Hey everyone, a while back I posted about an open-source maps project I was working on called Headway. I just wanted to share an exciting update. I made a few architectural improvements with the help of some really awesome contributors and Headway can now run full-planet instances. I'm really excited with what we've managed to come up with.<p>Right now the full-planet demo server is in Germany and lives at [1]. A brief explanation is at [2]. I'm hopeful that the project will continue to improve with time and eventually end up being a real contender in the web maps space. I'm talking with folks about the potential for getting some more robust hosting options too which is very exciting.<p>For the moment though, Headway has some usability issues. It's missing ETAs, has no steps list for directions, or proper geocoding search results page, etc. I'm going to get to these issues with time, but please drop me a line if you're interested in helping out. Especially interested in help with web frontend, design, or internationalization. Development takes place on GitHub [3] and discussions tend to happen in the matrix room [4].<p>[1] <a href="https://maps.earth/" rel="nofollow">https://maps.earth/</a><p>[2] <a href="https://about.maps.earth/" rel="nofollow">https://about.maps.earth/</a><p>[3] <a href="https://github.com/headwaymaps/headway" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/headwaymaps/headway</a><p>[4] <a href="https://matrix.to/#/#headway:matrix.org" rel="nofollow">https://matrix.to/#/#headway:matrix.org</a>
Link to the previous post: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31536217" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31536217</a><p>Congrats on all the progress in 3 months!
Hey, this looks great, thanks for working on it! I'm the creator of Mapzy[0], an open-source and self-hostable store finder. We're trying to focus on privacy as much as possible, but currently use Mapbox since it's better than Google Maps and we didn't find any other alternatives.<p>Do you think Headway could be a replacement for us? We currently use the Mapbox JS library to create the pins etc. - could we use Headway with Leaflet JS for example? We also use the Mapbox geocoder, mainly for reverse geocoding of addresses. How does Headway's geocoder compare?<p>0: <a href="https://github.com/mapzy/mapzy/" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/mapzy/mapzy/</a>
Very impressive!<p>Is it just me (Firefox on Android) or does the UI really not allow tapping landmarks (shops, restaurants, subway stations)?<p>Also, directions don't seem to work right now (infinite loading) but I suppose this is due to the server receiving the HN hug of death right now.<p>By the way, for anyone looking for the mobile (non-web) version of this: Organic Maps is a fantastic frontend for OpenStreetMaps (and of course there's the good old OsmAnd, though I like Organic Maps better these days).
I'm a little confused as to what this actually is.<p>Is this a route planning built on top of OSM? Does this bundle OSM data "all in one" so that you can more easily host an OSM server?
Wow this is pretty amazing. For those that haven't tried, it's <i>really</i> difficult to piece this sort of thing together. So the fact that this is all provided as a Docker Compose configuration is really awesome.
How do you handle map data updates? Do you regenerate everything from scratch from the full data set, or can you update it incrementally with patches? Is it possible to put the tiles on a CDN like cloudflare?
This seems really neat. I have a question that I hope isn't something I'm missing, but is there an easy way to change the rendering ruleset? I ask because I've been wanting to build some custom maps for mountain bike trails in the state where I live and have them served up similarly.<p>Whenever I've looked into other projects for this it's either focused on rendering tiles from Mapbox data (where not all the OSM tags -- especially not MTBing ones -- are available) or really old info or presumes that someone else will be generating tiles.
I tried the hosted app at <a href="https://maps.earth" rel="nofollow">https://maps.earth</a> but it isn't really usable at present. How do you actually search for and navigate to places?
Is it possible to access it via less js heavy frontend? Owner of Nokia N900 here :D Would great to have Ghost in the Shell style super lightweight maps
This is very interesting (and impressive work). I've been thinking for quite some time that it would be very useful to have a local map server for offline use.<p>A lot of applications need to show data related to location (e.g.: a photo app might want to show a map of where a photo was taken). Having a local service to resolve these would be superb.<p>I know this product has a different goal, but I wonder if the backend side of it could actually fill in this role. Essentially exposing location/mapping services to local applications.
Thanks for this.
I'm curious to know: why did you include two routing engines (OTP and valhalla)? Wouldn't e.g. OTP sufficient and use much less resources compared to 2 setups?<p>And why not reuse one of the existing open source map or directions front-ends?
A few things that I notice in the area where I'm somewhat active as an OSM contributor:<p>- You probably shouldn't render guideposts or route markers on the map, or at least not with generic "info" icon.<p>- Things with access=private are likely not terribly relevant to people looking at the map. This will include things like parking spots or gardens.<p>- Lots of shots and amenities have icons, but doctors don't. Neither do fire stations.<p>- Sports pitches are shown as nodes, but may be better shown as areas, since they often cover quite extensive swaths of ground that's otherwise empty with just an icon in the middle. Same with playgrounds, schools, and kindergartens, gardens, and parks.<p>- For buildings and building parts, if you don't make use of the parts in any way (such as showing roofs, height, etc.) perhaps just disregard the parts and only render the building outlines. This, combined with the fact that geometries seem to be simplified, even at the highest zoom levels, results in a bit of a mess of lines at times where some outlines are simplified differently from others that <i>should</i> actually share parts of the same edges and thus overlap perfectly. (e.g. <a href="https://maps.earth/place/openstreetmap%3Avenue%3Away%2F111206435" rel="nofollow">https://maps.earth/place/openstreetmap%3Avenue%3Away%2F11120...</a> or <a href="https://maps.earth/place/openstreetmap%3Avenue%3Away%2F111206435" rel="nofollow">https://maps.earth/place/openstreetmap%3Avenue%3Away%2F11120...</a>). Same thing with the geometry simplification also happens with adjacent geometry that should actually not have gaps (e.g. semidetached houses or garages next to houses). Lots of buildings that are actually rectangular also get quite weird angles.<p>- Tunnels are quite subtle. And while at least roads in tunnels don't overlap buildings that are actually above them (like with Carto) it's still hard to make out what's above and what's below in such cases (e.g. <a href="https://maps.earth/place/openstreetmap%3Astreet%3Apolyline%3A30081121" rel="nofollow">https://maps.earth/place/openstreetmap%3Astreet%3Apolyline%3...</a>). Culverts for waterways are handled better than roads in tunnels in this case.<p>Overall though, this seems like a quite nice map style. Closer to Google Maps in that it emphasizes roads, but some people like the less detailed look (and it works better with vector maps, I guess, to have fewer polygons to render).
Works surprisingly well! One note for walking directions: It doesn't seem to take elevation gain into account in choosing between alternate routes. Probably a not an easy thing to implement.
What language is it in?<p>In Italy, most of the cities have the Italian name, some of them have an English name (Florence, Naples), some have a German name (Triest). The behaviour is different than OSM, at least for me.
Is there any support for non-earth maps ?
Such as for a DnD campaign or a story set in Middle Earth ?
Or even a war game on Earth but with different place names and countries borders names, etc ?
Awesome work!<p>What are your thoughts on the feasibility/benefits of using a p2p system like IPFS to share OSM map/tile data between users, rather than serving from one centralized server?