address numbers are not shown in address overlay view

[JZersche]

Addresses aren't being displayed while in "Address Overlay" view mode, despite the fact that the area has full address information available. Navigating to an area where addresses haven't been filled in, and then while in "Address Overlay" mode, you can start adding the house numbers, and they'll show up. But if you stay in address overlay mode and go to the area where you know addressing information is available, the addresses aren't visible until you leave the address overlay mode, in which case, navigating back to the original location where you just filled in addresses, they are no longer visible.

So the house numbers don't show up while in overlay mode, unless you add them manually, in which case the area may already be properly addressed leading to unnecessary edits..

[arrival-spring]

Can you link to the area where this happens?

House numbers are meant to be shown in the overlay.

House numbers will also be shown on the map, when not in an overlay, when you're zoomed in a lot. However if you have only just added them then the map won't have updated yet.

[JZersche]

Baltimore: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=39.27499&mlon=-76.61317#map=17/39.27498/-76.61317

Pretty much all of Baltimore City, Maryland is completely mapped out in OSM, but the addresses will only show you have you have overlay set to none.

Setting the overlay to addresses will show addresses for any areas outside of Baltimore assuming there is data, actually I've found that anywhere I've looked there seems to be no address information other than Baltimore, but Cedar Hill Lane is an area outside of Baltimore where they started building new houses recently about 2 years ago and it's been filled in with data and works with address overlays enabled, and with overlays set to none.

Cedar Hill Lane (new housing area):
https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=39.21104&mlon=-76.61051#map=19/39.21104/-76.61051

Another area that has address information mapped out that only shows addresses if overlay is set to None, is located here:
Dorchester View: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=39.16620&mlon=-76.73059#map=19/39.16620/-76.73059

I can see addresses on those houses if I set overlays to none, but if I set it to addresses they disappear.

Bugged Areas (Addressing Information Available) [Not Visible with Address Overlay Enabled]:
Dorchester View: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=39.16620&mlon=-76.73059#map=19/39.16620/-76.73059
Baltimore, MD: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=39.27499&mlon=-76.61317#map=17/39.27498/-76.61317

I hope this helps.

Another thing I wanted to bring up is if you look at the address nodes placed on Cedar Hill Lane, you'll notice they're very close together and yet the address numbers show up with no problem. I've experienced an issue where if I place the nodes myself, and they're too close together, it will only show 1 of them and not the one next to it due to it being too close, I've had to stagger the nodes in a zig zag pattern as a work around for this, but I don't like doing this so I've just been mapping it normally like how Cedar Hill is done. I'm gonna switch to using JOSM soon once I learn more about all of this.

EDIT: I fixed the Cedar Hill Lane area addresses not being shown while overlay mode set to none by changing one address node from 124 to 124x, saving it, and then changing it back to 124, then in the StreetComplete app, I navigated to that area, and "Scanned for New Quests" and the addresses popped up, but it didn't fix the issue for me in another area where I've filled in the addresses. I was however able to also navigate to baltimore with the overlays set to addresses, and once I scanned for new quests in that area, the addresses showed up. So this seems like some sort of app caching / map data updating issue.

[Helium314]

Works nicely for me. With the address overlay, many more house numbers are shown than without.
Did you actually download the map data (means: you see quests) in the area where you have the issue?

[JZersche]

Works nicely for me. With the address overlay, many more house numbers are shown than without. Did you actually download the map data (means: you see quests) in the area where you have the issue?

Can you give me a location so I can test it on my end and eliminate the potential that my recent addressing isn't the issue? Yes, I've tried updating and downloading new data.

See image for example. In this case, I see it showing a quest for the house number of the building (area) but it's not displaying the address points that were placed.

Here is how the nodes are setup for the Cedar Lane area: There is some sort of discrepancy with address points and buildings with addresses, but it's not caused by the addresses being points or a lack of address points (buildings marked with address tags instead) since it's capable of showing both. But it does seem to have something to do with this. You might notice that when the overlay is set to addresses in the middle image, the middle row of housing address disappear, but the ones on the right are still visible. Both use address points, so it's a weird issue.

