...

[in7ane]

nforce, I'll have a go at language support via a translation.txt file to automatically change the text of the controls - somebody else will have to do the translations though :)

You can download directly to wherever (will crash on the check though but otherwise it's fine, I'll fix that and add a set directory button), just put in (G = drive letter) "G:\PSP\GAME\mapViewer\maps\_MAP NAME" into the text box (should work for POIs too - I'll put in a drop down maybe)

Can you give me an exmaple query for Map24 (and the site/language) which gives dupes?

Yes, icon previews are on the pending list.

[kulfsson]

I was wondering if it would be possible to adapt the Google Map Downloader to download images for Map This ! from a ESRI IMS server ?

I have access to a IMS server with detailed maps for my country and I was wondering if I could use your tool for this ?

I was hoping for Map24 support, but seeing the strict Licensing I guess I will have to go another route.

[fokia]

nforce, I'll have a go at language support via a translation.txt file to automatically change the text of the controls - somebody else will have to do the translations though :)



Well, count me in for translation for Portuguese. I guess I can help with Spanish and/or French if there are no one speaking these as mother lang's here...

[nforce100]

i could make the german translation.

duplicates:

at some directions it could be 3 of duplicates

at.map24.com
Berlin - München

52.510091,13.281715,9.60 km 52.510091,13.281715,10.40 km

48.177352,11.594277,578.43 km
48.177352,11.594277,579.03 km

[GIS]

Thanks for Map This!

[strikerranger]

heey,

i'm using the program now for 2 weeks and it's still fun, no problems with it. Just a little problem, when i made a deriction, and the zoom is 0 there are 601 poi files. then i put the cordinates in my psp and the psp show me the way to my direction... but, the gps software is showing me 250+/- poi files, and then i have to refresh my screen, not a big deal, but for other people using my psp it's pretty weird and they don't now what to do.

can i fix this problem, or should i wait for a update ?.. i'm a noob :p i really don't now ;)

InsideR

[in7ane]

Directions from Google now have the distance remaining to next way-point, and remove excessive path points (so you can have a long road mapped out without ending up with thousands of POIs).

kulfsson, if http://www.esri.com/software/internetmaps/index.html is an accurate representation of what your ESRI source would provide, it seems that the map image is generated on demand, and not as tiles. So if you can export a larger than screen image you could then import it as a custom map (with a bit of lining up). If it can be made to generate tiles rather than the single image - then yes, I could probably adapt the program to import them.

nforce100, removing map24 dupes is now a (default) option, although they are valid points - with different directions.

If you do not put in the map/POI/directions name the set/save dialog box will now appear (allowing to save directly to the memory stick for example).

translation.txt works as follows:
to create:
click Generate translation.txt
edit the translation.txt file, the format is as follows:

FORM_NAME.CONTROL_NAME(ORIGINAL_TEXT)=TRANSLATED_T EXT
ORIGINAL_TEXT is just there for your information, but does need to be there for the file to work, ()= is fine
lines without TRANSLATED_TEXT are fine - they are ignored

sample file:

GMdl.size(w)=
GMdl.UserMode(Advanced)=Other Optons

to load:
drop translation.txt into the application directory
run the application

to save after load:
move translation.txt out of the application directory
click Generate translation.txt
translated values are preserved
new/missing controls are added - this is so that you can upgrade your translation.txt files

What doesn't translate: dialog boxes and other forms - will be in the next version

Icon previews still pending :)


screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.14a.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.14a.zip


strikerranger, maximum number of POIs per file is 400 as of Map This! v0.3. I'll see about putting in an option to split files into chunks of 400 for the next version.

[SHAKIRALOVER]

I click download files and it says 'already there'.
I check my folder and it isnt, what am i doing wrong?

Thanks.

EDIT: ive read the Wiki, still doesnt save.

[nforce100]

I made a german Translation.
Is it useful or should i change something?

[deniska]

Nice work, in7ane!

[danastasiei]

"I click download files and it says 'already there'.
I check my folder and it isnt, what am i doing wrong?"


same with me

[nforce100]

@in7ane

Can you make a support for
www.viamichelin.com ?

They have really good maps and pois

[nforce100]

@danastasiei

When you load your map in an other directory you have you write a name behind it!

