FalconView 1.0.0
The first public build of FalconView — an offline-first tactical mapping app for the field. Mark waypoints, record tracks, measure distance and area, and search places, with a vector basemap that keeps rendering when the signal drops.
This is a v1.0 cut. Core flows are stable; rough edges are listed under Known issues below.
✨ Highlights
- 🗺️ Offline-first vector basemap — download a region once, render it forever without a connection. Tiles, glyphs and sprites are all bundled or served locally.
- 🔍 On-device POI search & routing — every downloaded region builds its own SQLite POI index + road graph during download; no network needed afterwards.
- 📍 Field tools — MARK pins, TRACK routing (online OSRM with offline Dijkstra fallback), RULER distance, AREA polygon download.
- ⚡ GPU-rendered vector tiles — MapLibre Native on mobile, MapLibre GL JS in a WebView on desktop. Smooth pan / zoom on every platform.
- 🛰️ Switchable satellite imagery — Esri World Imagery overlay, Pro-tier only.
- 💻 One experience across Windows, macOS, Android, iOS & Web — same UI, same shortcuts, same offline pipeline.
📥 Downloads
| Platform | File | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | FalconView-1.0.0-windows.zip (14.5 MB) |
Unzip anywhere, run falconview.exe. No installer needed. |
| macOS | FalconView-1.0.0-macos.zip (33.8 MB) |
Unzip → drag to Applications. Unsigned build — first launch needs right-click → Open (or System Settings → Privacy & Security → "Open Anyway"). |
| Android | FalconView-1.0.0-android.apk (102 MB) |
Enable Settings → Apps → Special access → Install unknown apps for your browser/file manager, then open the APK. Min Android 6.0 (API 23). |
| iOS | FalconView-1.0.0-ios.ipa (25.3 MB) |
Sideload-only — requires your own provisioning profile (Sideloadly, AltStore, or Xcode). Not yet on TestFlight / App Store. |
macOS unsigned and iOS unsigned are deliberate for this build — App Store / Apple Developer signing comes in a future release. Source is open; build it yourself if you'd rather not trust the binary.
🚀 Quick start (60 seconds)
- Install for your platform (above).
- Launch — the map opens centred on Indore.
- Tap the search bar → type "Indore" → tap the download icon next to a result.
- Wait for the tiles + POI index + road graph to build (a city is ~1–3 minutes on a good connection).
- Turn airplane mode on, pan around, search "hospital", tap TRACK to a destination. It still works.
🧭 What's in this release
- Offline tile download + persistent disk cache (so re-visits don't re-fetch)
- POI tap-to-info bottom sheet with Directions / Mark / Copy actions
- Plans screen with Free / Pro toggle (Pro unlocks offline download + satellite + Pro-only POI fallback)
- Coordinate formats: decimal, DMS, MGRS — long-press the coord chip to cycle
- North-up lock + compass FAB
⚠️ Known issues
We'd rather call these out than have you discover them at a bad moment:
- POI tap on Chrome returns a locality cascade ("Indore City") instead of the actual tapped feature. Fix queued.
- Touchpad pinch-zoom on Windows is sluggish — MapLibre's default
zoomRateis tuned for desktop wheels. - Low-zoom tile fetch can be slow on poor connections (z0–z6 tiles are several MB each); the proxy now scales its timeout to the zoom but the first paint at "see-the-whole-country" zooms takes a few seconds.
- iOS TRACK falls back to last-known location if the device GPS isn't fixed yet — give it a second outdoors.
- CLR button wipes pins + ruler + track + area in one tap, no confirmation. Don't lean on it.
Full issue list / report new ones: GitHub Issues.
🔒 Privacy & permissions
- Location — used only for the GPS dot on the map and TRACK mode's start point. Never transmitted off-device.
- Network — only for online tile fetches (OpenFreeMap / Esri), Nominatim search, and OSRM routing. No analytics, no telemetry, no accounts.
- Storage — downloaded regions, POI indexes, road graphs and the on-disk tile cache live in your app data directory. Clear them via the Downloaded tab.
🧱 Built on
OpenStreetMap data · OpenMapTiles schema · Planetiler · OpenFreeMap · MapLibre · Esri World Imagery · Nominatim · OSRM
Attribution renders inline on the map.
👥 Credits
Built by Parth Gupta & Parv Tiwari.