MapServer AGG Rendering: No Longer Disappointed

Click for larger image
With Steve Lime’s help on my previous post on the topic, I’ve been able to turn my previously somewhat dissappointing map into something that is definitely coming out way ahead of where it was. (Click the image to see a bigger version of the same area).

First trick: Removing ‘antialias true’/’transparency alpha’ lines from my mapfile, as Zac and Steve both mentioned on the previous post. This actually did most of the work. Looking back, had I actually removed them all, that would have done all of the work, but I missed one, so my polygon fills were still not working. Thankfully, Steve is a great man, and committed fixes for that to trunk, so now I’ve got real pretty images serving up out of the Boston Freemap. With these changes, the label problems aren’t nearly as pronounced as I’d seen them be on other maps.

I definitely feel like this is a huge step in the right direction.

Old:

New:

Pay extra attention to the T lines, which are one of the more obvious failings of the GD rendering.

Many many thanks to Steve for his help in turning the rather disappointing map into something that I’m really very happy with. I’m glad to be proven wrong — in exactly the way I hoped I would be — on the problems with MapServer’s AGG rendering. I’m looking forward to converting more maps in the near future.

One Response to “MapServer AGG Rendering: No Longer Disappointed”

  1. Steve Lime Says:

    Note that we are still working point symbolization which should make the bottom version look better. It’s amazing how one crappy looking symbol can impact the entire presentation.

    And then on to AGG text… 😉

    Steve