zoom levels in elemstyles.mapcss [patch]

[Klumbumbus]

This is a patch to integrate zoom levels in elemstyles.mapcss for better view on low zoom. When you zoom out, nodes shrink. Then at first the text of nodes disappear, then the icons and then the fixme and note icons. Also the text becomes bigger on very high zoom levels.

This is inspred by Styles/LessObtrusiveNodes. The implementation in this patch shrinks/hides things a bit later (=on lower zoom) than LessObtrusiveNodes. This way it works good for both, areas with low and areas with high density of nodes.

patch: zoom.diff​
new style based on version 7374 of elemstyles.mapcss for quick import in JOSM: elemstyles7374zoom.mapcss​

Related Tickets: #10043, #9891

[bastiK]

In 7377/josm:

applied #10363 - zoom levels in elemstyles.mapcss (patch by Klumbumbus)

[bastiK]

This is a huge change for the JOSM map display, let's see how it will be received.

@Klumbumbus: Minor change in the color of tagged nodes at zoom level 16 and higher.

[Klumbumbus]

Replying to bastiK:

This is a huge change for the JOSM map display, let's see how it will be received.

Yes, we'll see :) If some people do not like it, we can implement a JOSM_pref() which allows the user to disable this zoom behavior.

@Klumbumbus: Minor change in the color of tagged nodes at zoom level 16 and higher.

I noticed. Actually I intentionally give tagged nodes also the yellow colour, because #ccffff is sometimes hard to see on aerial background. (e.g. ​node/2512805119 on bing background) Also a single untagged node is actually useless, so a distinction between tagged and untagged is not really necessary in my eyes.

[Don-vip]

Please don't delete milestone information!

[Klumbumbus]

Opps sorry, this was by mistake, since I started typing my comment before you set the milestone.

[Don-vip]

ok :) Thanks for the patch, it's indeed a huge change :)

[bastiK]

In 7378/josm:

see #10363 - show place=* icons on |z11-

• special handling for instructions with keword "none" as value: always treat as null value
• print current zoom level to command line with at --trace debug level

[bastiK]

Replying to Klumbumbus:

Replying to bastiK:

This is a huge change for the JOSM map display, let's see how it will be received.

Yes, we'll see :) If some people do not like it, we can implement a JOSM_pref() which allows the user to disable this zoom behavior.

I would like to avoid this as much as possible. We should make a serious effort to improve and cover a maximum of use cases. There is always the old style, for users the prefer a more stable map display. :)

@Klumbumbus: Minor change in the color of tagged nodes at zoom level 16 and higher.

I noticed. Actually I intentionally give tagged nodes also the yellow colour, because #ccffff is sometimes hard to see on aerial background. (e.g. ​node/2512805119 on bing background) Also a single untagged node is actually useless, so a distinction between tagged and untagged is not really necessary in my eyes.

I've changed the color to straight cyan #00ffff, so it should be more visible now. You are right, that a single untagged node is an error, but nevertheless, they exist in the data. When mapping POIs, that do not have an icon yet, it is useful to see if a node you just drew is already tagged or not.

[naoliv]

Can't place=* nodes stay visible like before?

[stoecker]

Looks really fine.

It was always a goal to reduce the map display complexity on lower zoom depths, but previous attempts never were completely successful and thus default (probably also due to limitations of XML format). What should not happen is unintuitive behaviour or missing elements on working zoom depths (This is really disturbing, I know that from Merkaartor).

Let's hope for positive feedback.

[bastiK]

Replying to naoliv:

Can't place=* nodes stay visible like before?

This is already fixed in [7378].

[ukandystreet]

I must admit that my initial reception of this feature was rather cool but after using it for a while it has shown itself to be very useful (especially once I disabled direction arrows on ways). The one drawback I have found is that node visibility is not reflected by the selection tool. If you have zoomed out far enough that nodes are no longer being drawn then you would expect that clicking on a way would select the way itself rather than an invisible node that forms part of the way.

[bastiK]

Replying to ukandystreet:

If you have zoomed out far enough that nodes are no longer being drawn then you would expect that clicking on a way would select the way itself rather than an invisible node that forms part of the way.

Thanks for your feedback. Yes, this is a serious issue.

[Klumbumbus]

Maybe mappaint.node.snap-distance should decrease when zooming out. Default value is 10. It could decrease until 1 or even 0 on very low zoom.

