Garmin – OpenMTBMap.org – Mountainbike and Hiking Maps based on Openstreetmap

Sorry for delayed Updates

extremecarver — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 20:35:07 +0000

Sorry for not having updated the maps over 3 weeks now. 6 weeks ago I started to order a new code signing certificate - but I had problems fulfilling the requirements and now that since 2 weeks I have all the requirements done - Sectigo is still not validating my data. So today I decided to push updates through without signed installers and signing of other files.

This will surely cause antivirus programs and windows download shield to go havoc. I hope I can get the certificate soon but Sectigo seems unable to work with simple problems as my address once being in English translation and once in romanized script (Istanbul vs Istanmpoul) and the street number (not house or door number) once being there - once not - things which in Cyprus are confusing as every authority has it's own take on how they will publish the address.

For Mac OSx, gmapsupp.img downloads this nearly doesn't matter - but I could not change the map creation procedure to take out the .exe installers for windows so I had decided to wait hoping for a certificate being issued any day...

Well I will now restart the weekly updates - and hopefully soon be able to sign all the files that can be signed again.

Otherwise besides updated map data the bash/batch files had some bugs and some other minor stuff besides updated map data.

Click on the download/hover over it and click the three points "..."

Click on "Keep"

Click on the arrow to "Show More" - then click on "Keep anyway"

Click on More Info

Click on Run Anyway

Overwork of Map Layouts and other News – June 2022

extremecarver — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 11:52:12 +0000

Hi Everyone - wishing you all a good outdoor/MTB season this summer!

To make your biking and outdoor activities even better - I invested a lot of time - partly together with a graphics designer - to improve the layout of the maps regarding to making them nicer to look at. Previously I had tried to design all elements so that they are easiest to distinguish - that however caused the some not so important things - like the differentiation between industrial or residential quarters to stick out too much - while for most people the main importance is if you are in the nature or in a build up area. It's still easy to distinguish between shopping, industrial or residential quarters - but the different places don't pop out of the screen anymore - leaving better contrast to streets and trails - so things that really matter. I also made buildings much more similar - I think the old differentiation between simple buildings and those with touristic or public usage was not as important as to make them a darker grey. Landfills are now moved to show only at very high detail - they showed too early.

Also for all layouts residential streets at resolution 23 (300m) are now shown identical to resolution 24 (200m and below) - I did this to save some screen estate in resolution 23 but I think it's too confusing - increases the learning to read the map too much.

The second big change is an addition of a more standard Topographical map layout. It does not show any information that you would not expect in a normal topographical map for hiking - so it is much easier to read. I therefore also made mtb, bicycle and hiking routes much thinner. They are still visible but much less obvious. It's very simple - tracks get red colour, pathes (singletrail) get brown colour. The more dashed the harder/more difficult/worse condition. There is no more differentiation between residential roads and service roads or tracks with tarmac surface (this differentiation is still visible in the hiking layout) as standard topographical maps also do not differentiate this. An exception to this I made with pedestrian zones - they are in most maps not differentiated - but I kept a differentiation for them. I am thinking about modifying the hiking layout a bit therefore - maybe remove all mtb routes and bicycle routes from it? I usually think hikers like to know them too - but in that case they could use the new simplified topographical map layout which is not specific to one activity.

The simple topographical layout also exists for the VeloMap.

Some more changes over the last weeks: add leisure=track for bikeparks where highway=path is not used (happens sometimes), Fixed a bug that ways with route=hiking were shown dominantly in the VeloMap (so you could assume they have better surface - only applies to ways with unknown surface/tracktype/smoothness). Place=locality POI moved from resolution 23 to 24. They are sometimes used excessively.

And some weeks ago - but only written about in the VeloMap newsletter:

I updated the VeloMap compilation process to include an option to show 20m contourlines but no buildings. With gmapsupp.img downloads this has been possible now for over a year - however on your PC/Notebook you could only chose to have map without buildings and without contourlines.

Now there are the following choices for the VeloMaps:

Map without buildings and without contourlines
Map with 20m conturlines without buildings
Map with 20m contourliens including buidings
Map with 10m contourlines including buildings

Of course you can also install a separate buildings only map, 20m contourlines map and 10m contourlines map if you prefer to create your maps with Garmin MapInstall instead of using the gmapsupp.img downloads. As the buildings layer overlaps sometimes street labels - I will not do this for the OpenMTBMaps - as I assume most people want to have buildings in the OpenMTBMaps, while I guess for VeloMaps it's oly one third or maximum 50% of users wanting to have buildings shown.

