GEO DATA GEODTA Question, HELP, WTF

[zerodays]

Hi all.

first I am here to learn and get this piece of gps device working.
You can probably assume that I am a completely Nubs, but please do try to read my problems carefully, and if you still find me nubs because I did not read the tutorials/forums carefully, then please do post the link here.

I am not discussing anything about Mapthis! softwares, here yet.

Just a pure GDML 0.5.02B (the latest)
I live in Auckland, New Zealand.

It seems to me that, a lot of GDML and Mapthis! are optimized for USA and Canada... somehow, I feel that way....

I've been trying to do various of stuffs. All I want is to get it working. as smooth as possible.

First, Google Map. Somewhat somehow I got the map downloaded working. I followed the guideline posted somewhere here.

Next, Geodata. WTF is this to be honest. I've been searching for ages on entire google search, and yet no one is explaining any of this. I know nothing about Geography, I barely know Lat/Log are, at least thats how GPS works. and maps are just 'illusions' to show on screen. at least thats how GPS works)

=Question 1.
I thought I downloaded the Map that includes street names, etc into JPG. Ain't I correct?
From the previews of my downloaded map. It looks I am right. (i.e., st names, etc are 'embedded' as JPG picture)

=Question 1.5.
I know what POIs are. such as Patrol station, macdonalds, etc. Google obviously knows big names such as 'schools' etc,
Then is there any ways to simply RETIREVE ALL of them (e.g., retrieve all POIs from Auckland area) ?
I can not find this as this is more to do with Google disallowing abusive behaviors?
As well, Google bans IPs (for Sat image) whenever I download more than thousands (out of 10s to 100 thounds), which means, it is impossible to download. and the Pop-up seems to be very buggy, there are no automatic re-trieve, i need to click OK button to proceed to next step,. thus I gave up on Hybrid images.

=Question2.
Then WHAT is Geodata for? hmm. maybe for searching St names? maybe showing names into 'TXT' into (already embedded) JPG maps??
I am lost here.
I tried to open the geodata.dat, it's unreadable in normal text editor.
I also tried the 'working' geodata.dat from other countries (i.e., the one from Netherland, i think), still, unreadable.

I know that all USA and Canada and Netherland dudes have noproblems of 'Geodata' because GDML said so. (which probably means the authors have retrieved nearly all, and linked on the website)

In my case, I need to get Geodata manually, using Google (semi-manual)

=Question3.
I got the map size of 200MB of Auckland, NZ. Not bad. I still don't know what is Geodata for.
Still, I now go to Geodata button.
Step 1/3 (Load the map) I did, good, loaded.
Step 2/3 (Select) shows 64 segments.

Here, Why can't I simply select all and download all ?
I can not find the way to select all, or any ways to automatically download Geodata.

Further serious problems. whenever there are some oceans/seas in one of the segment (out of 64), The download simply fails after it sees 'merely' 20 !!
Why is this? there are 5776 (75 by 75) to be requested, and I why is it simply failing just because of 20 ??

Step 3/3 You can not overwrite/save geodata.dat. I need to either delete or rename the geodata.data before I can refresh the new.

Yet. I still don't have any clue why I need geodata. But one thing for sure I need it, is because people seemed to be wanting it !! damn it!


Additional Question........

Route/directions/etc:

To do so, I need internet to retireve and Manually select TO/FROM from google-map, then download into PSP.
Erm... I am a bit lost here... Why would anyone wants to 'manually' download the route and finally fake it on PSP-GPS...?? I think this sounds silly.
But to me, this looks like,

"while I am driving, and I want to go somewhere, and need to know the directions and locations,
I must to go back home, go to google-map and search the direction, and download that info to your psp, get back to my car, and drive using the updated PSP-route direction ?????????????? "

Shouldnt it be opposite way around...? Again, I'm lost here. To my knowledge, once the maps and geodata(whatever it is) are ALL stored into PSP, the psp 'should' be able to perform the 'basic' ShortestPath Algorithms to find the route/directinos?
Actually, does Mapthis allows users to enter Street names and find some path?


I need some serious help here please.
thank you very much in advance!!!!

[Nieko]

Wow...

It seems to me that, a lot of GDML and Mapthis! are optimized for USA and Canada... somehow, I feel that way....

You're right, it is . When I was constructing Dutch geodata, I saw 5 bytes were reserved for postal codes, as in the US 5 digits are used.

Next, Geodata. WTF is this to be honest.

Geodata is a database containing a number of streets with their respective location (city, zip code, state/province and latitude/longitude). You can use this to look up where a specific street is (e.g., you enter "Main street" and "Some town" in the geodata search), and MapThis'll show you where exactly that is on the map. Reverse lookup means MapThis'll show you what the nearest street is called.