[stoecker]

Replying to Klumbumbus:

Maybe mappaint.node.snap-distance should decrease when zooming out. Default value is 10. It could decrease until 1 or even 0 on very low zoom.

It must be in sync with the display, and as the display depends on the style you can't do that with such a simple solution. A feedback from the display code to the selection tools is needed instead, so that selection does not affect invisible elements.

[bastiK]

Replying to stoecker:

Replying to Klumbumbus:

Maybe mappaint.node.snap-distance should decrease when zooming out. Default value is 10. It could decrease until 1 or even 0 on very low zoom.

It must be in sync with the display, and as the display depends on the style you can't do that with such a simple solution. A feedback from the display code to the selection tools is needed instead, so that selection does not affect invisible elements.

+1 we should treat "invisible" primitives similar to filtered/hidden primitives.

[aceman]

This feature is interesting. My observations so far:

• The direction arrows are not scaled so they now fill most of the area as nodes are not shown with distant zooms.
• The color of "connected nodes" is ignored from preferences.

[bastiK]

In 7389/josm:

see #10363 - you cannot click on object that is not visible on the map

[bastiK]

Replying to aceman:

• The color of "connected nodes" is ignored from preferences.

Works for me, the color is called node_connection.

[Klumbumbus]

Replying to bastiK:

In 7389/josm:

see #10363 - you cannot click on object that is not visible on the map

You still can click on invisible nodes. version 7391

[bastiK]

Could you be more specific? If I zoom out, it shows only the ways and you can no longer click on the now invisible nodes.

[Klumbumbus]

Replying to bastiK:

Could you be more specific? If I zoom out, it shows only the ways and you can no longer click on the now invisible nodes.

You can click on single unconnected invisible nodes. However I'm not sure if this is intended!?

[Klumbumbus]

There is one more bug. Nodes which have an icon on high zoom are not displayed on z17 z16. Here is the fix for this: display nodes on z17 which have icon on higher zoom.diff​

I was wondering for a while why this fix even works, since I removed [!is_prop_set("icon-image")] from the block

node|z16-[!is_prop_set("icon-image")]!.maxspeedclass {
    symbol-size:1;
    symbol-shape: square;
    symbol-stroke-color: node_standard#ffff00;
    major-z-index: 4.95; /* put node squares above line text */
}

So I thought the squares would be on top of the icons. However the major-z-index also lifts the icons to 4.95, so they are still on top of the nodes squares.

[bastiK]

Replying to Klumbumbus:

Replying to bastiK:

Could you be more specific? If I zoom out, it shows only the ways and you can no longer click on the now invisible nodes.

You can click on single unconnected invisible nodes. However I'm not sure if this is intended!?

I have no idea why this happens, but let's declare it a feature. ;)

[aceman]

Replying to bastiK:

Replying to aceman:

• The color of "connected nodes" is ignored from preferences.

Works for me, the color is called node_connection.

In my preferences file it is like this:
<tag key='color.node.connection' value='#3333FF'/>

[Klumbumbus]

there is a new preference now which is specific to the default style called Paint style josm: standard.mapcss.node.connection in colors and called color.mappaint.josm.standard.mapcss.node.connection directly in advanced preferences. Same for .standard and .tagged

This is due to new code in elemstyles.mapcss

canvas {
    default-points: false;
}

[aceman]

but "color.node.connection" is still shown in the UI and worked before this change. So if it is intentionally not supported anymore it should be cleaned up.

[bastiK]

It is still supported, but only affects the rendering in the old xml style (which can be installed as a user style). The customization of map paint colors is an advanced feature and so we do not offer a full migration.

[Klumbumbus]

reopend because of 25

[bastiK]

Could you describe the problem in more detail, I don't understand what is wrong. The patch lifts icons to major-z-index 4.95, but they should stay at 4.0.

[Klumbumbus]

node symbols (squares) are shown z16-
icons are shown z17-

The nodes which do have an icon on z17- are not shown as square on z16.

For test create three nodes. one untagged (this one is yellow), one tagged with an unknown tag (e.g. a=b; this one is cyan) and one with a known tag (e.g. shop=supermarket; this one has an icon)
Then zoom out. The node with shop=supermarket is not shown on z16, while the other two are.

