Mapz.com "Outdoor" style: Alternative Topo-map for osm.org?

[PPete2]

I think the most informative online topo-map style based on osm data these days is the “Outdoor” style of www.mapz.com

It has everthing a good topo-map should include (precise elevation lines, 3d-look map shading, rendering of POIs of outdoor interest e.g. peaks, alpine huts, smart selection of map objects depending on its zoom-level - the maps looks informative in high zooms as well as in low zooms). And mapz.com-Outdoor even renders names of mountain-ranges and valleys - elements which almost all other maps don’t render yet.

Please have a look at the style at https://www.mapz.com/permalink?zoom=13&lat=47.7605&lon=15.78558&layers=mapz_outdoor

What do you think: Should the people responsible for www.openstreetmap.org endeavour to get this style as additional alternative topo-style to “Tracestrack Topo” ?

Mapz-Outdoor:

Tracestrack-Topo:

OSM-Carto:

[alan_gr (Alan)]

Is the map based on OpenStreetMap data? I couldn’t see any attribution at that link (perhaps because I’m on a mobile phone).

[starsep (Filip Czaplicki)]

I also wasn’t able to find attribution on mobile.
In desktop mode it is visible

[woodpeck (Frederik Ramm)]

See also New Tile Layers Policy
which explains how this process works.

[amapanda_ᚐᚋᚐᚅᚇᚐ (amanda)]

That’s a cool map style alright! But do the people who host it want it on OSM.org? You should start off asking them.

[tekim (Mike)]

Very nice cartography! However, there doesn’t appear to be any contour lines (but there is hillshade) for the areas in the US I have checked, e.g.

[osmuser63783]

It looks great on low zoom levels! I really like the smart selection of peaks and how it shows things like the names of valleys and mountain ranges and archipelagos. I also like how it shows island names at a low zoom, and not only when the island is big enough to fit the name. This alone means that for something like the Greek islands, it’s a vastly more useful map than anything we currently have on osm.org.

At higher zoom, some detail is missing that would make it a useful map for hiking. It doesn’t show things like the difficulty or visibility of paths, no fords, and instead of bridges it just shows gaps.

Anyway, something like this would surely be a great addition to osm.org.

[_Tim]

Hello, I am the owner of mapz.com and would like to thank you for the great feedback on our outdoor map style. The map was developed by a former employee based on his individual alpine hiking experiences and his wishes for a good outdoor map.

We would be happy to share this map style with the OSM community. However, the realisation could be a bit tricky.

To enable the features praised by @PPete2 and @osmuser63783, such as the clever labelling of valleys, peaks, mountain-ranges and islands, we use intensive post-processing of the OSM data. The process takes an extremely long time, even on a very well-equipped VM. For this reason, we only update the data every three months, which is sufficient for our purposes.

@tekim

Very nice cartography! However, there doesn’t appear to be any contour lines (but there is hillshade) for the areas in the US I have checked, e.g.

We calculate the contour lines from Copernicus data currently only for Europe. But this could certainly be supplemented.

Implementation:

It would certainly be easiest if we provided the tiles on dedicated server instances for OSM. We can ensure uptime and availability.

However, we have no experience with the expected traffic and could only sponsor the project to a certain extent from our own resources, as we are a (very) small enterprise. This applies to the servers, the storage of world-wide tiles for all required zoom levels, the traffic and the updates, which according to the New Tile Layers Policy should take place every 14 days at the latest. This is a real challenge due to the time-consuming post-processing and the seeding time.

If an on-premise solution for OSM is also an option, we are also happy to support this.

One more thought: The styling is currently implemented with CartoCSS and Mapnik, so it is purely raster-based. Will raster data still be supported in the future or would it be better to implement a new map style directly with vector tiles?

So much for today, I look forward to your feedback.

Tim

[Hungerburg (Asa Hundert)]

I like it. A minor nitpick: Rendering cliffs, SRTM kind of coarse.

[PPete2]

Since the MAPZ-owner generally welcomes a cooperation with OSM regarding the “Outdoor” style, contacted the OSM-OWG. Providing a link to this thread and with the kind request to get in touch with the MAPZ-owner here or by e-mail to discuss technical details still needed for a cooperation. I got the answer:

"any new proposed layer needs to meet the policy requirements here:
New Tile Layers Policy
Any application to add a layer should provide information on how it meets the five mandatory and four preferred requirements there which can be easily done by adding it here:
Featured tile layers - OpenStreetMap Wiki
I suspect in this case it will be hard to meet them but you’re welcome to prove me wrong! "

Just to make clear: Since I just wanted to make attraction to this great style, and I notified MAPZ-owner as well as OSM-OWG to this thread, there won’t be further efforts of my side to support cooperation between MAPZ and OSM. So its up to other ones to take further necessary steps

[_Tim]

Unfortunately, we are currently unable to fulfil the New Tile Layers Policy in full for the reasons mentioned. However, we are keeping the issue in mind.

[Woazboat]

Unrelated to using this as a tile layer for osm.org:

It appears that the map style is currently not considering sac_scale=* or trail_visibility=* at all unfortunately. I’d consider those pretty important for any outdoor focused map.

[_Tim]

@Woazboat Thank you for the tip, that’s very helpful. We will check whether we can take these tags into account! Likewise the tips from @osmuser63783!