[gdal-dev] GSoC GDAL2Tiles: MapTiler.org, Google Maps Projection Web, Source Code

Tue Aug 19 02:39:16 EDT 2008

Hi Guillaume,

Thank you for positive feedback ;-)

> Just a question after a quick look at the doc : can the input file be a
> raster catalog (the gdaltindex thing) ? Raster data needing to be tiled
> fur web publication are sometimes already tiled in several pieces
> because of their size.

I don't think you can use gdaltindex with other gdal tools (like
gdal_transform) either.
gdaltindex is used by UNM MapServer but not by other GDAL tools, as I know.

You would need to use VRT for combining several rasters into one...
Use gdal_vrtmerge.py, it has similar syntax like gdaltindex. It is in
the source under /swig/python/samples/.
Result can be passed then to gdal2tiles and it should run well I hope.

Is there any plan to merge gdal_vrtmerge into "gdal_merge -of VRT"?

Best regards

Klokan

> Best regards,
>
> Guillaume
>
> Klokan Petr Přidal a écrit :
>> Hello everybody,
>>
>> what was done recently on GDAL2Tiles project:
>>
>> New cool example of the map generated by GDAL2Tiles:
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> I processed freely available USGS DRG map of Grand Canyon by
>> GDAL2Tiles. It is a nice example of what GDAL2Tiles can generate:
>>
>> http://www.maptiler.org/example-usgs-drg-grand-canyon-gtiff/
>> http://www.maptiler.org/example-usgs-drg-grand-canyon-gtiff/usgs-drg-grand-canyon.kml
>>
>> Source Code:
>> --------------------
>> - Fully functional source code for generating Google Maps tiles is in
>> my GDAL SVN sandbox (http://svn.osgeo.org/gdal/sandbox/klokan/).
>> The code was refactored a lot and it is almost prepared for merging to
>> stable svn trunk gdal2tiles.py, but some coding is still needed. I am
>> going to work on it during the next week.
>>
>> - I split the code into three files: 'gdal2tiles.py' (the main command
>> line utility), then 'globalmaptiles.py' (classes for global
>> mercator/geodetic tile bounds calculation, runs as command line
>> utility too), and supporting module 'templates.py' with sample HTML
>> viewers and base for generated XML files.
>>
>> - Implementation of several resampling algorithms for controlling the
>> quality of tile rendering. Default is 'average' used in the GDAL's
>> overview functionality. Complete list is:
>> 'average','near','bilinear','cubic','cubicspline','lanczos','antialias'.
>> The last one is high quality Lanczos based antialiasing algorithm, but
>> you will need Python Image Library for that.
>> Quality of the tile rendering is excellent I think. If you need it,
>> the simple and fast 'near' it is still available.
>>
>> - GDAL2Tiles generates the sample Google Maps Based viewer, OpenLayers
>> based Overlay viewer and KML files for Google Earth.
>>
>> - The utility automatically warp the raster to Google Maps projection
>> (EPSG:900913) by AutoCreateWarpedVRT().
>>
>> - For raster files with palette (USGS DRG, NOAA BSB, ...) a separate
>> VRT with "rasterize rgba" (GDAL 1.6dev) is recommended (later I would
>> like to automate this step).
>>
>> The code is NOT YET READY for production use (now supports only RGBA -
>> 4 bands - source files for example), so I recommend you to wait for
>> merged version which will appear in the GDAL trunk. I will send a note
>> when I will finish the merging.
>>
>> Documetation & MapTiler.org
>> ------------------------------------------
>>
>> - I decided to create a special website for distributing binary
>> installer and user-friendly GUI for GDAL2Tiles. I plan to develop
>> wxWidget based GUI a la step by step wizard. The user-friendly project
>> has name MapTiler, http://www.MapTiler.org/. Right now this web is
>> used only for documentation on for raster files for templates, which I
>> did not want to distribute with utility.
>>
>> I received great feedback from several users and realized that
>> GDAL2Tiles utility is expected by community. That pushed me to crete
>> this new project and change the name to MapTiler, which is more
>> straightforward and fits to the utility probably better, especially
>> for users who are not familiar with GDAL tools yet.
>> GDAL2Tiles will be maintained as GDAL command line utility. MapTiler
>> will implement just GUI and binary distribution.
>>
>> It would be great to have blessing of OSGEO for this project, I would
>> prefer to not make separate SVN repository for such small project,
>> better to keep it as part of GDAL. Would it be possible? Otherwise I
>> will create Google Code project.
>>
>> - I studied the OpenGIS proposal for WMTS standard, which is related
>> to TMS and I plan to send some comments to that standard. Is there
>> still free OSGEO slot for OpenGIS membership?
>>
>> - I created a website about Spherical Mercator and Google Maps
>> Projection and Coordinate system, for anybody who is interested to see
>> the math behind tiles:
>> http://www.maptiler.org/google-maps-coordinate-system-projection-epsg-900913-3785/
>>
>> Question to community:
>> ----------------------------------
>>
>> - Would it be possible to keep more files separately even in the main
>> GDAL tree or the utility really have to be merged to one file?
>>
>> - Is there anybody in the OpenLayers community who whould like to have
>> a look at the Opacity Control for OL? I prepared the bitmaps. Is there
>> any need on the OpenLayers templates? Now I am using /dev/ tree of
>> OpenLayers as Virtual Earth support is broken in the stable tree
>> (Safari for example).
>>
>> - Does anybody know how to correctly set the KML SuperOverlay
>> maxlodpixels and fadeextents so transparency and opacity runs well and
>> tiles are not disappearing in Google Earth?
>>
>> - Is anybody interested to help me with developing MapTiler (for
>> example compilation of latest GDAL with all modules, preparing of
>> Windows installer, help with wxPython...)
>> KyngChaos (thank you!) already had a look at binaries for MacOSX, but
>> we did not moved far yet as I need some functionality from 1.6dev.
>>
>> Thanks belong to everybody who gave me excellent advices on #gdal IRC,
>> especially to 'FrankW' and 'even'.
>>
>> BTW I am looking for an interesting job or paid projects... any offers? ;-)
>>
>> Is there anybody who would like to support further development of
>> MapTiler/GDAL2Tiles? There is plenty of features on todo list (merging
>> of produced tiles with existing tile tree, support for MapCruncher
>> tiles, Zoomify tiles, speed improvement - rewrite to C++ to allow
>> better usage of threads on multi-core processors, driver for remote
>> online TMS tiles for GDAL/MapServer to allow WMS from statically
>> published tiles, etc..).
>>
>> Best regards...
>>
>> Klokan Petr Pridal
>> _______________________________________________
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>> gdal-dev at lists.osgeo.org
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>>
>
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