Forgot to mention that Brandon Liu, a developer always worth paying
attention to, has been discussing a new format he calls Protomaps via
Twitter. I need to bone up on what he's doing after some deadlines pass but
see @bdon, @protomaps, and
https://protomaps.com/blog/dynamic-maps-static-storage/ for starters.
Eric
On Fri, May 7, 2021 at 1:42 PM Eric Theise <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi Jon,
>
> Not long ago, with raster tiles and Tilemill, generating MBTiles files
> had a similar feel to desktop publishing in the 90s/00s. Working with
> vector tiles and Mapbox Studio feels similar but Mapbox hosts the tiles,
> making it unsuitable for some applications. Generating your own can be
> straightforward or very complicated and rendering times for a deep range of
> zoom levels can be prohibitive for individuals working on a desktop. I've
> had beefy AWS servers running for days, even weeks, to render tile pyramids.
>
> Verify this on your own, but Andy Allan in the UK comes to mind as a
> clever cartographer with vector tile generation in his revenue stream.
> Colorado cartographer Gretchen Peterson certainly does a lot of design work
> in this area although I'm not sure she herself generates tile bundles;
> quite possible, it's been a few years since we've collaborated.
>
> I've done this for paying clients and also for my own experimental
> film/real-time cartography work, partly because I can inject data for my
> own purposes and partly because I want to reduce tile latency as much as
> possible and self-hosting gets you that.
>
> Eric
>
>
> On Fri, May 7, 2021 at 1:19 PM Jon Jablonski <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Very belated continuation of this conversation:
>>
>> Eric summarizes nicely why one would want to / need to generate one’s own
>> tiles. And MBTiles looks like the file format to move them around.
>>
>> I’m still wondering: why would I buy prerendered MBTiles from a third
>> party? Is it because there are people who need them who don’t know how to
>> make them? Is this the sort of thing a clever cartographer gets paid for
>> these days?
>>
>> -j
>>
>> Jon Jablonski
>> [log in to unmask]
>> Interdisciplinary Research Collaboratory
>> UCSB Library
>>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 5, 2021, at 11:47 AM, Eric Theise <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Jon,
>>
>> Generating your own vector tiles gives you enormous control over what
>> features are included and therefore the size and performance of your
>> tileset. Choosing what features to reveal and style and at what zoom level
>> can be handled by the mapping library (e.g., Mapbox GL JS) but if you know
>> you aren't going to need, say, building footprints and heights, leaving
>> them out of the tiles altogether will have an effect on tile delivery.
>> Alternately, if you need non-standard data (I'm thinking of a project I did
>> using OpenStreetMap's seamark tags for maritime features), generating your
>> own may be the best/only solution.
>>
>> I've worked quite a lot with OpenMapTiles. https://openmaptiles.org/
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 5, 2021 at 11:38 AM Jon Jablonski <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> Huh. I didn’t know buying pre-rendered tiles was a thing. Is there an
>>> advantage (other than convenience) over rendering your own?
>>>
>>>
>>> Jon Jablonski
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> Interdisciplinary Research Collaboratory
>>> UCSB Library
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Apr 5, 2021, at 7:29 AM, Diaz, Tony A. <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello, any good sources for finding GIS files for the Copper Canyon of
>>> Mexico?
>>>
>>> Especially looking for MBTiles files for the area,
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Tony Diaz
>>> California Institute of Technology
>>> Pasadena, CA
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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