OpenStreetMap
Is there anything that can be done about un-rendered elements? For many OSM features, the data is there, but it doesn’t get rendered on the map.
As far as I can tell, this happens with:
- All the Offices
- Many Man-Made nodes: like Sirens, Tanks, and Pipelines
- Parking Entrance nodes
- Flagpoles
Can we do anything to fix this? I understand why unimportant features like sirens, flagpoles, and pipelines would be removed; but things like Offices and Parking Entrances seem rather significant.
(This is my first time posting, I hope I haven’t broken any rules…)
Discussion
Comment from GOwin on 12 June 2016 at 03:59
I think that boils down to whatever is the theme for any particular tile server you’re using.
If the POI has been recorded, even if they’re not visible, they are often still searchable (Nominatim, OsmAnd).
Parking entrances/exit nodes, I agree, are important, but unless they’ve been marked as such (entrance=* or barrier=*), they will not be rendered correctly and remain hidden.
Comment from CloCkWeRX on 12 June 2016 at 07:56
So, if you’d like to see them in the main map you can raise a feature request on https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto
In general; you want to: * Explain why it’s important or what use cases it supports * Try to give a reasonable estimate as to how useful it is * Be sure to check for any existing topics of conversation
The default answer might be ‘no’; however there are a lot of other renderings that might wish to focus on it - or even you can roll your own.
Comment from marczoutendijk on 12 June 2016 at 12:34
There are many more objects that are not visible on the standard (Mapnik) rendering. To help me (and many others) out of that limitation, I created OpenPoiMap (a user-friendly interface to overpass-turbo) that can show (almost) everything you want to see on the map.
Read the wiki!
Comment from BushmanK on 12 June 2016 at 17:47
One of fundamental concepts of OSM project is that it’s not a map (despite its name), but spatial database. Standard style on openstreetmap.org is more or less technical map style (however, maintainers trying to keep it usable not just for that). So, “OSM ≫ Standard map style”. There are probably thousands of widespread things not rendered by any common raster map servers (road lanes, for example).
Comment from Nikola Bura on 12 June 2016 at 18:06
Thanks for the info, guys! I didn’t realize at first that there were third-party services to display these features.
Comment from SomeoneElse on 15 June 2016 at 20:47
Years ago, there used to be a map style on OpenStreetMap.org called “osmarender” which tried to show almost every feature (but in the process didn’t look very pretty). It went away for various technical / support reasons, and there hasn’t been a replacement for it. Part of the reason for that is that query mechanisms have improved markedly - things like the “?” icon at the right of the main site that allow you to click and see what’s there and display details such as node/3964948498 even though it’s not rendered in the “standard” map style at all.
http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/ might also be useful - type “office” into the box at the top right of that and click through to “Overpass Turbo” zoom in and run the query - you will get a screen like http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/gOJ showing you all of the offices nearby.
With regard to actual map tiles, I do try and render lots of the office/man_made infrastructure in a style that I maintain for my own use (no public tiles alas) - see http://i.imgur.com/NCkW98m.png for an example. Sirens, Pipelines and Flagpoles I’ve never thought of doing though - I’m sure that everyone has a list of things that “should be rendered on a standard map style but aren’t”. the problem is that everyone’s list is different.
Comment from andy mackey on 15 June 2016 at 22:07
I mapped a group of wind turbines using a system of waypoints that were on projected lines from pairs of aligned turbines which was fairly accurate when checked against a commercial map. I used this method as i couldn’t get nearer than 1.5 km to most of them. But the only turbine that gets rendered is the node of the centre of the wind farm, which isn’t a turbine. I’m a little annoyed as 123m high landmarks, should, i think, be rendered.
Comment from andy mackey on 16 June 2016 at 18:50
Opps. they do render if they are tagged correctly see osm.org/#map=16/52.2599/-0.1946