11 ms·

Vector Tiles are deployed on OpenStreetMap.org

280 points by ikawe 1y ago

eulgro 1y ago
I had no idea what vector tiles were and the page doesn't explain it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_tiles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_tiles
- kurtoid 1y ago
  Here's how I understand it: Previously, OpenStreetMap's tile endpoints would serve pre-rasterized PNG images, so zooming in on a tile could cause it to get blurry, until your client requests a new, zoomed in tile. Now, they can serve tiles in SVG format, which scale better
  - rjh29 1y ago
    SVG tiles use less data too, and can be recoloured/restyled.
    - SigmundA 1y ago
      Not SVG
  - dbetteridge 1y ago
    Basically that + vector tiles can store information about the tile, styles, objects or buildings etc
  - maelito 1y ago
    > so zooming in on a tile could cause it to get blurry, until your client requests a new, zoomed in tile. Now, they can serve tiles in SVG format, which scale better They still are blurry, because openstreetmap.org uses a JS library that does not seem to support vector tiles :/
    - akdor1154 1y ago
      I just tested it and it's def vector here - Firefox Android. Looks great!
    - orblivion 1y ago
      Make sure it's set to the "Shortbread" layer. Look for the "Layers" menu on the right.
      - Stephen304 1y ago
        Hmm I tried the shortbread layer and while it looks nice it still pixelates when zooming in until it loads the new zoom level
        orblivion 1y ago
        I guess you're right. I see the same on my desktop Firefox on Linux. But on my Android phone it's pretty smooth.
        Stephen304 1y ago
        It seems to just not work in Firefox for me, it's the same for me on FF Android but in Chrome it's beautiful! Constant text size while zooming and it's super smooth. Edit: It also weirdly doesn't work on Chrome on Linux for me either, only Chrome on android. Oh well, hopefully they can bring support everywhere eventually.
  - SigmundA 1y ago
    Not SVG, its Mapbox Vector tile format which is like Geojson coded in protobuf it is then rendered to raster in the browser using webgl typically. https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec/tree/master/2.0 https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec/tree/master/2.0 SVG is an XML based format that browsers render naitively, completely different. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVG
  - orblivion 1y ago
    Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think there's an additional benefit. Traditional process is: OSM Database -> PNGs -> Your screen The first arrow decides what data to pull out and how to draw it. The new process is: OSM Database -> Vector Tiles -> Your Screen The first arrow decides what data to pull out. The second arrow decides how to draw it. So given your vector tiles, you can choose and tweak the style that it's drawn as, deciding how (and if) to display certain things. And you can tweak that in your browser. That's useful for devs and users. "Night Mode", "Show bike lanes" (maybe?), etc. Also relevant is that the vector tile is not only in a couple formats (pmtiles, mbtiles) but conforms to a couple different schemas (Shortbread, OpenMapTiles) which determines what kinds of data shows up. For instance (I'm just making up this example) one schema might have "big" "medium" and "small" roads. Another schema might just have "big" and "small". The transformation process will decide which kinds of roads in the OSM database map on to which type of road in the schema. (I think it turns out that you can't realistically just pull out all of the OSM database data, you have to pare it down). And then certain styles (Americana, etc) work for specific schemas, deciding things like "big roads are black", etc.
    - SigmundA 1y ago
      More like OSM Database -> PNGs -> PNG Decoder in browser-> Your screen vs OSM Database -> Vector Tiles -> MaplibreGL.js -> WebGL -> Your Screen
      - bugsMarathon88 1y ago
        Could you please comment on any security implications of executing community-generated vector tile content, compared to classic PNG decoding?
        lxgr 1y ago
        I don't think anything's being executed here, in the same sense that both PDF (without JavaScript, at least) and JPEG are "data only", even though one uses vectors while the other only supports raster graphics.
        1y ago
- stevage 1y ago
  Fun fact: I wrote a lot of that article :) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vector_tiles&oldid=655303211 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vector_tiles&oldi...
davidkwast 1y ago
Nice. I already use Vector Tiles on my backend. But it is nice to have other sources like this.
- maxerickson 1y ago
  A feature goal for this deployment was that the tiles would update continuously, keeping up with changes that people are making to the OpenStreetMap database. Providing that feedback is one of the main purposes of the site.
maelito 1y ago
