Hi, is it planned for the Future to get a whole country offline to the Apple Watch like the topp maps from Garmin? I came from the Enduro 2 and missing the offline experience. Thank you!
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Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features
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Elevation gain is one of those metrics where there is no correct answer and lots of variables that mean that apps can offer differ greatly in their estimates, especially on relatively flat routes.
The first variable is the elevation source. Devices usually use a barometer to measure air pressure and calculate relative elevation from that (absolute elevation requires a base elevation, usually from GPS, but is unnecessary for ascent calculations). However systems such as Strava sometimes use a terrain model, which stores all the elevations across the world on a 5m or 10m grid.
There are pros and cons of each: the terrain model is unaffected by weather but doesn't provide a great resolution. WorkOutDoors uses Apple's "Always on Altimeter" by default. Unfortunately they don't reveal how that works but it will probably involve the barometer.
The next difference is the algorithm used to calculate the ascent from the series of elevations. This needs to smooth the data to get rid of any sensor errors such as wind. Different systems use different smoothing algorithms. You can load exactly the same GPX file into 2 different systems and they can produce very different estimates of ascent.
So any of these things could explain the difference you are seeing. The weather is the most likely on such a flat route. Air pressure changes with the weather and can make the watch think you have gone up or down when you haven't. This makes less of a difference on a hilly route where its effects are relatively smaller, but can make a big difference on flatter routes. Luckily users are generally less interested in it on flatter routes.
I hope that helps.
I have to pay for every map tile that is downloaded, so I won't be offering whole countries with the current business model of a one-off payment. That sort of ability would require a subscription and I don't want to add that.
You can download a few hundred square km in one go, which is enough for most activities, and there is nothing to stop you doing that as many times as you like, but I can't afford to make it easy to download very large areas like countries. Sorry about that. It would also take a very long time to transfer whole countries to the watch!
Have just got this app and really impressed. It solves all of my gripes with the apple workout app and finally allows me to have the metrics in larger font which I much appreciate (I don’t carry reading glasses when running!).
I haven’t read the whole thread but looks like the developer contributes to this? If so, firstly thanks for the great app at a sensible price. Secondly is there any chance of supporting dynamic text size for the iPhone and watch app menus? Not the end of the world if not but personally I would appreciate it in a future version as it’s all a bit too small for my eyesight. The adjustable font size in the actual workout screens is great though!
I haven’t read the whole thread but looks like the developer contributes to this? If so, firstly thanks for the great app at a sensible price. Secondly is there any chance of supporting dynamic text size for the iPhone and watch app menus? Not the end of the world if not but personally I would appreciate it in a future version as it’s all a bit too small for my eyesight. The adjustable font size in the actual workout screens is great though!
Hello, first of all congratulations for the app, I only have a problem when I do intervals for example 6x500, with 50 seconds stopped, between interval and interval when I run again the rhythm and the distance do not advance, only the interval time advances, until About 30 seconds pass and he does not start walking, so the pace and distance are no longer well measured. What could be the reason? Thank you very much.
Have you considered allowing users to install any of the many free maps available based on OpenTopoMap?
I think dynamic text is only requested once or twice a year so it is low down my To-Do list. I try to test the app for use in Display Zoom mode though, which may help. There may be a few glitches on smaller phones but generally it makes everything easier to see.
Are you saying that the distance stops updating during the workout? That is very strange. I recommend rebooting the watch as that often helps with strange problems.
The problem isn't the cost of the maps but the cost of hosting them. OpenStreetMap data is free but I need to use a company to host the data and supply it to the app on demand. They also convert the data into the vector tiles so the app can only request what it needs.
I bought the app a week ago for my S8; good job and an excellent app. My last AW was S3 Cellular and with all improvements from Apple + WOD, now the S8 feel better for casual running or hiking. I would use the app for simple exercises when I'm out without the Polar and only wearing the Apple watch.
What I missed is the AoD, and in my opinion, the app is not worth it without that option, at least for me. I hope in the future; we will get AoD for that excellent app. Keep up the good work, 5*
What I missed is the AoD, and in my opinion, the app is not worth it without that option, at least for me. I hope in the future; we will get AoD for that excellent app. Keep up the good work, 5*
I live in the Netherlands, which is famous for it's cycling paths (amongst other things).
The village where I live is even famous within our country for the cycling paths, so we have a lot of them and they are really good.
Today I started an "other outdoor" exercise and cycled around for just over 30 minutes with a moderate speed (18.0km/h avg). When I looked in the WOD app on my phone to my route, I noticed a few short gaps. And when I looked closed, nearly all gaps were at the small bridges where the cycling path crosses water. Those bridges are nearly flat and they only have small railings along the sides, nothing that could disturb gps. One of the bridges where I say this was not even crossing water, it crossed a road (for cars).
Even more strange, it did not happen when I went through a small tunnel.
Around all bridges that had the gaps in the route, the GPS line color is blue (not gray).
I guess it's not GPS causing the gaps, but then what else does cause them?
The village where I live is even famous within our country for the cycling paths, so we have a lot of them and they are really good.