Like C:\mypath\_MAPNAME <-----

[in7ane]

SHAKIRALOVER, danastasiei, that was a bug - thanks for catching that, it's now fixed (you can specify/create a folder and as long as it's empty the files will be placed inside of it).

screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.15a.jpg

source and exe (in /bin/debug/):
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.15a.zip

nforce100, thanks for the translation, I'll put that up on the wiki. As for Michelin - the tiles are not Google compatible, so although their maps are great (house numbers) it wouldn't be of much use in the current setup - I'll take a look at the directions/POIs though.

[nforce100]

@ins7ane

thanks for taking it :)

great work again!

When you make the translation.txt you couldnt

change the jump from advanced to basic and back.

the first button is in german when you click it it

changes to english and nothing happens. after a

click again you can change in advanced mode.

Some of them couldnt be good translated cause they are to long in german. when i change them then the text is reaching in to the write box.
Some things i didnt translated cause this.
for example: lat lon is in german Breiten/Längengrad

Ill put it up after the basic thing.

[deniska]

in7ane,

I want to implement files-container system for MapThis, so each map is stored as 1 large file.
This should help managing maps and remove huge FAT overhead, experienced in current setup

Please see the attached spec and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions...

Naturally, your tool would be responsible for "wrapping up" the files. ;-)

[in7ane]

deniska, looks good, some requests:

GPSFSV1 to be GPSFSV01, to fill the char[8] fully

basezoom to be 8 bytes, and to support negative zooms

filetype to be 8 bytes as well

if x and/or y are negative interpret as coords.txt missing

Actually - can all of them, except the first char[8], (IDXn's too - or is there a reason for strings?) just be signed Int64's so there is no need to mess about with conversion/signed/unsigned, and the max values are high enough anyway? (making the first 64 bytes the file definition)

To preserve the ability to re-download missing tiles, and make it easier for myself (and to easily implement simultaneous tile downloads in the future) I'll probably add this as a converter for the existing map folders (with a suffix _/. GPSFS - GFS would probably be a bad choice :)

I assume this replaces coords.txt and the Nx zoom folders, while still living inside a _MAP_NAME folder together with POI and icon files? Or will the POI and icon files become applicable to all maps now, living in /poi/ rather than /maps/_MAP_NAME/? - either way has its advantages I guess. (maybe /maps/ /poi/ /icons/ breakdown? and /directions/ too?)

Let me know if this is ok, or what you settle on, and I'll have a go at creating a sample map tomorrow over lunch.

[deniska]

deniska, looks good, some requests:

GPSFSV1 to be GPSFSV01, to fill the char[8] fully

basezoom to be 8 bytes, and to support negative zooms

filetype to be 8 bytes as well

if x and/or y are negative interpret as coords.txt missing

Actually - can all of them, except the first char[8], (IDXn's too - or is there a reason for strings?) just be signed Int64's so there is no need to mess about with conversion/signed/unsigned, and the max values are high enough anyway? (making the first 64 bytes the file definition)

To preserve the ability to re-download missing tiles, and make it easier for myself (and to easily implement simultaneous tile downloads in the future) I'll probably add this as a converter for the existing map folders (with a suffix _/. GPSFS - GFS would probably be a bad choice :)

I assume this replaces coords.txt and the Nx zoom folders, while still living inside a _MAP_NAME folder together with POI and icon files? Or will the POI and icon files become applicable to all maps now, living in /poi/ rather than /maps/_MAP_NAME/? - either way has its advantages I guess. (maybe /maps/ /poi/ /icons/ breakdown? and /directions/ too?)

Let me know if this is ok, or what you settle on, and I'll have a go at creating a sample map tomorrow over lunch.

I don't care what is stored in the version field for now.. so - sure..
OK, let's make basezoom & filetype 8 bytes each..

I am OK with negative X,Y, Zoom logic.

int64 sounds OK...

let's name the file GPSFS and drop in in maps/_MAP_NAME/


yeah, I forgot to give credit to Jimmy7 who created the original FS draft...
It's nice that people find time to help out...

[in7ane]

deniska, the first 48 bytes are the header, then the N+1 pointers (each offset by the 48 header bytes) then the N images, then 8 bytes of GPSFSEOF

Load or create a map, then the GPSFS button under the map name will create the GPSFS file.

http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.15aGPSFS.zip

If something doesn't work in reading the file - it is likely a problem on my end (I've only tested the extraction of the values, but not the images yet), so let me know.

GPSFS.cs has all the (encoding) code.

UPDATE: please redownload, the IDX's were wrong (they were only offset by 48, not 48 + 8 * (N + 1)

[MacDax]

is there any mac version of map download? or another way to dowload maps from osx?

