Dark and Indigo map themes (VTM)

[MotoUKRider]

This is a "Dark" theme for night-time driving/riding. It also includes the "Indigo" theme as an alternative night-style.
The Default/Light theme can be found here.
The "Biker" theme can be found here.

The current look, as of 19th May, is like this:

Here is how to apply the theme to Cruiser App:

Method 1:
Go to Settings-Application-Advanced and turn on Extended menu. This will give you some new tiles in the "Map" screen. Select "External map theme" and browse for the ZIP.

Method 2 (best):
Place the ZIP in Android\data\gr.talent.cruiser\files\themes or \Android\media\gr.talent.cruiser\themes depending on the selected "Storage folder" in app settings (you may need to create this path) and you'll see the themes in the normal theme picker/switcher. This allows you to to just overwrite the ZIP and see the new changes immediately (you do not need to force a re-load like Mapsforge engine). This method also allows you to use the built-in theme picker to compare with other themes very quickly.

Version 30, 28th May (these are NOT built into Cruiser and must be loaded via the above method/s)
Minor changes to islands|islets and drain|lake texts.
dark-vtm.zip

[DolomitesTom]

Blue is good

[bios4]

I am also a fan of the indigo variant (and already was back then when you first posted it in any of the older threads)... 😋

[JimmyS83]

Thanks! Both are good for my eyes, I would prefer left one. Could have a bit darkish surrounding (I mean green/gray details outside road - distinction of "city" vs "outside city" is enough for me and Indigo is good I believe in that context). The dark filter practically solves it, but as this is discussion just about Theme solution, I believe its good to mention this opinion, even if its solvable by other functionality (and I understand others could have different opinion). But current surrounding colors from left screenshot could be handy for someone). What I like on left is more color differentiate of roads (in general, not talking about specific colors)..

In my opinion even at night is good to have distincted at least 3 road types by color, if possible: highways / main roads / really small roads. Reasoning:

1. highway (obviously, longer distances connections, usually greenish)
2. primary/normal roads - expected good surface, normal usual roads.. Most roads would be this type.
3. small roads / abandoned areas, less pavement - often not so good, bumps holes, urban areas with bigger amount ofpedestrians etc... - good to see that in first sight, especially at night when things like holes are less likely to be spotted. These are propably gray on indigo and little bit less grayish and more whitish on the VTM Dark. (these would be that really thin lines for example on my picture below on the right for that particular navigation)

Regarding road colors, would be good to use screenshots with planned road as well, I think that must be taken into consideration. How is with rivers? Arent they interfere with some blue roads in indigo?

When I zoom in, the smaller roads are shown, as well sidewalks.

• The smaller roads are lighter than bigger rounds around in Indigo - light grey is much more visible than darkened blue for roads, I would prefer these have darker than main roads (or the same color, if you wouldnt differentiate roads at all - in VTM Dark they are I believe same color).
• The sidewalks. These are even more lighter. I dont think they would need to be there at all for motorider theme (to be exactly honest, for any other cruiser profiles than walk/hike), but if, then much, much more dark color. When I am looking to city suburban area, they really take away some simplicity and orientation time, when you try to look on "rideable options" towards some destination.. Actually I would welcome have this part of map within Layers, so I could enable/disable sidewalks completelly (not sure, if thats possible, @devemux86 ?), but anyway, Light theme uses small close to background dots, so its not that intrusing for vehicle ride..

Left is view with sidewalks (no extra layers enabled), right is actually "rideable" area

[MotoUKRider]

@JimmyS83 That 2nd image is much tidier. Indeed that's the kind of look I would prefer - there is/was a requirement by @devemux86 that the Light+Dark XMLs had to be identical with just colour variations but I think we need to bite the bullet and move beyond that. The idea behind that was to ensure that both maps render according to the same rules, albeit with a colour variation for Day/Night.

I think the outlines need to be tamed (or hidden) so that there is more background and less "clutter" allowing for an image you can just glance at - and see the important information quickly (and safely!).