Today I started an "other outdoor" exercise and cycled around for just over 30 minutes with a moderate speed (18.0km/h avg). When I looked in the WOD app on my phone to my route, I noticed a few short gaps. And when I looked closed, nearly all gaps were at the small bridges where the cycling path crosses water. Those bridges are nearly flat and they only have small railings along the sides, nothing that could disturb gps. One of the bridges where I say this was not even crossing water, it crossed a road (for cars).
Even more strange, it did not happen when I went through a small tunnel.
Around all bridges that had the gaps in the route, the GPS line color is blue (not gray).
I guess it's not GPS causing the gaps, but then what else does cause them?
Please email the wkt file for the workout to me at info@workoutdoors.net and I will take a look. To do this tap the Export button 3 times quickly.I live in the Netherlands, which is famous for it's cycling paths (amongst other things).
The village where I live is even famous within our country for the cycling paths, so we have a lot of them and they are really good.
Today I started an "other outdoor" exercise and cycled around for just over 30 minutes with a moderate speed (18.0km/h avg). When I looked in the WOD app on my phone to my route, I noticed a few short gaps. And when I looked closed, nearly all gaps were at the small bridges where the cycling path crosses water. Those bridges are nearly flat and they only have small railings along the sides, nothing that could disturb gps. One of the bridges where I say this was not even crossing water, it crossed a road (for cars).
Even more strange, it did not happen when I went through a small tunnel.
Around all bridges that had the gaps in the route, the GPS line color is blue (not gray).
View attachment 2084515
I guess it's not GPS causing the gaps, but then what else does cause them?
I live in the Netherlands, which is famous for it's cycling paths (amongst other things).
The village where I live is even famous within our country for the cycling paths, so we have a lot of them and they are really good.
Today I started an "other outdoor" exercise and cycled around for just over 30 minutes with a moderate speed (18.0km/h avg). When I looked in the WOD app on my phone to my route, I noticed a few short gaps. And when I looked closed, nearly all gaps were at the small bridges where the cycling path crosses water. Those bridges are nearly flat and they only have small railings along the sides, nothing that could disturb gps. One of the bridges where I say this was not even crossing water, it crossed a road (for cars).
Even more strange, it did not happen when I went through a small tunnel.
Around all bridges that had the gaps in the route, the GPS line color is blue (not gray).
View attachment 2084515
I guess it's not GPS causing the gaps, but then what else does cause them?
I noticed something similar and I think it is the autopause.
Quick question, I’m enjoying playing with my Apple Watch 4 but since I’m also a nerd I want to try out the mapping. I’ve been running with the “Time to Run“ on the Apple Watch which necessitates using the native Apple Workout app to access that content.
If I use your app in the background set to just showing the full map with a loaded route, will it follow the route with the occasional GPS pings from the system without messing up the native workout app or your app?
I’d just leave your app open and set to full screen maps while doubling the crown double tap to go between it and the native workout app. I used your app to be a secondary source tracking my weekend bike ride and it was a joy!
If I use your app in the background set to just showing the full map with a loaded route, will it follow the route with the occasional GPS pings from the system without messing up the native workout app or your app?
I’d just leave your app open and set to full screen maps while doubling the crown double tap to go between it and the native workout app. I used your app to be a secondary source tracking my weekend bike ride and it was a joy!
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Done.
By the way, this exercise was manually paused 2 times, so total duration is just over 3h.
As far as I know, I disabled auto-pause on all types that have it. And since the bridges are very short and nearly flat, there is no reason for an auto-pause. And even more, I used the "other outdoor" type which has no auto-pause (setting).
(The reason that I used the "other outdoor" instead of "cycling" is that sometimes I combine cycling and walking, but I don't know for shure what I will do in advance)
Thanks for the file. It is a bug with the map drawing code where the bridges are being drawn too "high" and are appearing above the workout route and therefore covering it.
If you switch to the Thunderforest maps then you won't see the gaps because I haven't made the same error when drawing that map.
Thanks for spotting it. It should be an easy fix and will be ok in the next version.
You let WOD upload to Strava + Apple Health and on your system Strava uploads to Apple Health too.
I can't find the exact setting, but I do recall there is a setting somewhere to enable/disable Strava to send everything to Apple Health.
There should be no problems using WOD in this way. You can't use two apps at the same time if they are both running workouts but it's fine to use the WOD Map Only mode whilst running a workout in another app.
Those are raster tiles rather than vector tiles, so I couldn't use them. However I could probably find a similar source of vector tiles, or use an OpenStreetMap tool to create them.
My main concern is that transferring country sizes maps to the watch would take a very long time. The communications between the phone and the watch can be flaky even for small files so I don't even want to consider gigabyte sized transfers.
I am not ruling it out completely but it isn't high on my priority list. That may change because I have had more requests for it in the last week than in the last 5 years put together. This is due to Garmin users considering the Ultra and being accustomed to having a whole continent of maps on the watch.
However Garmin have complete control over the watch, whereas developers such as myself are restricted by what Apple offer us. This is a pretty flexible environment but it is geared towards small apps, usually with usage time measured in seconds. It isn't really designed for an app to have several Gigabytes of map data.
Also I expect that Apple are working on implementing this themselves. They have far more control and could do a far better job than I could, so I don't want to spend time implementing data transfers that will probably be unwieldy and maybe unreliable, only to have Apple provide it later. Especially as there is a good chance they will make it available to developers anyway.
Sorry about that.