[Pathcrawler]

When using hdr+dem files for hillshading in Oruxmaps, background is way darker than using hgt for the same purpose and visibility of mountain trails virtually disappear in the shade side of the hills/mountains, specially in the sunlight.

Is there any way of removing transparency from ways to see them highlighted from the background?
I’ve tried to figure out where to touch in the Elevate.xml file with no success at all.

Attached a couple of screenshots to illustrate the above said.

Thank you

[Pathcrawler]

I cannot see the attachment in the previous post

[Sonny]

Sorry, I’m not able to follow you completely. It seems that all of your screenshots are taken by using Oruxmaps, an identical map with an identical theme. The only difference is the shading source. What methods of shadings are you using in both cases? Orux’ interal shading using DEM-files? Or an external shading layer?

Btw: In my mind shading contrast is much to high in the 1st image for being usable outdoors. The shadows are much to dark. A way of any color – even if being 0% transparent will be difficult to see within these shadow areas. But od course some light adationgs of way’s transparencies could improve the optical result.

sonny.4lima.de sowie twitter.com/SonnyLidarDTMs

[Tobias]

Sonny wrote:

Btw: In my mind shading contrast is much to high in the 1st image for being usable outdoors. The shadows are much to dark. A way of any color – even if being 0% transparent will be difficult to see within these shadow areas.

I agree here, much more details get lost with these DEMS/settings, not just ways.

But a solution for these dark hill shading might be using mapsforge hillshading function in OruxMaps, as OruxMaps has two possibilities for hillshading:
– Disable: Settings -> Maps -> Apply hill shadows
– Enable: Settings -> Mapsforge settings -> Apply hill shadows
With the latter activated hillshading is drawn as a layer between mapsforge elements, at the position of the theme file where the rule

<hillshading zoom-min="9" zoom-max="17" />

is positioned. In regular Elevate that’s above all landcover etc. and below tunnels, contour lines, paths etc.

Best regards,
Tobias

Developer of Elevate mapstyle

[Pathcrawler]

Hi Tobias and Sonny.

I’ve attached two more screenshots to illustrate in a more dramatic way the problem that I’d like to highlight and that maybe could have a not so difficult solution.

Both screenshots are pure Orux hillshading from dem files and using the general “Apply hill shadows”, not the one in “Mapsforge settings” that only works with .hgt files.

“HGT dem Pedriza.png” file uses the general .hgt files for hillshading
“HDR dem Pedriza.png” file uses .hdr + .dem files obtained directly from .laz (LiDAR) files of IGN Spain (Sonny knows well about it)

You can see that HDR gives a lot more detail but paths almost disappear when in de dark side of hills/mountains, specially outdoors in sunlight.

A third picture is only to illustrate the effect I would like to achieve playing with transparency (or its lack of). It is an Orux composite map with two layers, the first one is from the IGN PNOA (Spain) and the second one is the Mapsforge OAM with the Map background unchecked from the theme and no transparency at all.

I suppose that the AA part of color info in #AARRGGBB data in Elevate/Elements.xml files refers to transparency, but I haven’t been able to find the right items I was searching for…

All the elements in the front layer that have some degree of transparency will be affected by the background and be darker when we need them not to be.

If I can help in any way don’t hesitate to tell me.

Best regards.

Pedro

[Tobias]

I don’t think changing the theme would help you here. Most ways have no transparency, but still are bad to see with your hillshading. That’s because the OruxMaps-hillshading you are using mixes the hillshading with the map, regardless of the map content. So the only change in the theme is to change all colors that they are better visible with this strong hillshading – and then the map would look pretty bad in areas with less hillshading.

There are other options for you that might help:
– add a Hillshading map and combine it with a mapsforge map (settings->maps->DEM based maps-> Shadows map; Maps -> (+) -> Composite map – test various settings for what works best for you)
– change the OruxMaps Hillshading via settings->maps->DEM based maps->Relief map, resolution/max. altitude etc.

Best regards,
Tobias

Developer of Elevate mapstyle

[Pathcrawler]

Thanks a lot, Tobias.
I’ve followed your suggestion to create a composite map stacking shadows + oam maps and this result is what I expected to happen directly with dem files.
Although it is not perfect (see the huge size of overlaid items) it is a step in the good direction.

I’ve attached the screenshot showing the result.

One more question, is there any documentation to fully understand the Elements/Elevate.xml files?

Best regards
Pathcrawler (Pedro)

[Juanjo]

Hi Pedro,

Spanish IGN provides DEM files with two different resolutions, MDT05 with 5 meters grid and MDT02 with 2 meters grid.
May I ask you which one are you using?
I ask because I happen to know Fuente Dé, the area in your first screenshot and, in my case, using a dem/hdr generated from MDT05, standard oruxmaps hillshadow looks far less darker than yours. See screenshot.

Regards

[Pathcrawler]

Hi, Juanjo.

Both snapshots come from the same MDT05 original files provided by IGN España but the difference between them is the level of vertical resolution info preserved in the conversion to the accepted Orux format.
More resolution means a broader grey gamut extended from the darker end; that’s the price to pay for a more detailed hillshading.

Regards
Pathcrawler
.

[Tobias]

Pathcrawler wrote:

Although it is not perfect (see the huge size of overlaid items) it is a step in the good direction.

That’s probably because OruxMaps uses a different tile size for composite maps than regular mapsforge maps. Usually both tile size and items are scaled according to pixel density of the display. If a fixed tile size is used and items are still scaled they become too large.

Pathcrawler wrote:

One more question, is there any documentation to fully understand the Elements/Elevate.xml files?

You mean for mapsforge themes in general? There’s this thread in the German section:
https://www.openandromaps.org/oam-forums/topic/grundorientierung/url%5D
Most links are in english anyway, but it helps to use a translator.

Developer of Elevate mapstyle

[troNpo]

Hello, you can adjust the scale of the elements in settings> maps >mapsforge maps.
Perform a composite according to your Capture, I show you dis examples, icons scale 1, icons scale 0.5.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 3 weeks ago by troNpo.

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