OpenGeofiction
Hello, brave mappers out there!
Well, now we have the new OGF rendering style which I think is pretty neat, after a few days of readjustment. However, there are some things which I really dislike personally.
The new stlye seems to set the focus of rendering to the things that exist NOW. For example, disused (not abandoned) railways aren’t drawn anymore, as well as projected highways.
Actually, I really dislike that. I can only speak for myself, but when I’m designing my country, a large part of my thoughts deal with the development of the infrastructure. Where did it came from and how is it intended to be. And I really want to share this information with you and all “visitors” of my country. Of course, the status quo is the most important. However, I really would appreciate if the past and further development would be a little bit more visible, at least so far as it was in the old rendering theme.
Another feature I really would like to see in OGF is the ability of distinguish between paved and unpaved roads. The OSM Humanitarian theme can render both states of a road (you can check this, for example, with the road network in Iceland). As both countries which I design, have road networks with a high percentage of unpaved roads, I would be happy if we could show this in OGF.
Well, these are my two main points of criticism. Maybe, you also have some wishes or thinkings about the rendering. And maybe, we could give OGF our very own “look and feel” with our very own rendering style. I think that this would be a nice part in the development of the OGF ecosystem.
What do you think? Do you also have ideas for a special rendering? And what does the admin team think about this? ;)
Greetings & happy mapping, Markus
Discussion
Comment from histor on 26 November 2015 at 23:05
Hello Markus,
from zoom 12 you see motorways in construction. Indeed old trackbeds are not visible - only a “new cyclepath” on this route,
Generally OSM seems more a project for people in great cities, to find the next postbox or shop with food free of gluten - but no real cartographic project. There are many mistakes in lettering (important / not important). Sone things are different in the OGF-“histor”-style, but not all is there, as I wish - it is an timerobbing job, to change the style.
So I miss different structures at “residentials” (family houses with garden, 2-or 3 floor houses, 4 or 5 stored blocks as dense urbanisation and so on)
Comment from bhj867 on 26 November 2015 at 23:48
I personally wish forests rendered at higher levels.
Comment from iBallasticwolf2 on 27 November 2015 at 00:00
I wished deserts rendered at higher levels myself.
Comment from Ernestpkirby on 29 November 2015 at 03:35
I’d really like there to be a distinction between toll roads and free roads. Maybe Red for toll free, and bring back a version of the blue for toll. It would also be nice if pedestrian streets rendered at higher zooms- I’m trying to slowly make my cities based off transit and walking but from a distance it doesn’t really help when you can’t see any pedestrian streets and it looks like you have these giant sprawling blocks. And maybe toning down bus ways to not be so bright, maybe a darker blue that resembles how light rail or metro is drawn to emphasize “bus rapid transit”. Those might just be my thoughts though.
Comment from isleño on 14 December 2015 at 07:50
Hi Markus, thanks for posting this. The admin team has briefly discussed ideas for a unique rendering style for OGF, but my understanding is that (for now) it’s much easier to simply use what OSM uses. So although this remains a long-term goal, due to its technical difficulty it may be near the bottom of a very lengthy to-do list.
But of course such a style would be based on the needs and desires OGF users, so it is really good to hear people’s thoughts about what they’d like to see. Personally I’d love to see more options for map styles and I really hope it can happen someday.
isleño