In case you wonder how much time / resources it takes to generate vector tiles, I'm running benchmarks with Tilemaker here for https://cartes.app https://cartes.app https://github.com/systemed/tilemaker/issues/839 https://github.com/systemed/tilemaker/issues/839
- economyballoon 1y ago
  I am sorry but what is "300 Go RAM" 300 Go? I only know GB/GiB.
  - farkanoid 1y ago
    It's basically French for GB (Go = Gigaoctet)
  - leca 1y ago
    OP is probably French or his native tongue is French. Byte is “Octet” in French and typically you’ll see Go = Gigaoctet which is the same as GB.
    - globular-toast 1y ago
      Also more technically correct as byte never "officially" meant 8 bits, but octet is unambiguous.
      - julienfr112 1y ago
        <troll>like measuring lengths in meters</troll>
- mourner 1y ago
  Also worth checking out https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler, which maybe a bit less mature, but is much faster than Tilemaker.
  - 1y ago
colkassad 1y ago
What's the impediment to not providing daily or weekly planet-wide mbtiles similar to the availability of OSM pbfs on AWS open data buckets[1]? [1] https://registry.opendata.aws/osm/ https://registry.opendata.aws/osm/
- tppiotrowski 1y ago
  I think mbtiles are being phased out for pmtiles because no DB required and can be served from static storage like R2/S3 (with a worker but hopefully the worker part goes away and they support byte offset requests soon)
  - stevage 1y ago
    You don't need a database to serve mbtiles. If you're deploying PMTiles somewhere that doesn't support byte offset requests, then they don't really have much advantage over mbtiles.
    - jamessb 1y ago
      That depends what you mean by needing a database. MBtiles files are SQLite database files, so you need a SQLite process running somewhere to extract the requested tiles.
  - jtbaker 1y ago
    The worker isn’t required, having a z/x/y tile scheme just makes caching the tiles server side super easy. Look at the network tab on https://pmtiles.io/#url=https%3A%2F%2Fdemo-bucket.protomaps.com%2Fv4.pmtiles&map=0.42/0/0 https://pmtiles.io/#url=https%3A%2F%2Fdemo-bucket.protomaps....
  - sureglymop 1y ago
    An mbtiles file is just an SQLite db which can store image or vector tiles which can be very useful. It's great for exploring tiles but it essentially doesn't support range queries/requests, which pmtiles does.
- 1y ago
ikawe 1y ago
Background: Mapping applications split up data into "tiles" so you can download only the data you are currently looking at. For example, you don't want to download the entire planet, just to look at your own neighborhood. Historically, these tiles were literally images that the client application (i.e. web map) could "tile" side by side to cover the part of the map you were looking at. Now we refer to those images as "raster" tiles, to differentiate them with "vector" tiles. Rather than a rendered image, Vector tiles contain the raw data that you could use to render such an image. Vector tiles allow a smaller file size and more flexibility. For example, with vector tiles you can crisply render at partial zoom levels, keeping lines sharp and avoid pixelating text. The client can also have customizable styles - hiding certain layers or accentuating others from the vector tiles. Vector tiles are not new technology. For example, Google Maps started using them over a decade ago. So why has it taken so long for OpenStreetMap.org? One reason is no doubt a lack of engineering capacity. There were also concerns about older and less powerful clients hardware not being up to the task, but that concern has lessened over time. OpenStreetMap also has some unique requirements. It is a community edited database, and users want to see their edits soon (immediately really). It's not feasible to dynamically generate every tile request from the latest data, so caching is essential. Still, to minimize the amount of time tiles will be stale, a lot of work went into being able to quickly regenerate stale tiles before the new vector tiles were rolled out.
- stevage 1y ago
  >Vector tiles are not new technology. Yeah, it really is not. Mapbox Vector Tiles spec came out in 2014, and they've been absolutely standard across all (non-government) web mapping for at least the last 5 years.
  - gregoriol 1y ago
    Indeed almost everyone except Apple's MapKit library for in-app native maps integration is using vector these days.
    - hopelite 1y ago
stevage 1y ago
For anyone who wants to actually try the new layer, it's called "Shortbread" and can be accessed under the layers selector. Or use this link: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map&layers=S https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map&layers=S The blog post could do a better job of surfacing that bit! You can compare it to the existing vector tile layer created by MapTiler, which mimics the classic raster tile style: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map&layers=V https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map&layers=V
