[closed] Feedback and feature requests

[Ben]

I discovered AlpineQuest a few months ago and it fits my needs very well and works better than anything else I've tried. So firstly, thanks for building it.

I use it to assist with navigation on long-distance offroad rallies. The most recent event was 6000km through NW Africa, where we had zero internet access. Cached high resolution aerial images let us plan a route through the terrain, and at times even allowed us to find existing tracks.

A few comments or features I'd like to see are:
1) When using "Rotate the map (using GPS)" if you are stationary, the map will keep rotating randomly. This meant if we were stopped and planning a route I had to turn this option off to read the map properly. I assume this is due to very small GPS movements causing a change of heading. Could there be a minimum speed or distance requirement before the map rotates?

2) Again, when using "Rotate the map (using GPS)", could there be an option of having the arrow near the bottom of the screen (20-30% from the bottom), rather than in the middle? When driving I am more interested in what is ahead of us, not what is behind us, and moving the arrow down gives a better view of what's ahead (for a given zoom).

3) I'd make about 10-20 proximity alerts each day (on various waypoints/landmarks). Then delete them the next day. I had to delete them one at a time. It would be really nice if you could delete all proximity alerts, or select several of them and delete in one action.

4) I also just noticed now that adding a proximity alert to a waypoint automatically turned on the "GPS position" option and the map jumped to my current location.

5) I spent a huge amount of time (2 months) downloading map data for offline use. I know AlpineQuest doesn't control the bandwidth of the servers used, but it seemed like downloads were restricted to ca. 6 tiles per second, regardless of server (I tried various different sources) and regardless of tile size (I saw 2-30 kb/tile). Is there a limit on tiles/second? And can anything be done to change this?

6) For large amounts of data, it would be great if the requests for "Select and save an area" could be queued. So once the current request is complete AlpineQuest automatically moved on to the next area that had been selected.

7) Being able to select non-rectangular areas would be great too. I often found that I needed to download large areas I didn't need to get all the areas I wanted.

8) Is it possible to directly import and display Open Street Maps data? Rather than download it tile by tile? This question may show I don't understand how AlpineQuest operates, but the raw OSM data I used for my other GPS filled a few hundred MB, while the OSM tiles I downloaded in AlpineQuest fill 6GB and do not have as much coverage or detail.

Once again, thanks for creating this app and I hope to get more enjoyment from it in future.
Ben

[Psyberia-Support]

Hi and thanks for your interest in our application and support! I'm very happy if the app helps you.
Concerning your questions:
1) "the map will keep rotating randomly". It has been improved in a recent version, but maybe not enough. It worked fine during my tests on a car, but I'll give it another try with small moves when stopped.
2) "an option of having the arrow near the bottom of the screen". This is planned feature. It's just a matter of time...
3) proximity alerts: I don't really know how you create your alerts, but it's possible to create alerts from a set of waypoints. This way you can remove all the alerts at one time. But anyway I'll try to add an option to clear all single alerts.
5) Yes, the application will control the speed of downloads (per server) when reaching high speed (over 250KB/s). As explained in the "store area" tool, this is to keep the map servers working fine and fast for all other users, and also not to have the application banned from some servers (like MOBAC was). Please contact me by email for further details/discussion.
6) / 7) "requests for Select and save an area could be queued", "non-rectangular areas": Yes it would be great. This will require a rewriting of the store area tool, meaning lot of work, so I can't tell you anything right now, but I'll try.
8) I haven't found a nice way to support OSM vector data yet. I don't like the existing ways (libraries) allowing to do so, and creating it myself would require too much work for the benefits. It's true that tiles based maps require more download time, but when you use the OSM data you'll still need to create and store the tiles on the device, ending up with more space used (unless you re-create the tiles on the fly each time, the best way to turn your device in a heater and drain your battery)... It has been already discussed here, you'll find more details. So unfortunately right now I cannot tell you anything more precise on this subject..

Hope it helps
Don't hesitate if you have any additional details
Best regards

[Ridwan]

first my english isnt good, sorry for that.
I just want to suggest some idea,

1. I use this app for tracking mountain, can u add gps tracking? I cant touch my phone while climbing the mountain, so can u make it automatically record the track?

2. Than makes the map is rotating and big compass arrow, i think it would be better if u combine both of them and make little direction on blue dot, it will make the map run more smoothly.

3. About gps tracking can u add feature to import or exort the data? Like gpx klm etc, (^ワ^＝)

That is all, now. Hehe
Thanks for the app, this app is best one.
Ridwan

[Psyberia-Support]

Hi Ridwan no problem for your English.
For the GPS tracking, if you use AlpineQuest then it's already available: http://www.alpinequest.net/en/help/v2/tracker.
And yes you can export/import the tracks in various formats, including GPX.
For the 2), you can hide the compass arrow and have only one little blue arrow when using the GPS. When you use the compass, it's a "field of view" which is displayed indicating the area you're watching at.
Best regards

[Ridwan]

Thank you very much, and sorry to said the good things that already exist (//∇//)

[Ridwan]

Ah, one thing, i cant see the track record toggle menu, there is just gps toggle, since my phone doesnt have barometer sensor, can u help me? Or i must purchase the donate version first? Thanks

[Ridwan]

Uups, pardon me, i recently know that all in one maps and alpine hiking is exist
　　∧∧l||l
　 /⌒ヽ)
～(＿＿)
So sorry
I think it just misunderstanding －，－
Thank you
Ridwan

[Psyberia-Support]

No problem, here is the differences between all versions:
http://www.alpinequest.net/compare

[alexlong]

Being able to select non-rectangular areas would be great too.

I would like to add that it would be great to have a choice to choose necessary levels to download or not by checking /unchecking them so that people could download, let's say levels 9 11 13 14 16.
Thanks.

[Elton]

Please, +1 vote to solve problem about rotate map (using GPS).

[Psyberia-Support]

Hi,
It's already solved on recent versions.

[Azerty]

Good evening, as other users first I would like to thanks so much alpinequest team for there apk in which they put so much of professionalism is far the best GPS app on the Web!! Thumbs up!!!!! I have used Aplpinequest in Africa in remote areas and its just so nice.... I used it to design crops pounds and even mining areas!!

I can feel that the autoroutage bugs has been fixed its so nice but I would suggest two options the first one is the one related by the top user wille moving we would need the position to be down on the screen leaving us so space in front but that is a small issue and I'm sure you'll manage things out in future second thing is while you are moving with auto routage it would be nice to have it updated even if you leave the pathway so that would meen OK I did a autoroute I'm following my road properly that I miss a turn let's say... Like if I get more that X meters from the autoroute ligne a new ligne would be created from my position to the same destination.... So a kind of interactive autoroute getting updated if you lost your way... I know that a bip can be setuped after X meters but if a new rout could be created it would be just Wounderfull!!!!

And again thank you so much to all your team!!!

[Psyberia-Support]

@Azerty: thanks for your feedback. Some improvements are planned on the auto-routing tools, but right now it's not planned to do something "dynamic".
What you need is available in regular car GPS, I think this is the kind of tool you need. This app primarily targets off-road.