When MaxSea bought Nobeltec from Jeppesen last Fall, there were hints that one somewhat counter-intuitive result might be a new partnership between Furuno/MaxSea and Jeppesen, but I didn't think we'd see results this quickly. Today Furuno announced that NavNet 3D displays will soon support a worldwide portfolio of "C-Map by Jeppesen" MapMedia charts, in addition to the NOAA raster and vector and "Datacore by Navionics" MapMedia charts they already support, thus making them "the most versatile" chart plotters available. It sounds great, but there are some details to note...
The C-Maps we'll see on NavNet 3D displays -- and in MaxSea TimeZero, I'm sure, though it wasn't mentioned in the press release -- will not be the new C-Map 4D cartography package introduced last Fall. That's because Furuno and MaxSea made the decision a long time back to reprocess everyone's charts into their own MapMedia .MM3 format. That was not necessarily a bad decision as apparently it's what enables the extraordinarily fast and smooth TimeZero 2D and 3D chart presentations. But it does mean that all the extras in a vendor's chart package and presentation engine -- like 4D's POI data, port photos, and automatic routing -- are stripped out. TimeZero doesn't have any of those features now, regardless of chart type (though I wouldn't be surprised if they were in the works). You may also recall that some users were pretty unhappy with NN3D NOAA charts when they first came out. I think those issues were exaggerated, and I know Furuno has made a lot of improvements since (in fact, new "Edition 3" NOAA rasters and vectors, and new fishing charts, were also announced today, and you can download them now). But, still, some competitors might justifiably argue with the "most versatile" plotter claim. On the other hand, the core chart data is unquestionably the most important part of any cartography package, C-Map is famous for the quality and coverage of its core data, and Furuno MaxSea is offering a lot of core data choices. Prices for C-Map by Jeppesen MapMedia charts have not been set yet, but the Furuno release says that they'll start rolling out "early this spring," starting with the East Coast and Bahamas. They'll also be demoing them to folks like me in Miami next week.
This is slightly off topic, but anyway: Regarding the "fast and smooth" TimeZero chart display, and some comments about antialiased charts display made here a few weeks ago, I thought I would start to make an overview of different charting packages and the image quality of their chart display.
It has the fastest AND highest quality chart rendering I have seen yet. For both raster and vector. It has GRIB overlay and costs USD33! Plus its Windows/Linux/OSX. Although it lacks a lot of bells and whistles I immediately loved it.
The site is VERY anonymous. Does anyone have a clue where they came from?!?
That explains why time zero has a "touch of the admiral" feel about it.
Steve.
Still Struggling along With CNP. Awaiting CE ugrade now any day I'm sure.
Posted by: steverow at February 4, 2010 7:26 AM
I've never heard of Polarnavy but I have a demo version of MaxSea Time Zero Navigator running on my laptop and it is THE MOST impressive navigation software program I have ever used. It is simple to operate and I'm looking forward to using the live version on the boat. I will be helping a friend install Time Zero Explorer to his boat which has NavNet 3D so it should be very impressive with radar overlay.
Steve, I doubt that CNP will be upgraded to CE 2009. As I understand it, Maptech Navigation and Coastal Explorer are no longer partners. I have even heard that CNP might be upgraded to an entirely new software package, like maybe The Cap'n.
It's a shame really, because the original CE/CNP supported all the Maptech data nicely. In fact, CE 2009 still does, excepting the 3D stuff. Come to think of, The Cap'n does too, I believe. But the situation is confusing CNP users, as can be detected on the Maptech support forum:
No, Ive gone to Brad directly and he's letting me have the CE upgrade at same cost as US users.
Previously only available for US I believe.
What a nice bunch of people to deal with, Brad, Rick, Christine. Lovely outfit.
So looking forward to getting my package early next week I think according to FedEx tracking.
Birmingham Boat and Caravan/RV show end of this month here in UK. I'll look out for anything new and let you know.
Steve.
Posted by: steveow at February 4, 2010 11:35 AM
In response to the first reply regarding PolarNavy products. I am a primary code monkey behind Polar Navy applications.
First, thank you for noticing the quality of chart rendering. Concentrating on essential functionality while staying lean and, hopefully, intuitive is one of the core principles in our applications.
There really isn't much anonymous about us - WYSIWYG. If you or anyone else have a question - do not hesitate to contact us through all available means (email/forum/blog/phone - see www.polarnavy.com/feedback for complete details).
