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OpenStreetMap's New Vector Tiles

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479 points marklit | 3 comments | 19 Nov 24 12:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.67s | source
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kibwen ◴[19 Nov 24 13:51 UTC] No.42183410[source]▶
Does this reduce the operating costs of hosting OSM-based maps, since presumably they require less CPU spent on rendering and vectors consume less storage/bandwidth?
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1. hyperknot ◴[19 Nov 24 14:50 UTC] No.42184016[source]▶
openfreemap.org creator here. Yes, with vector tiles you are basically hosting static files, the server has nothing to do, except HTTPS encryption. Even gzipping is already done in the tiles.
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2. TrickyFoxy ◴[19 Nov 24 15:10 UTC] No.42184238[source]▶
For vector tiles osm.org this is not the case. They should be generated on the fly from the database to show mappers the current state of the map with minimal delay. Yes, the resulting results can be cached like static files, but much more work is done on the server.

You can learn more about this in the blog of the developer who develops this tile server: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/pnorman/diary/403600

p.s. current link to the demo page: https://pnorman.github.io/tilekiln-shortbread-demo

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3. hyperknot ◴[19 Nov 24 15:14 UTC] No.42184285[source]▶
OP asked "Does this reduce the operating costs of hosting OSM-based maps".

openstreetmap.org has a very complex setup for real-time updates, but in general, hosting OSM-based maps is much cheaper with vector tiles.