About zooming

Hi Jose,

It's a great feature to have a very large range for zooming. I've a remark : for zooming level 100 to 40 %, when you scroll the map with the finger, Oruxmaps, tries to fill the screen with the current map. But with zoom level 1 to 20%, the map is only displayed 'near' the cursor. The smaller the zooming level is, the smaller the rectangle near the cursor is.
For example, at zoom level 5%, you can have a small rectangle displayed in the center of the screen, but if you scroll the map with the finger, you can see that the current map is still 'available' outside this small rectangle.
I can understand that because of performance reason, it's not possible to fill immediately the screen at zoom level 10% for example, but it seems to work differently if you're displaying a map at zoom level 40% or at zoom level 60%. Would it be possible to fill the screen also at zoom level 1 to 20%, even if it takes several seconds ? Of course, it would only try to display the loaded map, and if this loaded map would not fill the whole screen at zoom level 1%, it's logical.
Thanks.

Hi Orux;

Great program from a techie and , evidently, an avid hiker. It must have been a lot of work. javascript:emoticonp('')
But I need to be honest. The user interface (UI) is horrible.
I mean this comment in the hopes Orux can improve it. While it is true that programs like this require work from the user-- that is, the user needs to research and have the technical ability to use the program-- I think the UI has made this program near unusable for me.

Examples:

- The buttons appear when one touches the screen- wonderful, that preserves screen real estate. But the zoom button is too small. I touch the screen, and zoom in. I keep hitting the button, and it zooms in. Then, either because the button is too small, or because the repetition of hitting the button distorts the screen- the damn program zooms out- all the way! This happens over and over- it is so difficult to zoom even moderately up on an area. And I do not have big fingers. Try doing it in the cold!

- The button symbols make no sense! Having a red "x" on a tracking symbol makes it look like tracking is OFF. But it it actuall ON when this appears. And versa-vice- a dot means OFF! This makes negative zero sense, just the opposite of what one would expect.. Then when one is done recording, it asks for a filename to store the trscklog. Why? Try doing that when one is sweaty, rushing, or cold- or when one has to remove gloves. I encourage Orux to look at the UI for Maverick, another GPS program (which I have switched to). Recording GPS is represnted by a red "record" dot like in an old tape recorder. Very clear, very simple. On. Then off. Maybe On again. No problem. Tracks are saved automatically. And when one wants to start a new one, simply clear the old.

- The green shaded area and the X takes up too much space and blocks the target.

- There is never any explanation of how to use the program on an Android device. Complex instructions about creating maps- great, thanks much, really. But there is no explanation of how to use the program Orux Maps for Android and all the difficult screen symbols.

I took the time for a lengthy bit of feedback because I do think folks like you are very generous in creating free programs like this. But it is a bit sad if that effort is wasted on a very unusable interface.

enjoy hiking!

thanks muchisimo,

Dan
dhreis@yahoo.com

dhreis wrote:Hi Orux;

Great program from a techie and , evidently, an avid hiker. It must have been a lot of work. javascript:emoticonp('')
But I need to be honest. The user interface (UI) is horrible.
I mean this comment in the hopes Orux can improve it. While it is true that programs like this require work from the user-- that is, the user needs to research and have the technical ability to use the program-- I think the UI has made this program near unusable for me.

Examples:

- The buttons appear when one touches the screen- wonderful, that preserves screen real estate. But the zoom button is too small. I touch the screen, and zoom in. I keep hitting the button, and it zooms in. Then, either because the button is too small, or because the repetition of hitting the button distorts the screen- the damn program zooms out- all the way! This happens over and over- it is so difficult to zoom even moderately up on an area. And I do not have big fingers. Try doing it in the cold!

Hi dhreis;
Thanks for your comments.

You are right; I want to add a second set of buttons, larger than current, but will be in a future version.

dhreis wrote:
- The button symbols make no sense! Having a red "x" on a tracking symbol makes it look like tracking is OFF. But it it actuall ON when this appears. And versa-vice- a dot means OFF! This makes negative zero sense, just the opposite of what one would expect.. Then when one is done recording, it asks for a filename to store the trscklog. Why? Try doing that when one is sweaty, rushing, or cold- or when one has to remove gloves. I encourage Orux to look at the UI for Maverick, another GPS program (which I have switched to). Recording GPS is represnted by a red "record" dot like in an old tape recorder. Very clear, very simple. On. Then off. Maybe On again. No problem. Tracks are saved automatically. And when one wants to start a new one, simply clear the old.

The buttons show what will happen if you use them, not current state. I think it is not hard to get used to this behavior.

dhreis wrote:
- The green shaded area and the X takes up too much space and blocks the target.

