Yesterday I was testing the OZEX project, which intends to be an open-source replacement for the popular OziExplorer software. The most interesting on OZEX is that it is able to decode and display the Ozf2 and Ozfx3 binary files on Linux and other platforms and that the decoder is completely open-source!
I know about other nice and open-source projects targeted to OziExplorer users with an advanced GUI and interesting features, look at the QLandKarte GT screenshots for example.
This is for the first time I see open-source implementation of the OZF2 and OZFx3 binary format!It would be excellent to create a decoder also in the GDAL library (as a driver) because it would bring the OZF reading/decoding functionality into several open-source projects.
I have submitted to the gdal svn a documentation of the format derived from the source codes, some sample files as well as links to the OZEX GPL code. More sample files can be generated with the img2ozf utility (runs well under Wine).
Unfortunately I am now busy on another projects but I hope that some of the GDAL developers finds a bit of time to do the coding of the OZF driver...
GDAL already has a preliminary support for the OziExplorer's .map files (textual metadata, think of advanced ESRI World File with included info about the map projection), but support for the binary formats from the OZF family (version 2 and version 3) would move the compatibility to a different level.
OziExplorer is a very popular in the GPS and GeoCaching community. Support of the maps generated or georeferenced with this software in the OSGEO open-source tools would be great! I hope to see it in the near future in MapTiler, GRASS, QGis, MapServer, GeoServer and all the other FOSS GIS tools! Anybody interested in the coding for GDAL?
Hi!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thanks for your interest to ozex and swampex projects.
You know, I hope Ozex will never has such Boeing-like GUI as Ozi Explorer or QLandKarte has :) It is very annoying in real life - when you are trying to press some 8x8 icon during the offroad competition e.g. :)
Moreover, I had a success with decoding Garmin maps (even encrypted) by adding decoding routines to libgarmin. If you're interested in it, contact me by email.
Unfortunately, I have no time at all to support these projects.
Best wishes,
Daniil Smelov
Ozex's author.
I came across a map my parents had from an old school that had been torn down.It is dated 1914. It is a map of Europe and was published by a company in Chicago, Illinois that no longer exists. I am amazed at the countries that no longer exist. I very much enjoyed reading your article. Thank you very much for all the information.
ReplyDeleteCandy Caudill, Indiana,USA
Yay! That's terrific!
ReplyDeleteI recently made a few extremely large TIFF files (almost 4 GB) that are OK according to TatukGIS and several other programs, but inaccessible in Ozi and even Img2Ozf. Des Newman explained that a major update is in progress and will get rid of these limitations. But I can't wait that long :)
What is more important: Img2Ozf always creates sub-100% zooms from the original image; it is not possible to create zoom levels from separate files (that is, prepared externally). Therefore digital sources like OpenStreetMap have a decent look only at 100% and perhaps 50%; anything less and the map is unusable even for preview, so lesser zooms must be converted into separate OZF files and switching between them becomes more difficult.
It seems that I finally will be able to code my own version of Img2Ozf :)
Oh my. There's already a project called ozfenc. Let's see what it can do.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the new GDAL driver written from Klokan's spec
ReplyDeleteSee r21249