[Klumbumbus]

And the other changes I made in this patch according maxspeed is because currently if a node has a tag with an icon and also maxspeed=none, then the maxspeed_none icon is displayed. However I think the maxspeed_none icon has lower priority than other icons. With this patch the other icon is prioritized. Also the code is more logic imo, since we do not need to create maxspeedprop and maxspeedclass if we do not use it later (because of another icon).

[bastiK]

In 7421/josm:

applied #10363 - fix problem at zoom 16 (based on patch by Klumbumbus)

[skyper]

• This changes makes it almost impossible to select way nodes.
  • Please have an option to user-define zoom-levels
• I also noticed that selected nodes are no longer painted solid which makes it even harder to spot them, especially if the parent way is selected, too.
  • Please, render selected nodes solid again

[Klumbumbus]

A pseudo class :selected would be helpful. See #9891

[bastiK]

Replying to skyper:

• This changes makes it almost impossible to select way nodes.

I don't understand the "almost": When the node is visible on screen, then the mouse selection is the same as before. If it is not visible, you cannot click it at all.

[bastiK]

I think it might be better to hide only untagged way nodes at zoom 15 and below. If we keep showing isolated nodes and tagged nodes as 1x1 pixel at zoom 0-15, then we never conceal any objects, but keep the map still reasonably clean.

[bastiK]

In 7428/josm:

see #10363 - show tagged and isolated nodes at zoom 0-15

[skyper]

Replying to bastiK:

Replying to skyper:

• This changes makes it almost impossible to select way nodes.
  • Please have an option to user-define zoom-levels>

I don't understand the "almost": When the node is visible on screen, then the mouse selection is the same as before. If it is not visible, you cannot click it at all.

No, the node is smaller and you have to click really close to select one

• I also noticed that selected nodes are no longer painted solid which makes it even harder to spot them, especially if the parent way is selected, too.
  • Please, render selected nodes solid again

Mmh, not a real solution as the nodes will be still tiny and not recognizable as the width of the way is the same ore even bigger.

[bastiK]

Replying to skyper:

No, the node is smaller and you have to click really close to select one

As far as I'm aware, the snap radius is not influenced by the size of the symbol, so the "click experience" should be the same as before.

[bartosomail@…]

I like the new zoom behaviour in populated areas. But when mapping in the wild I'd like to revert to old behaviour, or be able to change the thresholds for icon and name removals so that they still appear at lower zoom. I miss nodes like peak, saddle, mountain_pass, guidepost, historic=* and probably many more.

[Klumbumbus]

A thought which just came to my mind: maybe it would also be possible to change the mappaint while you press a special key. Example: by default icons are hidden on low zoom and if you press F9 they appear, or vice versa.
Another example would be to change the z-layer of nodes and text-labels. By lifting the labels on top of nodes while pressing a key you can better read the label (Example where it is hard to read the label because of nodes and plus signs on top see example image on #10395).

[anonymous]

I like your proposal, would love to give it a try.

[Don-vip]

Replying to Klumbumbus:

maybe it would also be possible to change the mappaint while you press a special key. Example: by default icons are hidden on low zoom and if you press F9 they appear, or vice versa.

Don't know if it's feasible or wanted but it would be in another ticket anyway. I understand we just have to improve the rendering of "natural" features (non-urban) like mountains in low zoom to close this ticket.

[bastiK]

This is related to #10421 (User-settings for mapcss mappaint styles). I would like to include a user friendly option for switching between lessObstrusiveNodes and the old icon rendering before next tested.

[Don-vip]

OK. If you want a shortcut to toggle between these two modes, F2 is available.

[Don-vip]

I tried the above patch for rendering of some natural objects but it doesn't seem to work, why?

[bastiK]

It gets overridden later by

node|z-16,
relation|z-16[type=restriction] {
    icon-image: none;
}

(There may be better ways to do this.)

[Klumbumbus]

I think there is no need for special handling of natural icons when #10421 is done.

[Don-vip]

I think they deserve the same visibility as places:

• these features are often far away from their nearest node neighbours (rural areas)
• they are major map features rendered on any low zoom map, including osm.org default style

[Klumbumbus]

So we should either delete

node|z-16,
relation|z-16[type=restriction] {
    icon-image: none;
}

and add the zoom selector to every block, which sets an icon or simply move the natural blocks at the bottom after the zoom block. Which is the prefered way? I could create the patch if you want.