I have added a new section to this website with screenshots showing the differences between the layouts: https://openmtbmap.org/about-2/map-legend/

So here some screenshots showing the changes:

The new cleaner layout - OpenMTBMap Wide layout (very similar for VeloMap Wide):

vs the old Wide layout:

The same was done for the desktop layout (I first thought about removing it altogether - because the new layouts are quite nice on desktop too - but yeah desktop layout with lower contrast is still nicer on desktop:

- so the new desktop layout below.

I still have to do some work in implementing those changes for the Fenix layout.

Now on to the new Simple Topographical map layout:

vs the Hiking layout:

vs the wide layout:

And here another screenshot of the new simple Topographical map layout:

11. October 2021 – OpenMTBMap Updates – New Fenix Layout and much more

extremecarver — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 17:52:54 +0000

The past few months most of the work has been done on optimizing the map creation and on updating things on the website and website server. After a broken power supply fan caused the websites to be down for 20 hours in August I decided that I should, after 4.5 years migrate the website to a new server (server hardware is usually good for about 5 years of 24/7 use - then it should be replaced as failures are becoming likely). The broken fan on the PSU was really troublesome as the server provider did not find it first as the server would run just fine in rescue mode - but overheat quickly in real use then shut down. I then decided to also upgrade the map compilation server and optimize a lot of processes (e.g. I noticed that the map compilation was causing way too many writes to the NVME disks and had to optimize many steps and move things to ramdisk away from NVME in order to not prematurely destroy the NVME drives. This excessive writes became apparent with the introduction of the 10m contourlines, and the VeloMap buildings layer).

Also I reworked the whole map creation to create bigger tiles so that you can install larger areas to your devices without suddenly missing an area without any notice because of hitting the 2048 or 4096 tile limit. Devices with 4096 or higher possible tile limit should now be fine with map tiles averaging around 8-10MB (so 4096*8 >> 32GB sd card limit of Garmin devices). I still recommend to only install 6-8GB of maps to a device for speed at boot and search functions (deactivating a map in the GPS device menu does not help with speed of boot or search) but bigger tiles are always a good thing.

Besides countless bugfixes I also worked on a map layout compatible with the 64 colour display of the Fenix 5/6 watches. This was rather complicated as the Fenix watches not only, only have 64 colours - but many of them are hard to distinguish while other colours are so low in contrast that they are hardly visible. I've listened to both user feedback and also got a Fenix 6x to work on it locally. The resulting colours are a bit different from the other maps - and look horrible on Mac/Windows PCs - but work pretty well on the watch itself. Yes the map display on the Fenix cannot compete with dedicated devices - but with the optimized layout it works pretty well to not get lost. Planning a route or a track on the Fenix is pretty cumbersome - but following a route/track downloaded from the net / created in Basecamp works very well now.

Here are some pictures of the map with the new fenix layout - reflecting pretty accurately how the maps look in reality (the sunlight is already a bit low, with stronger sun contrast is better, in shadow contrast is worse - as normal for Garmin transreflective displays):

Notice how the vivid the colors are on the screenshots - other Garmin GPS devices do not have such a huge difference in screenshot vs real life.

So I had to really look for the poppiest of the 64 colors to get a nice rendering. I actually feel the problem is the pretty high DPI of the Fenix watches. they reflect sunlight much worse due to high DPI - with say 60% the resolution things would still be very sharp from normal viewing distance - but with better contrast (Still the Fenix 6x is really good for hiking - for mtbiking I think it is a backup only. The screen is simply too tiny. For hiking it's great and much better than other smartwatches due to the great battery life - which could not be achieved with OLED display). Also due to the high DPI the Fenix layout now uses the widest lines I've ever used. E.g. contourlines are 2 pixels wide instead of 1.

While many people really like the new layouts introduced in July - others preferred the higher contrast of the old layout style. So I backported some important improvements to the old wide/clas layout and they are now included as wide legacy and clas legacy layout. With the introduction of the Fenix layout and the legacy layout I decided to retire the thin layout - however I optimized the clas and clas legacy layout to work better on some older edge devices which before were used best with the thin layout. I cannot maintain too many layouts so the thin layout had to go. Also I spent many hours optimizing the contrast on the new modern (yellow streets) layout so it's easier to differentiate bigger from smaller roads.

