This looks really promising, particularly the ability to switch styles on the fly. It could perhaps work as an onramp to get an app out there before switching to something custom-built as traffic builds. I'm tempted.
(Declaration of interest: I invented MapCSS, the styling language which this uses.)
Particularly interesting for game developers who can use it deeply customize maps to fit well into their gaming experience. I am tempted to build a monopoly-like game with the real world up for sale and purchase. And one like Need for Speed with real-world traffic. Even one for amateur marathon runs on countryside terrains.
Oh yes, I also used to make casual games in flash for social platforms like facebook back in 2009. These days it's OpenGL and mobile. The market size is bigger and user experience better. Btw, 5m accounts in three months despite so many launch issues is not bad.
I am currently working on a location-based game for iOS and have been using Google Maps SDK and I'm extremely interested in this.
Google Maps has refused to respond to all requests for custom styled maps on iOS despite being the most requested feature.[1]
I've also tried MapBox but both have been giving very bad performance on iPhone 4... this could be just my code, however as a game I really need to perform a lot of animation on the map itself and these 2 options perform quite poorly in my experience.
Another issue with map SDKs is that there's usually no way to turn off road names. I just need the road vectors to be rendered (like Ingress) so players get a baring of where they are relative to their roads, but not necessarily the name of the roads. I imagine that it would be more performant if I could turn that off. Neither Google nor Mapbox allows this unfortunately.
Might give this a go to see how well it works with all the things we're throwing at our map functionality. Thanks!
Thank you for the recommendation. I'm looking through it right now. Is there anything specific you wanted to point out that I should look out for? It's a pretty long document and I didn't want to miss anything important.
Looks nice, but since it's completely unclear who's behind this, I personally wouldn't buy. People, add an imprint at least, better an "About us" page.
We are small team from Belarus. Developers of Galileo Offline Maps (http://galileo-app.com), and framework was made from vector rendering engine developed originally for Galileo.
So does it mean that you will never purchase a service from somebody who you don't know? Let's say they added an about us page and list their names, but you still don't know these people, does it mean you won't purchase the service even tho they have an "About Us" page?
Online, I only purchase stuff if they have a legally-looking imprint and make a general impression of seriousness. And while this website has a nice design, the lack of an imprint implies that there's something sketchy going on. My reasoning is: If someone is afraid to put his complete name + address online, there must be a reason for it and I'm not the one wanting to do business with him or her.
Edit: I don't have to know the people. And the About-Us page isn't very important. I just want to see that it's a legitimate business and usually in most countries, this requires the company to put a full address on their website.
I really don't understand your reasoning for wanting an About Us page before purchasing a service. I don't feel that this level of paranoia is appropriate when using online services.
Don't get hung up on that about page too much. An imprint is usually fine, an about page is even better.
The reason is very simple: From my experience, legitimate businesses have an imprint. As I said, an imprint is mandatory in most countries for commercial websites and trying to hide the address is very sketchy.
The service costs $29/mo. Most people here make more than that per hour. It's completely illogical to worry about losing $30 unless that $30 has high utility to your life.
If they steal your money, you can make an HN submission about your experience, which will completely ruin their reputation. Their reputation is far more valuable than whatever small amount of pocket change they could skim by tricking a few HN users. Therefore, the chance that your money is going to be stolen is hovering just above nil.
If they literally stole your money, which is what the parent poster was worrying about, then there's no chance their reputation will last very long. The HN post would just be the manifestation of that. In fact, I don't think anyone has ever posted a "Show HN" with malicious intent, let alone gotten away with it.
Looks cool, but does it do affine/perspective rendering? I'm looking for a map service that allows me to project the map but still render labels in 2D. Or preferably, to get the various layers on their own framebuffers to be rendered arbitrarily. Elevation data would be a plus also.
(Declaration of interest: I invented MapCSS, the styling language which this uses.)