Question

We want to use MapKit / MKOverlayView to create a map that looks totally customized. We would create a PNG that has the local streets / points of interest, and match that up to MapKit map.

I am finding some info that seems to infer that this is possible, but all the tutorials and examples I find are dealing with drawing lines and polygons, which is not what we want.

I have also considered the possibility of creating the PNG, grabbing the user’s location and mathematically calculating their position on the image… but that seems like a bigger task than potentially using a MKOverlayView

Any ideas about how to get started would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

You could start by looking at Open Maps I believe you can customise their maps by creating your own XML file (different styles of roads etc..) You can then download the map tiles as PNGs or lazy load them in your app.

Google maps on the other hand you are not allowed to modify or store in you application.

However if you choose the open maps approach you have to effectively roll your own MapKit. This is tricky but very much possible. Start by looking at the apple developer videos on tiled scroll views.