[OSM-talk] KML tiles

[Robert Vollmert]

Hello,

the attached KML file links to a very rough proof-of-concept set of  
KML tiles of OSM road data. There's several issues remaining (more on  
that below). What do people think? Is this worth doing on a larger  
scale? Is it evil?

Obviously, this shouldn't be used for mapping.

The aim is to use the data -- for example, I like to measure distances  
of runs using Google Earth with OSM data (which requires tracks and  
footways, not roads). It should also be a good advertisement for OSM  
to the Google Earth community. Perhaps this approach would also be  
useful to the Marble guys for displaying vector data -- I hear Marble  
supports KML.

The main issues at the moment are gaps at tile boundaries. This should  
be easy to fix using a better tile cutting method (osmosis'  
completeWays or the tile data server, once it's running). Furthermore,  
there's some network links missing between adjacent tiles which may  
cause problems when panning. The choice of tiling isn't useful for a  
3d earth. Low zoom data should be simplified. Some ways disappear from  
the middle if you zoom in. It's too slow and not smooth enough.

How it works: For each standard z/x/y-tile, cut out the relevant OSM- 
data and convert to KML using osmexport from osmlib, then massage the  
result to contain region information and links to the four subtiles.

Cheers
Robert

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