OpenStreetMap community

5522 readers

30 users here now

Everything #OpenStreetMap related is welcome: software releases, showing of your work, questions about how to tag something, as long as it has to do with OpenStreetMap or OpenStreetMap-related software.

OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.

Join OpenStreetMap and start mapping: https://www.openstreetmap.org/.

There are many communication channels about OSM, many organized around a certain country or region. Discover them on https://openstreetmap.community/

https://mapcomplete.org/ is an easy-to-use website to view, edit and add points (such as shops, restaurants and others)

https://learnosm.org/en/ has a lot of information for beginners too.

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

Ben_on_Lemmy@lemmy.ml

pietervdvn@lemmy.ml

mp3@lemmy.ca

SyJ@lemmy.ml

OpenStreetMap satellite view? (feddit.org)

submitted 1 day ago by gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org to c/openstreetmap@lemmy.ml

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

ok so i'm trying to understand the structure of the whole OSM project. i generally like it but it's confusing and i'm confused.

i'm specifically looking for satellite image data (landscape as seen from above, no infrastructure data, just real photography). i like satellite images a lot because it provides a much better feel for the landscape than infrastructure data alone. such as: how many trees are there, how much nature is there around, ...

does OSM itself do this? (ideally without having to be logged in)

i found OpenMapTiles which seems to also provide satellite data; but i'm not sure what their relation to OSM is. are they a separate project?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

No, OpenStreetMap has no aerial imagery of their own.

Editors like iD and JOSM and end-user apps like OsmAnd rely on third-party imagery for over/underlays, and the most prominent among these is Bing.

OpenStreetMap under the hood is simply a database of key–value pairs assigned to nodes, lines, polygons, and "relations" between those three.

Edit: And yes, OpenMapTiles is a separate thing, and any of its aerial imagery would also not be its own. It's prohibitively difficult for but a few select organizations to maintain aerial imagery like that. You can read more here.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 1 points 8 hours ago

OpenStreetMap under the hood is simply a database of key–value pairs assigned to nodes, lines, polygons, and “relations” between those three.

yeah i suspected as much

so this might sound wild at first but i think it makes sense to compare the data structures of a project like OSM to a computer game like minecraft. basically, in the minecraft world, there's 3 separate types of data storage:

chunk storage is a 3-dimensional array that just stores the type of block found at each x,y,z-location. as such, reading the array (and taking the block with the highest z-value that is not air) gives you an aerial view. this is comparable to a photograph (aerial view).
structure storage. this tells you, for example, if you have a chest, what is inside it. this assignes function to physical space, similar to how OSM assignes meaning (house, street) to a chunk of physical space. This is where the "relations" between x,y,z-nodes and polygons comes in.
the third type is storage for movable objects, such as players moving around in the world; since they are not fixed objects, they cannot be assigned simple static x,y,z-coordinates so easily. but i think for OSM there's no good analogy.

Edit: And yes, OpenMapTiles is a separate thing, and any of its aerial imagery would also not be its own. It’s prohibitively difficult for but a few select organizations to maintain aerial imagery like that. You can read more here.

I'll read the link later, thank you.!