Biker map theme 5

[MotoUKRider]

There have been some requests for the "Biker" theme to return, which would be a Mapsforge theme written for Cruiser v5. Some efforts were previously made, and it was decided that the "default" day+night themes needed to reach a point where map/object behaviour was as good as it can be before we went in 3 directions. Probably a wise move!

Some of you prefer the OSM-esq colour scheme and of course Biker was the starting block for my original "MotoRider" theme in the v4 VTM era. If there is interest, I will replicate the original styling/fonts before placing it in this thread for tests.

For now, here is a like-for-like comparison of the current theme vs the new "Biker":

I have adjusted the road colours, their labels (only motorway has the funky highlighting) and the land base colour. The main font has not been changed yet. The layers will remain, it'll simply be a different colour-scheme in some places with the option to turn on/off features just like the default themes.

"Biker" Theme ZIP : Revision 2
biker-theme.zip
If you need to know how to display an external theme, please see this post.

[devemux86]

@MotoUKRider Thanks for the suggestion.

It would be a copy of the Motorider xml file with only different colors, right?
It must be easy to maintain, as the same structure changes must be made in all themes.

I am still not sure if we need another theme in Cruiser?
As it complicates things and maintenance. 🙂

[DolomitesTom]

The left picture is better anyway, better contrast.

[WolfgangZ42]

The current theme is perfectly adequate for me personally. Based on the above comparison, I don't think the increased maintenance costs are justified. Just my 2 cents.

[devemux86]

@MotoUKRider Also I suppose you mean a light theme?
Because another dark theme would have similar colors?

[bios4]

While I really liked the Biker theme in Cruiser 4 (still use it on my productive smartphone on the bike) and would appreciate it a lot if it was available for Cruiser 5 again, I understand that it should be well considered in terms of (maintenance) effort.

[MotoUKRider]

...and we're back.

Was hoping for a few more users from the woodwork, but it looks like 2 against, and 1 for it - so following some private feedback from @devemux86 the Biker Theme ZIP is in the opening post at the top of this thread.

The basic changes are colour tweaks to the land+roads (more OSM-like) with simple road labelling (no fancy outlines). The rest of the theme, in terms of "rules" and Layers works exactly the same as Cruiser's "default". Therefore, the larger City/Town/Village fonts are not replicated.

Here is a sample screen showing the map at several zoom levels:

Of course, if you prefer the white background then you can change the #e8eae1 colour entries near line:312.

Incidentally, I use Cx File Explorer to copy files between Desktop and Phone (Samsung S20) - it can connect to a Windoze shared drive and even has a "recent" list so navigating to a location 83 folders deep is a single button press 🤡 The USB-C socket gets a break too!

[devemux86]

This is why I still find the "More road details" layer confusing and prefer not to have it.

We need to have a theme with the best global sane appearance.
Adjustments can be made on top with the Cruiser map settings.
Or advanced users can modify the theme xml.

My remark was that by changing some road captions to path texts, we can have less ref labels filling the map.

[MotoUKRider]

@devemux86 The rationale behind "More road details" was allowing you to follow the road labels when planning, and offers the option of seeing them without having to zoom in+out too much.

As evidence, I offer GoogleMaps vs 2009 - It was better back in my day!

[devemux86]

@MotoUKRider Do you mean you prefer the left image?

A middle view would be better, as the left image is very empty of road information,
while the right image is too full of road information that steals attention away from the cities.

[MotoUKRider]

@devemux86 No, I think it's overly green and terribly basic. It looks like they've even put chlorine in the north sea, too.

That said, these days it's not really a map for looking at in terms of pretty colours - it's for looking-up a business and doing that tediously efficient PointA-to-PointB navigation that normal people like 🤣

[waterhead]

Yes, the current Google theme is simply horrid. Was definitely better in the past!