Mapthis 5.2+ Next version GUI (Config) suggestions.

Firstly, I've been running 5.2 on CFW3.71M33-3 nicely. mostly works great.:thumbup:

I did not really want to start a new thread, but it seems that it is a good idea to add some GUI. If mods think it is not appropirate, then could you please merge this into other thread. cheers:)


This is what/where I'm thinking...

Afterall, GPS should be easy to be treated with the minimum effort, under car-driving.
In particular, I will focus on a simple GUI/Script/Configs.
I do feel that I am just adding another 'silly' request to the 'real men', because I do feel that fixing/updating my requests are minor-improvements, which is a lot quicker and easier for them...
You know who you are..:D

===Number one====
Auto-Sat Mode:
I believe that almost everyone has the Mapthis working, with appropriate settings. We can further auto this by telling the program to
= as soon as maps loaded, It is at 'red-signal', it will 'auto' set to 111Mhz to attempt the Sat findings and locks.
= Once sats are locked, it will 'auto' set to 333Mhz for faster map viewings/loadings.
= If Sats are all lost (i.e., no green signal) then it will revert back to 111Mhz, in order to find the Sat faster.

(In short, auto set to 111 whenever the Sat is say less than 3, then everything back to 333.)
(Actually, now I am wondering why 111 is faster at locking? I thought it was other way around, or i am missing some gps-locking/program structures? heh)

= Auto-set to 'user' desire mode, e.g., default to night-mode at the start, etc

=GUI config for config.txt, and ability to see the different effets, etc..
I know that current one has config.txt editor. But it would be nice if Mapthis can 'reload' the changes, I think most of config can be YES/NO, or either select from a simple lists..
and simply convert back to config.txt....


===Number Two===
GPS-recording D-PAD:
1. It seems to me that, well, the more I think about it, the GPS-record mode should be set to 'NOT' in Left-D-Pad, but rather somewhere else.
For a strong GUI consistency, LEFT and RIGHT D pad should be rotatable (just like Up/Down zoom). I think currently Right D pad has too many things to get back onto...
i.e., I have to press this several times to view what I want.

Speed-Warning:
works nicely, if I remember correctly, the warning signs are in the top or center...
Can this messagebox be removed to bottom side? and a bit smaller would be good, the red-flashing light itself is flashy enough to be notified :)

Geodata searching:
1. I think all UMD games uses sony's XMB key-input, I think these games simplies call-out the sony' key-input functions, is it not possible for Mapthis to follow this XMB input as well?
It seems that, It is very confusing or hard to get used to both versions..



Two questions., Sorry if it has been answers...

Since all JPG titles are embedded with st names, (and many of your maps should be readable in North pointing Up),
Does anyone have trouble Reading the maps if you are travelling directly to South? (as the letters are all upside down) Lol.
Or.... In this case, how would I fix so that Mapthis won't attempt to Set North to Up?? ;)

Map tile Loading... Any optimzations?
It sort of laggs when I zoom into, etc.
My map is only 200MB, and if I use GSFPS util, I can get it down to 100MB, still I don't see any speed increase in loading? (well except the less storage)
=Then, what is the best/fastest way to load/view around the map? No compressions? i.e., JPG with the least compression? lol:rolleyes:



Personal toughts on Mapthis....
I think, since I (or we) will be using this for purely for Car-driving anyway, (and I have two PSP, hehe) in order for GPS/mapthis to be *permently* working nicely and fast, etc....

1. Should be fast, and should requre big memory stick, "caching" stuffs into memory-stick is also a good idea), (sorry, I havent tried the stable-fast 0.4x version in the FAQ, I will do that later...)
2. I do not really agree on 'compressing' (such as jpg maps, etc) as this will slow down the PSP in whatever loading/etc:rolleyes: correct me if im wrong.
3. I think starting up mapthis/loading the map is actually quite fast, in a matter of 2-3sec, but as soon as I start zooming in/out, things are slowed down, it would be great if mapthis attempts to load a bit further into memory. e.g., prefeting zoom levels in advance incase of user zooms (which is most likely!) I really don't mind waiting 10sec+ for mapthis to start up and load things stably, rather than 2sec start up, but jaggy and laggy maps.
This also implies the fact that we are going to wait at least 20-30sec for Sat-lock anyway!!.

