MapPacks

How to create MapPacks from any type of image?

<snip from DiGLE readme> 3.4 Building your own mappacks: Just add coordinates, .png images. See the existing .mappack files in <install dir>\JiGLEMaps?\maps\* for hints using any text editor. Note that due to legacy design, the meanings of "x" and "y" are reversed from what you'd expect them to be in a view of the world where the equator is the cartesian "X" axis. See above disclaimer regarding feet, holes. </snip>

this is true for both JiGLE and DiGLE raster mappacks, and they can be used for third party clients like the Musatcha.com Advanced WiFi Mapping Engine as well.

first off, to be clear: *iGLE mappacks are a twisted invention of the WiGLE crew, and not something you can buy (yet! :-)

the series of images in a mappack are used by the client for zooming via interpolation. if you don't want to zoom, you only need the image.0 entry. all of the images must map to exactly the same corner coordinates, and each successive image.n+1 must be twice the width and twice the height of image.n

so we will go over the JiGLE 0.6.11 default mappack and go over each point, which should give you enough to do your own (its way easier to start from no-zooming :-)

shortName=chicago
longName=Chicago, IL

image.0=JiGLEMap/maps/chicago-0.png
image.1=JiGLEMap/maps/chicago-1.png
image.2=JiGLEMap/maps/chicago-2.png

upperLeftX=41.9798
upperLeftY=-87.742
lowerRightX=41.841
lowerRightY=-87.598

the shortName and longName should be self explanatory.

image.0 is the top-level image, seen when the mappack is first opened. the path is relative to the base of the JiGLE install. in the case of chicago-0.png, its a 600x740 png. the northwest corner of that image corresponds to (41.9798, -87.742) and the southeast corner corresponds to (41.841, -87.598).

remember (for crazy historical reasons, which we swear we'll fix one of these days) upperLeftX? is northwest corner latitude, upperLeftY? is northwest corner longitude, lowerRightX? is southeast corner latitude, and lowerRightY? is southeast corner longitude.

North and East lat and lon values are in decimal degrees, and positive. South and West lat and lon values are in decimal degrees, and negative.

image.1 is the first-zoom-level image, seen when the mappack is first zoomed. the path is relative to the base of the JiGLE install. in the case of chicago-1.png, its a 1200x1480 png (twice the width and twice the height of chicago-0.png). the northwest corner of that image corresponds to (41.9798, -87.742) and the southeast corner corresponds to (41.841, -87.598).

and finally image.2 is the second-zoom-level image, seen when the mappack is zoomed further. the path is relative to the base of the JiGLE install. in the case of chicago-2.png, its a 2400x2960 png (twice the width and twice the height of chicago-1.png). the northwest corner of that image corresponds to (41.9798, -87.742) and the southeast corner corresponds to (41.841, -87.598).

so, to create your own JiGLE .mappack: get an image (from wherever) that you know the northwest and southeast coordinates of and put it in a file in JiGLEmaps/maps/your.mappack like:

shortName= mymap
longName= my first mappack!
image.0=JiGLEMaps/maps/mymap-0.png
upperLeftX=northwest.latitude
upperLeftY=northwest.longitude
lowerRightX=southeast.latitude
lowerRightY=southeast.longitude

and you should see it in the dropdown the next time you start up JiGLE. if you have any more questions, please let us know!

as to where the images come from, we drew them! or more to the point, bobzilla wrote software to draw them from public domain data available from the US Census. we're always looking for more such data from other places in the world, but we can't redistribute things with other people's copyrights on them (for the most part.) where you get your images is up to you, but we won't be able to distribute them from the wigle site, most likely (again, due to the arcane and twisty copyright laws.)