Test of Android version 1.3.xx
  • I thought it would be better to start a new topic instead of adding to topic Software Interface.

    Here are some issues I discovered in 1.3.20:

    1. My Places
      I have set up some folders. Clicking on a folder will reveal its items only if my phone is held in landscape mode. In portrait mode, the underlying menu is stretched until top so no items are visible.

    2. Text-to-Speech
      a) As previously indicated for Dutch language by hvdwolf, also the German translation in tts.xml needs some fixes. My proposal can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fwjk1syz5a1ijqc/tts.xml (language="de").
      For other German users to discuss/Für die anderen deutschen User: In der Originalversion sagt die Stimme z.B. "Biegen Sie nach rechts ab in die Straße Hauptstraße" bzw. "... in die Straße Kieselweg". Um dies abzukürzen, und um grammatikalische Probleme zu umschiffen, habe ich aus "in die Straße" ein "Richtung" gemacht. Auswirkung: "Biegen Sie nach rechts ab Richtung Hauptstraße" bzw. "... Richtung Kieselweg". Ist das auch für euch OK? Oder wäre ein "in", "auf" oder "nach" besser?? Braucht ihr eigentlich das "nach rechts", oder reicht auch ein "Biegen Sie rechts ab"?
      Edit: aktuell tendiere ich zu "Biegen Sie rechts ab auf Hauptstraße". Ist aber in meiner hochgeladenen tts.xml noch nicht aktualisiert.
      b) In German tts, some parts are "forgotten". This leads to orphaned "to ABC Street" messages, see later post); In my opinion, we should get rid of token TTS-DIRECTION ("to [ABC Street]") when it is not used in combination with a turn instruction. E.g. when you start routing, the voice says "to ABC Street", although the turn is due much later. Shortly before turning, it will say "Turn left to ABC Street", anyway. Here it makes perfectly sense, but a mere "to ABC Street" is vexing.

    Apart from that: I like the new features of 1.3.20 :-)

    I am using the compass; I like the enhanced speed warning options. Thunbs up!

  • 124 Comments sorted by
  • I was told that in 1.3.39 there was some issue with timing and initialization - I am not sure if it was hvdwolf & chattiewoman case. I.e. if you went to settings too early there was a problem. I would just double check that hvdwolf meant it is not simple to reinstall 1.3.39 by 1.3.36 without uninstall, right? (that's unfortunately expected that downgrading is "problematic").

    There is new version 1.3.40+ at http://download.mapfactor.com/mapfactor_navigator.apk
  • Good idea to make this a separate topic.

    1. My places
    I can't confirm the behaviour you mention. For me it simply works (Android 4.2.2 800x480, in case resolution is of concern)

    2. Text to speech
    One thing (for me) right now are the pauses between the combined commands: Go left <pause> to main street <pause> after 200 meter.
    These pauses should be shorter, or not there at all, to make it sound more natural and fluently. I don't know whether MapFactor:
     (a). executes one sub-command after the other: speak sub-command 1, speak sub-command 2, etc.
     (b). concatenates the commands in one line separated with a comma (or so)
     (c). or concatenate the lines with a space.

    When I simulate it, (c) sounds by far the best, and (a) sounds like mapfactor is currently doing it.

    But again: it is nice to hear the street names.
    Which brings me to the following point: Roads have names and references. A road name is clear of course, road references are like A28 or A1 or PA228 (USA). Currently MapFactor announces road names, but no road references (in my short tests). When you are on the highway or motorway it would be nice to hear something like: "take the exit to the A7", currently it says: "Take the exit" as the A7 does not have a name.
    Same for: "Go left in 200 meters" instead of "go left to A28 in 200 meters".
    To me this would be a priority 1 feature.
  • And related to my own request w.r.t. the road references:
     - you have roads with only names (mostly in towns)
     - roads with names and numbers (references) like primary roads through or around towns, or primary/secondary roads connecting towns
     - motorways/trunks/primary roads with only a reference and no name.

    In tts configuration, I would suggest to use Ref + Name, when available and otherwise, of course, to only use the Ref or the name
  • My Places --> Click on folder with items, when phone is in portrait mode: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o0y392szoxov75c/MyPlaces-Folder.png. In fact, you can scroll the top part.
    When I rotate into landscape mode, the view is fixed. When I rotate it back to portrait, it stays fixed. Hence it exists only when opening the folder in portrait mode.

    I now tested the app version in real navigation mode instead of simulation only and found some further issues with tts and missing instructions. I will add them once they are properly evaluated.

    I totally agree with hvdwolf concerning the street refs.
  • I do not have this problem, it works both in landscape and portrait for me
  • Chattiewoman said:
      "When I rotate into landscape mode, the view is fixed. When I rotate it
    back to portrait, it stays fixed. Hence it exists only when opening the
    folder in portrait mode."

