Hi. Maybe I’m the only person in the world who generally doesn’t like auto-zoom. Therefore, I would rather opt for the possibility of turning off the continuous change of zoom, but with the additional option of specifying the distance remaining from the maneuver, after reaching which the zoom would increase. So for example:
I like a wide field of view, so I drive many kilometers with zoom 12 (where I can see green areas, gas stations and tourist attraction on the map several kilometers ahead of me),
only after reaching the defined distance, e.g. 2 km before the maneuver, it would be smooth zooming up to the target value, e.g. 17 (at which I see all the details, including the numbering of buildings) a few hundred meters before the maneuver, as it is today,
a few hundred meters after the end of the maneuver, the zoom returns to the previously set 17 (of course if the next maneuver is further than the above-mentioned e.g. 2 km).
When riding a motorcycle I am distracted by continuous unnecessary zoom changes and continuous map rotation (which is an idea for the next topic ).
That pretty much describes the existing distance based auto zoom.
It is difficult to cover every variant, i.e. which exact distance every zoom level applies.
A generic rule to cover most users is having the area until next instruction on screen.
Actually it’s quite similar case with speed based auto zoom’s many possible variants.
There can be many speed vs zoom combinations, we could offer a common rule set.
While both types of auto zoom follow the user defined limits of min / max zoom levels.
Not exactly
Now auto-zoom begins to zoom as soon as the maneuver appears on the screen, even if it is several kilometers away, which occurs when the zoom level is set to 17.
But my suggestion is to slightly modify the behavior based on distance, adding in the app/routes settings option such as (for example):
Lock auto zoom-in if maneuver is further than:
1 km
2 km
4 km
5 km
never (as it is now, only the length of the route section and the highest zoom level set determines its level)
or something like that, according to the TTS settings.
I understand these users perfectly, and I accept the majority. For them the above option “never” would be
Moved discussion in separate topic, as previous one was about speed based auto zoom.
Lock auto zoom-in if maneuver is further than
That seems like micro management, when already can set a smaller zoom option?
Now auto-zoom begins to zoom as soon as the maneuver appears on the screen, even if it is several kilometers away
That’s the idea and why the min/max zoom limits exist, so can adjust the zooming.
Can set smaller min auto zoom if want the zoom steps to be smaller while moving.
Generally we offer sane defaults and if possible extra - non complicated - options.
Yes, but during navigation most of the time I like zoom level 12 very much and I don’t want to change it in settings. Only 2 km before the maneuver (which in my driving style corresponds to about 2 minutes) I would like to “unlock” it, to gradually bring the details of the maneuver up to level 17. And I mean that it would be 2 km and not 12 km as it is now
Sorry - I can’t imagine the problem. I’m driving with zoom-level 17 (mainly to see the course of the next curve, if it’s necessary - not looking constantly at the screen!).
Keep the auto-zoom as it is, or provide the next selectable option in the settings - just my 2 cents.
Current behaviour of auto zoom in navigation sometimes i don’t like. The idea from @Ciutnik would solve the problem.
Providing the option perhaps is the better way to respect different user practices. Preselection of “never” keeps the current behaviour. Users liking this behaviour nothing have to change, others make the selection which they prefer.
But for the app always we have to decide if it’s useful to increase or lower the number of settings. The number of settings affects to usability of the app. This point we ever should have in mind when we want new settings. Therefore i understand when the developers don’t want to add a new posibility for settings.
I like the current behavior.
I use auto zoom between 14 and 16 and haven’t even realized that the current possible settings might not be sufficient for everyone.
I didn’t realize this behavior until now.
You are right, the zooming in several km away is happening too early.
It would be better if the zooming is only starting at a distance of maybe ~2km.
The proposal of @Ciutnik was, to fix the zoom level to min zoom until the next maneuver is closer than e.g. ~2km. This could result in a sudden zoom in at the ~2km distance, but that wouldn’t bother me.
Current behavior tries to contain next maneuver inside screen adjusting continuously the fractional zoom scale. On top the min / max auto zoom options are applied.
I think having a min threshold before starting to zoom in, makes sense. I think, we could set this to 1 or 2 km before the turn. I am not sure if this has to be a user setting, it feels a bit like over-complicating things for users?
I guess, once you start to ready yourself for the turn, it is helpful to see more details about the actual turn. If you set your min zoom to a high value like 16 or 17, you won’t see a difference in behavior.
When thinking about it, I think Google Maps has this sudden zoom as well. I also don’t think that this would be a major issue .
If I remember correctly have seen some navigator in the past to have speed auto zoom away from maneuvers (e.g. > 2 km) and distance auto zoom when be near (e.g. < 2 km).
So can be more complicated ideas and combinations.
On the other hand not all users would like a “split” change of zoom behavior.
And those using small min auto zoom could find it not useful before the 2km.
Also a fixed 2km distance would cause requests for providing length options.
My proposal can be modified to make it much easier to understand, using and implement in the application (as I think):
At this time, auto-zoom can only be set to ON or OFF. Why not add a third state like “Auto ON/OFF”? This setting could turn ON the Auto-zoom for example 2 km (preferably if there was option to set it) before the maneuver and turn it OFF afterwards, returning to the previous, manually set favorite level? In this case, maybe you can rely on the Auto zoom algorithm already built in Kurviger without significant interference in the program code?
Or even easier and “cleaner”!: When you set Auto zoom OFF, the slider will be activated (such as now used to set the extreme levels when set Auto zoom ON), which will set the desired distance the way you like - e.g. from 500 meters to infinity (assuming that infinity is currently).
The current auto zoom algorithm is very sophisticated and does a good job the way it is designed for.
But it has one disadvantage as @Ciutnik has described above:
Basically you can’t see further than up to the next maneuver, no matter what value min zoom level is set to. The smaller the min zoom level is set to, the more the effect is noticeable.
).
