Offline download of Global Imagery
I have recently done some offline downloads of global imagery for the areas that i need. I have selected the "max" resolution and the quadrants now show as purple, indicating i have succesfully downloaded them in full resolution.
However when i use my phone without data coverage, thus relying on the offline maps, the maps remain blurry for me. As soon as i switch on my Wifi or Data plan, the map clears up and i can see plenty detail.
Any reason why this occurs ?
PS in one of the quadrants, when i select Global Imagery, it shows 9.68MB for standard resolution, 9.73 MB for high resolution, and 9.78MB for max resolution.
The map area/country is United Arab Emirates.
Comments
10 comments
Hi Frederic,
The Global Imagery layer is licensed through MapBox, and there are use restrictions associated with that license, particularly when it comes to use outside of the CONUS. Information on that layer can be found here in the user guide: https://training.caltopo.com/all_users/base-layers/layers#global.
Unfortunately, we are not able to provide high resolution downloads for global imagery in many places outside of the CONUS. Your app will download the highest resolution available, which is not the same as the highest resolution when are you are online on the app or your computer.
This also appears to be an issue in (parts of) Alaska. The highest resolution available for download is extremely low resolution, not even clear enough to resolve large natural features like rivers and small lakes. Those features I can see on other layers of course. Satellite imagery downloads would only be useful for seeing clearings and areas of brush, and animal trails. At its highest resolution (with an internet connection) the Global Imagery layer is clear enough to see these things, but at highest offline resolution completely useless.
It would be amazing if CalTopo could provide a satellite imagery layer from another provider that's not subject to this restriction! Of course, I can add my own satellite tile servers, but it seems there's no way to download these, either. Do you suggest any tools or workarounds to provide offline satellite imagery?
Este problema persiste seria genial si lo pudiesen solucionar
+1 to this - I would like to be able to cache decent resolution offline global imagery for Canada. the resolution I'm getting for offline is unusable.
The global imagery is the only useful feature for people working in remote wilderness areas outside of the US (Australia for example) so I was pretty annoyed to learn after paying a subscription that that feature is majorly handicapped when offline. Please fix this issue. I am actually unsubscribing until this is fixed. Rest of the app is great though.
Agreed. Please resolve this issue for paying customers.
New Canadian customer here, also this is a deal killer so will be going back to Gaia until this is resolved, which is a shame as I love the rest of CalTopo. Thanks
I totally get the concern, and restrictions around both downloading and printing international imagery have been a pain point for a long time. Imagery isn't cheap in general, but the way we package offline downloads into fixed-size blocks for quick downloads made it even harder for us to find a suitable source.
We're finally in a position where we have the budget to start addressing this. Nothing is finalized yet so I can't make any promises, but I can share that we are prepared to spend what is for us a significant amount of money acquiring imagery that supports downloading and printing, that we hope to have something in place this year, and that unfortunately we will still need to pick and choose regions of the world and slowly grow our coverage over time, as opposed to immediately gaining true global support.
We've also recently updated our international elevation dataset to support higher resolution data where we can find it, and expanded our parcel layer to Canada, although it does not yet have full coverage.
I know that our international experience is sub-par, and we are trying to address it.
This really is a dealbreaker in Alaska. We need high res aerial imagery. Man, I do NOT want to go back to Gaia but may have no choice.
Three years later and this is still a deal breaker. I think you guys should make it abundantly clear to customers that you are selling two different products: (1) for the US and (2) the rest of the world. (2) is generally unusable, but costs the same. I love the rest of the app and really, really want to move away from Gaia, but low resolution satellite imagery (in Canada) is a non-starter for me. I wish I knew this before purchasing a subscription.
Please sign in to leave a comment.