@John: Would you be willing to participate in a chart rendering quality overview? Maxsea does not provide a trial install and I don't know anyone running this. I thought I could do it for the Panbo home waters, so if you have the time, get both vector and raster charts centered at about N44°15 E68°55 at 1:10000 scale and screendump with as large chart window as you can get. Send the dumps (in some non-destructive format, PNG or TIFF) to jesper XXX journeyman.se (replacing XXX with the @)
I will do Expedition, Fugawi and the new guy PolarView. Oh and Garmin Mapsource too.
If someone want to ship in a CoastalExplorer one too, feel free.
I will post it all in with a good layout for comparision.
(Ben forgive me for this slight thread hijack but I didn't have this idea until a while after the last time the topic came up...)
Ben, a slight correction: Coastal Explorer 2009 does support the Contour 3D data that was included with the original Chart Navigator Pro (as well as the photo charts, topo maps, facilities database, and aerial photos).
Also, while Maptech does not currently have a replacement for CNP, Rose Point does offer a "competitive upgrade" from CNP to Coastal Explorer 2009.
I'm very interested to download these new "Edition 3" charts, and will do so this evening. The MaxSea TZ vector coverage has some serious issues, even where ENCs are available -- take a look at Richardson Bay in San Francisco, or the coastline at the CA/OR border.
Will report in when I've got the new charts loaded.
Posted by: Adam at February 4, 2010 5:18 PM
Unfortunately, MaxSea TZ still only offers extremely low resolution satellite photos for regions like Australia/New Zealand. They also have no plans to increase the quality to something that might actually be usable (according to a couple of their reps via email). Hopefully if enough non-US customers vent their frustration, they'll start to take notice.
The bathy charts are also very low resolution here (not worth using), and raster charts are non-existent.
Here's a an example of the Australian MaxSea satellite imagery, with a comparison of the same area to Google Maps data. The satellite imagery included for the US-region in Maxsea is of very good quality, similar to Google Maps at most zoom levels.
The example was taken at a zoom level that would still be very usable in the US mapping areas.
With all this talk of adding extra C-MAP functionality to MM3D charts, it would be nice to see these regional deficiencies addressed as well. I'm still very happy with MaxSea TZ, just disappointed that I can't take full advantage of the software.
Posted by: Beaver at February 4, 2010 8:15 PM
Adam, re the Richardson Bay (San Francisco) coverage, the Furuno NN3D vector charts had a problem with this area in their second release, but this was corrected mid-2009. Is it possible that the MaxSea charts didn't get the same update?
This is actually a satellite photo issue. The white box doesn't appear if you hide the sat photo overlay.
I'm going to download the new charts now and will upload more screen shots after I load them.
Posted by: Adam at February 4, 2010 11:55 PM
Yep -- Richardson Bay is fixed with the chart update. Excellent.
Posted by: Adam at February 5, 2010 12:25 AM
Hi All,
Well I would certainly be using the contour/3D/Photo features of KPM Charts if they had any as Brad suggests.
My last set of UK/EIRE charts from Maptech bought in November 2009 came badged KPM marine, and seemed to be a much stripped down version of what I used to buy...no boatlaunch facilities of any sort etc. Had to do a few fixes supplied courteously, but rather embarrassinlgy I think, by Evo Distribution (Memory Map)Maptech's distributors for UK and most of Europe, to get the tides and currents to work even including a new TIDES.DLL for CNP.
I have now jumped ship to CE. I know that the tides and currents dont work, but I have successfully copied over the Guide Book and Gazeteer for Europe to CE no prob.
I can flip out to a program called Tide Plotter
from Belfield Software http://www.belfieldsoftware.co.uk
which is popular in UK and elswhere and is a snip at £10 per year. Does US East coast and Aus versions as well.
As I have already paid for my tide data I would like to try and convert it to a format that CE can read..or hope that RP will take pity on me and put a hook in to pick up the Maptech DLL and data.
But the most important thing to me is getting ongoing support and upgrades which 'aint coming from KPM...tried their website lately??
Thats the main reason I jumped ship.
Steve.
g1fip@aol.com
Posted by: steveow at February 6, 2010 8:49 PM
I downloaded the latest Alaska SE raster charts for NN3D (version 3) and the data shown in the region of Smith Cove on 17426 is not as up to date as the latest NOAA posted chart for this region (issued in 2006). There has been a complete re-survey done in this area that is shown in the 2006 raster chart. I had reported a rock here in 1998.
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