    I'm sorry to say, but for me it functions. What I do see is that when rotating, either from portrait to landscape, or landscape to portrait, an open folder will be closed and need to be opened again. I can't remember whether it also worked like that in previous versions as I never tested it like this
  • Just in case it's a phone or resolution issue: 4" with Sony Xperia J with Android 4.1.2.

    Currently I am again working on the tts.xml language="de". Compared with language="en", some tokens are missing. Thus some German instructions are totally missing (not spoken), whereas the English ones would appear.
  • I did not go for a line by line compare, but I just did a simple grep "<token>" for every language and on the generated list a wc -l to count the lines.
    en: 124
    nl: 126
    de: 130

    So maybe some texts are missing but it seems that both Dutch and German have a few more messages, maybe due to grammatical differences. After all: English is, compared to other European languages, the most "compact" one.

  • I compared German Doris (no tts) with German tts in simulation mode.
    In German tts, some instructions like "in 100m turn right" were totally missing, whereas the following "to ABC street" was still added.
    That's why I first rely on the English version, which still gives me correct instructions.
    Edit: After my test with the edited tts.xml file, I now see what the difference is for: Using the original English messages, it says "Turn right into ABC street in 100m" instead of "In 100m, turn right into ABC street.".

    By the way, there's a typo in the English version:
        <token>Bv-13-01</token>
        <text>tahe the third</text>

  • I can't remember whether it also worked like that in previous versions as I never tested it like this

    What definitely has changed, can be found under My Places: For its items, there is no context menu available anymore:
    In order to delete a folder, you must click on it to open, then choose the button at the bottom.
    In order to move a place to folder, press and hold, then drag & drop it into the target folder.
  • I Like the ability to add panels to the bottom of the screen, now have 5 including current journey distance. Well done.
  • I could not find info about this in the forum.
    This beta version: How often is it updated (recompiled)? Chattiewoman added some tts fixes, and so did I, and perhaps the devs also found and fixed some bugs.
    So is this beta (for example) a nightly build, or is it updated once a week, or ..?
    Or will there be a new beta version released and will it be announced? Can I see it in the version numbering, going from 1.3.20 to 1.3.21?

  • There is no 'regular' update - if there are new bug fixes, translations, corrections etc. then there is new build. Not all builds are published.

    Regarding TTS from hvdwolf and chattiewoman - thanks. It will be used in 1.3.22+. Note that we removed '-' from
        <text>GPS-Signal verloren.</text>
    ... I am afraid that some engines say 'dash' :(. I am not sure about comma, just that it won't say "comma" in
        <text>Drehen Sie um, wenn möglich.</text>
    thanks
      Martin
  • My experience is that with  ; , : are not pronounced if separated by a space. If in "one word" like a double road reference (A7;E46) they are pronounced like "A seven semi-colon E forty-six"
    In A7; E46 it is pronounced like "A seven <micro pause> E forty-six"
    The problem is that some mappers "nicely" use a space and others glue it together. Maybe a function in MapFactor?
    if string contains semi-colon not followed by space -> update string and add space after semi-colon

    Maybe it is the same for the dash (-). Maybe it is better to remove it and put a space there (GPS signal), even if it is not grammatically correct.
  • <text>Drehen Sie um, wenn möglich.</text>

    Just skip the Komma. There no need to set it in this sentence.

    Or just say "Drehen sie möglichst um" ;-)
  • Commas are not pronounced when written correctly in the sentence. They are used for intonation and micro pausing. In my language the tone goes down in the syllable before the comma, followed by a micro pause. That's how a comma and a full stop is used in tts engines for the Dutch languages (and many other languages).
    Same for a colon and semicolon.
    I have done tests with Google, Ivona, SVOX, pico tts, espeak and others about a year ago and they all do it the same.
    The only problem is when "things" are glued together,  e.g. when there aren't spaces after the colon, comma, full stop or semicolon, like the "A7;E47" or perhaps with "Drehen Sie um,wenn möglich." (no spaces around comma).
    In the first and second case the semicolon and comma are really pronounced as "um comma wenn". Never when written correctly.
     
  • For those who haven't noticed, Info now displayed on street line on bottom of screen. Pick an icon read info on it on bottom of screen, scrolls if more info available than fits in space.
  • I don't understand.... I only found that the information button on the map now displays a link to Google StreetView.
  • if you click on map, info about object is displayed at the bottom, no need to click 'i' from top menu
  • Does not work on my device without the info button...
  • Link http://download.mapfactor.com/mapfactor_navigator.apk now points to 1.3.22+
    There is udpated tts.xml from hvdwolf and chattiewoman, bug fixes in TTS (now it should be played as single sentence and also crashing IVONA should work), bug fixes with compass.
  • tts is much better now. Thanks.
    tapping the button on an object on the screen works fine for me.

