Map Pack Generation Queue

[izzy4505]

How about setting it up so we can generate more than 1 mappack at a time, or in a row without having to wait 5 minutes just to click one thing and have it generate another one? It'd be really cool to have it generate 5 mappacks or so and come back an hour later and see them all done, rather than having to babysit. How much hard drive space would be needed for WiGLE to store all of the current version of the raster mappacks? Perhaps I could get some sort of commercial entity to donate a drive (as drives are getting cheap these days), and then you could have the server slapping raster mappacks together all the time so after a day or two, they're all generated for everywhere. That'd be nice.

[uhtu]

for the same reason mapquest dosen't start generating every map on earth when you hit their site?

laziness!

its not a disk-space issue, its a scheduling issue.
if mappack generation was fast and free: we'd do that in a second.
in the meantime: consider all the fun you can have with maptrees... mmm. vectors...

[izzy4505]

Is there a way to set the map pack generation to a low priorty on the server? Have it run in the background? That way it doesn't slow things down.

[uhtu]

because they take time/resources to generate, its not really fair for you to get to request a thousand mappacks you'll never use and then go play tuba or something when someone who actually wants one can get at it.

its just good ole computer science pay-as-you-go.

or i'm crazy. its bobzilla you really have to convince :-)

[izzy4505]

What I'm saying is, if they're all generated than nobody has to wait. As far as time and resources, I'm referring to wasted cpu cycles. Either that or put a limit on one per user at a time or something like that. That way if it's in use by another user, you can still generate map packs.

What does WiGLE need, equipment wise, to be able to meet the current project goals, as well as future goals? Make a list, I'll do some brainstorming for getting it.

And just for the record, I regularly use every map pack I've ever downloaded.

[uhtu]

i wasn't implying you as an evil mappack thief ;-)

lazy mappacking gets them all eventually, as people need them.
i'm sure in bobzilla's copius spare time he'll figure out a way to make a wiglenet client we can release to do distributed mappack generation in people's spare cycles.

that would be cool.

[bobzilla]

Raster MapPacks are kind of a pain to deal with, and they take a long time to generate, and they take up disk space. Vector MapTrees are what we are dealing with for The Future^tm

[izzy4505]

Lol, ok. Any advice on reading the vector mappacks from a developer standpoint? Is there some kind of format to that? I've off and on been digging through the JiGLE src, and so far haven't even located the map pack reader... I'm sure I'll find it and get it all figured out on my own at some point, but I'm curious if you have any advice on where to start.