> How is the Google Maps, OsmAnd, or Mapbox experience on your phone? They also use vector map data.
Google Maps (in Firefox) seem to be slow when loading data in, but decent when panning around. Though it does appear that they're using raster based tiles (I can quite literally see pixels when I zoom in, before the new tile loads and replaces the one for the previous zoom level).
Google Maps (Android app) seem to be really smooth when panning around, but also similarly slow when loading data in. Zooming is a bit sluggish, but not as bad as vector tiles when viewed through the browser.
I also remember using the HERE maps application a long time ago on an even slower device, somehow those performed way better than Google Maps application though.
My suspicions: a browser might have greater overhead, maybe not everything plays nicely with Firefox or my hardware. The slow data loading seems to be caused by the CPU/GPU instead of the network connection, because if new tiles are loaded in while I'm panning around, the movement also lags.
> If you need to support old underpowered devices you can serve raster tiles to them. I don't know how to automatically detect which type to send to a device, one way would be to just time how long it takes to render a frame of vector data and switch to raster maps if the device is too slow, or at least present the user with the option.
This is a good idea, provided that the people serving the maps would be interested in supporting both formats.
Google Maps (in Firefox) seem to be slow when loading data in, but decent when panning around. Though it does appear that they're using raster based tiles (I can quite literally see pixels when I zoom in, before the new tile loads and replaces the one for the previous zoom level).
Google Maps (Android app) seem to be really smooth when panning around, but also similarly slow when loading data in. Zooming is a bit sluggish, but not as bad as vector tiles when viewed through the browser.
I also remember using the HERE maps application a long time ago on an even slower device, somehow those performed way better than Google Maps application though.
My suspicions: a browser might have greater overhead, maybe not everything plays nicely with Firefox or my hardware. The slow data loading seems to be caused by the CPU/GPU instead of the network connection, because if new tiles are loaded in while I'm panning around, the movement also lags.
> If you need to support old underpowered devices you can serve raster tiles to them. I don't know how to automatically detect which type to send to a device, one way would be to just time how long it takes to render a frame of vector data and switch to raster maps if the device is too slow, or at least present the user with the option.
This is a good idea, provided that the people serving the maps would be interested in supporting both formats.