Cheers, and sorry for my rough-quick-simply-self-centred-request.... :p

Cheers

Thanks for the feedback!
There are some really nice points made there.. I'll try to comment on them tomorrow..

hehs.. makeing lock in 111mhz.... is faster on tis ver of mapthis or all ver in mapthis?

Deniska, Here are my comments on new settings of config.txt

Currently implemented feature set:

CURSORSPEED=7,
I think you should add more than 5, I think most PSP gurus are sweat with 7 or 8, (It's like a mouse settings I believe :D)

CACHEMAPINDEX=1,
I am not too sure how fast this effects, but I am 100% sure that this is slow if I leave it at 111 with this ON. (than 111 with OFF)
However, Setting it to 333 is very very fast !
(But still, even at 333, zoom Up/Down is bit laggy, I see the Black Blank titles being loaded....)
So here, I think we need some tile-optimzation.
Yes, I know it is not a great deal, but we may want to see non of those 'black-tiles' !



Future add-in:

LRSPEED =
L or R is still not fast ! :p, maybe next version can u rotate it faster?
e.g., LRSPEED=1 (current setting, we can increase higher, say 2, 3, 4...)


STARTUPFREQUENCY=111, you should add something like
AFTERFREQUENCY=333,
so that it will immediately go to 333 ! (after the Sat lock)
(I think delay of 'checking the signals should be around 1 or 2 seconds)
Actually, as soon as the program starts
always 333 for say,,, 10sec
(so that maps are all loaded and cached sweat, then search for Sats at 111, then after some sats found and locked, goes back to 333)


OPPOSITEDIRECTION= 0 or 1
For 1, if the program finds that a user is driving to South (we can easily find this),
then most likely the Roads/Streets are upside-down and unreadable,
So,,,setting to 1 will disallow the chase-up: user will see that he/she is driving down-wards to South


CACHEMAPLEVEL=PERCENTAGE
If I put say 50, This allows Mapthis to cache 50% of the map (starting from the center of the map)
Could be a bit tricky and unncessary...But still..

or

CACHENEARTITLES=0 or 1
setting to 1, will attempt to 'cache' Blocks of titles near the locations I am in. It should try to cache say other 8 BLOCKS from all directions.
For example using NumberPad, I will be in Number 5, and then mapthis will try to load up maps for 2 (South), 8 (North), 4(West) 4-8 (North-West), etc..

Maybe you can further do this by taking more blocks, rather than just assuming 3x3, you can do 5x5 ,
where a user will be located in NumberPad 13 (That is if there exist a number pad from 1 to 25 :D)

789
456 <---5 is where i am, (3x3 matrix)
123

12345
67890
12345 <--13 is where I am (5x5 matrix) In this, at least I get 2 blocks of titles loaded in advance any directions
67890
12345

So that, whenever I use Analog pad to view-around areas near me, then I get no slow loadings of tile...
And I think the delay time for 'when-to-check' should be about 1 or 2 sec, so that the program will check
whether I am in new location or not, etc,,

This should apply from say,, Level 1-3 only (only the close zooms), I don't think it is needed if a zoom is already out,
as we can already likely to see the whole areas by this level.
(we still can, But in the current version, I don't see 'that' much of slow-down or delay in loading tiles when zoom is out)


Non-configuration improvements:
- Again, Left D-pad (LEFT) should be oppisite function of (RIGHT), hmm,
can we put GPS-record on somewhere else...?

- Can we disable sound ? (I believe it uses extra memory :p) I might try to delete the folders of audio...
LOL... But it might be still useless if the program attempts to load Audio libs when the program starts..


some additional comment:
Since I have PSP slim versions, would these make some differences in loading maps, etc?
Or does not matter with the bigger memory capacity?