"Buildings" could be moved into a Layer so that the "Day" theme has them enabled by default, but the "Night" has then hidden. You could toggle them on/off any time, of course.

[JimmyS83]

Light+Dark XMLs had to be identical with just colour variations

I understand.. We are on the same page. If the sidewalks cant be optionally turned off/on by map feature/layers (no matter on theme, thats actually something which should be non-theme related, and even maybe off by default, as I dont think Cruiser is widelly used for hiking/pedestrians), better blending with background would help, and the requirement/rule is still intact.

Regarding buildings, not sure if I wasnt trapped into language barrier, by surrounding I mean what surface surrounds roads: grass/field/city area ... Buildings for me are not an issue color-wise, as they blend fine and dont interfere with whiter roads. However of course, for performance reasons is always nice to have option turn things on/off - thats apply also for sidewalks I guess.

Not sure, if I understand "could be moved into a Layer".. As I wrote I didnt have anything checked in Layers, and buildings (I mean not 3D, I mean those very dark orange rectangles in examples above) are there as shown. I thought, they are part of the map.. Anyway, there could be light within buildings in cities, so they could have informational value for some navi user which using big zoom in big cities maybe, I dont know. Either way, personally I have zero problem with them color-wise in your themes.. But If these could be turned off, I would propably do that (if it would improve performance, buildings are not particularly needed for me).

[MotoUKRider]

@JimmyS83 The Layer suggestion was a way of helping to de-clutter the map; there is a far bit of street "furniture" that is mostly redundant in normal circumstances. It is obvious from your 2 images that my initial theme is very messy compared to the other App where there is lots of room: It's easy to see where the roads are and you're not squinting at the lines trying to determine a side-road from a pavement 😄

In this example, we see typical city "clutter" which needs to be tamed and I have removed road outlines, but their thickness needs to be reworked. Residential roads are thinner, but the service roads are noticeably "chunky". Early days!

[JimmyS83]

I created separate discussion about map visual (non-theme related), to stay on topic here :)

To be clear, I dont think that your themes are messy, nor I am saing that interface captured from TomTom is holy grail or etalon of perfection! It was just example to visual my comments.. You are of course limited by some factors, but things mentioned here, I believe, could be improved just via line/format / colors.. If majority kinda agree with them (I dont think I have patent for brain :)

[devemux86]

@MotoUKRider

It is a requirement that derivative map themes have exactly the same structure,
the same lines and only different colors / widths or commented rules.

If we don't want something to be rendered in a dark map theme, we can comment out the rule.
No need to delete or change theme structure, because it makes future comparison very difficult.

[MotoUKRider]

v2.1 of the theme is now on the edited top post (along with an updated screenshot).

I have thinned-out the roads, reduced buildings to zoom=16 and removed a couple of barrier objects. There will be some road thickness changes in the Biker+Light themes in a day or so on their respective threads. A city is a good place to look at this theme, particularly at zoom=15/16 where a lot of detail starts to appear.

[JimmyS83]

Looks definitively better!

I like brown color of sidewalks in modified version. Could it be dotted, similiar as on Light theme? In Light theme, after really close zoom - 17, the outline appeared, but when zoom out to anything less, only dotted path is really visible and it really looks like non-road path (as the sidewalk background really blend with background)..

Also, is it possible to make sidewalks, pedestrian, cycleways (everything non-motor) "layerable"? It would work for me, if these would visible since zoom 18 or such as well, from testing light theme it seems around 17/18 seems to be a good threshold for such a details. For test I tried to make sidewalks only zoom 17/18+, and result seems to be nice and clean

For walking purposes, 18 seems to be enough zoom to overview even longer walks by foot:

If these would be "layerable", it would open possibility to save richer layers "on" just for Walk/Bike profiles for example.

[MotoUKRider]

@JimmyS83 The Layer menu allows for "override" of any previously defined "rule", so we could have zoom=18 for the cycleways/paths in the main section - and then use a Layer option with a zoom=15 (or whatever) rule. So when you enable the "Non-road elements" Layer, they appear at this earlier zoom.

