Windows maps download tool for MapThis! by in7ane

[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).

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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?