Tips & tricks using map tiles in memory card

Dragonsbane · Newbie Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 2 Phone Type: Unknown

Cristian, i was just wondering... Isnt it possible to simply store all the tiles on a ZIP file and then copy only that file to the phone? Of course, the application will need to be modified to be able to read the tiles inside the ZIP file... I dont know how complex can this be to implement, but it sounds pretty neat.
Using a ZIP will solve all the storage, gallery, slow-downs that everyone is reporting when using too much tiles.

Cristian Streng · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:39 am Post subject:

CrazyTerabyte · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 11:28 am Post subject:

Well... Maybe the only "easy" solution is to store all tiles inside the .JAR file itself. This will work, but some phones have a limit on how big the .JAR file can be. Some phones also don't allow Java Apps to be installed on memory card, only on phone's built-in memory. And this solution will be less flexible, because you will need to reinstall the app every time you download more tiles (and regenerate the .JAD certificate if you plan to access the memory card).

Cristian Streng · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 1:23 pm Post subject:

Dragonsbane · Newbie Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 2 Phone Type: Unknown

CrazyTerabyte · Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 3:07 am Post subject:

Cristian, I was thinking... The MSDict dictionaries for J2ME are pretty big (one of them has a .jar with 5MB). The dictionary data is split on many small files inside the .jar itself.

If the user is willing to remake the JAR file every time he wants to change/add maps, maybe you could add support for reading maps from withing .JAR. Most of the code is already there for reading offline maps.

However, I think, but I'm not sure, that reading files inside .JAR can "seek". So, I guess (if I'm correct) it will be possible to store 16/32/64/128 tiles on each file, store all files inside the .JAR and read them very fast.

Well, just an idea...

Cristian Streng · Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 8:15 am Post subject:

CrazyTerabyte · Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:01 pm Post subject:

Cristian Streng

We finally have a Windows GUI for downloading map tiles compatible with MGMaps. It's called gMapMaker, see http://forum.mgmaps.com/viewtopic.php?t=1116 for more details.

bk · Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:27 pm Post subject:

anyone have any maps they've already download of a particular region that they'd be willing to share....or is that against someone's TOS?

Cristian Streng · Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:56 am Post subject:

shaunm · Junior Joined: 25 Sep 2007 Posts: 7 Phone Type: Unknown

I'm having the same problem with my K800i being slow. I have been a bit greedy with the entire UK in Zoom 0-14, plus Norfolk in 15-16.

It takes my phone 6 minutes and 38 seconds to switch on!!!

Also, I've tried zoom 15 GoogleSat images, but it give a plain white backround (instead of the mgpas logo grey backround.

Any suggestions? I've noticed that most of the files are 2k.

Thanks,

(P.S. I am really impressed with your programm Crisitan, so are my friends including my brother in law who paid £300 for his Sat Nav Laughing

)

Cristian Streng · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:41 pm Post subject:

user6300 · Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:40 am Post subject:

shaunm · Junior Joined: 25 Sep 2007 Posts: 7 Phone Type: Unknown

CrazyTerabyte · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:48 pm Post subject:

The new MGMaps 1.38.05 has a workaround for SonyEricsson phones (.skip() didn't work as expected or didn't work at all on these phones, like mine). So, finally, SonyEricsson users like me can use multiple tiles per file!

Now I'm using 16 tiles per file and I have both Map/Sat/Hyb stored on my memory card. The total file count is 1200, which is way lower than what I previously had (5100 files for just Map in 1 tile per file).

With 4 tiles per file, the speed is almost the same as 1 tile per file. With 16 tiles per file, I can notice a small delay of a second or two before loading each tile, but I can live with that.

A big thank you for Cristian!

(now I'm waiting for stored KML/KMZ files and displaying multiple KML/KMZ at same time)

asinha

Team,

Problem: When you put the large number of files (such as 15000 or more) the files take a large disk size - a normal 150MB (in 15000 files) will grow to 2.0Gb.
Solution: To reduce this, you can choose to format your memory card with smaller allocation units. Reducing to 4kb will remove this problem.

New Problem: However, reducing the memory disk allocation units will significantly reduce the speed of the phone. Not only when you use mgmaps, but also when other applications with any link to memory card.

New solution: The solution lies in NOT formatting the memory card with smaller allocation units. LEAVE the allocation units to DEFAULT. In fact you do not even need to do anything to your disks to solve the problem. The solution is downloading multiple tiles into one file. Mgmaps - tile cache allows you to download multiple tiles into one file - thus by configuring the mgtilecache to download 64 tiles per file i ended up downloading the complete map of New Delhi + NCR - (this should do for the LARGEST cities of the world as the geo spread in this tile is about 90km x 90 km (55miles x 55 miles approx)

With the 64 tiles per file, I got each file size to be about 20mb to 40 mb - Now that reduced the speed of loading the file. So finally for me 32 tiles per file worked out with each file becoming about 10Mb to 18 mb. I have an E90 (me and my wife too) and have 4Gb of memory card. For me the 32 tiles per file is NICE way to get my stored maps working - no speed issues, no loading issues.

No credits to self - but all credits to the wonderful piece of work called mgmaps.

Let me know, if anyone has any problems in getting these settings running.

Alok Sinha

archibald · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:01 pm Post subject:

don't think this has been addressed in this thread but apologies if it has...

i've made the mgmapscache folder hidden so now the gallery loading time is ok again. however, the thousands of tiles still appear in the gallery so it's a pain to find photos etc. is there a way to fix this?

love this app otherwise. really looking forward to the next updates and being able to export kml routes and draw a line of where i've been through. good work Smile