[fokia]

is there any mac version of map download? or another way to dowload maps from osx?

there are some script's for unix/linux... if Ypou have the correct libraries those should work under OSx (I guess)

[in7ane]

The short answer:

Writing for Windows was a decision based on the maximum number of people being able to run the application (while it is possible to run Windows applications on Mac/Linux using Wine/emulation/visualisation the reverse is not the case).

The long answer:

I looked at having a version written on Objective-C for mac at the start, and at porting using Mono more recently. Maintaining two branches - one in ObjC and one in C# would not have worked, while transitioning to Mono is something I would still like to do (this is not going to happen any time soon) - once the code becomes stable.

In the meantime - it is not only the exe - the full (Visual Studio 2005 C#) source code is there if anyone wants to begin porting it.

If you just want to run it - it works fine under Parallels and Windows XP SP2 on an Intel mac, and I would imagine you would also get reasonable performance under emulation in VirtualPC (there is not really anything processor intensive).

As for working under Wine (soon to be out for Intel Macs as well), and maybe http://darwine.opendarwin.org/ on PPC - I'd appreciate any reports on if it does.

[in7ane]

deniska,

Very sorry about this, the previous versions were completely wrong, I hope you didn't waste any time trying to code based on them.

Definitely works now - there's code to extract the GPSFS.

http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.15aGPSFS.zip

[kididio]

Hey in7ane, tonight me come up an feature that i´ve missing, and i hope other users too, can u in a future release build in an converter from a netstumbler (wifi spot finder) summary file to a deniska poi file, that would be very cool, so we can add our Hotspots in a tiny map on the psp.
if you need input, say it, thx :)

[danastasiei]

I have downloaded a ttc toronto map for this program, and i have found the same map on internet as a pdf. Is it possible to transform other maps in pdf format, so they can be used for mapthis? How?
thanks

[kamatschka]

So..

I need really help in making a ROUTE with pois...

So.. I will make a Route ..

I'm going to the TAB called Direction in in7anes App and I'm Choosing Map24 at te right to create a route..

in the left i'm writing the StartPoint and the Destination and let map24 create a route..

So what must I do now to get the shown route in map24 to a POI File?!

when i'm pressing at the Right on the LIST button then it says ... No POIs !!!!


soo.. when I'm using Google Map to crate the Route it' also actually not working...


and at Local.Life i cannot get a route from a Street to another street.. it's only working with TOwnNames!!
but thats too inaccurately!!

Can someone help me?!


Thank you!!!

[joeschmoe.lyt]

Hello all. I was just catching up after some time away. Has anyone setup some webspace yet for sharing maps? Once I find some time to invest in making a map of my major city area, complete with poi's and all the bells and whistles, I'd be more than happy to share it.

[danastasiei]

and I'd be more than happy to download your shares. When do u think about mapping Toronto CA?
10x

[louiepsp]

Im running osx but cant download maps....has anyone posted pre made uk maps anywhere?..that would be so helpful for us macoids.

[deniska]

Im running osx but cant download maps....has anyone posted pre made uk maps anywhere?..that would be so helpful for us macoids.

Open - postings of pre-made maps would conflict with google's and other's TOS agreements.

Of course, you could always ask someone to generate a map for you (please don't PM me though ;-)) and use p2p for transfer...

[deniska]

I finally got some free time and inserted GPSFS logic in to MapThis. Here is the link to a current (beta) build: http://deniska.dcemu.co.uk/bin/mapViewer_v03.5.rar
(this contains eboot.pbp files only, use it with v03 system files)

http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.15aGPSFS.zip should be used to generate GPSFS map files.

GPSFS (GPS File System) is a container format that we came up with in order to store all map imagery in one file.

Main Benefits:
- much faster PC to PSP transfer speed
- smaller size on memory stick
- faster than zip access times

From this build and on, GPSFS replaces the zip format support.

As I already pointed out, this is a beta build. I 'd appreciate any feedback and help testing it...

So far I only tried it with 256x map, using png tiles.

[Russoxley187]

I tell you what,
I'm gonna have to quit my job to keep up with all the changes and updates you make...
Where do you get the time..
I'll test it out and let you know...

[Russoxley187]

Keep telling me that the zoom level is not avail, or my connection is times out. I might want to try redownloading the map.
No matter how low I zoom in.
Any clue?
Never had that prob with the other versions.
And its on simple not advanced, with google hybrid maps.