And another big update that is visible to all VeloMap users - I decided to move the buildings into a separate layer for the VeloMap just like the contourlines. Before I had gradually decreased the buildings shown to improve map drawing speed on GPS devices and a better contrast for the rest of the map - but it is hard to satisfy everyone here. Some people want to see buildings, others feel they slow down the map in bigger cities as well as simply not needing them. Now you can chose to display them or not and activate/deactivate them just like the contourlines. I guess that most OpenMTBMap users want buildings - so for the OpenMTBMaps they buildings are not in a separate layer.

There are quite a few more fixes on the installer - e.g. the size calculation of maps to be installed was wrong for maps with .7z files for inclusion. Or for some months highway=footway in the OpenMTBMap by default was only routable for foot. I had made a mistake there causing this bug some time ago. Natural=stone (France only) and natural=rock, natural=valley, natural=gorge as well was some other new OSM keys are now displayed. Also I worked on optimising other outdoor features like ridges, couloirs and aretes

The batch/bash files had not been fully compatible with 10m contourlines.

Personally my left knee is creating me big problems and I hope I can soon get stem cell cartilage (ACT) replacement - as I hope not to need a knee replacement not even being 40 years. But my past bad crashes from snowboarding and skiing, amongst 3 ACL replacements and a lot of meniscus removed have rendered my knee unable to do many sports. I hope to return stronger than every before during the last years but this will take quite some time to heal.

20.03.2021 – New Contour Lines for Europe and some countries

extremecarver — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 13:17:21 +0000

Todays (20.03.2021) Europa map comes with new contourlines - New Lidar based contourlines are also available for the following Countries: Switzerland, France, Iceland, Slovakia, Belgium. And in Germany for the state of Sachsen-Anhalt. So please make sure when updating the Europe map to redownload the new contourlines. Actually the country maps of France, Belgium and Iceland had new contourlines for some months. The country maps of Switzerland, Slovakia, Germany and Sachsen-Anhalt will from today/tomorrow onwards have the new contourlines too. Most of western Europe is now covered with LIDAR based altitude data - about half of central Europa, and very little of Eastern Europe. Outside of Europe it's mainly ALOS World data.

Some other recent updates to the maps have been:

Reworking of peak prominence.

Fixing Marina to adapt to current tagging standards which contradict the old ones.

Also use mtb:imba if mtb:scale does not exist.

Various small fixes and changes.

English vs Local Language Maps

extremecarver — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 15:27:55 +0000

Over the last 2 months I invested a load of time to optimize the language / codepage handling of the OpenMTBMaps and VeloMaps.

I had originally implemented a very complicated system trying to make any map also usable for non native speakers of the local language - or people not able to read e.g. arabic or kyrillic. In the end this was a rather big mess even though it kinda worked for many countries.

Now I've changed this - there are local language maps - which are in local language and local script - as well as maps in english for any country that does not primarily use latin script.

Also all continent maps (except Antarctica and North America which are anyhow english speaking) are now available in English or local Language. South-America/Central America english maps will be available for download starting tomorrow.

The theory of how it should work is laid out below - if you find things not working drop a comment. Especially if you find OSM keys which are not implemented yet and would help in improving the map translations.

Map Updates:

Maps that are not available in English - will be updated weekly as before. All maps which are also available in English language - will be updated biweekly alternating between update in English in week 1, and update in local language in week 2 and so forth.

Who needs Unicode maps - a reminder:

Garmin blocked reading in free unicode maps about 2 years ago in their newest devices. However you can look around in the grey areas of the internet and you will find firmwares for basically all those devices unblocking the devices not reading in free unicode maps. This is a small part of the firmware taken out. If you use those changed firmwares only to display free unicode maps - it should be legal at least in European Union. It would not be legal to use those firmwares in order to display "pirated" Garmin original maps. In general of course for countries where latin is not primarily used unicode maps will be superior!

Please note: I will not help you in finding such firmwared. You can use google to find out more about this.

Both Unicode and Non Unicode are available in local and English:

Unicode local language maps: These maps use local language and local script - additionally for POI search for cities usually it's possible to use English as well. So the city Moscow in Russia will display as Москва however you can find it in the POI search also by searching for Moscow (and actually also by German Moskau). The address search will only work in local language - so you need to type: Москва as city in address search. In POI search Москва, Moscow or Moskau is all possible.

