[mapserver-dev] Labelcache potential optimization using spatial index

[Daniel Morissette]

Devs,

I came across the following article yesterday:

http://mapbox.com/osmdev/2013/02/12/labeling-id/

All very interesting stuff relating to OSM editing, but the bit that 
caught my attention as MapServer dev is this paragraph:

"""
Because labels are updated with each redraw of the map, they need to be 
extremely fast. iD calculates label bounding boxes based on estimated 
text length, since it’s slow to use browser-calculated bounds. We use 
RTree to optimize collision detection and proximity searches, a 
technique inspired by kothic.js.
"""

Using a spatial index to optimize collection detection. Of course!

As you all know, the labelcache processing can sometimes account for a 
significant part of the rendering time in MapServer, even more than 50% 
in some maps with lots of labels, and this idea of using a spatial index 
to manage the collision detection could really help improve that.

There would be one drawback though: at the moment the order in which the 
labels enter the cache defines their rendering priority, and a 
side-effect of using a spatial index would be to lose that feature. 
However, one could deal with this issue with proper use of the 
LABEL.PRIORITY in all their layers.

An interesting idea to keep in mind anyway...

-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000