Offline map data on IITC mobile?

[ghost]

Hi, I was just wondering if it is planned to use offline map data someday? This would be very useful to quickly check out the region without starting Ingress. Especially on limited bandwith, after playing Ingress a little bit to much.

Currently it is faster (for me) by just starting Ingress.

Greetings Michael

PS: As you probably can see; english isn't my native language. :)

[Fragger]

I assume when you say offline map data you mean the tiles that you can pick with the layer chooser. Ie "MapQuest OSM" or "Default Ingress Map". And not the other data as in portals or anything else directly pertaining to the game? Maybe this is better phrased as caching the map tiles to use less bandwidth and not offline as IITC could never be useful completely offline.

[ghost]

That's exactly what I meant. Sorry for the confusion. Google Maps has the exact same feature for downloading particular regions for offline-use.

[Fragger]

No problem at all :) Anyone have any ideas on ways to go about implementing something like this in the mobile app? This would also help with not hitting tile servers as hard. Any reasons to not look into it?

[jonatkins]

The graphical map tiles would take up large amounts of space.

I would have thought there's some cacheing in the browser component already for them - @leCradle ?

[leCradle]

Yep the tiles are cached. Check it with loading a few tiles, then go to airplane mode and load them again (no url reload...just swype up and down to load them). It should be possible to make it available in offline mode after app restart too, but I don't see any reason in an offline map without up-to-date portals...Furthermore, I don't want to have my memory spammed with OSM tiles....

[ghost]

@leCradle: It's not the same. What I meant is using the OSM tiles as an overlay. Fully pre-downloaded regions like Google Maps.

So if you check out a new place, you don't have to care about downloading the data to cache it once.

[leCradle]

@Sh4peshifter So...you mean an offline maps layer with an online portals-and-stuff layer?

[ghost]

@leCradle yes, offline map overlay, online portals-and-stuff. @jonatkins the amount of space for the osm tiles is manageable. But I rather have them somewhere on my memory card then downloading them when I really need them. I would love to use IITC mobile for quick planning. Especially with limited bandwith.

[jonatkins]

Dedicated offline storage for map tiles is not going to happen in IITC Mobile, for several reasons

1. space usage would be excessively large. (manageable? perhaps, sensible? no. google maps uses vector data for it's offline mode)
2. downloading tiles is going to be tricky. many tile providers won't like a bulk download of a region. you're unlikely to look at a large fraction of the downloaded tiles.
3. it's of rather limited use - not many people would need this feature

however, we could make some improvements

1. I've not checked, but does the current cache persist between app restarts?
2. a configurable cache size could be an option, to allow those who wanted it to cache more than usual
3. map layer plugins are planned. it'd be a bit fiddly to configure, but a custom map layer plugin, a set of tiles stored on the device (and a local http server? or can the browser use file: URLs?). This would give 100% offline tiles.

I'll close this issue. Open a new issue for the cache improvement suggestion.

[leCradle]

Well...with this patch, the network connection is checked onResume...if the user is connected to mobile network, the cached tiles are used...if not, the tiles are loaded from network and the cache is updated. The cache persists between app restarts, yes...but you have to be connected to a network to load the intel map...it is not possible to load it from cache....Don't know why...eventually a hidden redirection on server side...? But I think this is ok...I don't think that anyone want to use the intel map totally offline.... :)

[p10tyr]

This can work if we can get something like gps coordinate files and import them to an app called ViewRanger. Its dedicated for people who do allot of walking where there is never any internet. It has several topogrophical maps, like dedicated for cycling, walking routes with various levels of detail. Also you can download maps from open maps, googles or bing. It was made to be able to make waypoints and things like that. I would just love to see where the portal is because some remote portals, well, navigate in Ingress wont work well when theres no internet and you cant see the thing. Atleast this way I can select the portal, I know what I want to do there because I make a plan at home on gigabit internet. I get on my motorbike.. limited GPRS.. not good. Its good enough to hack, attack and establish links, with some delay.. but its OK. So... is there a way to export just portal locations to a GPS data package thing? :) Sorry for long post.

[nexushoratio]

ppumkin: bookmark it

[p10tyr]

How do I bookmark it? I contacted ViewRanger and they said I can use a POI map editor. So that is what I did, I found Click2Map with a free account, then use total map conversion to show me the LAT/LAN. On one screen I find portals I am interested in visiting and on the Click2Map I add them easily with a name. I export to KML and convert to GPX and import to ViewRanger. Now I download the kind of map I like in those areas, go Offline and can go the approximate location with no Internet. I start up Ingress and have GPRS, it takes maybe a minute or two to get the map tiles local but the portals are there. I can hack and do what I need. Close Ingress and walk to the next remote place. Obviosly I am happy with this because I just want to know how to get the portal withou relying on internet. I am not concerned what fields or links or to whom it belongs to, because I use the Intel map at home and make a plan and decide where to go more or less and if I need any team mates to help establist high level portals... where most people wouldnt even bother going. In my area there are massive gaps with no portals, 20km+ . ViewRanger also told me they doing an online POI editor soon, that can be shared, exported, imported, etc.

[fkloft]

If that app supports geo: intents, you can simply use the "share" option in the details panel. If it doesn't, you might want to suggest that to the developers.

[p10tyr]

I cant see share on on any details panel? I mean there is a share but it only shared a screen shot with the ingress intel map. I want to copy that lat/long from ingress intel to the viewranger app. I am using iOs but I will check on my tablet maybe its there.

[fkloft]

Ah, I thought you were talking about IITCm on Android. But that won't work on iOS. On Android, there is a share button below the resonator details, from which you can open any installed app that supports geo: intents.