Unicode english language maps: These maps use English as label whenever possible (meaning in OSM database). If no English translation is available the maps tries to use English transcription from OSM database. If also no transcription exists - the map will show local language names.

POI search is possible in English, local Language and German language. Adress search is possible in English whenever English exists in OSM - else in local language.

Moscow will be used as a city for address search. POI search Moscow, Moskau or Москва is findable.

Non Unicode local language maps: These maps use local codepage (excpet for Chinese and Japanese where Garmin does not offer a non unicode codepage that can display the characters) and local naming. POI search is possible in English, German and local language.

Moscow in address search will be found under Moscow only. In POI search it can be found under Moscow, Moskau or Москва (as kyrillic codepage supports enough character to spell moscow also in latin)

Non Unicode english maps: These maps are in latin only. Maps uses English wherever available in OSM, if not then Transcription from OSM, if also not available a machine transcription is used - which is a bit faulty however!

Address Search is only possible in latin script - and often not working as you cannot guess the automatic transcription used for a streetname. As city names in OSM tend to exist also in English or proper transcription address search for a city or POI search usually works still okay. POI search in local script is not possible.

Moscow can be found under Moscow or Moskau - but not Москва

Compatibility with new Garmin devices and Unicode Maps

extremecarver — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:42:35 +0000

Last week I changed all maps of countries which do not use Latin as main script to Unicode. Before this was not the case for the Europe, Asia and Africa continent map. On the other hand all unicode maps - are now also available the respective main script of the country. This even seems to work quite well for countries like China which has no alphabet at all. All modern devices - should be quite fine displaying them. Mapsource sometimes shows garbled text however - as will very very old GPS devices - which unluckily also don't support unicode. So I'm sorry - but Garmin devices that are pre ~2006 will only work with maps from countries with Latin script now (e.g. Vista C, or GPS Maps 60C, I'm not certain about Vista Cx or GPS Maps 60Cx - I think they support unicode maps). I don't think there are many people using them still anyhow.

I will still put more effort in reworking the naming depending on language in the next couple of weeks. All non Unicode maps are available to download via the Non Unicode tab on the respective download pages. Only a couple of countries (Sri-Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Cambodia) have no proper non unicode script support - and will be therefore either Unicode or a latin - which is not too useful.

You will need to download the Non Unicode Version if you have one of the following devices:

Edge 520,820,1000
GPS Maps 64 series
Etrex 20x / 30x (not "etrex 30")
Etrex Touch series
Some recent Nuvi devices - as well as some super old devices that do not support Unicode. (E.g. Garmin Vista C, GPS Maps 60 C)
Any device first sold 2016 or later - e.g.
Oregon 700/750
Epix
Some recent Zumo

If you have other modern or semi-modern devices like any Oregon, any Dakota, etrex Vista/Legend HCx or etrex 20, etrex 30, or GPS Maps 62, any edge but edge 1000, then of course you do not need non unicode maps. Stick to the normal Unicode (or for latin countries - latin maps).

This is due to a firmware bug that Garmin introduced as part of their efforts to cut down on people "pirating" their maps. However by doing that they also cut down on Unicode maps produced by mkgmap or even some of their old (legitimate) maps which are not running anymore on these devices. You will know that you need to use the Non Unicode map if on boot your GPS device tells you to "unlock maps". Why is the Europe Map in Unicode? Well for example in Greece and some Eastern Europe countries the script is Cyrillic not latin - and only Unicode maps can contain both scripts in one map. So the non unicode map will not correctly show labels in such countries. Use the country non unicode map instead. They are always in the predominant script of the country.

Note1: if you install the non Unicode version of a map - you will overwrite the Unicode map. You can only have either or installed.

Note2: The contourlines are identical for openmtbmap/velomap and unicode or non unicode. You only need to download them once. On updates it's enough to re-download and reinstall the map installer.

Besides I've added again quite a few new countries - especially in Asia - so that you do not need to get the continent map for these countries anymore.

Map Updates 07.12.2009

extremecarver — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:23:20 +0000

Autorouting in Mapsource works around 50% better if used via car/motorcycle faster route. Now shorter Distance will actually work pretty well too - especially on longer distances and in combination with mode :bicycle.

Routing using mode bicycle and shorter distance works pretty similar to how mode car/motorcycle and faster time worked before. Faster Time and bicycle does not work well together. Delivery and shorter distance is another pretty nice combination now, whereas faster time and car/motorcycle now really favors cyclroutes and mtbroutes.