Future versions will add more cursors.

dhreis wrote:
- There is never any explanation of how to use the program on an Android device. Complex instructions about creating maps- great, thanks much, really. But there is no explanation of how to use the program Orux Maps for Android and all the difficult screen symbols.

You can find information in the web site:
http://oruxmaps.x10hosting.com/manual_en.html

dhreis wrote:
I took the time for a lengthy bit of feedback because I do think folks like you are very generous in creating free programs like this. But it is a bit sad if that effort is wasted on a very unusable interface.

I appreciate your effort.

orux

The ORUXMAPS 2.0 is really great - I am about to use it during my 2months trip to Australia, but....

The Map Autoload option is not working correctly.

Example:
I have detailed map of 10x10km region for trekking - tiles @ level 12. On screen i can see 3.66km wide area.
When zooming out to see the whole width of 10km, OruxMaps is loading another, large scale map - @ level 6
So I am not able to zoom out the detalied map and see the whole area I am in (for example 6x6km).

Please note:
I need level 12 only since it offers exactly the information I need - no more, no less.
Making the area map with ALL available zoom levels IS NOT a solution - result is no map switching, sure, but the tiles belong to different detail level and I cannot see desired area, so it is just like the damn pan switching! (I make maps with Mobile Atlas Creator 1.7)

What I tried:
In Settings - Application - Auto load maps I tried all settings including 'Never'
but even with this setting, maps are still switching (my phone is HTC Hero).

Suggestion:
1. you should add function 'DO NOT SWITCH MAP WHEN ZOOMING' - and it should work.
2. Zoom should be BITMAP ZOOM MODE, and for changing DETAIL LEVEL a different set of buttons is needed.


Besides this annoying map switching your work is just almost perfect. Great work!

Peter

Peter wrote:The ORUXMAPS 2.0 is really great - I am about to use it during my 2months trip to Australia, but....

The Map Autoload option is not working correctly.

Example:
I have detailed map of 10x10km region for trekking - tiles @ level 12. On screen i can see 3.66km wide area.
When zooming out to see the whole width of 10km, OruxMaps is loading another, large scale map - @ level 6
So I am not able to zoom out the detalied map and see the whole area I am in (for example 6x6km).

Please note:
I need level 12 only since it offers exactly the information I need - no more, no less.
Making the area map with ALL available zoom levels IS NOT a solution - result is no map switching, sure, but the tiles belong to different detail level and I cannot see desired area, so it is just like the damn pan switching! (I make maps with Mobile Atlas Creator 1.7)

What I tried:
In Settings - Application - Auto load maps I tried all settings including 'Never'
but even with this setting, maps are still switching (my phone is HTC Hero).

Suggestion:
1. you should add function 'DO NOT SWITCH MAP WHEN ZOOMING' - and it should work.
2. Zoom should be BITMAP ZOOM MODE, and for changing DETAIL LEVEL a different set of buttons is needed.


Besides this annoying map switching your work is just almost perfect. Great work!

Peter

Hi, Peter; you are right;

I am going to add your suggestion:
1. you should add function 'DO NOT SWITCH MAP WHEN ZOOMING' - and it should work.

orux

Orux, thanks so much for all your efforts! The app is great. I am using the atlas creator v1.8.6 that can make maps directly into orux format.

I ride motorcycles in very large areas of desert in southern california. I have to split my maps into several smaller sections because they take so long to download.

Everything is working well except 1 thing.

When I move south out of the boundry of MAP A and the software does a map switch to MAP B, the zoom level gets changed.

Example: I am in MAP A at zoom 14 and I am scrolling south until I hit the boundry and switch to MAP B automatically. The switch happens but now when I am in MAP B I am at zoom 18 instead of 14. This is somewhat annoying. Other than that things are working quite well with this software so far!!

thanks!

2T_OIL wrote:Orux, thanks so much for all your efforts! The app is great. I am using the atlas creator v1.8.6 that can make maps directly into orux format.

I ride motorcycles in very large areas of desert in southern california. I have to split my maps into several smaller sections because they take so long to download.

Everything is working well except 1 thing.

When I move south out of the boundry of MAP A and the software does a map switch to MAP B, the zoom level gets changed.

Example: I am in MAP A at zoom 14 and I am scrolling south until I hit the boundry and switch to MAP B automatically. The switch happens but now when I am in MAP B I am at zoom 18 instead of 14. This is somewhat annoying. Other than that things are working quite well with this software so far!!

thanks!

Hi, 2T_OIL;

solved in next version.

orux