dolmen 1y ago
Many important details are not visible anymore: - gates on private pathways - shop names
- lutoma 1y ago
  Personally I'm quite happy that these tiles cut down on the clutter in the original OSM tiles. It made it very hard for me to actually use them for navigation because there was just so much stuff everywhere. For example the old tiles displayed rail tracks extremely prominently, which just aren't relevant 99% of the time even when traveling by train. In the vector tiles they're much more muted and thinner.
  - timeon 1y ago
    Yes but this one only highlights motorways which are used usually just for long distance drives.
    - wiredfool 1y ago
      The nice thing is, that's just a style, not a property of the tiles. So if you want to alter the rendering, it's "just" a change to the style of that layer/attribute.
  - liotier 1y ago
    > I'm quite happy that these tiles cut down on the clutter in the original OSM tiles. It made it very hard for me to actually use them for navigation The Openstreetmap.org tiles are a demo and a contributor quality assurance tool - they are not meant for end-user applications, hence the rather over-the-top selection of map objects.
- johannes1234321 1y ago
  The choices are tough, also in details: Which shops to show in busy areas at which zoom level? But mind: openstreetmap.org is ment as a developer site, for developers to see their changes quickly. The official idea is that other people should take the data and do "nice" things elsewhere. But of course reality is that users want to use openstreetmap.org as alternative to Google maps ...
severak_cz 1y ago
Oh but that default style for Shortbread is so ugly! No contrast, missing details and lots of information lost. Hopefully it's vector tiles and information are there (I checked in Maputik) so it's possible to create my own style (which I will definitely try).
- MapNavTom 1y ago
  There is also the MapTiler OMT style for OpenMapTiles, which uses Vector Tiles. It is a close copy of the Standard OSM map style. It appeared at the same time as Shortbread on the osm.org website.
  - reddalo 1y ago
    I agree, it's super close to the classical OSM style, but some things are missing, e.g. roads that are currently planned or in the building phase.
    - MapNavTom 1y ago
      Yes, buildings under construction aren't there yet either. OMT is OpenSource though, so you can make a pull request: https://github.com/openmaptiles/openmaptiles https://github.com/openmaptiles/openmaptiles
  - severak_cz 1y ago
    Yeah. MapTiler has much better styles in general.
- timeon 1y ago
  Yeah only motorways are highlighted everything else is faded in background.
- showcaseearth 1y ago
  The lack of boundaries below national level is off-putting. Both the style and the tile spec itself seem to need a lot of refinement... highways look like a patchwork at low zoom. I had also thought shortbread excluded a lot of POI types, but maybe I need to review again. But that's not to diminish the accomplishment overall here for the OSM page itself– this is an awesome step forward!
wiz21c 1y ago
does a vector tile use more or less memory than a raster tile ? I mean, on average, in OSM.
amluto 1y ago
What happened to maps trying to make the names of most or all streets visible? It looks like the vector layer on the web viewer is sort of trying to show some street names, but it seems extremely buggy right now — names appear and then disappear again when making small zoom adjustments. Not that Apple Maps or Google Maps are much better in this regard.
neomantra 1y ago
This comment is a reminder that OSM Vector Tiles is sponsored work. It is exciting to see the deployment of it — congrats to the team! If you find value in it, consider donating any amount to the OpenStreetMap Foundation. https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2024/02/11/2024-announcing-the-year-of-the-openstreetmap-vector-maps/ https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2024/02/11/2024-announcing-th...
butz 1y ago
While vector tiles are often marketed as faster loading ones, and it is true in OSM case, I would like to see apples to apples comparison: vector tiles with same level of detail as original OSM raster tiles. Maybe someone already has such vector style built?
perrygeo 1y ago
To everyone with complaints about the new "Shortbread" styling, I agree that it's not perfect but that's kinda missing the point. The real story is that vector tiles have the styling applied client-side so anyone can tweak the look with a little javascript. The prior raster tiles have the style baked in; if you want a new look, you need to generate a new image. So each map publisher ends up running their own data and server infrastructure just to tweak the style. The vector tile approach means a single (cacheable) asset can be used in many different maps. Huge win. If you don't like the style, you can make your own without having to literally download the planet.

