Question about OpenStreetMap and BigMap ...

General talk
1

Hi there everybody and thanks for registration :slight_smile:
I’m new to OpenStreetMap and this is my first post here.

Mi first question is about getting a large image of a map.
After some search on the web I found this online tool - **BigMap **- that’s pretty interesting to me.

http://openstreetmap.gryph.de/bigmap.html

So I zoom to my desired location, set the rectangle area and after a few play with BigMap’s control panel, I can see the map I want.

There’s just one problem : if I open OpenStreetMap and go to that location, I can select a zoom level of 19 ( that’s the maximum level available, I guess ), but I can’t tell BigMap’s engine to give me a map at zoom 19. Why ?
If the tiles are available at zoom 19 in OpenStreetMap, they should be also in BigMap, or not ? :confused:

Thanks to anyone able to help.

2

I think this depends on the configuration of the rendering engine (the thing that turns data into maps) that BigMap is using. Tiles of level 19 take up a lot of disk space. I guess you have to contact BigMap to ask them why they don’t do zoom level 19.

3

Mmm, I see.

I’d also like to know if there is something else like BigMap : an online similar tool that allows me to get level 19 zoomed maps…
Or not ? Is BigMap the only one available on the web ? Do you know something else ?

Thanks.

4

There are several other services for getting a bigger image from OSM. See this list: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Static_map_images
Note sure which of those are any good, or if they support higher zoom levels.

Or you can download the OSM data, and render an image from it yourself. This could let you generate bigger images, or at even higher zoom levels, and you can customise the map style if you wanted. Though this can be complicated to setup. See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Rendering

5

Thanks for attention. :slight_smile:

I’ve tried with the standard link as shown in staticMapLite and Simple Map Wizzard, but this can’t produce maps bigger than a 1024x1024 square.

With a test like this :

<HTML>
<IMG SRC="http://staticmap.openstreetmap.de/staticmap.php?center=40.71435,-74.00597&zoom=13&size=3000x1500" />
</HTML>

the map is always 1024x1024 and not 3000x1500, as set in the tag.

Maybe something to add in the tag, or is it something that cannot be reached anyway ?

6

Actually the process for generating big images is not such complicated. All maps get delivered in form of “tiles” of 256x256 pixels. Consequently,

  • download the tiles required for your area at the required zoom level
  • “copy” them into one big bitmap (that may require a lot of memory…)
7

Yes, that could be a way, but here is what I have.

I go in OpenStreetMap and want to see **this **at zoom **19 **:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=40.71435%2C-74.00597#map=19/40.71435/-74.00597

Now I try to get a simple 256x256 tile using this :


<HTML>
<IMG SRC="http://staticmap.openstreetmap.de/staticmap.php?center=40.71435,-74.00597&zoom=19&size=256x256"/>
</HTML>

Note that now I’m using osm, and NOT BigMap.

Well, the result is the same 256x256 tile I got at zoom 18 !

If I change the “&zoom=” parameter on above code :


<HTML>
<IMG SRC="http://staticmap.openstreetmap.de/staticmap.php?center=40.71435,-74.00597&zoom=18&size=256x256"/>
</HTML>

I get the same image.

So I think OpenStreetMap itself doesn’t allow download of tiles at higher zoom than 18. Or not ?

8

That’s really bad - never did I try to download at that zoom level from openstreetmap, just from Google Earth or Bing…
In this case, you’ll need your own rendering engine - that’s quite a hard job.

9

You may also try http://maposmatic.org

You can generate a static map with or without street index at different sizes and rendering styles.

10

If I remember correctly, the mapnik tiles on osm.org in zoomlevel 19 were introduced in early 2013.

So maybe the webservice of staticmap.osm.org has not been adapted to that new feature yet.

There is **no ** rule that someone can only load tiles only for specific zoom levels.

11

Thanks.
I’m trying to use it but having problems.
I’m on the “Generate your own map” page / City Search,
but I’m typing into this textbox and no hint appears…
I hit return key and get this :

papersize
    This field is required.
maptitle
    Map title required
paper_height_mm
    This field is required.
paperorientation
    This field is required.
paper_width_mm
    This field is required.

Now, the fact is that I don’t see any field for these required values… :roll_eyes:

Early 2013… Mmm, so we must wait a little bit more. Let’s hope that’s the reason.
I agree there’s no rule for such a limit…

Thaks for attention.

12

Yeah, the “city search” feature seems to fail at the moment. But you can use the tab “geographic area” and select manually the area. (I sent a message to the authors - also the database seems to be a little bit behind).

13

MapOSMatic is really slow to load, at least for me.
I’m clicking on the “Geographic area” tab, but the link seems broken and nothing happens. Hope they to fix it soon… :confused:

14

On the other hand, if OSM serves tiles upto zoom level 18 only, there won’t be more details on zoom 19 either. Hence you can just enlarge those tiles from 256x256 to 512x512 pixels or other size.

15

Yes, I was thinking about such a solution too…

I see that if I get a Map 256x256 at zoom 17, for example, and then I get another Map 512x512 at zoom 18, the two maps show exactly the same area, so the rule is this : to keep same “bounding box” ( and so center map’s coordinates ), I must double the size of the map from previous zoom level…