Winter is in full swing outside our windows in the northern hemisphere, we’ve swapped our bikes and trekking boots for skis and snowshoes, and we’ve switched LoMap to a winter theme in Locus. But our blog isn’t here for some general chatter. Let’s recap the pile of news that November and December brought.

New start

Literally! The new version of Locus Map has a completely redesigned launch and boot-up of the application. It’s much faster, as a lot of settings and your data are loaded in the background. It’s also smoother and prettier thanks to a nice opening animation (hello to our graphic designer Zdenda).

The route planner, continued

We’re still tuning the route planner for you because we want to have the best one in the world. We want it to come up with exactly the routes you need. And what’s new now?

A new selection of routing profiles

A little heads-up – the route planner uses a little machine we call a router to automatically draw routes along paths and trails. This offers a number of settings depending on the type of activity on the route – and these are profiles. For example, the “hiking” profile will generate a route along paths and hiking trails. Well, since the number of profiles and their parameters is growing in our LoRouter, we had to rework their selection. We simply couldn’t fit them into the original solution anymore.

This new feature does not yet apply to the activity selection for the “Navigate to” – direct navigation to a specified destination. On the contrary, we have now simplified it a bit, as a big change is coming. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

All for better cycling routes

We have added additional parameters to all cycling profiles that affect route generation. So you can turn on and off tunnels, cycle paths, ferries or stairs, depending on what bike you’re riding and what you’re up to. And, there are the five levels of terrain difficulty for mountain bikes we wrote about last time. If you have a tip for another useful customization, post it in the comments, we’d be happy to consider it. 

Gravel versus touring

The much-loved gravel has now been added to the group of bike profiles. With this profile, the LoRouter will push you harder on gravel and firm forest roads and is not afraid of hills. We’ve toned down the original touring a bit so that it plans trips more on bike paths and doesn’t bother you as much with climbing.

Online or offline, still the same LoRouter

Thanks to configuration sharing, both versions of our router now offer the same profiles and their parameters. So with or without the internet, you have the same planning options. Soon we will see this option in the web planner as well.

If you’re adventurous, you’re properly adventurous

In the previous version of Locus Map, we introduced displaying warnings about various pitfalls on the route – unprotected crossings, difficult terrain, barriers, etc. However, the more adventurous among you immediately said they’d rather enjoy the ride with all the risks. And so we’ve accommodated them – you can turn off the warnings centrally in the settings, at three levels – on the map, in the planner and when navigating.  

And lots of minor improvements

• Something for the geocachers – we continue to add features directly into Locus Map so that they are available without the need to download the Geocaching4Locus add-on. We’re adding cache search by GC code (don’t worry, the Live Map is in the works).
• Aspect shading – something for those hunting for beautiful sunrise or sunset shots
• the ability to display the dashboard as a separate screen – appreciated by technical types who are bothered by the numbers above the map and want to have them nicely visible extra. This option can also save battery significantly, as the map is not redrawn below the dashboard during activity.

Refreshed Locus Map Watch

We’ve resuscitated the popular Wear OS smartwatch add-on so it meets the latest standards and works on the most advanced devices. Furthermore, we’ve improved its UI and added a dark mode to save battery. 

So head out for a snow adventure, the conditions are excellent!

Photos by Locus Map,  Alessio Soggetti and Dmitrii Vaccinium on Unsplash