Pre-installed European 1:100K recreation mapping

Foghat · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 8

Looking at the new 62st, I see it comes with 'European 100K recreation mapping' pre-installed.

I've tried researching but am still unclear about what the differences (other than geographical extent) between this mapping and Topo GB mapping, or the vector mapping that comes as part of OSGB Discoverer mapping, are. And is this 'recreation mapping' also available on its own?

Grateful if someone could enlighten me - am trying to work out whether to get a 62st or 62s. Thanks in advance!

jdgwinnell · Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2010 3:26 pm Post subject: Built-in Euro topo map

On my Oregon 550t, which I believe is internally identical to the 62st, the European topo basemap which comes with them (as designated by the -t suffix) is 3.3 GB - nearly twice the size of CN Europe. I certainly don't bother with TopoGB any more, which is getting out of date and combines the routable roads of CN 2009 (?) with a topo map which is derived from different data than the OS one - total of 1.53 GB on my hard drive. The new topo basemap does not, I think, have routeable road data but does have digital elevation - all in a vector format, i.e. the unit draws it for you on demand. The OS Discoverer maps are both routable (vector-based) and raster, i.e. there is a pictorial overlay of what the OS map looks like. This changes as appropriate to the zooming level, which is really smart...

You can't get the recreation basemap on its own, it only comes built in to the *-t models. Whether or not Garmin ever update it - and free, or at a cost? - remains to be seen. As it doesn't have routeable roads, it's not such a crucial issue as with the automotive maps.
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J D Gwinnell
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nuvi 3598LMT-D
Montana 650, Oregon 650

Foghat · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 8

Thanks - this is just the information I'm after.

Would you say OSGB Discoverer was better or worse than Topo GB for routing - e.g. does Discoverer route along paths/tracks as well as roads, and are the POIs as comprehensive as in Topo GB (or do the 'recreation' maps have all the POIs now?)?

jdgwinnell · Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2010 6:51 pm Post subject:

I've never used any topo maps for pedestrian routeing, but a quick test shows:
CN Europe [on a data card] will only route on roads or in straight line;
built-in topo, as advertised will not route in any meaningful fashion, just indicate a straight line from place to place; its collection of POIs is quite limited (though I've not been able to do a detailed comparison);
GB Discoverer has no routeing or POI information in addition to the underlying CN Europe database - i.e. it can show the picture of the OS map, but does not know that it shows paths and so cannot follow them, so the available routeing outcomes are the same as with CN Europe.
Because the OS map is a 'picture', it blocks out any BirdsEye satellite imagery you might have unless you disable it.

Topo GB is locked to my 60CSx so I can't do an exact comparison - the basemap for this unit is routeable, and Topo GB is on a datacard with an old version of CN Europe (2008 I think) which clouds the issue of which map is routeing and where the POIs are coming from. These are however inferior to the newer maps, and mis-spell a couple of local villages.

My advice would be to forget about Topo GB, which was designed for the older units which could not show raster images, and go for GB Discoverer which has more up-to-date information, better POIs, and looks fabulous (unless you zoom in too far). I find it's ideal for following footpaths - as long as you can read a map, you don't need routeing when you're walking as you don't need instant decisions at junctions. However it might be less satisfactory for cycling or motorcycling, where the terrain moves so much faster! There used to be an issue with GB Discoverer that map tiles would not draw if you moved across a boundary too fast, but that was solved in a firmware update some time ago.

As for the original question: the *-t option seems to be a £50 premium, which I think is good value for a pan-European topo map - useful if you ever go abroad. It's not as detailed as the country-specific topo maps, but they are very expensive unless you dabble on the dark side.
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J D Gwinnell
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nuvi 3598LMT-D
Montana 650, Oregon 650

Foghat · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 8

Excellent - that's a very comprehensive answer, which tells me precisely what I needed to know.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, and hopefully others will find it useful too.

Garmin 62st it is then.....once all this squeaking case business is hopefully sorted out in the next production run!

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