Another example with the Cedar Lane area

[matkoniecz]

Area link: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/60308912#map=18/39.10568/-76.70153

[matkoniecz]

See image for example. In this case, I see it showing a quest for the house number of the building (area) but it's not displaying the address points that were placed.

But addresses are shown in address overlay, right?

Another example with the Cedar Lane area

Here addresses are also showing in address overlay, right?

(discrepancy of addresses showing or not before data was downloaded looks weird and may qualify for a separate issue, but it is not "address numbers are not shown in address overlay view")

Is there any specific address not showing up in address overlay with data downloaded?

[matkoniecz]

discrepancy of addresses showing or not before data was downloaded looks weird

That is because for https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/806269254#map=15/39.2109/-76.5996 you had Northern part of data downloaded and Southern not.

Maybe somehow marking area without data would be a good idea.

[JZersche]

you had Northern part of data downloaded and Southern not.

I don't see any option to download data, only to delete the cache.

Here is an area I just edited 2 hours ago. I added 6 addresses to it. They are visible with Address Overlay, but not visible with None.

What is the cause of this issue?

[matkoniecz]

I don't see any option to download data, only to delete the cache.

Data will download on its own if in area, can be requested via "Scan for quests here" in menu.

Maybe it should be renamed to make clear that it fetches data also for overlays.

What is the cause of this issue?

Background map data is based on OSM data but updates with delay of about 7 days. They should appear within about seven days.

They are visible with Address Overlay

So "address numbers are not shown in address overlay view" is not actually happening?

[JZersche]

So "address numbers are not shown in address overlay view" is not actually happening?

It is happening but it goes away when I initiate a scan for quests. So what's really going on then is:

Data will download on its own if in area.

Unless what you mean is I have to geographically be at that GPS location for that to initiate. (?)

This is not happening automatically.

As for the other issue:

Background map data is based on OSM data but updates with delay of about 7 days. They should appear within about seven days.

I assumed that this was a potential cause of such issue. Why is it that addresses will show up with the overlay view, but not with it set to none if it's an issue of the 7-day delay? Is address overlays somehow pulling the address information directly from OSM data instantly, while None overlay requires a waiting period?

Sorry for my confusion, I'm still figuring everything out.

Also, I might ask how were those row homes in Cedar Hill Lane created? They're so uniform and symmetrical. There must be a way to create an area in JOSM and then slice it in to different subdivisions?

[matkoniecz]

This is not happening automatically.

Is GPS showing you actual location (blue dot)? Is there scan progress (orange bar circling around star in top-left corner)?

Why is it that addresses will show up with the overlay view

They are manually displayed as part of overlay based on downloaded OSM data, not as part of showing background map.

Is address overlays somehow pulling the address information directly from OSM data instantly, while None overlay requires a waiting period?

Yes, exactly. Overlays are based on raw OSM data from OSM editing API, while background map is using processed OSM data from external service based on OSM data.

Also, I might ask how were those row homes in Cedar Hill Lane created? They're so uniform and symmetrical. There must be a way to create an area in JOSM and then slice it in to different subdivisions?

Yes, JOSM has some build-in tools and extra plugins like https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JOSM/Plugins/BuildingsTools

Such data could be also imported but that not appear to apply in this specific case.

[JZersche]

I will assume this issue is resolved and can be closed, since it's likely due to the background data requiring more time to update.

An entirely separate issue I'm still wondering if there is any insight towards is here

Another thing I wanted to bring up is if you look at the address nodes placed on Cedar Hill Lane, you'll notice they're very close together and yet the address numbers show up with no problem. I've experienced an issue where if I place the nodes myself, and they're too close together, it will only show 1 of them and not the one next to it due to it being too close, I've had to stagger the nodes in a zig zag pattern as a work around for this, but I don't like doing this so I've just been mapping it normally like how Cedar Hill is done. I'm gonna switch to using JOSM soon once I learn more about all of this.

Otherwise, thanks for all who contributed towards solving my confusion.