We have used the "Misc" Layer as a dumping ground for the least important objects, so I think we need a dedicated Layer as cycling is something users may be interested in. We already have the "Off-road" Layer which enhances the off-road "tracks", so I am wondering if that is some overlap there to place them inside or if we need a dedicated one?

It would probably be better from a navigation perspective if known unwanted objects could be turned-off, especially if their threshold is at a regular zoom threshold like 15 or 16. This would depend upon your auto-zoom settings, of course.

I'm aware that the map is the "shop window" for the App, so it needs to be appealing as well as configurable for a range of uses: We've enhanced the Layers over the past year to do exactly that - and if @devemux86 is happy with expanding them, we can allow a user to toggle almost any feature on/off and/or improve its contrast/size to suit the operating conditions.

[devemux86]

@MotoUKRider We can expand the layers with more options and improve current layers.

We must also remember that the themes must be general purpose,
as they can be used for driving, cycling, hiking, etc.

[JimmyS83]

We already have the "Off-road" Layer which enhances the off-road "tracks", so I am wondering if that is some overlap there to place them inside or if we need a dedicated one?

Just opinion by random basic user: "My understanding off-road track is, that these are for motor vehicles (could be mistaken). For me its like 4wheel needed in forest, do not go there with car or road motorcycle :)"

Not sure, if cyclists use the same for trail bike tracks for example, I could tell only motor vehicles experience here. It really depends on categories and how they are already defined within map system.

I think, it depends of map elements, but among default Cruiser profiles, from the clean installation: Motorbike, Cars, Walk, Hiking, Cycling, I would identify 3 "specific" separate set of groups, which would be good candidates for own layers with "specific" content related only for them. Motor-vehicles, Walk+Hiking, Cyclists. I dont think, that hiker would be interested for city cycling route. Cyclist for the sidewalks near school, Street motorcycle driver for mountain marked path, and Car driver for sidewalks.. But thats my quick thought without actual knowing of types of elements, so no serious analysis of overlapping elements (i guess there will be far more complicated with other elements than roads and paths, which would applied as shared for walk+hiking for example...).

Btw., how about dotting walking paths in Dark theme, to suit the same principle in Light theme? Was my observation correct regarding these?

[MotoUKRider]

@JimmyS83 I'm sure somebody who likes cycling at night on gravel-tracks will be along soon to ask if we can also enable buildings because you know how it is when you're riding a trail... you turn a corner, dodge a puddle and crash into a cathedral ⛪

I am not much of an off-roader and I don't cycle too much (certainly not for sport) - So what seems logical to me may not seem so for a dedicated enthusiast. For example, last year the enhanced tracks Layer got a re-working on their colours-vs-grades via a good map example in south-west Germany that was well-tagged - I was able to make the map look better for the off-road rider.

When adjusting objects and zoom thresholds - it helps to look at both city and rural areas. If something doesn't look right, I'm always happy to investigate if you want to specify a city/town or lat/lon. As I have frequently said here, we don't get too many volcanoes or glaciers in the UK, so I often have to rely on others' local knowledge.

[JimmyS83]

<!-- highway area -->
                    <m k="area" v="yes|true" zoom-min="14">
                        <m v="service|unclassified|residential|road">
                            <area fill="#FFFFFF" />

I think these areas should be darkened as well...

[MotoUKRider]

@JimmyS83 Could you give me an OpenStreetMap query URL or city/town or lat/lon so I can look at an example, please?
This looks like <m k="tunnel|bridge" v="~|no"> and I'm having trouble finding matching objects with the road types.

If it was just a road type or a bridge/tunnel on a motorway, I'd have plenty to choose from but I'm stuck looking for an exact match within the rules of that section.

[JimmyS83]

Few objects/land are around 49.8425100N, 18.1699714E. It seems to be some "residential area filled" - one is land around market, second some public area..