280 points by ikawe 1y ago

I had no idea what vector tiles were and the page doesn't explain it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_tiles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_tiles

kurtoid 1y ago
Here's how I understand it: Previously, OpenStreetMap's tile endpoints would serve pre-rasterized PNG images, so zooming in on a tile could cause it to get blurry, until your client requests a new, zoomed in tile. Now, they can serve tiles in SVG format, which scale better
- rjh29 1y ago
  SVG tiles use less data too, and can be recoloured/restyled.
  - SigmundA 1y ago
    Not SVG
- dbetteridge 1y ago
  Basically that + vector tiles can store information about the tile, styles, objects or buildings etc
- maelito 1y ago
  > so zooming in on a tile could cause it to get blurry, until your client requests a new, zoomed in tile. Now, they can serve tiles in SVG format, which scale better They still are blurry, because openstreetmap.org uses a JS library that does not seem to support vector tiles :/
  - akdor1154 1y ago
    I just tested it and it's def vector here - Firefox Android. Looks great!
  - orblivion 1y ago
    Make sure it's set to the "Shortbread" layer. Look for the "Layers" menu on the right.
    - Stephen304 1y ago
      Hmm I tried the shortbread layer and while it looks nice it still pixelates when zooming in until it loads the new zoom level
      - orblivion 1y ago
        I guess you're right. I see the same on my desktop Firefox on Linux. But on my Android phone it's pretty smooth.
        Stephen304 1y ago
        It seems to just not work in Firefox for me, it's the same for me on FF Android but in Chrome it's beautiful! Constant text size while zooming and it's super smooth. Edit: It also weirdly doesn't work on Chrome on Linux for me either, only Chrome on android. Oh well, hopefully they can bring support everywhere eventually.
- SigmundA 1y ago
  Not SVG, its Mapbox Vector tile format which is like Geojson coded in protobuf it is then rendered to raster in the browser using webgl typically. https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec/tree/master/2.0 https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec/tree/master/2.0 SVG is an XML based format that browsers render naitively, completely different. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVG
- orblivion 1y ago
  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think there's an additional benefit. Traditional process is: OSM Database -> PNGs -> Your screen The first arrow decides what data to pull out and how to draw it. The new process is: OSM Database -> Vector Tiles -> Your Screen The first arrow decides what data to pull out. The second arrow decides how to draw it. So given your vector tiles, you can choose and tweak the style that it's drawn as, deciding how (and if) to display certain things. And you can tweak that in your browser. That's useful for devs and users. "Night Mode", "Show bike lanes" (maybe?), etc. Also relevant is that the vector tile is not only in a couple formats (pmtiles, mbtiles) but conforms to a couple different schemas (Shortbread, OpenMapTiles) which determines what kinds of data shows up. For instance (I'm just making up this example) one schema might have "big" "medium" and "small" roads. Another schema might just have "big" and "small". The transformation process will decide which kinds of roads in the OSM database map on to which type of road in the schema. (I think it turns out that you can't realistically just pull out all of the OSM database data, you have to pare it down). And then certain styles (Americana, etc) work for specific schemas, deciding things like "big roads are black", etc.
  - SigmundA 1y ago
    More like OSM Database -> PNGs -> PNG Decoder in browser-> Your screen vs OSM Database -> Vector Tiles -> MaplibreGL.js -> WebGL -> Your Screen
    - bugsMarathon88 1y ago
      Could you please comment on any security implications of executing community-generated vector tile content, compared to classic PNG decoding?
      - lxgr 1y ago
        I don't think anything's being executed here, in the same sense that both PDF (without JavaScript, at least) and JPEG are "data only", even though one uses vectors while the other only supports raster graphics.
      - 1y ago
stevage 1y ago
Fun fact: I wrote a lot of that article :) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vector_tiles&oldid=655303211 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vector_tiles&oldi...

davidkwast 1y ago

Nice. I already use Vector Tiles on my backend. But it is nice to have other sources like this.

maxerickson 1y ago
A feature goal for this deployment was that the tiles would update continuously, keeping up with changes that people are making to the OpenStreetMap database. Providing that feedback is one of the main purposes of the site.

