Dear OpenAndroMaps community,

 

As in previous years, we will be releasing a completely new set of maps at the beginning of January so that we can start planning our tours for the new year.

Our special thanks go to all our supporters who contribute to keeping the OAM alive with their donations, bug reports and ideas.

We would like to wish you
A happy, trouble-free and active year 2025

 

Your OpenAndroMaps team

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

We will be moving the website to a web account at Hetzner in the next 2 weeks.
A complete copy of OpenAndroMaps as a test site is already running there to our complete satisfaction.

Now, the move itself is not a big deal, but we are also moving the externally hosted domain to Hetzner and this can lead to outages.

So if this site is unavailable for a few hours because the new name servers first have to be cached around the globe.

Update 13.Nov.2024: Website moved
Update 20.Nov.2024: Domain Transfer done

Our test server has been hacked again and attacks have been launched against thousands of other servers.
It’s understandable that our hoster, Hetzner, doesn’t like this at all.

I have now completely deleted the (modern, supposedly secure) test server.

The live server with an economical, ancient operating system is still running without complaint, but it’s only a matter of time before it will also fall.

Unfortunately, with the ever-increasing level of professional cyberterrorism it is no longer possible for non-specialists, even with in-depth knowledge, to navigate the Internet safely and offer content.

Therefore:
I will try to maintain the service here as far as possible – but it will probably not be possible to maintain my own cloud server.

This means the following in detail:

For now, the download tables, which until now have been based on the fantastic foo-table-plugin, will be converted to normal html, called Accordeon-Falter. The functionality for downloads and direct installation will be fully retained. Only the usability and loading speed suffers somewhat.
Why: The plugin has not been maintained for many years, I myself have adapted it twice to new php versions, but now it is over because a plugin that is not officially maintained is an extreme security risk.

Furthermore I will try to move the website to a normal website account at Hetzner to at least eliminate the hacks below the website on operating system level.
This will certainly mean a massive slowdown in loading speeds.

If this site is taken down (certainly not through my fault) please bookmark the direct download link on the GWDG server:
https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/openstreetmap/openandromaps/mapsV5/
If need be, you will also find a “read.me” with messages next to the maps

 

I have to admit that I’m getting a bit tired of the whole thing

 

Your Christian from OAM

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

The maps of India and Malaysia-Indonesia have become much too large over time (significantly >2GB) and will therefore be split into smaller parts:

 

India will be split into

  • India-North-West
  • India-North-East
  • India-South

 

Malaysia-Indonesia into

  • Malaysia-Indonesia-East
  • Malaysia-Indonesia-West

 

This makes downloading easier and most apps can now load multiple maps automatically, so handling partial maps is no problem at all.

 

Best regards
Your OAM team

I installed a new, very professional firewall with spam protection – its not free, but there’s no alternative.

A nice bonus is that the system is also GDPR-compliant – whatever you may think of that.

 

I hope that

a.) Life will become easier for us admins
and above all it
b.) there are no more annoying blockades of legitimate users, a situation that is/was very unpleasant for everyone.

The update plan for the maps this summer will be published separately.

So long,
Your OpenAndroMaps team

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

In short:

 

The resolving of the SuperRoutes for the hiking trails is finished – similar to the cycle superroutes, which takes us into the waters of the route rules of Lonvia/Waymarkedtrails sind, as far as possible.

The resolution of the super routes has been rewritten to the best of my knowledge and belief – but I have to say that not every creativity in the OSM data mischmasch can be taken into account.

 

An interesting development is the new class of long-distance/rapid cycle routes
The internal discussion with all background information (mixed German/English) can be found here.

 

Also the render themes by Tobias = Elevate/Elements (Forum)
and those from
JohnPercy = VoluntaryUK (Forum) and Website

have been further improved – e.g. the contour lines are now rendered as curves.

 

In addition, it should be said that very extensive changes in the map structure were necessary and that it is possible that small errors have crept in. Please do not hesitate to report such errors in the forum.

