Mac/Windows Software

Basecamp Windows Wishlist for Birdseye, features to make it perfect

Wishlist for Birdseye, features to make it perfect

Former Member over 15 years ago

I have tried Birdseye and I like it :), I have got subscription and even ordered new 16GB SD card to make room for lots of it.

There is my wishlist:

1) More control over the brightness and contrast of the images on GPS, right now the BaseCamp is brightening the images when sending to the GPS which makes them look washed out and some features with lesser contrast are hard or impossible to see. Much better would be contrast and brightness and perhaps saturation sliders which would apply when sending the images to the unit (preview would be nice but hardly a dealbreaker). I would really love if this was available on the GPS itself for ad hoc use based on actual conditions but that's probably not possible. Bare bone implementation would let me turn the brightening off.

2) Given the size of the imagery, it would help to be able to select non rectangular area. The pictures ultimately consist of small tiles and I hope it is possible to create any shape.

Ideas about how the UI could work:
- something like MapSource selects map segments for upload to the GPS.
- select images around route or waypoint
- ability to add/remove rectangular area from existing Birdseye Imagery
- ability to merge existing Birdseye Imageries (bare bone again, but it would allow user to create complex shapes)

3) Faster download speed, right now, it is horrible. Downloading some 140MB of imagery more than 4 hours using fast cable connection is really bad. I hope this is because you have more than expected number of subscribers and Garmin will invest into more powerful hardware soon. It would not hurt if the download page showed estimate of remaining time (you have total number of images, you know how many were already downloaded and how long it took so far, it is trivial to estimate remaining time provided the download speed is assumed constant).

4) More consistent images, I was downloading area around Kirkwood Ski Resort in California and half of the images were from winter with snow, half from summer. It is a weird mix and also winter images are hiding many terrain features.

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

Thanks for the comments. Items 1, 3 and 4 are beyond the control of our team but I'll forward on your feedback to the appropriate groups.

As for #2 that's something that we're looking at right now. Your second idea to download around selected waypoints or along a route has been suggested by other users. Not saying for sure that we'll do it like that that but it seems to be popular :)

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

Thanks for the comments. Items 1, 3 and 4 are beyond the control of our team but I'll forward on your feedback to the appropriate groups.

As for #2 that's something that we're looking at right now. Your second idea to download around selected waypoints or along a route has been suggested by other users. Not saying for sure that we'll do it like that that but it seems to be popular :)

Thanks for reply.

Being a software engineer myself, I am curious:

I understand that 3 and 4 are out of your control but I thought that 1 (brightening/whitening) is done by the BaseCamp when sending the imagery to the GPS. I did a test and took screenshot of the basecamp screen and uploaded it to the GPS and then looked at it with image viewer, it was darker with better contrast and looked pretty much like it does on computer screen. Is the whitening actually done by the unit when painting the map then?

Regarding 3, any chance of adding an estimate of remaing download time?

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

For me, one of the most needed feature is the ability to load different maps.
Why do we have to load the whole map when we only need to load the map from city X?
Imagine, I have maps from city A, B, C, D, why its all loaded at same time when i only need to see city B? We should be able to select only what we want to see. Isn't it faster? Loading only one city rather than all cities?

Thanks!

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

For me, one of the most needed feature is the ability to load different maps.
Why do we have to load the whole map when we only need to load the map from city X?
Imagine, I have maps from city A, B, C, D, why its all loaded at same time when i only need to see city B? We should be able to select only what we want to see. Isn't it faster? Loading only one city rather than all cities?

Thanks!

If I understand you correctly, you want to be able to upload multiple satelite imagery sets to your GPS and be able to turn them individually on and off, like you can with different map sets (Topo 100k. City Navigator, Topo 24k, National Parks). Right now you can either see all Birdseye sets or none at all.

I think it is not big deal right now when there is only one source of satelite imagery and therefore there is no chance you will want to switch between two different sets covering the same area. If Garmin ever includes multiple sources, then it will become an issue. It would be great if there was summer and winter set or perhaps set with enhanced colors. I hope the unit software is optimized so that it does not affect performance in noticeable way.

It seems to be feature for the GPS unit software though, not BaseCamp's. Too bad there is no Birdseye forum nor specific GPS unit forums (at least I could not find any - I can see ones in Running & Fittness or Cycling but nothing for Colorado or Oregon family of units for example)

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

I have to agree with your answer.
I also agree, and I think thats verry bad for us, we don't have a forum just for oregons, dakota... so on.
We can request features for GC, but were we can ask features for oregon?

Thanks!

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

where/how are the Birdseye files stored? can i move them?

i got 28 files for banff area. They have slowed BC down to a crawl(15 mins to load up). i got them on the 550, they are files in their.. but can i remove them from BC and then load them when i want??? What will happen when i tour the USA in my RV and need a bunch of images? and have slow connections. i wanted to load a bunch from our summer home DSL line and load to 550 as needed, but the speed is a killer

also can i have different MY Collections. they take for ever to load?

i like the folders under it, but would like just data in them and not all in MY Collection.
greg rudowsky [email][email protected][/email]

i guess i can copy them from the 550 to a harddrive....

is their a way to save MY Collection also???(as in mapsource)

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

another wish birds eye names

please use 00 01 02 etc else( or 000 001 002)(or 0000 0001 0002)

1
10
11
...
19
2
20
21
is pretty silly

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

Another feature:

Have choice to turn BirdsEye imagery on and off (something like "Basic Map Only" choice to turn-off the map). It would be also useful to be able to turn on/off individual BirdsEye imageries for performance.

Also ability to turn on/off the map drawing in 3D map which would not affect used height map. When I choose 'Basic Map Only' to see only the satelite images, the elevation map is also from basic map and almost flat.