Using shorter distance the maximum routable distance doubled more or less. Using faster time, it increased by about 50%. Using mode shorter distance is great if you need to autoroute on etrex / 60 CSx, edge or older units, as it now mostly manages distances up to 20km.

Also Autorouting against the traffic flow (if cycleway=opposite; opposite_track; opposite_lane or on residential and other small streets will now be avoided). And Delivery only avoids Primaries/Secondaries - but does not block them. (this was actually already on last map Update). On top I changed the character set to plain ASCII - meaning no more German Umlauts (produced problems with the address search) and no more ?? questionmarks.

map updates 24.07

extremecarver — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:03:40 +0000

Only change is that I switched drinking water id with water point. and newest mkgmap svn version. I am currently working on taking advantage of some new mkgmap features which I should make use of with the next map update

The best MTB and Hiking Maps

extremecarver — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:36:11 +0000

Welcome to OpenMTBMap.org - Get the most popular maps for mountainbiking worldwide! Over 4000 users daily come here to get informed Get maps that guide you over the best trails, instead of getting lost. So here is why you should trust OpenMTBMaps:

6 Different layouts : Five high contrast layouts optimized for the different Garmin GPS (.e.g different layout for hiking than for mtbiking or for cycling). One layout for Desktop use. See the Map legend or screenshots (desktop) or screenshots (GPS)

Type of Way/Street? Clear differentiation between all street types. The maps display info out of the eyes of a biker / hiker. E.g. downhill arrows for steep singletracks

MTB & Hiking & Cycle relevant information like drinking water, alpine huts, guideposts,... Routes shown prominently besides (not instead of) the streets differentiated by colour for type and based on importance

Navigation - Advanced autorouting for mtbikers, cyclists and hikers. You can plan your routes and tracks on your desktop using the same maps as on your GPS . All maps come with Address search

Easy installation in Garmin Mapsource, Garmin Basecamp or Qlandkarte GT to plan your tours and tracks on your desktop.

Contourlines integrated nearly worldwide based on the excellent viewfinderpanoramas.org data. Much higher quality in mountainous regions than the generally used void filled SRTM3".

Participate? Map Incomplete or wrong? You can participate and add missing to OSM. I update the maps weekly, so every week the maps become better and more complete! Join over 300.000 mappers worldwide to add ways or fix data yourself.

GoodDocumentation because everything you want and need to know for using the maps is found on OpenMTBMap.org. Get Started and download the maps. Mac OSx Tutorial here.

VeloMap: If you're mainly cycling on-road or use your race bicycle, then I offer the similar VeloMap. The VeloMap has a focus on cycle friendly roads and cycle ways / cycle routes. As it shows less detail, it is quicker to understand.

Who can use the OpenMTBMap?

The maps offered here are of course, currently primarily used by Garmin GPS users and mountain bikers in general, but you don't need to have a Garmin GPS to use them. Qlandkarte GT an opensource and freely available Map Viewer can display them in all their pride, and also if not owning a Garmin GPS or buying maps from Garmin you can install Garmin Mapsource to your computer and enjoy autorouting like you have not enjoyed before. Besides third party progs like Glopus or Garmin Mobile XT can be used to display the OpenMTBMaps on your PDA or phone.

About OpenMTBMap.org

I started working on OSM because I saw the chance that for the first time in history there could be maps by mtbikers for mtbikers. However there was not yet any structure to classify ways so I developed the mtb:scale as well as many other attribute keys for OSM. But hardly anyone used them, so I started to create maps that showed the tags, and after a few month put up OpenMTBMap.org to make the maps available for everyone to download.

Currently around 2000-5000 unique visitors enjoy OpenMTBMap.org every day (as measured with Google Analytics).

Openstreetmap gives us the ability to really create mtb focused maps – like no other map provider has ever done. Therefore I call on you – to get engaged and start participating like over 300.000 people worldwide already do!

openmtbaustria new autorouting

extremecarver — Tue, 19 May 2009 07:12:50 +0000

Attention, currently OpenMTBMap austria has a different routing setup. This does not really like it's supposed too, and goes far too long ways to reach the destination.

On the other hand it's possible to route over much larger distances now. I'll have to find a compromise.
I will update OpenMTBMapaustria several times during the day (whenever I feel significant improvements have been made), so results may vary....