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

Map Updates 09 June

extremecarver — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:07:39 +0000

Okay, the last map updates were a step in the right direction IMHO, but many of you were right that they were not "clean". I followed the route and decreased the map to three tiles now (main1, main2, mtb). Also routing offroad is now much more differentiated and in the tooltip of Mapsource (not on GPS for the moment, however I'm working on it...) and for every street type that could be unpaved, I take now mtb:scale/mtb:scale:uphill/ routes, tracktype, bicycle=no, bicycle=yes, bicycle=designated and sac_scale into consideration (about 150 different combinations for EACH road type, like path or unclassified) so that road classification is even better. Oh and riverbanks are back (was not nice to look at empy rivers, was it?)

n the mapsource tooltip you can identify which factors were taken into account as I put abbreviations into the name. These are much shorter this time, and on my Vista HCx in the routing page, very rarely does a roadname get stripped, on the map page while navigating even less often.

Routing over longer distances should work a bit better now, if the area is well mapped. I tried out a many routes that I know from the past and I was really astonished how closely or often better the route calculated is. Of course good mapping in an area is the key! - I calculated some routes around Garmin Partenkirchen in Germany, and hell, they must be a lot of fun on a mountainbike!

Oh and I nearly forgot to tell, Performance on GPS units when panning the map has increased tremendously, I found some hacks that even Garmin does not seem to know on how to change what gets drawn first, and panning/moving the map ist now a lot quicker (I'ld guestimate on averge 30-50% less waiting, smother moving without decreasing detail level)!

For downhill please enable shorter distance instead of faster route, and then more difficult runs (if more or less in the fallline to your destination) will be chosen. Also using mode bicycle sometimes produces very good results, In general car/motorcycle is better though. The main change with this map update is, that cycleways are not really required anymore to get somewhere, but tracks and pathes are well and often chosen. To get you understand the names, have a look at the abbreviation list:

Abbreviations used:

pri=primary / primary_link
sec=secondary
ter=tertiary
res=residential
min=minor
unsf=unsurfaced
uncl=unclassified
living=living_street
pdstrian=pedestrian
trk=track
pth=path
ft=footway
fp=footpath
brdlwy=bridleway
wy=way
rd=road
bywy=byway
serv=service

cy=cyclway
cwy=cyleway
bklane=cycleway=lane
bktrk=cycleway=track
opp=opposite
opptrk=cycleway=opposite_track
onwy=oneway
CW1=higwhway=* & highway=cycleway. (you should not tag like this).

rt=route
bk=bicycle=yes or simply bicycle therefor bkrt means bikeroute/cycleroute depending on way, mtbroute means mountainbikeroute.
mtb?? - i.e. mtb1:4 means mtb:scale:1 & mtb:scale:uphill4
xbk=bicycle=no
+bk=bicycle=designated

Current Issues: Tooltip on GPS does not show correct mtb:scale/mtb:scale:uphill information, the displayed symbols are correct.
Autorouting on GPS does not work over longer distances.

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!

Map Updates again, tonight / tomorrow

extremecarver — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:52:13 +0000

So after testing a bit more with the maps of yesterday, even though the routing worked over longer distances, the major feature of the OpenMTBMap - to guide you to the nicest ways was more or less lost. I went back to the style-files that I used when first offering maps on here (they had quite good routing AND worked over longer distances) and reworked the rules from ground up.

Even though technical routing based on grades and scales would provide the nicest routing, I have backed back and give preference to bicycle and mtb routes. The maps of 10.05 were the most extreme leaning towards technical assesination only, and well routing over 5km often didn't work. It's sad, but Garmin algorithms will not work if there are no more or less straight ways or at least ways leading towards the destination with high priority.

Setting up the routing parameters will be even more vital for the maps of the next updates. I figured out the following useful settings (go on and experiment further...)

MTB scenic - don't route over too long distances - well mapped area (this includes mtb:scale and/or mtb routes)
Car/Motorcycle, no avoidances, move slider 1 or 2 steps to prerfer highways, faster time
MTB general
Car/Motorcycle, no avoidances, leave slider in the middle, faster time
MTB Downhill and Hiking (maybe better settings possible)
Car/Motorcycle / Bicycle / Pedestrian, shorter distance, no avoidances, leave slider in the middle
Bicycle scenic
Car/Motorcycle / avoid toll roads / leave slider in the middle or move towards prefer highways. Attention the more towards prefer highways you set it, the more efforts are done to reach a cycleroute
Bicycle quick
Car/Motorcycle / avoid toll roads / shorter distance.
Bicycle quick - other possibility
Bicycle / shorter distance / avoid toll roads not activated.

In General routing works now over as long distance as yesterdays update, but detours are smaller and in general nicer ways are chosen. If Routing fails and you need to get somewhere whithout being able to set via points, you can try with "shorter distance" caculation which should autoroute even through heavily mapped cities (actually the better a region is mapped, without sufficient bicycle/mtb routes the more difficult it is for the routing engine to get over longer distances, Enabling "shorter distance" instead of "Faster Time" gets you to your destination quite well (though then also big streets are chosen quite often). Due to the way the maps are setup, setting your GPS to "shorter distance" should generate routes that are much quicker. "Faster Time" calculates nicer routes, but will take much more time.