[MotoUKRider]

@JimmyS83 Thanks, nice spot - I've fixed and re-upped the ZIP for everyone.

[JimmyS83]

@devemux86 Could we looking forward to see also Dark Motorider for VTM in next Cruiser stable? 🙏 😉

[JimmyS83]

@JimmyS83 This process already exists - See the "Method 2" info in the top post 😄 That's how I test the new XMLs: Just drop the ZIP into the themes folder and use the internal theme picker.

Well, I am really GLAD that option for us, tech sawy exists. But thats not exactly smooth user experience I described (I meant it generally for regular user, as I think you did a really fine work which actually could bring benefit for more than few users) :) In my case, I need to use internal path (as media path didnt work, if I didnt do something wrong, I remember tried that media, when I found I have no access to internal in Total Commander), and for that internal I need uninstall System app updates... And that would be out of window in next androids maybe...

But as I wrote, just thought :)

[bios4]

@bios4 /Android/media folder is still accessible in latest Android.

Is it safe to switch from data to media?
Cruiser tells me this affects 4,5 GB of data...

[devemux86]

@bios4 Changing the storage folder requires to download again the offline maps.
(the old downloads are deleted)

[bios4]

OK, then I will keep everything as is... 😉

If I would have chosen the media folder directly after a fresh install, all the offline maps etc. would have been downloaded to/stored in that folder instead - correct?

[devemux86]

If I would have chosen the media folder directly after a fresh install, all the offline maps etc. would have been downloaded to/stored in that folder instead - correct?

@bios4 Correctly.

[MotoUKRider]

v2.3 now updated with POI caption fixes which needed inverting for better clarity.
The next release will probably see "minor" street objects moved into a Layer to allow for a more "road focused" navigation.

[bios4]

Could you please apply the "horizon-change" in the "official" dark/indigo map styles @MotoUKRider!??
Thanks... 😀

[MotoUKRider]

I have re-upped the ZIPs with the horizon background fix @bios4 🎨
No other changes.

The next update of "Dark" will include minor road objects within the "More road details" Layer as a sandpit for our "less clutter" discussions. It will be easy to revert the changes on a single non-integrated theme and if we do create a new Layer, we just change the name-value and add the new translations for each language.

Once a final course of action is settled-upon, I can duplicate the styling across the various themes on both map engines.

[MotoUKRider]

v2.4 updated in the top post with the "Dark" (not Indigo) theme offering additional street objects contained in the "More road details" Layer to reduce "clutter" during night-time navigation. This includes cycleways, footways, pavements and barriers/gates.

The "Vegetation" Layer has also been restored to hide all the "green stuff". Note that this Layer is enabled by default so that the map is not affected unless you turn the Layer off.

[MotoUKRider]

v26 is now available in the top post. This sees a small rendering tweak for residential roads at zoom=12+13 to avoid "wormlines" in large cities/towns.

Any feedback on the items within "More road details" would be appreciated - this could be rolled-out to Biker+Light themes for an improved daytime navigation in Cities.

[MotoUKRider]

v27 now available which sees the Layer "More map details" replacing "More road details". This has additional detail for cycleways/paths etc at an earlier zoom-level. Plus there are some minor syntax fixes unrelated to display/rendering.

This now brings all OpenGL/VTM (3D) Default/Light, Biker, Dark and Indigo themes together with the same XML layout 🎉 Going forward, this should allow for greater flexibility in use (as well as coding!) to handle map detail, features etc whatever your method of travel.

I am still working on the Mapsforge XMLs... ☕

[MotoUKRider]

v28 now available in the top post which adds "Show toll roads" Layer. This will highlight Motorway/Trunk/Primary roads that have toll=yes. Icons for toll_booth have also been added which were previously missing.

[MotoUKRider]

v29 now available which has a newly renamed "Toll roads" Layer (was "Show toll roads").

[devemux86]

VTM map themes will all be maintained here:

• Map themes (VTM) #822