Quote Originally Posted by Giomen View Post
AlexWhiter has known it! All JNX and most of the IMG map with embedded raster in Russia, why in Russia, in the world made by his technology.
You provide is not the best example. This map is sort of trash due to bad coordinate binding and missed tiles. It is not wondered because of all in three clicks: Sas-planet - AlexWhiter JNX - AlexWhiter IMG. No cost and no labor. Only marketing expense take place. Please delete your links because it is a kind of bad advertising.
But I had saw masterpieces which use original of maps, rectification and correction based on binding to the terrain. Although I am not sure that AlexWhiter received a donation in this case too. Nevertheless the authors made efforts themselves and released the product that does not disgrace our beloved and respected AlexWhiter!
This is just an average product. Not the worst one but not the best either. I'd tried to display it over the Navicom's Roads of Russia Topo map on the device. In my opinion, there are no significant misalignments between the vector and raster maps. In late nineties I was experimenting a lot in making similar quick-and-dirty maps from the paper scans using Ozi, etc. for use that maps on Palm PDA. From that experiments, I'd learned that it's not reasonable to expect precise alignment of objects on the paper maps of different scales. They are all very old and are not always accurate. Especially for roads and trails. BTW the "modern" vector map (which I presume is made from the same outdated cartography data) is not perfect either. In many occasions in the field, I'd noticed that my self-converted maps were more accurate. Now it's much easier to make such maps. More tools are available and all raster images in the internet are already geo-referenced, no need to perform datum conversion, etc. So no wonder the accuracy is good enough for average user. But in my opinion, there are other problems:

1. It seems they'd removed all images of the finest scale (1:50000) from the map (perhaps to avoid legal problems) but not from the advertisement. So on the device, max zoom level is limited to 200м. Attempt to zoom in further results in empty screen.

2. Technologically, it's a poor man's map because it's of raster. So no routing, no search, etc. Currently, it's better than no maps at all but it's not the right way to go. I think that's the reason why Garmin have decided to scrap this approach (GB Discoverer maps are no more available). But Russia is a big country and I doubt the cartography data of standard quality does ever exist. Raster, vector, no matter. The area is so large. BTW, it's interesting, according to the media, Ordinance Survey (the company behind the GB Discoverer mapping data) recently has purchased a huge solar aircraft project to use such planes as a mapping drones. It "plans to offer mapping services to countries that otherwise struggle to afford them because of the cost or their large geography". So maybe the next next gen people will be interested... Sooner or later. As for now, OSM vector data looks good enough for the suburban areas. For the remote areas, it seems it'll make sense to start by purchasing the respective shape files form NASA land surveying satellites. But then a lot of work will be required anyway (not mentioning the expenses and regulation problems). Just in theory.

3. The major problem with all projects that are based on reverse engineering is that there is no legal way for the developer to license his/her solution and therefore be rewarded for the effort. If it's of public domain, then it's of public domain and everyone is free to use it for non-profit purposes. As for commercial use, the author's permission is required. Otherwise, it's just wrong