maelito 1y ago

In case you wonder how much time / resources it takes to generate vector tiles, I'm running benchmarks with Tilemaker here for https://cartes.app https://cartes.app https://github.com/systemed/tilemaker/issues/839 https://github.com/systemed/tilemaker/issues/839

economyballoon 1y ago
I am sorry but what is "300 Go RAM" 300 Go? I only know GB/GiB.
- farkanoid 1y ago
  It's basically French for GB (Go = Gigaoctet)
- leca 1y ago
  OP is probably French or his native tongue is French. Byte is “Octet” in French and typically you’ll see Go = Gigaoctet which is the same as GB.
  - globular-toast 1y ago
    Also more technically correct as byte never "officially" meant 8 bits, but octet is unambiguous.
    - julienfr112 1y ago
      <troll>like measuring lengths in meters</troll>
mourner 1y ago
Also worth checking out https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler, which maybe a bit less mature, but is much faster than Tilemaker.
- 1y ago

colkassad 1y ago

What's the impediment to not providing daily or weekly planet-wide mbtiles similar to the availability of OSM pbfs on AWS open data buckets[1]? [1] https://registry.opendata.aws/osm/ https://registry.opendata.aws/osm/

tppiotrowski 1y ago
I think mbtiles are being phased out for pmtiles because no DB required and can be served from static storage like R2/S3 (with a worker but hopefully the worker part goes away and they support byte offset requests soon)
- stevage 1y ago
  You don't need a database to serve mbtiles. If you're deploying PMTiles somewhere that doesn't support byte offset requests, then they don't really have much advantage over mbtiles.
  - jamessb 1y ago
    That depends what you mean by needing a database. MBtiles files are SQLite database files, so you need a SQLite process running somewhere to extract the requested tiles.
- jtbaker 1y ago
  The worker isn’t required, having a z/x/y tile scheme just makes caching the tiles server side super easy. Look at the network tab on https://pmtiles.io/#url=https%3A%2F%2Fdemo-bucket.protomaps.com%2Fv4.pmtiles&map=0.42/0/0 https://pmtiles.io/#url=https%3A%2F%2Fdemo-bucket.protomaps....
- sureglymop 1y ago
  An mbtiles file is just an SQLite db which can store image or vector tiles which can be very useful. It's great for exploring tiles but it essentially doesn't support range queries/requests, which pmtiles does.
1y ago

ikawe 1y ago

Background: Mapping applications split up data into "tiles" so you can download only the data you are currently looking at. For example, you don't want to download the entire planet, just to look at your own neighborhood. Historically, these tiles were literally images that the client application (i.e. web map) could "tile" side by side to cover the part of the map you were looking at. Now we refer to those images as "raster" tiles, to differentiate them with "vector" tiles. Rather than a rendered image, Vector tiles contain the raw data that you could use to render such an image. Vector tiles allow a smaller file size and more flexibility. For example, with vector tiles you can crisply render at partial zoom levels, keeping lines sharp and avoid pixelating text. The client can also have customizable styles - hiding certain layers or accentuating others from the vector tiles. Vector tiles are not new technology. For example, Google Maps started using them over a decade ago. So why has it taken so long for OpenStreetMap.org? One reason is no doubt a lack of engineering capacity. There were also concerns about older and less powerful clients hardware not being up to the task, but that concern has lessened over time. OpenStreetMap also has some unique requirements. It is a community edited database, and users want to see their edits soon (immediately really). It's not feasible to dynamically generate every tile request from the latest data, so caching is essential. Still, to minimize the amount of time tiles will be stale, a lot of work went into being able to quickly regenerate stale tiles before the new vector tiles were rolled out.