[in7ane]

deniska, thanks for the update! the file system switch over works great (tested maps 256x to 4x, jpeg and png, missing tiles, directions and pois). Seems to be about a 30% space saving on the MS from just being formatted as FAT32, and I'd imagine a lot better from the default FAT PSP format.

The only issue/not yet implemented that I could find is that the top coordinate bar is always shown (even if there was no coords.txt and therefore x and y set to -1).

Russoxley187, does the previous version still work for you? If it does, let me know exactly what you are doing and I'll try to replicate the error. If not - my wild guess is something like Norton Internet Security is blocking the download connections.

[deniska]

Ups.. forgot to implement top bar logic for the new format... will do the change shortly..
in7ane, tx for the tip.
Russoxley187, try to create a very small map first (4-8x) and if it does not work, zip it post it here so we could try it...

[in7ane]

Russoxley187, if you are downloading from Google Satellite or Google Hybrid (which downloads from satellite) - they ban your IP for a few hours if you get too many tiles from them.

[GIS]

Thanks for the update :)
I have test : 4x4, 16x16, 64x64. It is OK

Main Benefits:
- much faster PC to PSP transfer speed : YES YES YES YES :)
- smaller size on memory stick : YES YES :)
- faster than zip access times : YES YES :)

THX deniska & in7ane

[Russoxley187]

Like GIS said,

Its much better, ALOT faster and smaller...

I love it.
You guys are great...

[deniska]

in7ane, can we change the GPSFS spec a bit?
I propose to conver all 8 byte sections to 4 bytes (char[4] or int32 respectively)
With int32, we still should be able to adress files upto 4GB in size. Honestly, I am not even shure if curent sdk supports adressing larger files...
And we'll save 4 bytes per map tile...
Well, let me know what you think...

[in7ane]

deniska, if it's for coding convenience (eg. you are having to cast/convert int64s to int32s everywhere) then certainly. Then it's best to make the switch to int32 as soon as possible so people don't end up with too many int64 maps.

If for space - it's not really worth it, I tried a worst case scenario (msn map of east africa - all one color and only town names and very few main roads), with a 128x128 map 21844 tiles the file is 9057613 bytes a saving of 4 bytes per tile will only bring that down by 87376 bytes - just under a 1% saving.

Then there's having to reconvert maps for those who already made the jump (ok, just my laziness). And I'm still holding out for the up to 32GB memory sticks (FAT32 will actually prevent larger than 4GB files, so it would be a matter of spanning multiple files).

[deniska]

The entire GPSFS thingie is still just "work in progress" kind of thing...
Since I did not do an official release, I doubt that many people are actually using it.. so it's ok to change it at this stage..
I did some additional testing - the thing gets pretty sluggish on large maps (512x and more)
I did some SW optimizations (like caching the indexes into a table in memory, so I don't have to do 2 fseek and 2 reads) still fseek(s) over a large file take pretty long time... So perhaps we should consider splitting GPSFS file in to 100Mb chunks.

[Russoxley187]

I'm using it, but you are correct... It is kinda sluggisn on larger maps.
I thin I'm gonna gpo back to where i was before.
I'll wait until you release it officially.

[in7ane]

deniska, how about a small change to the setup like this then:

The IDX fields change to two int32's - the first containing the file number (0 to N) and the second the offset within that file.

And each file (GPSFS, GPSFS1 to GPSFSN) is 100MB (well, just over). Giving pretty much unlimited map size :)

Let me know what you think (alternatively to 100MB, can have it where there are always 100, or user definable number, GPSFS files of roughly equal size if smaller files provide a proportional speed improvement).

If the file-offset format above is ok - I think I can implement it pretty quickly.

[deniska]

Sounds good, let's do it..
As to the number of GPSFS files, let's make it always 5 no matter what what overall the map size is..
This way I can open all file descriptors right away, and keep them open...
Let's see how that works out...

[in7ane]

deniska, changes from the previous format:

There are now 5 files (GPSFS, GPSFS1, GPSFS2, GPSFS3, and GPSFS4) - at this stage latter ones will be missing for a 4 tile map (do you want empty files in that case? or just assume ridiculous maps don't get created).

The IDX fields have been split into IDXfile and IDXidx both being int32's (other numerics stay int64) IDXfile is 0 to 4 IDXidx has the same logic as before EXCEPT it resets to 0 for each new file - so (1) if the next IDX is 0 use file.length instead (2) if you were using idx > 0 to identify existing tiles that needs to be >= 0 now (yes, took me ages to find in my own code).