Cheers

My modified version addresses some of the issues you mentioned. It is based on an old version of MapThis though.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=78535

i made my version of night mode to only come on between 7pm and 7am. deniska u shld implement that. the code is quite easy actually.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zerodays

(Actually, now I am wondering why 111 is faster at locking? I thought it was other way around, or i am missing some gps-locking/program structures? heh)

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The lower the CPU speed the less electromagnetic interference the GPS dongle will receive, meaning a faster fix. Personally I don't really notice the difference between 111 and 333MHz. An extension cable works a lot better :).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zerodays

= Auto-set to 'user' desire mode, e.g., default to night-mode at the start, etc

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This can be done in the config.txt using STARTUPSCREENMODE and NIGHTMODE.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zerodays

1. It seems to me that, well, the more I think about it, the GPS-record mode should be set to 'NOT' in Left-D-Pad, but rather somewhere else.
For a strong GUI consistency, LEFT and RIGHT D pad should be rotatable (just like Up/Down zoom). I think currently Right D pad has too many things to get back onto...
i.e., I have to press this several times to view what I want.

---

I agree. Deniska: is NMEA recording still used a lot? If not, GPS recording to a POI file could be placed in the menu (when pressing Start) e.g., at the location where "Read GPS from unit/file" is located now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zerodays

Geodata searching:
1. I think all UMD games uses sony's XMB key-input, I think these games simplies call-out the sony' key-input functions, is it not possible for Mapthis to follow this XMB input as well?
It seems that, It is very confusing or hard to get used to both versions..

---

I agree, but I remember deniska said he didn't like Sony's method at all. This would then apply to all text input of course.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zerodays

Since all JPG titles are embedded with st names, (and many of your maps should be readable in North pointing Up),
Does anyone have trouble Reading the maps if you are travelling directly to South? (as the letters are all upside down) Lol.
Or.... In this case, how would I fix so that Mapthis won't attempt to Set North to Up??

---

In previous versions you could switch between North up and Track up. With the former you can always read the street names :). I'm not sure if this still works like this in newer versions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zerodays

Map tile Loading... Any optimzations?
It sort of laggs when I zoom into, etc.

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I think this mainly has to do with finding the location of the specific tile in the GPSFS file, and not so much the size of it. Not sure though :).

cydus21: 7pm doesn't mean it's dark or not, especially if you live at higher latitudes. Some light receiving dongle or something would be nicer :P.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zerodays

Deniska, Here are my comments on new settings of config.txt


CACHEMAPLEVEL=PERCENTAGE
If I put say 50, This allows Mapthis to cache 50% of the map (starting from the center of the map)
Could be a bit tricky and unncessary...But still..

or

CACHENEARTITLES=0 or 1
setting to 1, will attempt to 'cache' Blocks of titles near the locations I am in. It should try to cache say other 8 BLOCKS from all directions.
For example using NumberPad, I will be in Number 5, and then mapthis will try to load up maps for 2 (South), 8 (North), 4(West) 4-8 (North-West), etc..

Maybe you can further do this by taking more blocks, rather than just assuming 3x3, you can do 5x5 ,
where a user will be located in NumberPad 13 (That is if there exist a number pad from 1 to 25 :D)


some additional comment:
Since I have PSP slim versions, would these make some differences in loading maps, etc?
Or does not matter with the bigger memory capacity?

Cheers

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Caching on psp is tricky since you have only ~20MB of ram at your displosal and it's needed for other stuff too...so I can't cache much more than I already do..
To speedup loading - You best bet is to find a fast memory stick and run the program at 333Mhz

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cydus21

i made my version of night mode to only come on between 7pm and 7am. deniska u shld implement that. the code is quite easy actually.

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Some people may have noticed that I try to stay clear of many "automatic" actions. IMHO this unnecessary device interaction my create more problems than benefits.. In this particular case 7PM cutoff may not work for someone in Africa or even for you in a month, when day length changes.. Of course, due to Murphy's law, it will catch you at most unappropriated time ;-)