  • Current Journey distance doesn't seem to work, stays at zero. Samsung gtp3110 android 4.2.2.
  • Still think it would be good to have auto zoom work with speed of vehicle as well as distance from manoeuvre. The slower you drive the more zoomed in.
  • Roldolf said: "Current Journey distance doesn't seem to work, stays at zero."

    It works fine for me. Wolfgang AT-AS40D2 also with android 4.2.2 and Navigator 1.3.22
  • Thank You very much for Polish tts - IVONA - MAJA!



    I founded problems in tts.xml file, in tts_data language="pl":


    1. sound-pl-tts

    2. Czekam na sygnał GPS.

    3. w lewo.

    4. RC-NEW-MESSAGE
    "Przyszła nowa wiadomość.", or "Masz nową wiadomość."

    (edit)

    5. Cz-RO-5-00
        Piąty zjazd.

    6. TTS-DIRECTION
        Na

    7. Please consider change A-WP-02-00 to nice and polite:

        "Dotarliśmy do celu podróży. Dziękuję za miłą jazdę."

    8.  I'm not sure: By-SM-04-01, also in the other languages.

    (btw)

    @chattiewoman - Use multitouch!

  • Will try journey distance with 1.3.22.

  • @Przemek I did not mean the distance thing; that is working. As indicated in the previous link, the information that should appear at the bottom of the page is missing.
  • @chattiewoman Sorry for my misunderstanding. When I click on the street, there is information - its name, now at the botttom, when I click on the 'POI' there is info about this POI.
  • Regarding "Journey distance" - Roldorf, are you sure you do not have set "in navigation only" (Nur während der Navigation) in settings?
  • @Przemek thanks - 1.3.24+ contains your tts.xml changes + some more bugfixes (related to TTS if you switch languages while navigating, for example). Link is still the same:
       http://download.mapfactor.com/mapfactor_navigator.apk

    Regarding "By-SM-04-01" - it is important if that "filename" is used in navigation.xml ... in most languages it is not and it is related to order of words/intonation. In Polish it should be OK.
    P.S. I am not sure if it was a good idea to split this topic into two separate "threads" ... merged 1.3.x instead??
  • I agree to merge the topics to one (1.3.*) before someone starts a new one for 1.3.24.
  • I split it because issues are mostly relevant for a certain version, as it is fixed in the next.
  • Hi mdx,

    I have just checked Active odometer and I have it switched off sorry, will turn it on and check again. I also have it set to 'Only when navigating'.
    One more thing when driving the arrow icon faces the direction of travel but when stopped at traffic light or whatever the arrow turns to point in the opposite direction (this is new, previously the arrow always remained pointing in the direction of travel). ver 1.3.22
  • @Roldorf - rotation on crossing should be fixed in 1.3.24+ ... let me know if you will still see the problem there.
    thanks
       Martin
  • Hi, I did some refining on the dutch tts part of tts.xml.
    Please find it on my public dropbox https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34701986/NavigatorFree/tts.xml
    or as a unified diff (in case the devs like that more) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34701986/NavigatorFree/tts.xml.diff


  • I researched why some distance instructions were not given in German.
    Result: All Bw-???-01 tokens are not spoken at all. This is the case not only in German, but e.g. also in Spanish. Please check.

    Additionally, I have updated my German tts file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fwjk1syz5a1ijqc/tts.xml
    • I added some commas in order to provide short breaks
    • exchanged "Richtung" with "auf".
    • replaced "Abfahrt" with "Ausfahrt"
    • "rechts/links" instead of "nach rechts/links"
    • "Sie haben Ihr Ziel erreicht" instead of "Ziel erreicht".

    For others who want to try to edit the file, here some tips:

    A spoken sentence may consist of multiple parts. E.g.

    • (1) In 100 meters, (2) turn right (3) to ABC street.
    • (1) Roundabout (2) in 500 meters.

    Each part is represented by a token. Edit: These token are arranged (and can be changed) in the navigation.xml file. This file addresses token names, often using placeholders like %MANOEUVRE_ID.

    There are some token naming conventions: The token name (e.g. Cw-100m-10) tells you

    • for what (as mostly tokens with the same first letter are combined):
      C = Circle = roundabout. In language="en", Cx-RO-00-01 is used
    • which distance:
      100m = "in onehundred meters"
    • when:
      *-01: At the beginning of the sentence (e.g. "In onehundred meters, turn ...")
      *-10: At the end of the sentence (e.g. "Turn right in onehundred meters")

    MapFactor, could you provide a complete documentation for that? I know I've just scratched the surface ;-)

  • Thank you for this (short) explanation. Inside the Navigator folder there is also a navigation.xml containing the same combinations. To me it is not clear yet whether this is only a reference or whether the commands in the tts.xml can only be spoken if they occur in the navigation.xml or any other dependency/relation.

