[OSM-dev] Proposal for new tiles at home lowzoom method

[Andy Allan]

On Jan 8, 2008 12:39 PM, 80n <80n80n at gmail.com> wrote:
> Folks
> I've been experimenting with a different method of generating lowzoom tiles
> for tiles at home.
>
> The approach I am taking is to use the old tile stitching method coupled
> with a separate place name layer.
>
> The tile stitching starts with a layer of z12 tiles that are the same as
> normal z12 tiles except the main roads are about 50% thicker and it there
> are no place names.  You can get a rough idea of what that will look like by
> looking at the the current lowzoom tiles for the US - most of it was
> rendered using the old stitching method before many place names had been
> added.
>
> I then propose a separate transparent layer for place names.  This
> potentially allows for multiple name layers for different scripts and
> languages.  I've heard some comments that  transparent layers are not a good
> solution - I'd be interested in understanding the pros and cons of doing
> this.  The alternative is to merge the transparent layer with the lowzoom
> tiles using Image Magick, which would achieve the same visual result but
> without the ability to dynamically switch the language.
>
> I've started doing some test renderings in the south of England, although
> there is not really enough there yet to get a good feel for what it would
> look like:
>
> http://www.informationfreeway.org/?lat=50.87948576831506&lon=-0.8263735442015004&user=80n&zoom=11&layers=0000F00BT
>
> At this stage I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions.

I'd prefer everything to be embedded onto the tiles themselves, since
it makes it much easier for people like me reusing the tah tiles on
other maps.

Cheers,
Andy