[bastiK]

Maybe put

  set POI;

in every normal icon rule, then change the override to

node|z-16.POI,
relation|z-16[type=restriction] {
    icon-image: none;
}

[Klumbumbus]

Yes that's better, also for on/off-switching of POI hiding.

[Klumbumbus]

I created the patch: attachment:elemstyles7440_zoom_classes.diff​​ (edit: replaced by newer patch)

I created zoom classes for icons and icon texts.

• Icons (and the associated text) with place=*, natural=[saddle,peak,glacier,volcano] and montain_pass=yes are shown z11-
• fixme and note are shown z16-
• all other icons are shown z17-
• icon texts are shown z18-

So in the end nothing has changed except that the 5 natural icons are also shown until z11 like the place nodes, which was the goal of this patch.

The other thing is, the whole "icon and text hiding thing" can be disabled by disabling the following 5 blocks. This could easily be done with a JOSM_pref().

node|z-10.iconz11 {
    icon-image: none;
}
node|z-16.iconz17!.iconz11,
relation|z-16[type=restriction] {
    icon-image: none;
}
node|z-15.iconz16::core_fixme,
node|z-15.iconz16::core_note {
    icon-image: none;
}
node|z-10 {
    text: none;
}
node|z-17!.textz11 {
    text: none;
}

[Klumbumbus]

I created a new patch attachment:elemstyles7440_zoom_setting.diff​ edit: attachment:elemstyles7440_zoom_setting.2.diff​

This includes my privious patch and adds the setting to completely disable the whole hiding on low zoom. If the user disables the new setting "Hide nodes on low zoom" then the style looks the same like before this ticket (except a few unrelated changes).

Maybe we can find a better label for the setting ("Improve display on low zoom", or something else).

[Klumbumbus]

I just want to add, that this setting is really needed before next stable release. A lot of people complain about the hidden icons on low zoom in the german forum ​http://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=26677 , because they edit large objects like borders or power lines or do mass edits on nodes.

[Don-vip]

Replying to Klumbumbus:

A lot of people complain about the hidden icons on low zoom in the german forum

Can you sum up the list of objects for which users complain about? Maybe we could display some more POIs on low zoom.

[Klumbumbus]

fixed one number in the diff file.

[Klumbumbus]

Replying to Don-vip:

Replying to Klumbumbus:

A lot of people complain about the hidden icons on low zoom in the german forum

Can you sum up the list of objects for which users complain about? Maybe we could display some more POIs on low zoom.

It's not that easy. They want to see everything on every zoom level. If they want to hide things they use filters.
Also if you use for example an overpass querry to download special items for a big area, you want to see the nodes and icons also on low zoom. This can be any icon type (street lamp, emergency phone, addresses without addr:street,... just everything)

[Klumbumbus]

One improvement which I could imagine is that we do not shrink nodes which belong to admin boundaries.

[Klumbumbus]

one more: we could change the smallest node symbol-size of isolated and tagged nodes from 1 to 2, since 2 is also not to big and 1 looks like a defective pixel of the monitor.

[bastiK]

In 7454/josm:

applied #10363 - make zoom dependent behaviour configurable (patch by Klumbumbus, slightly modified)

[bastiK]

In 7455/josm:

see #10363 - don't shrink isolated and tagged nodes blow 2x2 px

[bastiK]

I split the setting in two parts, could you check, if everything works as expected?

Replying to Klumbumbus:

One improvement which I could imagine is that we do not shrink nodes which belong to admin boundaries.

There can be a lot of admin boundaries in a city, I fear it would be too prominent. (Maybe keep way nodes as 1x1 pixel, so it can be selected, at least?)

Replying to Klumbumbus:

one more: we could change the smallest node symbol-size of isolated and tagged nodes from 1 to 2, since 2 is also not to big and 1 looks like a defective pixel of the monitor.

Good idea!

[Klumbumbus]

I added a small fix, see attachment.
Before, tagged nodes which are part of a way are only 1 pixel at z16.

[Klumbumbus]

Replying to bastiK:

(Maybe keep way nodes as 1x1 pixel, so it can be selected, at least?)

Do you mean for all ways or just for admin boundaries?

[bastiK]

In 7456/josm:

applied #10363 - fix tagged way nodes at zoom 16 (patch by Klumbumbus)

[Klumbumbus]

Replying to bastiK:

(Maybe keep way nodes as 1x1 pixel, so it can be selected, at least?)

