.NET Micro Framework

For my Dare to Dream Different application I needed to display a map of the area. I used the public source OpenStreetmap tile system. In this system there are a lot of 256×256 pixel images that represent a part of the globe. The way those tiles are named is described on the Openstreetmap website making it easy to use the tiles in a custom application.

The control provided here downloads the tiles in a seperate thread to keep the user interface responsive. The original images are PNG images that .NET Micro Framework doesn’t support. I have a simple converter script on my website. The url is in the sourcecode. You can keep on using that URL for hobby projects but when releasing your application in the wild you should make your own script as i’m not responsible for complaints that the url doesn’t work anymore.

You can see a Youtube screencast of the application (I recommend switching to HD display!):

The source here is provided AS-IS, the control is extracted from the DreamQuest project and parts of the source are removed to make it work independant so you could see some comments that dont make sence. Also I wont update this control in the future, I’ve you want to improve it you have to do it yourself

The source (Read the notes above): MFOpenstreetmap.zip

Enjoy!

Extra:
Celiker Bahceci from Turkey had about the same idea with the static maps API from Google and put this on CodePlex: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/UsingGoogleMapInMF.aspx So if you like my OpenstreetMap control you also check this out!