Comparison of Chart Rendering in Various Nav Programs

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by brak

PolarView does not "omit" it (see screen shot below). I believe the symbology is quite visible.

Sorry, it wasn't visible on the screenshots linked above. I like the way its done (purple semi-transparent)..

Actually had my first look around the site + spotted that it runs on Linux, good news I will look into the Polarcom NMEA instrument display and anchor alarm in due course, two features currently lacking on the free software linux plotters.. Looks very pretty. Come to the good side of the force Brak?

[brak]

I've been hanging with the "good side" for a little while. It is even possible that your Linux box and your Mac, if you happen to have one, have my name on something. I would make a FreeBSD version of PolarView if there was sufficient demand Granted, these things are not open source, primarily because I'd like one day to do only navigation software , it's just way too much fun to work on.

Personally, I like the look of GTK-based Linux version the most (it's very shiny ), but dislike certain idiosyncrasies of GTK (such as inability to forcibly move focus between windows or the non-scalable way in which it processes events screen events, though that may be more a problem with X11).

In any case Linux is not a "second hand" platform by any means. In principle they are all equal and my personal intent is to keep making things work as similarly as possible for all, so that people could concentrate on navigation rather than deal with OS and software differences.

Originally Posted by idpnd

Sorry, it wasn't visible on the screenshots linked above. I like the way its done (purple semi-transparent)..

Actually had my first look around the site + spotted that it runs on Linux, good news I will look into the Polarcom NMEA instrument display and anchor alarm in due course, two features currently lacking on the free software linux plotters.. Looks very pretty. Come to the good side of the force Brak?

[brak]

Originally Posted by JesperWe

2. Recognizability = Safety. If I have a chart displayed on the yacht screen, I'd like everyone in my crew, including those who are less experienced, to immediately recognize what is what on the display. Green water is not what they are used to. So it takes them 3 seconds longer to get oriented, and in those 3 seconds we might make the wrong descision.

What color are they normally using/expect in this type of situation? My intent was that once you look at a program, regardless of a hue the choice of general color and contrast makes land vs. shallow water vs deep water quite clear, based on our chosen colors.

In any case, it's easy enough to add other palettes - they cost relatively little, except for a bit of system resources. The current palette is somewhat of a "trademark" though. That said, if there will be enough people that prefer white water "background" - I'll be glad to add a palette to make them happy

[JesperWe]

Originally Posted by brak

What color are they normally using/expect in this type of situation?

Getting close to the looks of the paper charts.

(They do vary a bit internationally, although the NOAA and the British Admiralty charts are quite similar, and together they totally dominate the market. But for example our Swedish charts have slightly lighter hues for land and shallow waters, but the difference is marginal)

Anyway, between my image earlier in this thread and the Coastal Explorer Vector schreenshot from my comparison page you get an idea. The CE Vector rendering has the most "paper-familiar" feeling to the colors. (But the texts, soundings as well as lables, are horrible). Oh and I agree with idpnd, it does not show the traffic lane well either....

[idpnd]

Getting close to the looks of the paper charts.

There are instructions on changing the opencpn colour range here - http://www.opencpn.org/vector_palette, perhaps the changing of palettes could become an integral part one day. The lead dev has always insisted the native colour set approximates the IHO recommendations and I'm willing to believe that.. After all, the paper charts were probably mostly white because paper is white and colour costs money..

Originally Posted by brak

Granted, these things are not open source, primarily because I'd like one day to do only navigation software , it's just way too much fun to work on.

Well best of luck, it looks sensible and affordable

I enjoyed the discussion regarding true wind calculation on your blog, although I will have to go buy an electronic compass now

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by JesperWe

More specific please?

(FF3.6 is my primary browser, plus I tested in 3.5 and IE7 too...)

No problem today. Possibly had a bad day on my connection. Regards, THX.

barnie

[David M]

Excellent post Jesper. Much appreciated and bookmarked.