=Question 1.
I thought I downloaded the Map that includes street names, etc into JPG. Ain't I correct?

Yes, the maps you download consist only of pictures. You can not use the street names in here, because they can't be read by MapThis.

=Question 1.5.
I know what POIs are. such as Patrol station, macdonalds, etc. Google obviously knows big names such as 'schools' etc,
Then is there any ways to simply RETIREVE ALL of them (e.g., retrieve all POIs from Auckland area) ?

Not as far as I know. You can Google a bit for POI download sites for New Zealand and see what they have.

As well, Google bans IPs (for Sat image) whenever I download more than thousands (out of 10s to 100 thounds), which means, it is impossible to download.

GMDL has a feature where it allows you to wait a number of seconds between downloading tiles. If you turn this on, it might work. However, this'll take really a lot of time for big maps. I've never really bothered :P

I tried to open the geodata.dat, it's unreadable in normal text editor.
I also tried the 'working' geodata.dat from other countries (i.e., the one from Netherland, i think), still, unreadable.

To keep the file small, zlib compression has been used. Also, latitude/longitude etc. are stored as 4 byte integers, not as strings.

Route/directions/etc:
To do so, I need internet to retireve and Manually select TO/FROM from google-map, then download into PSP.
Erm... I am a bit lost here... Why would anyone wants to 'manually' download the route and finally fake it on PSP-GPS...?? I think this sounds silly.
But to me, this looks like,
"while I am driving, and I want to go somewhere, and need to know the directions and locations,
I must to go back home, go to google-map and search the direction, and download that info to your psp, get back to my car, and drive using the updated PSP-route direction ?????????????? "

Unfortunately, MapThis cannot calculate routes from point A to point B itself, so yes, you will need to download routes beforehand. Using http://getroute.nieko.net/ you can also do that on the PSP itself, providing you have access to a WiFi point.

Shouldnt it be opposite way around...? Again, I'm lost here. To my knowledge, once the maps and geodata(whatever it is) are ALL stored into PSP, the psp 'should' be able to perform the 'basic' ShortestPath Algorithms to find the route/directinos?

Geodata doesn't contain edges, only nodes. Deniska is working on vector data implementation, perhaps then a shortest path algorithm can indeed be used.

Actually, does Mapthis allows users to enter Street names and find some path?

Yes, a straight path . Other than that, no, at least, not yet.

[deniska]

Geodata doesn't contain edges, only nodes. Deniska is working on vector data implementation, perhaps then a shortest path algorithm can indeed be used.

would you be interested in writing the routing algorithm code? if so, we can discuss the details.. the latest "geoline.dat" format, that I am working on should have all required data for route calculation..

[Nieko]

Well... Recently I haven't had that much free time anymore, and the upcoming months it'll probably be even less (I'll be gone for one month soon as well).

If you have questions though, or want to brainstorm, I'd be interested .

[deniska]

Well... Recently I haven't had that much free time anymore, and the upcoming months it'll probably be even less (I'll be gone for one month soon as well).

If you have questions though, or want to brainstorm, I'd be interested .

I don't really have any big issues other than free time to actually implement all those things I want to implement... this is why I was hopping to unload some of these tasks on someone else

[Nieko]

I know, and had I had the time, I would've seriously considered it. Hopefully someone else can step in .

[zerodays]

Nieko, I must say that I am very grateful to you, and sorry for my late post..

I've been mad on trying to get GPS working, etc, etc

Good News is that,
My PSP-Slim 3.71M33-3 with latest Mapthis5.02 is working. I.e., I travel around, things work, I can see where I'm going, etc.

Sadly, my Geodata.dat is still not working.

I know that Geodata has been retrived correctly. I can confirm this vy simply going to the temp folder (which GDML) created.

All of these temp folders are only 340kB. And Geodata.dat is 135kB.
(This file is stored in the folder of _MyMap)

I can read these temp files, and i can read the names of the ST with their long/lat,

I am just not sure Why mapthis (which should do it automatically) does not 'seemed' to load it up.

I can confirm this,
- by attempting to search for a word, --> not found
- by reversing one of the very crowded place (which I am very sure I've retrieved the geodata), --> not found.

thus, geodata.dat is either not working, or mapthis is not loading is properly,
or..... geodata.dat is currpted..??

Please help.. Cheers.

[zerodays]

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/sho...t=76428&page=2

Slightly discussed in the above thread. However, I see no solutions...

Auckland Geodata (temp text) I get is very simple.

E.g.,

......
ABEL RD,1,+174461960-36645600
ALPINE RD,1,+174475970-36615790
......

Cheers.

[Nieko]

Could you post the geodata.dat you have? Then I can take a look at it.

[zerodays]

ok, i've attached, this..

cheers...