Is this ok, or were you thinking of different IDX/file logic?

http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/gmdl0.2.15aGPSFS2.zip

Note: <-oGPSFS will decode the old GPSFS format.

[deniska]

Here is the 1.5 EBOOT.PBP implementing the above logic...
I did not have time to do any testing - just tested 64x map over PSPLink..
Let me know if it works for you...

[in7ane]

deniska, I tested different sized PNG/JPEG POIs and directions and everything seems to work (thanks for the no lat/lon logic).


Except one thing - missing tiles (thought this may be due to IDXoffset=0 first/last tile in the files, but the second example seems to suggest otherwise):

2x002005.png is not displayed from this (London tube) map:
http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/GPSFS2error.zip

and

http://homepage.mac.com/f.levin/psp/GPSFS2error2.zip
has one tile at the top zoom level missing and two at the base level.

GPSFS_Extracted in both to illustrate that they do extract ok.


Also, dummy files are now created for small maps (eg. the error2 one above) and seems to work ok.

[GIS]

I tested a map:1024x and it´s faster than the "October 24th, 2006, 03:52" version.
When you select a 1024x map (15 sek) it is not as fast as the privius version. A littel messsage whit "Reading Map" or a progress bar, would be fine.

[GIS]

I tested the new beta version whit Dark_Alex's Custom Firmware 2.71 SE-B'. It is running fine, just place mapViewer in GAME150 folder.

[deniska]

I tested a map:1024x and it´s faster than the "October 24th, 2006, 03:52" version.
When you select a 1024x map (15 sek) it is not as fast as the privius version. A littel messsage whit "Reading Map" or a progress bar, would be fine.

Thanks for the report...
The new version loads all tile indexes in to the main memory and that takes a few seconds in the beginning... but after the initial load the map should respond much faster than the previous version...
There are still a few things to be tweaked...and bugs to be patched there...

[deniska]

I tested the new beta version whit Dark_Alex's Custom Firmware 2.71 SE-B'. It is running fine, just place mapViewer in GAME150 folder.
Did you check the GPS functionality too??

[Russoxley187]

Deniska,

I have been wrestling with this for a few days now...
When I use the Map Prog I can make small map of a city very easy..
However when trying to make larger maps It will only zoom in to the middle of the page.
I know is not that hard, but its kicking my butt.
Can I use the simple function to get an area map like below?
Or do I have to use advanced?
What do i put in for zoom?
I'm lost in the sauce...
Thanks in advance...
http://www.executiveonehomes.com/nc%20map.png

[deniska]

There is no simple way to "circle around" the area that you need.
What you probably want to do is following:
1) select the closest zoom that covers the entire area that you need.
2) Click "advanced" button on the left.
3) Click "Preview 1x" button - it will show you the popup with the map that you gonna get and the estinations on the size of that map.
If the size is way to large for your MS, click "Get Numbers" button and adjust "min zoom" field to higher value (you can check the preview again to make sure the map file size is appropriate) untill you get the desired file size for the map.

Click on "Pull Files" button and "uncheck" the areas that you don't need on your map. This will further lower the overall file size of your map.
Click on the top of that popup to start downloading the map...

[Russoxley187]

I have a 1 gig stick, so size for the most part is not a prob.
But when I follow your directions it still does not give me a big map coverage and small zoom.
I do not need to zoom in too much just by two levels or so. It does not take the entire area, only a small part of that map and zooms in.
The pic I posted is what I zoomed it to, and only need to zoom 2 levels lower.
It just is not doing the entire map. Really strange.
If i take the map I have and rip it, it will not give me the entire map.
Only the middle of the posted pic...
I'm tryin to not confuse you... Hope this helps...

Basically, when I click the preview 1X it does not match the overall map and it does not give me the whole map.
Do I have to zoom out farther?
My thinking was that Whatever it shows on the screen it will make a map out of, Like the encircled area.
Thats what I need. From the bottom to the top left.
Still confused?
I am...
Thanks for your help anyways...

[GIS]

Did you check the GPS functionality too??

Yes, the GPS functionality is working fine.
No UMD in device and wifi is shut off as in "normal" Firmware 1.50, (I use
GPSlim 236 receiver from Holux).

[deniska]

I have a 1 gig stick, so size for the most part is not a prob.
But when I follow your directions it still does not give me a big map coverage and small zoom.
I do not need to zoom in too much just by two levels or so. It does not take the entire area, only a small part of that map and zooms in.
The pic I posted is what I zoomed it to, and only need to zoom 2 levels lower.
It just is not doing the entire map. Really strange.
If i take the map I have and rip it, it will not give me the entire map.
Only the middle of the posted pic...
I'm tryin to not confuse you... Hope this helps...

