Maps

Where you can drive with TrueTrail

You download maps per province or state, once, in the app. After that the map, routing, search and pacenotes work without a signal.

Click an area to download its three files yourself, for example to open them in another program. The app fetches exactly the same files.

How a map is built

Every area consists of three files. They are made in one go from the same OpenStreetMap extract (from Geofabrik, per province or state), so they match each other exactly.

Map tiles tiles.mbtiles

What you see on screen. Vector tiles following the OpenMapTiles schema, made with Planetiler, from zoom level 0 to 14 and stored in a single SQLite file (MBTiles). There are no pictures in it, only the shapes of roads, water, buildings and names; the app draws them itself, in a light or dark style. That is why you can zoom in further without it getting blurry. This is always the largest file.

Routing routing-graph.zip

The road network as a graph for GraphHopper 6.2, the route planner that runs on your phone. It has two profiles: the fastest route (with a precomputed speed-up) and the shortest. For every road segment it also stores whether it crosses a bridge or goes through a tunnel, its surface, how narrow it is and how twisty: the last one is what the twistiest route uses.

Search index gazetteer.sqlite

An SQLite database with places, streets and landmarks, so search works without internet. It also holds a list of road hazards (speed bumps, chicanes, narrows, traffic islands and speed cameras), each linked to the road segment in the routing file it lies on. That is why the search index and the routing always belong together: from the same build.

What is not in them

The pacenotes themselves. The app computes those on your phone, from the shape of the route you choose: the curvature of every corner, the distance to the next one, and whether a junction or roundabout belongs to it. Nothing personal is in them either: no drives, no users' locations.

Checks and updates

The app knows a SHA-256 checksum for every file (also listed above). After downloading, it checks it; if it doesn't match, the file is not used. When new map data is available, the app tells you when it opens and in Manage maps, and one tap on UPDATE fetches it; anything that hasn't changed isn't downloaded again.

Circuits

Circuit mode needs no map: 81 circuits from OpenStreetMap are built into the app, with a suggested start/finish line for you to check. You can add your own as well.

More areas

Missing an area? Let us know at contact@truetrail.nl.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL 1.0); the files above are under the same licence. Map tiles following the OpenMapTiles schema © OpenMapTiles. See Licences and sources.