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| Parks are green! |
CartoType GL is the next generation of the CartoType map toolkit. It's got all the flexibility of the existing library for map representation, routing and address searching, but we've add a zippy OpenGL ES renderer.
What is CartoType?
CartoType is an offline map library that works with limited resources. This makes it popular on smartphones and other situations where the user is not connected to a network. It can handle a variety of data inputs, making it easy to use your own data, but can also deal with the usual OpenStreetMap cases.
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| I wonder where this is? |
The existing CartoType library does a really nice job representing complicated maps in a very small space. It's primarily a static map rendering library, so when you use it on a smartphone it'll render the map when you stop moving. What we've done is upgrade the renderer.
What is CartoType GL?
CartoType was already doing a fine job representing maps. What it needed was to draw them faster. CartoType GL is just what it sounds like, an OpenGL ES based version of CartoType that solves the speed problem.
CartoType GL marshals the resources of the existing library to convert data to internal vector tiles. Those are are processed into OpenGL ES compatible data and rendered at a nice zippy, interactive speed. Basically just what you'd expect in a modern map toolkit.
Online vs. Offline
There are some excellent cloud based map solutions out there for map representation, routing, address searching and so forth. CartoType GL is not that; it's an offline solution.
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Why offline? Well, it's actually a different problem. You can cobble together offline solutions from the online technology, but they're not great. They're too big, they don't do routing well and they're focused on display. If you want to do a good offline map toolkit it's a different beast. That's what CartoType is.
Cost & Availability
CartoType GL is, logically enough, being sold through the CartoType company. They are the ultimate source of details on this effort. Contact them for a license.
We hope to get the iOS version out in April. Android should follow shortly after that.
Boring Technical Details
WhirlyGlobe-Maply is the open source toolkit we (mousebird consulting inc) make and it has two levels. The core is a C++ rendering and object management engine. Above that is an Objective-C interface on iOS and a Java interface on Android.
CartoType GL uses the core C++ renderer directly. Rather than expose high level WG-Maply functionality, we interface with the GL renderer. This makes CartoType GL a much simpler map centered toolkit.
WhirlyGlobe-Maply is and will continue to be open source. This arrangement is just like one of the commercial apps that we work on. It's even contributing functionality back, making the toolkit better for everyone.
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