Adding layers to the map-

Are there any layers that folks would want displayed on the map?

Population density comes to mind.

Abuse report density.

Dollars transacted .

Advertising layer - display a user supplied bitmap in the shape of a parcel.

Frequency of use of llPushObject.

Traffic. Like a color gradient layer displaying the traffic everywhere.

Those would all be pretty cool. I was thinking earlier while waiting for the map to load that it'd be nice if we could check a box on the world map that was like 'Local Area Only' or something, and it'd only show the sims within like 2 sims distance of where you are now. Cause man, most of the time I don't want the whole world, and waiting for it to load and suck all that data down each time seems like a waste.

What I usually want most would be for the green avatar dots to show for the whole map instantly.

And the terrain images to show in sharp focus instantly.

I kinda miss the old map. It wasn't fancy but it showed me features I could navaigate by and people, rapidly, and that is what I use it for 99.9999 percent of the time. It's ability to deliver what I want rapidly has been eliminated in order to deliver what I don't use slowly.

I also don't like the way the avatar dots are positioned now. The way they appear in a rectangular grid is weird looking.

I might like to see chat streams - showing lines between avatar dots who are in IMs, lines between people who are in public chat range of each other. I don't know of a use for this, it just seems like it might be interesting to see.

I like the idea. Right now the world map is SO DAMN SLUGGISH!!! I hate traveling anywhere now!!! Takes forever to load, lags like a bitch too.

Things i'd like to see on the world map:

ban / access-restricted parcels highlighted in red.

Oh thank you world, it's so nice to finally read that someone shares an at least somewhat similar view .

How long does a cute 2D map delight? The thrill was over for me before the first time I closed the map when it was first introduced.

This map is not only slow, but the pieces don't align and move in unison all the time.

Don't misunderstand, I know the land for sale is real useful to some.

Do people actually use the classified icons? Putting icons on a map matters when geography matters, but geography doesn't matter here anymore unless you are flyng or walking and who is gonna fly or walk from one classified icon to another?

Also, the icons are so big that at otherwise desirable zoom levels you can't see anything but a big blob of icons.

The ban access idea is good.

A related idea about maps is what woudl be good to show on the minimap.

It suits me to see just a number in the mouseover. Would a single green dot, sized to represent 5s of avs work? You could just look for the big ones. Heh heh Khamon said "big ones."

I've quoted you a bit out or order, hope that's okay. This would be nice too but there is a Terrain tab that's useful for looking at the dots and overlays without seeing the builds. Oh there's a good one; I wish we could toggle the for sale overlays to outlines rather than fills so we could see the underlying terrain.

It'd be nice if they just fixed the updater so that we were viewing more current than three-week-old images.

FIND overlays! Mouseover bubbles that listed the FIND information on a parcel, this would eliminate the need for people to set land for sale to advertise on the map. It'd be an awful lot of database hits though.

How about decouple the terrein layer of the map from the other layers. Let a sim schedule its terrein texture to be scheduled for rendering during idle processing time anytime after the terrein has been changed. These terrein textures will be time stamped and sent to the client to be PERMANANTLY stored. Seperate from the temporary cache. Then when a player is viewing the map they will load their local copy of any tile. This will load IMMEDIATELY. Then if the client detects that any newer versions are available it will start downloading those and display them when ready.

Secondly will be the top layer of the map (objects overlay). Each sim could render an object layer once every couple days (ignoring the terrein layer as that is already up to date and stored). The ONLY OBJECTS that should be included in the render are those on parcels where the object and land either share the same owner or group. Do NOT bother wasting processing time including non owned objects on the map render. Time stamp these object overlays so that a client ONLY requests an overlay for a sim with a new overlay. Same as with terrein overlays the object overlay will be permanantly stored and IMMEDIATELY loaded when the map is visible without waiting for updates (which load in background if needed).

Basically STOP having the clients discard the old map textures. USE THEM. Stop having the sims even create layers that dont need updated (terrein) and for the object layer dont include objects not needed (not owned).

The server itself only needs to create ONE resolution too. Create the max res a single grid tile would need to be (256x256) and transfer that texture. The player could then create their OWN lower res copies to display when the map is zoomed further away. This will save on bandwidth and sim processing time by not requiring the conversions server side and only transfering ONE texture.

BTW> Clear Cache option SHOULD NOT delete any downloaded map data.

That would be real good, the map would look better and be more useful. Might as well make the icons for classifieds and infohub and such hollow outlines too, since they also cover the terrain to an excessive degree.

There is a Terrain tab, true, but neither the objects tab nor the terrain tab rapidly displays sharp textures.