I tried 1px for all waynodes. I'm not sure if this is better.

It clutters the map a bit more and on low zoom level like z13 or lower you cannot select ways then, since it always snaps to one of its waynodes (which is btw the same behavior like the status before this ticket).
The question is do you really want to select untagged waynodes at z13? If you move such a node just 1px at z13, then it maybe moves 20 meters in reality. I think z13 is not the zoom level where you edit waynodes.
With completely hidden waynodes on low zoom you can select ways e.g. a river or something, which is I think better than to select its waynodes.

[bastiK]

Replying to Klumbumbus:

Replying to bastiK:

(Maybe keep way nodes as 1x1 pixel, so it can be selected, at least?)

Do you mean for all ways or just for admin boundaries?

Only for admin boundaries. But it could be confusing to have too many exceptions. After all, there is a menu option now, to display the nodes on all zoom levels.

Overall, I'm quite happy how the style has progressed so far and this is mainly due to your initiative, thanks a lot!

[Klumbumbus]

Replying to bastiK:

Replying to Klumbumbus:

Replying to bastiK:

(Maybe keep way nodes as 1x1 pixel, so it can be selected, at least?)

Do you mean for all ways or just for admin boundaries?

Only for admin boundaries. But it could be confusing to have too many exceptions.

Yes I also think so (confusing to have too many exceptions).

After all, there is a menu option now, to display the nodes on all zoom levels.

yes.

Overall, I'm quite happy how the style has progressed so far

+1

and this is mainly due to your initiative, thanks a lot!

Thanks. Well its fun for me to improve mapcss styles, and the only way to participate in JOSM development since I have no clue of java code ;)

I did already spread the latest changes in the german forum.

[Klumbumbus]

Why do we actually hide the place and peak nodes at z-10 and not show them until z0?

[bastiK]

In 7458/josm:

see #10363 - fix problem with isolated tagged nodes at z16 for the combination hide_icons=false & shrink_nodes=true (they have no size assigned and appear in default size 10x10 px)

[Klumbumbus]

It's very good that you separated the settings hide_icons and shrink_nodes.

hide_icons=false & shrink_nodes=true is a very nice combination for all low to middle densely mapped areas (with limited number of icons).

[bastiK]

Replying to Klumbumbus:

Why do we actually hide the place and peak nodes at z-10 and not show them until z0?

Okay, let's keep it simple then, can you make a patch?

[Klumbumbus]

I made the patch.

I noticed a strange bahavior on z1. When you move the map there is an area in the middle where all icons and texts disappear. However this is only at z1 and happens also with an old version of elemstyles (7261) and nobody uses z1 anyway, so it's not worth to fix this.

[bastiK]

In 7470/josm:

see #10363 - show place=* and some of the natural=* tags at any zoom level and not just at |z11- (patch by Klumbumbus)

[bastiK]

Forgot to mention you as patch author, sorry about that.

[Don-vip]

Replying to bastiK:

Forgot to mention you as patch author, sorry about that.

Done:
svn propset -r 7470 --revprop svn:log "see #10363 - show place=* and some of the natural=* tags at any zoom level and not just at |z11- (patch by Klumbumbus)"

[bastiK]

At the translation experts: We have now strings with tr(...) in elemstyles.mapcss. Is this file already included in the i18n scanner?

[Klumbumbus]

Replying to bastiK:

Forgot to mention you as patch author, sorry about that.

No problem. No need to do extra work to fix this if it happens again. There are more important things to do :)

[Klumbumbus]

Replying to bastiK:

At the translation experts: We have now strings with tr(...) in elemstyles.mapcss. Is this file already included in the i18n scanner?

It doesn't look like. I just downloaded the .po file from launchpad and the strings from elemstyles.mapcss are not in there.

[Klumbumbus]

The string "style settings" is correctly in the .po file:

#: ../core/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/gui/dialogs/MapPaintDialog.java:672
msgid "Style settings"
msgstr "Zeichenstil-Einstellungen"

However it is not yet in JOSM. JOSM needs one more i18n update before stable release.

[Don-vip]

Replying to bastiK:

At the translation experts: We have now strings with tr(...) in elemstyles.mapcss. Is this file already included in the i18n scanner?

No, ​convstyle.pl handles only XML format. But I'm not a translation expert at all o:)

[stoecker]

See [o30620].

[stoecker]

And [o30621].

[bastiK]

Thanks!