Setting "Avoid Toll Roads" when using the GPS for bicycling is not so important in cities, you might find that routes are better with it off. Once you route outside of cities, escpcially into mountaineous regions, you will have to activate it, in order not to be guided from one summit through the valley to the next summit....

Essentially in most regions first the nice ways are mapped, now autorouting will work very nicely, as people start to map ways just to get them into the map but not because they find them nice to use, the routing calculation gets more difficult.

Oneway streets are still disrespected.

Deutsch:

Uebersetzung kommt wenn das ganze so bleibt, und ich nicht wieder alles umkrempel.

About the upcoming map updates

extremecarver — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:28:55 +0000

Well thanks to Qlandkarte GT it is now possible to view even more information from OSM on your computer screen. I will add tracktype and sac:scale information to the OpenMTBMaps. There is one catch. While the additional information will be displayed on most GPS units (at least on Vista HCx and 60CSx) - it will not be shown in Mapsource.

Qlandkarte GT however will display the Overlays. Note that because I don't want to increase the tile number too much tracktype will only be shown outside of tunnels and bridges (here you should not need tracktype anyhow). And sac:scale will be shown in preference to oneway streets (an unlikely combination too).

Installation of Qlandkarte GT in Ubuntu x64 did run very smooth BTW - took me bout 15 minutes. For instructions read on here: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/QLandkarte

While I got Qlandkarte GT running on Windows XP 32bit after the hassle of adding gdal to system path (I used the free tool Redmond Path for this as for all of the progs I have to add to Win system path) which is not done in standard installation (Qlandkarte complained on startup that gdal.fw cannot be found), I have not yet suceeded in Windows 7 RC x64. I think the problem is that fwtools is only compatible with 32 bit systems. Will try compiling the necessary programs by hand. (yikes).

Now for the autorouting. I have heard and experienced myself many complaints that routing over larger distances with the maps of 10.05 did not work over distances as small as 5-10km inside cities (contrary it worked pretty well on the countryside). Even though the routes that did calculate where really nice IMHO, i will try to get the routing working for longer distances again with the next map updates. This is a bit of conservative step back which I regret cause routes on the countryside were so nice with 10.05 maps but I will have to increase the priority of normal roads a bit.

I will likely too implement one way streets but recommend using the GPS or Mapsource in Emergency mode if route calculation fails because of oneway streets (Emergency setting is quite nice insofar it behaves more or less like car/motorcycle but disrespects any turn and access restrictions)

Look at and Upload the OpenMTBMap.org now from any Platform – Thanks to QLandkarte GT

extremecarver — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:15:39 +0000

O.k. I don't think many of you have look into Qlandkarte GT Sourcecode every day so noone could have spilt the news already. A few days ago I got in contact with Oliver, the Author from Qlandkarte GT (I had been in contact with him before - but that was because I had probs compiling Qlandkarte and there were no Binaries yet) and I asked him whether he could adapt the rendering engine.

And less than 36 hours after some more talk I can present you a screenshot taken with the latest Qlandkarte GT (compile from SVN for now if you want) of the OpenMTBMap. So all Linux and Mac Users can from now on enjoy the OpenMTBMap and send it to their GPS (needs compiling driver too for now) without any need to resort to Windows. And for everyone that aked for precompiled gmapsupp.img, sorry won't come. Just use Qlandkarte GT (installing a map needs nothing more than opening the .tdb from within Qlandkarte) from now on.

Here are two Screenshots (click to open fullsize image in 1520x954).

OpenMTBMap.org with DEM Data

And here one example of why I consider QlandkarteGT the best progam for planning! You can put the OpenMTBMap as an overlay over your existing Geotiff Rastermaps. Great to see eventual shortcomings in the OSM data and to find out where you should go next for mapping. The raster maps displayed on the following screenshot is copyrighted by the LVA Bayern.

Visit QlandkarteGt here: www.qlandkarte.org/

Note that it will be compatible with the upcoming v .13 or you can get it now already if checkout SVN. Also if you've read down till here - maybe you fancy helping Oliver by writing code so that Qlandkarte GT will support autorouting in future too.

Qlandkarte GT is much more than a simple viewer for OpenMTBMap.org however. In effect it's the best program (except expensive heavyweights like TTQV or Oziexplorer) for displaying Raster maps. Meaning you can view and rotate any of your scanned old paper maps, ...... But you will get most out of it when you start putting a transparent OpenMTBMap.org over your rastermaps.... and put SRTM file behind to view all maps in 3D view (which is actually in my eyes by far the best 3D view available compared to other progs).

To activate the correct rendering of OpenMTBMap.org in Qlandkarte go to Settings --> Garmin maps --> and activate the "Bitmap" checkbox. Note that the current maps still display with some errors. This will be corrected by the next map update.