Vector data compatibility with existing schemas e.g. Tilezen or Shortbread

[daniel-j-h]

Hey folks, I started to look into the vector data to understand what exactly is in there and how we could style it.

The layers documentation at https://docs.protomaps.com/basemaps/layers is work in progress; I found protomaps/docs#1 there.

That's why I wanted to ask what the plans are in terms of vector tile data schema.

Are we trying to replicate the Tilezen vector tile schema?

In addition there is now also Shortbread

• https://shortbread-tiles.org
• https://shortbread-tiles.org/schema/1.0/

I was wondering what the long term plan is and if compatibility is something we should strive for in the vector tile schema for this project.

[bdon]

We are working towards replicating the Tilezen schema as defined in https://github.com/tilezen/vector-datasource. More full fledged compatibility will be coming in tilesets v4, as well as archiving the original Tilezen project; in the long term we will develop beyond what was in Tilezen. @nvkelso is the main author and current maintainer of Tilezen, and is a co-maintainer of the basemaps components of this project.

Shortbread is another open source alternative. Some differences:

• Protomaps basemaps aims to be a general-purpose and fairly complete basemap similar to Google or Apple, and Shortbread focuses only on a common set of base layers
• Protomaps has a tight coupling between the tileset and one style (with 5 color themes), instead of defining an abstract schema with multiple independent styles
• Related to the above, the Protomaps layers generally try to compact the # of layers into just a few themes in order to resolve ordering issues across features, which is tied to the style

There is no one map that is going to be the right fit for all projects.

[bdon]

@daniel-j-h there isn't a public roadmap right now - this will be fleshed out based on the priorities of organizations funding the project.

But the 3 highest priorities right now:

• POIs with icons
• fixing disappearing areas bug
• better label density around the world
• internationalization

[FabriceACohen]

Great work,
A small feedback from my perspective is pmtiles is a great solution. Providing daily snapshots is incredible. But I terribly miss a basic data : housenumbers !
Sincerely,
Fabrice.

[nvkelso]

Housenumbers could be added – but they often increase the tile size quite a bit. Something to consider as an optional build param? Or when there's zoom 16 support?

[FabriceACohen]

Thanks for your quick reply, housenumbers are not usefull below zoom 17. So just that would be great.

[prusswan]

Regarding housenumbers, for the time being, OpenMapTiles is a more suitable choice for a detailed small area extract (pretty easy to extract from any existing global OMT tileset in PMtiles format)