Ahh thanks. Great. I'll look around for Klang Valley maps for 2.1 if there are any =/

@blizzy

You can find a KL Map for 2.1 at http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/809207/+20

Yay awesome! Thanks a lot man.

Question.

These maps are of a single level zoom accuracy only , right? If I decide to zoom in, and that zoom level is not available, you'll basically get a blank slate ,right?

SO, in other words, you will need customised versions of varying levels of zoom accuracies, which would come to GBs of map tiles if I want those many level of zoom accuracies, right? The need for varying levels of accuracies comes when you are travelling in tighly packed high density road areas, in which you would need to zoom in to get a sense of the roads around you, and when you are traveling cross country, the road gets less dense to only major highways and therefore needing the maps to be zoomed out. How do you accommodate for this?

Don't get me wrong, I am appreciative of your efforts, Maverick Wil/Wilsoncvt, but if I am reading this correctly, and if this app allows single level zoom accuracy only, it is only worthwhile when you are in a specific area only, meaning either in high density road areas like cities, or zoomed-out maps with only display of major roads , in the case of offroading or travelling balik kampung.

IMO(and I will have to stress much on this IMO), this is not enough a reason to jailbreak, contrary to the opinions of certain quarters here. Reason being, this app is trying to emulate the way Garmin GPSes work, but only with single level zoom accuracies, a.k.a static map tiles at preset accuracy. The Garmins allow zooming out and being able to see the "bigger picture" but because of how Google Maps work, you are moving between different zoom accuracy map tiles. It is because of this reason that i feel, IMO, that not being able to set it with varying accuracy (because otherwise, you'll bloat the map tile sizes to crazy sizes) that it does not suit the purpose well.

Using Google Maps properly with 3G/EDGE may not be for everyone, since it involves subscriptions to these WWAN services and not everyone can afford them. I totally understand that, and I can understand why, because of these constraints, that solutions like this(Offline Maps) comes up. But still, using Google Maps THIS way, would only work somewhat satisfactorily only when you have map zoom accuracy a certain way, and different areas you travel will need different solutions to the level of map zoom accuracy. It is because of these varying complexities, that is why I feel, it is best coupled with a WWAN service (3G, or EGDE). Even on 3G/EDGE and using Google Maps, there are disadvantages, and sometimes maps are slow to load, or not noad at all, but you have to understand, Google Maps was never intended to be used as a full-fledged GPS solution ala Garmin, it is mean as a location-based service.

It is therefore, from these conclusions I have mentioned, that I feel that while this app has its benefits, it does not serve its purpose well. And therefore, still not a good enough reason to jailbreak.

Disclaimer: All these are my own posts and all in my own opinion (IMO). I am running this risk of being at the disadvantage of not being agreed upon by many here, because of my no-jailbreaking stance here, but this is after all, a forum, and in a forum, we voice our opinions and we don't necessarily agree with the next person. It is how we disagree with the next person agreeably, that exemplifies the maturity of the populace of a said forum. Enough said.

nice tutorial there . thx alot dude helps alot hehe....

string, maybe you got it wrong. gmdl software is used to download all the "pictures" of the map in google included the various zooms. if set correctly , you can have all the maps (picture) up to the road (jalan xx) . after download the pictures, it will combine back as maps using grid system ( not sure on this)

in another words, this software are downloading the pictures from various zoom not static to 1 zoom only. there is 1x,2x,4x,8x,16x,32x and 64x downloading zoom for the pictures. so , when i view off line maps, i can view like normal maps as if from wifi/ 3g or edge, with various of zooms.

I am sorry if i got you meaning post wrongly.

If that is the case, then I take it back, it is a great solution!

My understanding after reading the tutorial was it was preset to a static zoom level only, not varying zoom.

Mind if I ask how big would the size of the map would be if I want all these varying degrees of zoom intact? Is the size as reported by the size of that download there, as in
46MB?

Looking at the process of making custom maps for yourself, it is rather tedious. I'm thinking of using this as a solution to looking at my maps while I'm at my nightspot places, but if I had to go jump though lots of hoops to get there, I'll let others do it.

Still, I have my own Garmin. I'd rather have the same function in my Aifontriji and not having the need to carry two devices while I'm walking in strange, new places, but I don't feel inclined to jailbreak just for this.

the 46mb is just klang valley only... the size is depends on your zooms. as in u zoom in more = more pictures to download. judging from the size klang valley it about 3k+ pictures in there.

sometimes you jailbreak your phone got troll, it goes slower...i jb i only get those usefull apps from cydia and i really don't like my phone goes troll (turtle) lol.

