My Problem with All GPS Software. Is there a solution?

wonderworm · 07-03-2006, 08:19 PM

We'll I've been using GPS for a while now and no matter what brand it is there is one thing that always irritates me and makes GPS systems inferior to regular maps. It is a huge pet peev of mine and I am wondering if anyone else feels the same way or if there is a recommended GPS software that doesn't suffer from this problem.

The problem is this. With a hand held map, you can see all the roads at once, even the smallest roads so you can see when to take a short cut and easily tell where you are at.

However, with GPS systems, you only see the small roads when you are zoomed in very far and then it's hard to tell where you are located at in reference to other roads. And as you zoom out, all the smaller and medium sized roads then dissapear and you only see the major freeways. I mean "Hello, I'm driving on that road M. GPS software, please don't make it dissapear!!" This constantly bugs the living cr@p out of me since I don't understand why they can't just keep the small and medium roads on the screen as you zoom out. Don't they know that this is IMPORTANT! It's not like the screen is too busy, there is always tons of free space on the screen and all they would need to do is keep a tiny gray line going that represents the small or medium road when you zoom out.

If anyone knows a GPS software that keeps all the roads visible (or most of them) as you zoom out, just like a paper map, please let me know. That is the software I want to switch to.

PURDooM · 07-03-2006, 08:33 PM

2 problems with that:

The resolution of the screen is limited. If you find me a screen that can represent as much detail as a map can, be my guest.

because the screen can't represent very much, it hides the less important roads as you zoom out to reduce clutter.

Problem 2: GPS software is dynamic. The screen is changing all the time based on where you are and what you are doing. There is only so much the computer can comprehend at once and still effectively guide you with short response time.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I look at a paper map I don't look at all 10^5 roads on a map at once. I am interested in at the most 8 at a time. And I think gps nav software does that quite well.

psyrex · 07-03-2006, 08:55 PM

Well, with iGuidance, you can make an entry in the theme.ini to display more roads even completely zoomed out. Two things happen: Pretty much can't recognize anything in that blob of roads, and the system slows to a crawl trying to update all those roads every second. The setting for how many roads to display has to be a compromise between functionality and actual practical usage. There's no point in seeing all the roads if it can't update fast enough to actually navigate.

0l33l · 07-03-2006, 09:06 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by psyrex

Well, with iGuidance, you can make an entry in the theme.ini to display more roads even completely zoomed out. Two things happen: Pretty much can't recognize anything in that blob of roads, and the system slows to a crawl trying to update all those roads every second. The setting for how many roads to display has to be a compromise between functionality and actual practical usage. There's no point in seeing all the roads if it can't update fast enough to actually navigate.

It should be a setting dependent on each zoom level.