    I had a quick look at it, but not enough time to dive deep into it.
    It would be nice if someone could explain this, together with Chattiewoman's questions/remarks.
  • Bedankt hvdwolf, that was the missing hint :-) !!!

    I just did not consider the navigation.xml. I have updated the following part (found under <languages>any_other</languages>):

     <manoeuvre_tts>
          <!-- [Take sharp right, Turn right, Bear right, Carry on straight ahead, Bear left, Turn left, Take sharp left] to "street" in [100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 1000, 2000] [meters, yards, kilometers, miles] -->
          <type>standard_later</type>
          <file>Bw-,%DISTANCE_AND_UNIT,-01</file>
          <file>By-SM-0,%MANOEUVRE_ID,-10</file>
          <file>TTS-DIRECTION,%STREET_NAME</file>     
        </manoeuvre_tts>

    It is now e.g. saying: "In 100 meters, turn right to ABC street".

    The orignal was:
        <manoeuvre_tts>
          <!-- [Take sharp right, Turn right, Bear right, Carry on straight ahead, Bear left, Turn left, Take sharp left] to "street" in [100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 1000, 2000] [meters, yards, kilometers, miles] -->
          <type>standard_later</type>
          <file>By-SM-0,%MANOEUVRE_ID,-01</file>
          <file>TTS-DIRECTION,%STREET_NAME</file>
          <file>Bw-,%DISTANCE_AND_UNIT,-10</file>
        </manoeuvre_tts>


    Now my instructions, together with my updated tts.xml, are given as expected :-)
    Well, at least for the short route I am testing all the time. Next, I test it on a real journey.

    Btw, I find it really cool that none of this is hardcoded. Everybody can change it the way he likes. Thumbs up!
  • @chattiewoman : Thanks for your work. This is what they call "The learning experience"
  • @MapFactor
    Since 1.3.24, starting the app takes much longer than before: When the menu appears and I click on an item, it takes about 5 seconds until this click is registered. Any chance to fix this....?
  • I do not get this delay
  • I also get this delay especially when first starting the app. I get a white screen 'loading data' then nothing just a white screen for about 5 secs then the menu. The current journey distance works. The travel icon still reverses when stationary. Ver 1.3.24
  • I also get this delay. I had not paid attention to it yet, but it is indeed there.
  • In my opinion, and according to the current tts.xml file, the navigation.xml should look like this:
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/hogne6t9kuqny5y/navigation.xml

    What I did:
    In the tts.xml, I checked which languages are using the Bw-100m-01 token. Found: cs, de, es, fi, hu, pl, ru.
    For all these languages, the navigation.xml needs the <manoeuvre_tts> as stated earlier, so I added it. No need to change it for any other language (as was my earlier assumption).
    It appeared, that MapFactor already set it correctly - but in their native and tested language cs only. What a pity ;-)

    What I still don't get: All other languages really prefer first the instruction ("turn right"), then the distance ("in 100 yards"?? I just cannot believe it :-)

    For other users: If you ever want to change the voice language, with distance first, please note that any other language than cs, de, pl etc. does not have the corresponding tokens in the tts.xml. That means: The voice won't say it. You would have to manually add the tokens.
    @MapFactor: Thus, please add all tokens for all languages in tts.xml in order to work with any setup.


  • chattiewoman said:  "What I still don't get: All other languages really prefer first the instruction ("turn right"), then the distance ("in 100 yards"?? I just cannot believe it "

    It doesn't matter that much in Dutch.
    It can be "go right to <whatever road> after/in 200 meters"
    or  "after/in 200 meters go right to <whatever road>"

    I just dived into the tts file and what bugs me more is the "go straight on for xyz meters" a number of times (500 meters, 400, 200, 100). This is not very useful.
    Same with this is that it uses the same syntax for "straight on" and for turns. This is not how the Dutch language does it.
    I think this will require some refining.

  • About the delay when starting up: I already mentioned that I hadn't paid attention to it until this morning. It only occurs (on my phone) when using Google tts. When using Svox tts or one of the recorded voices I don't have the delay.
    (This morning I was playing with Google tts).
  • Interesting. At least for me it doesn't make any real difference. But I did not test with reboots in between.
  • interesting
    I have no delay with English Google TTS
  • Un-installed Ivona TTS english, delay still there. Reboot tablet delay still there.

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