[westnordost]

To summarize the situation:

• The background map is based on OSM data and is updated every few days. It includes housenumbers
• The current OSM data is only shown when the area has been downloaded. This happens automatically for the area around your GPS location, for any other location, you need to tap "Scan for quests here" in the menu
• While the housenumber overlay is shown, the addresses from the background map are hidden and instead the housenumbers from the current downloaded OSM data are shown

Issues with the current situation:

1. The housenumbers in the overlay and when not in the overlay are styled the same. There is no way for a user to know that these actually come from different data sources. This is relevant, as they are different, i.e. one lags behind the other a few days
2. It is not obvious to the user why no addresses are displayed in the overlay - because it is not visible to the user which area(s) have been downloaded and which not
3. It is not obvious to the user how to manually download data for overlays outside of the area around his own location

Solutions:

1. 🤷 - not show housenumbers from the background map at all? But housenumbers are very important for orientation. An option may be to not show housenumbers from the background map at all but show the housenumbers from the downloaded current OSM data only. However, SC currently lacks the ability to show arbitrary OSM data outside of the context of overlays. In any case, overlaying more data will be a performance hit.

2. Demarcate the downloaded area somehow - e.g. everything outside is desaturated or made darker. However, I don't see how it is possible to do so with the tangram-es rendering library. Desaturation will not work. Making it darker may work by overlaying half-transparent black rectangles. However, we want to darken the area that has not been downloaded, i.e. everything except. Maybe what could work is to add in a layer a polygon that spans the whole world but has holes (and the holes are the downloaded area(s). Anyone interested in experimenting with that possibility? - it would be a very useful feature that I think has been requested before at least 1 time.

3. Rename the "Scan for quests here" item to something that better describes its function. "Download data and scan for quests here"?

[JZersche]

2. I would suggest desaturation of non-downloaded areas.
3. Automatically download data based on camera position rather than GPS position.

The housenumbers in the overlay and when not in the overlay are styled the same. There is no way for a user to know that these actually come from different data sources.

One possible solution would be to show the house numbers in red, and to indicate that a different data source is being used colorize the buildings tint to orange or magenta.

[matkoniecz]

shrug - not show housenumbers from the background map at all? But housenumbers are very important for orientation.

Yes, that would reduce confusion but remove extremely valuable tool

Automatically download data based on camera position rather than GPS position.

That would be problematic when you scroll around looking for some specific position (and if you are not doing this then you do not need far away data anyway)

[JZersche]

shrug - not show housenumbers from the background map at all? But housenumbers are very important for orientation.

I dislike this idea.

Automatically download data based on camera position rather than GPS position.

That would be problematic when you scroll around looking for some specific position (and if you are not doing this then you do not need far away data anyway)

Delay it by 60 seconds, if the user hasn't moved the screen for 60 seconds or 30 automatically load the data, this would be a good solution if considered as necessary, if anyone is like me, they will have tossed their phone off to the side to research the issue and by the time they grab their phone again the issue will have been solved by the 30 second delay, which when scrolling the map wouldn't cause an issue.

...alternatively, just leave it how it is currently. It's fine, it's just unclear at first. A pop-up message upon entering address overlay view to clarify that map changes and task completions can take up to 7 days to show in non-overlay mode.

Perhaps a viable solution for Address Overlay, is to show the address and buildings like the image on the right instead.

[westnordost]

(Currently) it is not possible to style the text differently for each overlay. If the color of text in overlays would be changed, it would have to be for every overlay.

[matkoniecz]

Also, it is not really self-explainable. We would get repeated "housenumber text styling is weird with address overlay".

[mnalis]

While the housenumber overlay is shown, the addresses from the background map are hidden and instead the housenumbers from the current downloaded OSM data are shown

Why, though? What would happen if addresses from the background map would continue to be be shown, and housenumbers from currently downloaded OSM data would be shown over them at exact same places?

Is it just some tiny performance loss for doing the same thing twice? Or are they not shown on exact same locations in exact same format, so they would create unreadable mess?

Because, if former, it would seem to me that fixing such source of confusion would outweigh that small performance loss?

[arrival-spring]

OSM data is always most up to date. There could be a mistake in the address data on the background map, which is then fixed, so it would be strange to see the old, wrong, data still, even after fixing it.