Efficient composition and rendering of graphical elements

Abstract

To provide map data for rendering map images corresponding to a selected geographic region at a client device, a map server generates a set of base map tiles having vector descriptors, each of which indicates a geometry of a respective map element, in accordance with a non-raster format for rendering a first map image. The map server, at some point, provides the base map tiles to the client device. Upon receiving an indication that a specific map image for the selected geographic region is to be rendered at the client device, the map server further generates a set of difference map tiles that indicate changes to be made to the set of base map tiles and sends the difference map tiles to the client device for use, along with the set of base map tiles, in rendering the requested specific map image. The client device renders the new map view defined by the difference map tiles without needing to again pre-process all of the features or elements defined in the base map tiles, which makes the rendering of the new map view defined by the difference map tiles faster and more efficient in terms of processing power requirements.

Description

technical field [0001] The present disclosure relates to map rendering systems, such as electronic map display systems, and more particularly, to a map rendering system in which map images are efficiently rendered into a collection of basic map tiles using map data provided in an iterative manner and one or more difference map tiles. Background technique [0002] The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. With respect to what is described in this Background section, the work of the named inventors and aspects that are not described as prior art at the time of filing are not admitted, expressly or by implication, to be prior art against the present disclosure. [0003] Today, maps of geographic areas can be displayed by software applications running on a wide variety of devices, including desktop computer devices, mobile phones, car navigation systems, handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) units, ta...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, some systems such as mapping systems tend to be performance intensive and cannot perform all the repetitive processing well at the rate that new map images need to be rendered

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