Mapzen MVT vector tiles

[devemux86]

Mapbox-format binary tiles uses the .mvt extension.

This is a compact format using protocol buffers that is used for raster tile rendering in TileMill2 and vector rendering in MapboxGL.

It is one of the available tile formats from Mapzen.

[mcbridet]

How hard would it be to modify the current VTM decoder for this format? VTM and MVT seem very similar but I would need to look into it a bit more. Was just asking in case you have already looked into this (or whether it was just a passing thought).

MapZen have deprecated VTM (though it is still accessible if you specify the API version as 0.8), but I have no doubt they will completely remove it soon.

[hjanetzek]

The MVT format hasn't changed that much. I got this decoder working with some minor tweaks a while ago: https://github.com/opensciencemap/vtm/blob/master/vtm-extras/src/org/oscim/tiling/source/mapnik/TileDecoder.java

Looking if I find the updated code again somewhere

[mcbridet]

Great, thanks! Looking on working on this some time in the near future just so I can continue using this library. :)

[devemux86]

@deviousgeek I hadn't the time to check any of #55, #56 or #57...

@hjanetzek thanks for the info and any additional help!

[hjanetzek]

opensciencemap@ebecd34

./gradlew :vtm-desktop:run still seems to work :)

[mcbridet]

Definitely going to try this out when I get the chance, you rock. :)

[devemux86]

Thanks @hjanetzek !

I played with it, probably theme(?) needs some work?
Less detail, no buildings, south Europe under water at zoom 9, etc.

(BTW I cannot find the new commit in opensciencemap history)

[mcbridet]

Yup, looks like I can only get greenery and bodies of water showing up using that theme file. I am sure it's just a matter of adapting the correct attributes in the theme file, however. :)

[mcbridet]

For what it's worth, MapZen have posted a "cheat sheet" which they used to migrate to MVT internally.

https://gist.github.com/nvkelso/a7cfec649bb0de49f4ac71596a148a32

[devemux86]

After upcoming VTM 0.6.0 release, I'll merge @hjanetzek 's commit so that's easier to work on it.

[hjanetzek]

@devemux86 yeah, this is unfinished code I had floating around. Please just pick the commit and cleanup (no need to merge the branch)

[andreynovikov]

Mapzen != Mapbox (IMHO)

[devemux86]

@andreynovikov what do you mean?
Mapbox MVT as one of the available tile formats from Mapzen.

[andreynovikov]

Ah, ok. But mapbox format is from Mapbox, so it's better be referenced there.

[hjanetzek]

Everbody uses MVT format now (which is a slightly modified and rebranded OpenScienceMap VTM format IMHO :). Mapzen and Mapbox both offer vector tiles as MVT. The tiles use different tag schema for the contained data - so styling rules must be written for the respective schemas.
The statement of @deviousgeek was probably a bit misleading: The posted guide is for converting the styles written for the old Mapzen schema to the 1.0 tiles schema.

[devemux86]

I pushed a series of commits for anyone wanting to work with .mvt tiles:

• Merged @hjanetzek 's commit
• Improvements and examples
• Mapzen theme: SVG and improvements
• Use new Mapzen production url

If we compare the default and the mapzen themes, they currently differ only in the water area!

[devemux86]

For people asking how they could improve Mapzen MVT tiles parsing, I post some notes:

• VTM infrastructure for .mvt tiles is ready and working (with base layers)
• So need to modify the mapzen.xml theme
• Tests can be done on Android with vtm-android-example and MapzenMvtMapActivity or on Desktop with vtm-playground and MapzenMvtTest
• Important is to check what changes Mapzen has made to OSM tags (see above comments)

[devemux86]

Thanks to @boldtrn and PR #279 we now have a working Mapzen MVT implementation!
There are some things still to check:

• kind=riverbank|dock rendering not working correctly (TODO)
• All shops cannot appear as belong to generic kind tag (TODO)
• Some artifacts at tile edges even in smaller zoom levels (see screenshot))
• Can major cities appear in zoom < 8?

@boldtrn please report any other cases need checking.

[devemux86]

I added an option to select the preferred locale in Mapzen MVT vector tile source.

[boldtrn]

Can major cities appear in zoom < 8?

Yes this is possible, see some samples here:

properties: {
kind: "locality",
name: "Lisbon",
source: "naturalearthdata.com",
min_zoom: 4,
country_capital: true,
id: 7131,
population: 2812000
}

properties: {
kind: "locality",
name: "Seville",
region_capital: true,
source: "naturalearthdata.com",
min_zoom: 5,
id: 6832,
population: 1212045
},

properties: {
kind: "locality",
name: "Dublin",
source: "naturalearthdata.com",
min_zoom: 4,
country_capital: true,
id: 7147,
population: 1059000
},

[devemux86]

A reference of layers in Mapzen's vector tiles is here.

[mcbridet]

This is fantastic news!

Can't wait to try this out.

[devemux86]

Closing this as Mapzen MVT vector tiles are now supported.

Issues can be followed separately, e.g. see #288 for the artifacts.