This post has been edited by Shock: Nov 27 2008, 06:53 PM

So in rough figure, if I want a full Klang Valley map, with all the possible zoom levels, what kind of map size are we talking about here? GBs?

Have you put this on your iPhone? Does it go "troll" on you?

offlinemaps not troll, only winterboard + themes + icon changes will troll prolly 10 to 15 secs.

let say if included klang as well, prolly max only 100mb. the one i did, which included klang but only limited to second of last zoom u can get is 63mb. problem which caching map is u need time and good line. singapore whole country is 300mb.

yeah wanna know how to zoom more details of a location without using any connection

bro, we already dl the maps with various of zoom. take is as "pre-dled" map. just zoom like dbl tap then the maps will load from the "saved cache map" which we put though SSH.

when you already put in the file dled with the maps of that area, you wont need any connections.

This post has been edited by Shock: Nov 27 2008, 07:06 PM

i know double tab to zoom but when i tried to zoom it's not very details. zoom 3 times that's it can't zoom anymore .

This post has been edited by Snuffykl: Nov 27 2008, 07:09 PM

that because the maps not make fully zoom. the software gmdl is very stingy. it can only take certain area if want full zoom. let say u want klang valley, which maverick upload. it should be contain full zoom. if you want included klang, then only max 2x zoom not 1x zoom. therefore maverick is offering is time and dedication to make full zoom maps for whole malaysia.

@stringfellow

Yea, as a non jb, you are at a big disadvantage on the forums haha...

..just kidding wit u...

Right as Shock said, GMDL allows you to download (in a single map file) varying levels of zoom that are available on Google Maps. You can choose which levels of zoom you want in your custom map.

Let's take for example the WestMalaysia map that I have provided for download. That map only has if I'm not mistaken 3 to 4 levels of basic zoom starting from the maximum zoom out layer that was available. Zoom in any more than that and you will get blank tiles. However, this was what I chose out of size concern. I actually did attempt to download the whole WestMalaysia map with every layers of zoom possible (approx 8 layers) but this amounted to a 5GB file size which is huge. It ended up not converting and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't load properly on the iPhone.

To solve this problem, I decided to provide a sort of an overview map of WestMalaysia where you can still zoom down to details that show you main roads and highways. It is still pretty detailed and is only a mere 11.5MB which is a fraction of the 5GB size. I then created separate maps for varying states like the Klang Valley area with pretty much all the zoom levels for when more information is needed. I can easily switch between the different maps using the OfflineMaps app on the iPhone itself relatively easily when I want to. I have so far managed to load 4 different cached map files on the iPhone at any one time but there has been no issues on limit that I know of thus far.

The KlangValley map at all zoom levels is approx 42MB and it includes a bit of the outskirts area as well. I may have left out the maximum zoom level though which doesn't really affect any loss of info as x1 zoom and x2 zoom has pretty much the same info set. The maximum zoom layer I left out would have added an extra 30mb to the file size for a total of 72MB which overall is not too bad. I've found that it's best though to keep each cached map file size to under 250MB for maximum performance (no lags, nothing).

I'm getting a bit sidetracked typing this up now because I just noticed some small discussion going on already so I hope the above answers your concerns and shows that it is still very useful for OfflineMaps existence. I personally am not a 3G subscriber and I'm managing pretty well with using maps on a casual basis.

This post has been edited by Maverick Wil: Nov 27 2008, 07:16 PM

I'll be interested back again, once this has been achieved.

bro maverick, your klang valley map still not in rapidshare yet >.>

Funny you should say so because it just finished and I'm updating the links right after this.

Mav,

You can see where I come from in terms of a user level. I am a 3G subscriber, therefore the Klang Valley maps are not of substantial importance since I can do it the intended way, via Google Maps + 3G connection. It is on the areas where there are not 3G coverage, that your solution here becomes important.

Do these Offline maps have routing capabilities, or at least searchable street contents. Let' say I preload these offline maps of Paris, and I want to use these offline maps to look for Rue de Rivoli, can this be done? If the answer is yes, then you may have move me closer towards jailbreaking.

there is a way to make the address list, but i have not known how to yet. singapore people have done so. they have 700++ street list for them to use with offlinemaps. my knowledge to this is still very limited but i am learning.

i just state what i have known, for your question, maverick answer might be better than mine.