stevage 1y ago
>Vector tiles are not new technology. Yeah, it really is not. Mapbox Vector Tiles spec came out in 2014, and they've been absolutely standard across all (non-government) web mapping for at least the last 5 years.
- gregoriol 1y ago
  Indeed almost everyone except Apple's MapKit library for in-app native maps integration is using vector these days.
  - hopelite 1y ago

stevage 1y ago

For anyone who wants to actually try the new layer, it's called "Shortbread" and can be accessed under the layers selector. Or use this link: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map&layers=S https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map&layers=S The blog post could do a better job of surfacing that bit! You can compare it to the existing vector tile layer created by MapTiler, which mimics the classic raster tile style: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map&layers=V https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map&layers=V

dolmen 1y ago

Many important details are not visible anymore: - gates on private pathways - shop names

lutoma 1y ago
Personally I'm quite happy that these tiles cut down on the clutter in the original OSM tiles. It made it very hard for me to actually use them for navigation because there was just so much stuff everywhere. For example the old tiles displayed rail tracks extremely prominently, which just aren't relevant 99% of the time even when traveling by train. In the vector tiles they're much more muted and thinner.
- timeon 1y ago
  Yes but this one only highlights motorways which are used usually just for long distance drives.
  - wiredfool 1y ago
    The nice thing is, that's just a style, not a property of the tiles. So if you want to alter the rendering, it's "just" a change to the style of that layer/attribute.
- liotier 1y ago
  > I'm quite happy that these tiles cut down on the clutter in the original OSM tiles. It made it very hard for me to actually use them for navigation The Openstreetmap.org tiles are a demo and a contributor quality assurance tool - they are not meant for end-user applications, hence the rather over-the-top selection of map objects.
johannes1234321 1y ago
The choices are tough, also in details: Which shops to show in busy areas at which zoom level? But mind: openstreetmap.org is ment as a developer site, for developers to see their changes quickly. The official idea is that other people should take the data and do "nice" things elsewhere. But of course reality is that users want to use openstreetmap.org as alternative to Google maps ...

severak_cz 1y ago

Oh but that default style for Shortbread is so ugly! No contrast, missing details and lots of information lost. Hopefully it's vector tiles and information are there (I checked in Maputik) so it's possible to create my own style (which I will definitely try).

MapNavTom 1y ago
There is also the MapTiler OMT style for OpenMapTiles, which uses Vector Tiles. It is a close copy of the Standard OSM map style. It appeared at the same time as Shortbread on the osm.org website.
- reddalo 1y ago
  I agree, it's super close to the classical OSM style, but some things are missing, e.g. roads that are currently planned or in the building phase.
  - MapNavTom 1y ago
    Yes, buildings under construction aren't there yet either. OMT is OpenSource though, so you can make a pull request: https://github.com/openmaptiles/openmaptiles https://github.com/openmaptiles/openmaptiles
- severak_cz 1y ago
  Yeah. MapTiler has much better styles in general.
timeon 1y ago
Yeah only motorways are highlighted everything else is faded in background.
showcaseearth 1y ago
The lack of boundaries below national level is off-putting. Both the style and the tile spec itself seem to need a lot of refinement... highways look like a patchwork at low zoom. I had also thought shortbread excluded a lot of POI types, but maybe I need to review again. But that's not to diminish the accomplishment overall here for the OSM page itself– this is an awesome step forward!

wiz21c 1y ago

does a vector tile use more or less memory than a raster tile ? I mean, on average, in OSM.

amluto 1y ago

What happened to maps trying to make the names of most or all streets visible? It looks like the vector layer on the web viewer is sort of trying to show some street names, but it seems extremely buggy right now — names appear and then disappear again when making small zoom adjustments. Not that Apple Maps or Google Maps are much better in this regard.

neomantra 1y ago

This comment is a reminder that OSM Vector Tiles is sponsored work. It is exciting to see the deployment of it — congrats to the team! If you find value in it, consider donating any amount to the OpenStreetMap Foundation. https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2024/02/11/2024-announcing-the-year-of-the-openstreetmap-vector-maps/ https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2024/02/11/2024-announcing-th...

butz 1y ago

While vector tiles are often marketed as faster loading ones, and it is true in OSM case, I would like to see apples to apples comparison: vector tiles with same level of detail as original OSM raster tiles. Maybe someone already has such vector style built?

perrygeo 1y ago

To everyone with complaints about the new "Shortbread" styling, I agree that it's not perfect but that's kinda missing the point. The real story is that vector tiles have the styling applied client-side so anyone can tweak the look with a little javascript. The prior raster tiles have the style baked in; if you want a new look, you need to generate a new image. So each map publisher ends up running their own data and server infrastructure just to tweak the style. The vector tile approach means a single (cacheable) asset can be used in many different maps. Huge win. If you don't like the style, you can make your own without having to literally download the planet.