Basically, when I click the preview 1X it does not match the overall map and it does not give me the whole map.
Do I have to zoom out farther?
My thinking was that Whatever it shows on the screen it will make a map out of, Like the encircled area.
Thats what I need. From the bottom to the top left.
Still confused?
I am...
Thanks for your help anyways...

I still don't understand exactly what the problem is..
Perhaps in7ane can look in to it and post some comments...

Keep in mind that the tool tries to round up your selection to the nearest tile at most distant zoom - so yes - the preview (and the resulting map may shift a bit)
If you need just 2-3 zoom levels - then the different between max and min zoom settings must be 2 or 3 respectively..

[deniska]

Here is yet another beta build in which I fixed a couple of GPSFS bugs and added
"distance to marker" for regular (GPS off) map mode.
Since I am preloading tile indexes in to the memory, there may be significant (10-15 sec) initial load delay for large (1024x+) maps. I put in a little "PLEASE WAIT...." message... After the initial load the map seems to have pretty fast load times...

Anyway, give it a try and let me know if you find any bugs...

[in7ane]

deniska, everything works as far as I can see, thanks!

One request though, could you include scale images for -1, and -2 zoom levels (for satellite imagery).

Let me know when you want to make this final so I can get a newer version GMDL out at the same time.

[GIS]

I have ben testede the new version (mapThis_v3[1].7_1.5_EBOOT.rar) and everything works OK.

Error : (I use Dark_Alex's Custom Firmware 2.71 SE-B')
I have a map (1024x+). When I zoom to the low Map-level (tested in map-level: 1x, 2x and 4x) and move cursor for long time (one minute), MapThis is suddenly showing the attached Image (I have maps in this arear). I have done this severel times in defect maps places. If I then try to use MapThis, example to zoom out, the application will stop working. I do not get this error in map-level 8x.

[deniska]

This happaned because of inefficient garbage collection algorithm I used to clean up unused tiles from the memory... It was too slow on large maps (especially noticable at close zooms) - and system ran out of memory...
I re-wrote it with more efficient one (hopefully got it right) please re-test with new eboot...
Also, added the scale support for negative zoom settings (applicable for satellite maps) - just copy the attached scale.png image to system directory...

[gl0om]

Russoxley187, if you are downloading from Google Satellite or Google Hybrid (which downloads from satellite) - they ban your IP for a few hours if you get too many tiles from them.

So how can I load a large map from Google Hybrid? I was banned 2 or 3 times already =)

[Russoxley187]

try yahoo....

[gl0om]

maps of yahoo, msn etc. are of awful quality and hasnt 2x zoom level pictures. Well.. ill try to load my map manually =)

[in7ane]

I took another look at Chinese maps (maps.51ditu.com), the setup is as follows:

To go north a row add 1048576 (at any zoom it seems)

To zoom in subtract 1099511627771 to get the bottom left corner

To go east add 1

What remains is the secondary parts of the url (1 at zoom 11 to 8, 2 at 7 to 4, 3 at 3 to 0) which I imagine may be to do with the maximum number of files per directory that they store. If somebody has any ideas, it would be much appreciated.

Some urls:

http://bimg.51ditu.com/0/0802/1113/2049516/12146739999.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/0/0802/1113/2050516/12146740000.png

http://bimg.51ditu.com/0/0802/1113/2049515/12145691423.png


http://bimg.51ditu.com/14/15393162788866.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/13/14293652209669.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/12/13194142679051.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/11/0100/12094635245590.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/10/0200/10995132006444.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/9/0501/9895636107352.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/8/1103/8796155936945.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/7/0100/0607/7696708272483.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/6/0200/1215/6597324571334.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/5/0501/0814/5498068796813.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/4/1103/0112/4399067826970.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/3/0100/0607/25909/3300577515060.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/2/0200/1215/51803/2203108519016.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/1/0501/0814/1293263/1107682154704.png
http://bimg.51ditu.com/0/1103/0112/2826782/16342102432.png


gl0om, a dynamic ip would help - beyond that... it's just under 1000 tiles at a time :/

[deniska]

Perhaps, in7ane, as "official creator and maintainer" of the download tool can add "map download corrector" feature where the application would check all the tiles in the existing map and download whatever is missing..