Will or what kind of support does Mapbox have for Vector tiles?

Question

I read MapBox and vector tiles and am wondering if I understand this right.

In some future it will be possible to render vector based tiles with iOS MapBox? If yes, how would the RMTileSource for vector tiles look like?

In layman's terms, do I understand this right: I will be able to use a SVG or even PDF files as the data source for MapBox instead of PNG tiles?

If yes, is there any code out yet that I can experiment with?

Hitormiss

Answer 1

Yes, in future, you will be able to consume and render vector tiles local to an iOS app, either as raster tiles or directly to a vector context (e.g. OpenGL). This is in development.

It's less about sources like SVG or PNG and more about the open vector format that Mapbox will serve up-to-date OpenStreetMap data and later, other sources, for these sorts of uses.

To experiment with vector styling, check out the TileMill 2 preview. Stay tuned for more iOS-specific stuff.

Hover

very interesting link! I would love to be able to convert the vector graphic of a pdf to a vector based tile source as shown in the "TileMll 2 preview". But I guess converting will never be possible?! One will probably always need to hand craft these vector tiles sources withe a tool like tilemill – Hitormiss

Maybe you would know? how is mapbox/mapbox-gl-native connected to the mapbox IOS sdk? – Hitormiss

Answer 2

Mapbox showcased Mapbox GL which is iOS framework which utilizes vector tiles. But more interestingly the demo on a website also uses vector tiles in Javascript with smooth zoom. Mapbox streets also uses vector tiles internally but are rendered to raster ones on server. Same as Thunderforest by Andy Allan.

Explanatory

Thanks a lot. I looked at the impressive "mapbox-gl" and am reading " new on-device vector renderer" But how is mapbox/mapbox-gl-native connected to the mapbox IOS sdk? I am confused? – Hitormiss

This should help clarify: github.com/mapbox/mapbox-gl-cocoa/blob/master/FAQ.md – Hover