2007 Aerial Resolution

[bobpbx]

Boyd, did you say at one time that the parcel aerial has the 2007 aerial as background? I'm losing resolution when I use the parcels. Is that something you can adjust? Below, the top is without parcels, the lower is the parcel aerial set. Not a real big deal unless it's something easy to do.

 

[Boyd]

I can't tell without an actual link, but suspect you are just zooming past the maximum resolution of that map. Look at the zoom level in the upper right corner of the screen. Level 17 is as high as that map goes. When you zoom that map to level 18, it just enlarges the level 17 map 2x; zoom to level 19 and it enlarges the level 17 map 4x. When you do that, it gets blurry. Compare level 18 parcels vs full res NJGIN aerials here

https://boydsmaps.com/sync/#18/39.697209/-74.526988/parcels07/0/0/njgin2007/18/0/0

Looks bad. Zoom back to level 17 and they are more similar. But the parcels map is still a little softer because it's been re-rendered/re-compressed with the blue lines on it.

https://boydsmaps.com/sync/#17/39.697209/-74.526988/parcels07/0/0/njgin2007/17/0/0

This is the parcels compared to my local version of the 2007 aerials. Those are also rendered at level 17 and should be pretty close in terms of quality.

https://boydsmaps.com/sync/#17/39.697209/-74.526988/parcels07/0/0/pines2007/17/0/0

So, I'm sure the next question is, "why don't you use higher resolution for the parcel map?" which is a fair question. But it's just a matter of storage cost (not to mention rendering time). The existing level 17 parcel map is about 32gb. Each zoom level requires about 4x the storage space of the previous one. Going to level 18 would add about 120gb of map tiles. Going all the way to level 19 (full resolution of the 2007 aerials) would add another 480gb. The parcel map would go from 32gb to 630gb! That would be over 20% of my total 3tb disk space which is just too much to devote to this one very specialized map that covers a tiny area. Not a good use of resources and money for me.

Will have to leave it to NJGIN and Google to offer level 19 imagery, my pockets aren't that full... in fact, they're pretty empty after paying the server lease!

 

[bobpbx]

I can't tell without an actual link, but suspect you are just zooming past the maximum resolution of that map. Look at the zoom level in the upper right corner of the screen. Level 17 is as high as that map goes. When you zoom that map to level 18, it just enlarges the level 17 map 2x; zoom to level 19 and it enlarges the level 17 map 4x. When you do that, it gets blurry. Compare level 18 parcels vs full res NJGIN aerials here

https://boydsmaps.com/sync/#18/39.697209/-74.526988/parcels07/0/0/njgin2007/18/0/0

Looks bad. Zoom back to level 17 and they are more similar. But the parcels map is still a little softer because it's been re-rendered/re-compressed with the blue lines on it.

https://boydsmaps.com/sync/#17/39.697209/-74.526988/parcels07/0/0/njgin2007/17/0/0

This is the parcels compared to my local version of the 2007 aerials. Those are also rendered at level 17 and should be pretty close in terms of quality.

https://boydsmaps.com/sync/#17/39.697209/-74.526988/parcels07/0/0/pines2007/17/0/0

So, I'm sure the next question is, "why don't you use higher resolution for the parcel map?" which is a fair question. But it's just a matter of storage cost (not to mention rendering time). The existing level 17 parcel map is about 32gb. Each zoom level requires about 4x the storage space of the previous one. Going to level 18 would add about 120gb of map tiles. Going all the way to level 19 (full resolution of the 2007 aerials) would add another 480gb. The parcel map would go from 32gb to 630gb! That would be over 20% of my total 3tb disk space which is just too much to devote to this one very specialized map that covers a tiny area. Not a good use of resources and money for me.

Will have to leave it to NJGIN and Google to offer level 19 imagery, my pockets aren't that full... in fact, they're pretty empty after paying the server lease!

Thanks for the complete answer. I'd pay to use an even better version if you want to do that some day. You might get more people onboard with that. A standard version for no cost, and a pro version for those who use it a lot like me.

 

[Boyd]

That's an interesting idea. But - aside from you - I doubt there are many people willing to pay. What do you think... the stats that I view suggest there are - maybe - 40 people that use the different maps of the pines in any quantity. Maybe 5 of them would pay? And how much do you want to pay? Just to upgrade that parcel map to full resolution would cost around $360/year in disk space (at my price, which is pretty good IMO). How many maps would you want me to upgrade. Regular aerials (without parcel overlays) can be done with .jpg tiles which are much smaller and it might only take $100/year to upgrade those maps. There are 5 (2020, 2015, 2012, 2007, 2002) that could be upgraded to level 19. The other aerials are already at their maximum resolution.

Anyway... do the math, let's be optimistic and assume 10 people would pay (which I doubt). Additional storage costs $360 + $500 = $860. 10 people would need to pay $86/year just to cover that cost.

But these are just the EXTRA costs of upgrading those maps, which is only a fraction of what I pay to lease all my storage and CPU's. If those same 10 people each paid $400/year, it still wouldn't even cover my lease. With 40 subscriptions at $100/year, I still wouldn't break even. Then there's the pain of handling subsciptions, credit cards, etc which costs points off the top as well.

Sorry, just don't see a business model there. Anyway, I'm more interested in expanding coverage of the site to the entire Northeast US. We now have legacy and historic topos, openTopoMap, modern usgs topos, NAIP aerials and grayscale 3d LIDAR of the whole region. Am working on new regional maps which may take quite awhile to finish - dark and light street maps, dark and light topo's and a new hybrid map. IMO, there's more potenial in the long run because of the much larger audience. Looking at the stats, the two largest users of the site so far today are located in Maryland and Massachussets - not the Pines.

 

[bobpbx]

I understand, thanks for the answer. Your work is MUCH appreciated anyway. Everytime I run up against a wall regarding how to portray something in one of my reports, your map program answers the call in fine style!