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ChristianK

Major changes to the mapping process

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The entire production process for OAM maps has become somewhat outdated, so a number of upgrades to the development and production environments have become necessary. The Linux environment within Windows (WSL2) has been migrated from Debian 11 to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, which has far-reaching consequences.

1.) Python 2 is dead

  • This means that all Python scripts must be converted to Python 3; this affects:
  • The software that generates the contour lines had to be replaced = these may differ very slightly from the previous ones in terms of curve rounding.
  • The script that transfers the Mapsforge POI files to Locus, using the pyspatialite library among other things, had to be rewritten to use mod_spatialite.
    Explanation: SQLite3-Spatialite is used for fast proximity searches for POIs in the apps.
  • 90% of the Python OSM tools now need to be moved into an isolated Python environment (venv) = everything needs to be set up from scratch, including the GDAL bindings.
  • The script that calculates the sea/land areas from Jochen Topf’s SHAPE files has been replaced.

2.)
The alignment and modification of the original OSM data via OSMOSIS TagTransform now takes 1–2 hours (!!) for average-sized maps alone, and significantly longer for the large Germany maps or the Alps. Steffen, a C++ programmer who has often helped me out of a tight spot, has now made available a new C++-based TagTransform that is significantly faster – but may also contain some initial bugs….

3.)
The OSM PLACE=* relations, which I had largely eliminated after converting them to NODES, I was forced to reactivate in some cases, which has led to massive side effects in terms of rendering times – these have now multiplied for some maps – on average, a complete map set now takes a good five days longer to complete, which is rather annoying.
Here I have to painstakingly debug again to find out which giant relations are causing this (99% of which are completely unnecessary).

 

If there are any issues with the next updates (including the one coming in April), please let us know in the forum.

Wishing you all a lovely summer,
the OpenAndroMaps team

/5 Comments/by
ChristianK

Happy new year 2026

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 2026

 

Your OpenAndroMaps team

/2 Comments/by
ChristianK

[resolved]: Germany maps faulty

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5th of November: New Maps are online now!

sorry for the inconvenience.

Best regards, Christian

 

 

/2 Comments/by
ChristianK

Autumn Updates of the Maps

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Dear Friends,

Christian is taking a break between two heart surgeries and heading to Scandinavia for the next four weeks with his Enfield Himalayan. The major update of all maps has accordingly been already rendered and is online, and the September update of the European maps is online too.

The next update will be available in early October, God willing. The same applies to support from my side, as I am leaving my laptop at home.

Anyone travelling on the TET Sweden on sections S15, S16 and possibly further north will meet me there.

Wishing you all wonderful autumn tours,
Your Christian

 

/2 Comments/by
ChristianK

[done] July update is delayed by one week….

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A rendering machine in full operation 24/7 in this excessive heat without air conditioning would be pure masochism.
Therefore – please be patient until it gets a little cooler…

Thank you for your understanding
and
Best regards, Christian

8th of July 2025: Update for Germany and Europe is online

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ChristianK

Map Coverage

Most important change:

The overall map of Germany was discontinued.

Reason: This map has turned into a resource monster over the 13 years since the OAM was created – in other words, it has become far too huge. Creating the map takes a whopping 3 days, during which it blocks the workstation, and the download and memory usage on smartphones is beyond any reasonable level.
It is also pointless to create the map only 2-3 times a year as the maps of the underlying federal states already contain different data in some cases, resulting in ghost objects.

The overview maps Germany-North and Germany-South have been extended in terms of coverage and will continue to be created in the same detail as the federal state maps and at the same interval.
Germany-Mid is no longer required and is also omitted.

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The WestAfrica map has become too large over time and will therefore be split up:

WestAfrica (incl. Senegal Gambia, GuineBissau, Guinee, SierraLeone, Liberia)
Cote-d-Ivoire
Ghana-Togo-Benin

 

This makes downloading easier and most APPs can now load several maps automatically anyway, so handling partial maps is no problem.

Best regards
Your OAM-Team

 

/0 Comments/by
ChristianK

Website moving ..

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

/0 Comments/by
ChristianK

We habe been hacked again…

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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)

/1 Comment/by
ChristianK

India and Malaysia Maps now split

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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

/0 Comments/by
ChristianK

New Firewall and Spamshield

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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)

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