 

We wish you beautiful tours in autumn
the team of OpenAndroMaps

What’s coming up at OAM:

The resolving of the SuperRoutes for the hiking trails is finished – similar to the cycle superroutes, which takes us into the waters of the route rules of Lonvia/Waymarkedtrails sind, as far as possible.

 

An interesting development is the new class of long-distance/rapid cycle routes that are being built in NL/DE/BE/USA and also mapped in OpenStreetMap as cycle_highway=yes. These expressways are less for leisure than for commuting/commuting/shopping.
Therefore, in future we will display the two types of cycle paths (leisure versa commuting=rapid cycle routes) independently from each other and, if applicable, on a separate layer, depending on the render theme.

 

The preparations for this from our side are already in the late beta stage and we will, if everything runs well, put a new map set with the corresponding render themes online at the beginning or mid of September.

The internal discussion with all background information (mixed German/English) can be found here.

 

Have a nice summer
The Team of OpenAndroMaps

All maps are now re-rendered and available for download.

The Taiwan map has now also been updated, the programmer of the Mapsforge library was so kind to adapt the map writer to the enormous density of data there.

 

The next update will be available at the beginning of September.

 

For us the development of OpenAndroMaps is going on, there are plenty of things to think about.

 

We wish you a nice summer and pleasant trips with the OpenAndroMaps.

Greetings, Tobias, Michael, Christian

And there we go,

 

As all those who have ever met me probably guessed, my sense of order is stronger than my frustration and I have written a script for the resolution of the screwed-up super routes and integrated it into the process.

 

And because I enjoyed that typing so much, I changed the generation of the REFs (= short names of the routes).
Until now, the REF – if there were capital letters in the NAME and no REF-Value – was formed from these.
So e.g. “West Coast Trail” = WCT
Unfortunately, there are also relations which, especially in Scandinavia, had the path name_+vegur +vegen etc. in the NAME. This ended up in a REF that only consisted of the first capital letter.

From now on, the capital letters only become effective when at least TWO of them are recognised.
If there is only one capital letter, the first 5 letters of the NAME are used to form the REF.
So “Fjärilsleden” was REF=”F” until now, from now on REF=”Fjäri” – looks much, much better.

 

I did allow myself a new POI, namely the “E” charging stations relevant for EBikes without the obligation to consume (Pub,Restaurant…).
These can be found in the POIs under hike/bike, I think this is also of interest to one or two of you.
Here is the exact implementation: https://www.openandromaps.org/oam-forums/topic/ebike_charging_public-2

 

Perspective: In the course of the discussion about the ICN/IWN + super routes, it came up again that the “big” routes cover the small, local cycling/walking routes too often – we are currently discussing possibilities to switch off the international routes, but this is an essential intervention in the structure of the maps and must be considered = this will take a little time.

 

So, I wish you a pleasant Summer

Best regards,
Christian

Dear OAM community,

 

I am forced to suspend further updates of the maps = there will be no more updates for the time being.

Reason: A mapper has begun to “normalise” hierarchies of wheel relations that have been carefully maintained over the years.
This means that the previously common consensus – that the individual cycle relations, such as the Eurovelo routes, consisted of a hierarchy of main (super) relations with individual sub-relations (the countries), each containing all the necessary information – has been destroyed.

Now there are super-relations that are based on other super-relations, relations that cross-reference other relations, etc….
Unfortunately, this cannot be resolved with the hand-programmed tools of the OAM for the time being, as there is no way to resolve the possible cross-nesting of the super/relations 100% conclusively.

For the time being, the Scandinavian maps are affected – but it is foreseeable that this cancer will spread further.

Up to now, I have been able to iron out such improvements to the OSM database relatively quickly and without any major complaints, but now it’s time to take a break.

 

I am real terrible sorry for the community, my comrades-in-arms @Tobias and @Michael and all those who have contributed to this project in any other way, but at the moment I have reached the point where I simply don’t want to chase after every nonsense like Don Quixote against windmills.

Should something similar to quality control be introduced to OpenStreetMap at some point, I would be happy to become active again.

 

Have a nice summer
Your Christian

PS: Of course I will remove the donate buttons.