Universal map theme (VTM)

[MotoUKRider]

Often, we don't know what a "good" map theme looks like until we see other examples - This website has proved good inspiration for ideas of design, colour-choice etc.

Devices like TomTom and Zumo excel at a "basic" map layouts and the "Elevate" theme is a very good cycling/hiking map (and looks "old school"). Others follow a style like road-signs and allow for easy recognition/planning (eg: highways/motorways=blue, major/trunk=green). Others are "battleship grey" and whilst not terribly exciting, they do the job.

A "pretty" map certainly helps during the planning stage but may not be ideal during navigation.

Layers can help here: Using the ones we have now, or define your own and decide what you want to see/hide. With the right colour-scheme, you could probably cover most uses with a single theme and simply toggle the Layers as needed.

Here are some screenshots from a "sat-nav" style theme I've made: It's based on the current "Light" theme but with a simple colour-scheme and the detail Layers "off" by default. I've backed-off minor road details (barriers/cycleways/footpaths) and placed them in the "More road details" Layer (we're testing this idea in the "Dark" theme). If those ideas work, this theme would then be aligned with the "Biker" and "Light" themes in terms of XML layout/lines 😄

Wide-area views:

Close-in streets:

Navigation simulation:
PS: This panel/text colour combo seems to work well for both Day+Night map themes (I use "Indigo")

Here's the OAM "Lake District" map in "default" view, quite boring to start with:

...until you enable "Hillshading", "Mountain peaks", "Vegetation", and "Contour lines":
The "Peaks" look much nicer now the captions have been arranged top+bottom!

Or just enable "Off-road tracks" for a simple road+track view:

Theme ZIP v10, 12th January : Added volcano which was missing in VTM themes
motorider-navigation.zip

This theme follows the work (ie: fixes) on the main theme, but (currently) has only 1 difference:

• Charging/Fuel icons appear at 11 (not 10)

I originally called it "navigation" as that was my original intention. Whether it is "navigation" or "universal" is up to you and your paint-palette to decide! Offered here for normal use and/or experimentation.

If you want to edit something yourself - just ask: "how did you do xxx?". The road colour changes were just finding the right shades of yellow on this useful HTML Color website and editing with Notepadd++. If it's just zoom-levels you want to change, that's just a case of searching for the layer/object and entering a new value - you cannot override the default zoom minimums, you can make them appear later. The tag-mapping reference the values and will save a lot of headaches!

[devemux86]

@MotoUKRider Thanks for this work!

Do all roads have the same color?
Isn't this confusing to recognize them?

[JimmyS83]

I know its a little bit offtopic, but I slightly changed Motorider VTM/Mapsforge themes, to be more close to the Mapy.cz Basic layout, which I consider as one of most clear map layouts when talking about "Daylight" ones. My changes are amateurish, and more resembling look than recreating it, but still, good enough for me. If anyone is interested, I could create separate thread (with no commitment for indefinitivelly updates, or maintain :-). But I am not sure.

[MotoUKRider]

@JimmyS83 That's a nice job - and exactly the reason why I post hints/examples of themes 👍

[JimmyS83]

@JimmyS83 That's a nice job - and exactly the reason why I post hints/examples of themes 👍

I agree, that helps a lot. I am just not sure if, I should share it, because its not so polished/tested/finished as your themes.. to not make users confused or angry :)

[MotoUKRider]

@JimmyS83 I don't think there's anything wrong with showing your work via screenshots and/or offering the XML file if you want others to use/learn from it. The benefit of this approach is you can change a colour (or the whole theme) if you wanted to - you're not stuck with a scheme that was written by a developer 75ft down the proverbial "support network" 😆

"Thank you for your suggestion, we will keep your details on file"

Also, I'm still getting it wrong - and this is where fresh eyes really help: You know the area you live, the land features and so on. It often needs a far-away part of the World to identify a problem. Sometimes, the quality of OpenStreetMap tagging (off-road tracks and their "grades" being a good example) isn't as good as you'd like, so need to rely on others to tell you. For example, this area in SW Germany is great for checking "tracks" and their "grades" when styling.

But do ask if you want to improve anything in your theme and want to add/change a rule and need a nudge in the right direction... ✋

[JimmyS83]

Allright, I shared my clunky work... Maybe someone could use that for his needs or base for other improvements :)

[bios4]

While I really like that "minimalized" approach, I'm not sure if yellow-only colored streets make much sense!??

I'm happy to make this theme available if there is interest

I'm ALWAYS interested in stuff like that, and would be happy if you would provide at least the ZIP file for download here. 😃

finding the right shades of yellow on this useful HTML Color website

For finding suitable colors (or even suiting palettes) my recommendations are:

• https://www.fffuel.co/cccolor/
• https://www.fffuel.co/hhhue/
• https://www.fffuel.co/pppalette/

[MotoUKRider]

@bios4 I've just been for a drive in the car, a mixture of roads - it worked fine for me. That's the beauty of a file anyone can edit, just change it if you don't like it 😄

The Theme ZIP is now in the top-post for anyone to use/edit.

[MotoUKRider]

I have added Version 2 of this XML theme - it now aligns with the other OpenGL/VTM (3D) XML themes in terms of structure. Obviously it is vastly different in terms of "colour" but I find it excellent for navigation and my most recent trip made use of this theme. The only difference (because this is my personal theme) is that the "Fuel" icons appear at zoom=11 (not 10) as other things also appear at 11, including my "Favorite" icons.

Of course, anybody is free to use it, edit it, re-post it making whatever changes they wish.

[MotoUKRider]

v3 of this theme updated to include a split of the Accommodation Layer with an additional entry for Camping and Caravan site. This allows you to search for traditional "bricks and mortar" venues or outdoor ones.

[MotoUKRider]

v4 now updated with shelter objects moved to the "Miscellaneous" Layer.
This typically includes bus/rail shelters and other non-accomodation places but not alpine/winderness_huts which remain.

[MotoUKRider]

I have updated the ZIP file to v5 with motorcycle_parking now having its own Layer. Testing with some city locations, it seems to make finding dedicated motorcycle parking areas a little easier... Your mileage may vary, as they say 🅿️

This theme is external to Cruiser so may contain slight differences to the main themes.

[MotoUKRider]

v6 now on the top-post with toll_road fix for tunnel roads.

This theme is external to Cruiser so may contain slight differences to the main themes.

[MotoUKRider]

v7 now updated with a slight tweak for "country" borders, plus a label showing the border (where supported in OSM tags) at zoom-14.

This theme is external to Cruiser so may contain slight differences to the main themes.

[MotoUKRider]

v8 now updated to includes translations for Danish, Portuguese, Swedish (matching other themes).
Also, minor a correction to the "county" border thickness (now 1.0, was 1.5) which other (3D/VTM) themes will get on the next update. They looked a bit "thick" on the App in 2D mode and I wasn't happy with that when they ran near train tracks.

Aside from Charging/Fuel icons appearing at 11 (not 10), this theme follows the main (integrated) theme rules as of now.

[MotoUKRider]

v9 now available with red-dash effect for access=private plus minor fixes to align with existing VTM themes.

[MotoUKRider]

v10 now available which adds volcano to the default map which was missing in VTM themes.