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Maximum number of point features in an OpenLayers vector layer

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27

11

In your experience, how many point features can be added to an OpenLayers vector layer (new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Point Layer")) before it goes unusably slow?

My use case is to display points from a database table. The user can decide which time frame to visualize. Therefore the result can be from very few to potentially 100,000s of points. I'd like to introduce a reasonable limit and warn the user if his query would return more features.

openlayers-2 web-mapping

share|improve this question

edited Apr 27 '11 at 5:00

Derek Swingley

13.8k13560

asked Apr 23 '11 at 13:00

underdark♦underdark

69.2k13178349

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Is there a standard browser being used? The limit will likely be different depending on which browser you're using.
  
  – Derek Swingley
  Apr 23 '11 at 16:21
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Mostly Firefox. It doesn't have to work in old IEs.
  
  – underdark♦
  Apr 23 '11 at 17:53
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Rather than warn a user you could switch from requesting vector data to returning the points as a WMS / image.
  
  – geographika
  Apr 24 '11 at 7:52
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @geographika: Usually I'd do that. But the user also gets to decide which database to connect to. I'd have to know all possible databases and have them available through a WMS. They don't even have PostGIS installed, i just fetch lat/lon columns.
  
  – underdark♦
  Apr 24 '11 at 20:16
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

27

11

In your experience, how many point features can be added to an OpenLayers vector layer (new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Point Layer")) before it goes unusably slow?

My use case is to display points from a database table. The user can decide which time frame to visualize. Therefore the result can be from very few to potentially 100,000s of points. I'd like to introduce a reasonable limit and warn the user if his query would return more features.

openlayers-2 web-mapping

share|improve this question

edited Apr 27 '11 at 5:00

Derek Swingley

13.8k13560

asked Apr 23 '11 at 13:00

underdark♦underdark

69.2k13178349

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Is there a standard browser being used? The limit will likely be different depending on which browser you're using.
  
  – Derek Swingley
  Apr 23 '11 at 16:21
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Mostly Firefox. It doesn't have to work in old IEs.
  
  – underdark♦
  Apr 23 '11 at 17:53
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Rather than warn a user you could switch from requesting vector data to returning the points as a WMS / image.
  
  – geographika
  Apr 24 '11 at 7:52
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @geographika: Usually I'd do that. But the user also gets to decide which database to connect to. I'd have to know all possible databases and have them available through a WMS. They don't even have PostGIS installed, i just fetch lat/lon columns.
  
  – underdark♦
  Apr 24 '11 at 20:16
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

In your experience, how many point features can be added to an OpenLayers vector layer (new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Point Layer")) before it goes unusably slow?

My use case is to display points from a database table. The user can decide which time frame to visualize. Therefore the result can be from very few to potentially 100,000s of points. I'd like to introduce a reasonable limit and warn the user if his query would return more features.

openlayers-2 web-mapping

share|improve this question

edited Apr 27 '11 at 5:00

Derek Swingley

13.8k13560

asked Apr 23 '11 at 13:00

underdark♦underdark

69.2k13178349

share|improve this question

edited Apr 27 '11 at 5:00

Derek Swingley

13.8k13560

asked Apr 23 '11 at 13:00

underdark♦underdark

69.2k13178349

share|improve this question

edited Apr 27 '11 at 5:00

Derek Swingley

13.8k13560

asked Apr 23 '11 at 13:00

underdark♦underdark

69.2k13178349

edited Apr 27 '11 at 5:00

Derek Swingley

13.8k13560

edited Apr 27 '11 at 5:00

Derek Swingley

13.8k13560

asked Apr 23 '11 at 13:00

underdark♦underdark

69.2k13178349

asked Apr 23 '11 at 13:00

underdark♦underdark

69.2k13178349

5 Answers
5

active

oldest

votes

38

I don't have a definitive answer for you but you I put together a page where you can play around with different numbers of points on an OL map: http://derekswingley.com/lab/olpts/

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 19 '17 at 12:13

tony gil

247421

answered Apr 23 '11 at 18:27

Derek SwingleyDerek Swingley

13.8k13560

• 
  
  
  

  
  5
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Derek there should be 'Great Answer with practical example' badge for that. Good to see the differences in speed overlying pointss.
  
  – Mapperz♦
  Apr 24 '11 at 4:11
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  3
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Very interesting! It makes me think to the geoipsum. Alternatively, it can be use as well to test performance : craigmmills.com/geoipsum (I don't know if there is a polygon number limit)
  
  – simo
  Apr 26 '11 at 11:53
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @So4ne that google app engine site died at some point, the same (nearly 5 year old) code is here: derekswingley.com/lab/olpts
  
  – Derek Swingley
  Jan 21 '16 at 18:53
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @nospor fallout from switching to https, updated and the site is back.
  
  – Derek Swingley
  Jun 30 '16 at 22:44
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @DerekSwingley I've made updated samples based on your idea using Leaflet, MapboxGL JS & OpenLayers 4 medium.com/@ThomasG77/… I put credits for your sample
  
  – ThomasG77
  Oct 27 '17 at 20:06
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 7 more comments

5

If the display goes slow because of the too high feature number, it means that the data to display are not suitable for the zoom level. Usually, when the features density goes too high, the display can not be readable anymore (see this example). Even if there was no processing limit and all the display devices were able to display 1000000000000 features in 0.001s on a small screen, the visualisation would remain impossible.

The Töpfer's radix law states that feature density should remain under a constant threshold whatever the zoom level. A way to solve this issue and adapt the data to the visualisation scale is to transform it using generalisation operations like this one or this other one.

share|improve this answer

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

1

answered Apr 28 '11 at 7:52

julienjulien

8,08534884

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  On the same topic: gis.stackexchange.com/q/4096/162
  
  – julien
  Apr 28 '11 at 7:52
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Very true. And regarding Openlayers, it uses cluster strategy to handle that. See example : openlayers.org/dev/examples/strategy-cluster.html
  
  – simo
  Apr 28 '11 at 9:02
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  For my current application, I simply connected the (GPS) points to lines (tracks). That already improves rendering time considerably.
  
  – underdark♦
  Apr 28 '11 at 9:10
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

3

I don't think it is not possible to give solid answer for this question. Rendering point/polygons fully depend on browser and hardware (CPU & memory) not with OpenLayers. I had problem with Openlayers and IE6 for one of the Lake (Polygon) rendering. but, it loaded nicely in Firefox. And best option would be monitor the memory and CPU usage with Chrome or some tools would be better.

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 24 '11 at 10:05

SenthilSenthil

1,009811

add a comment | 

1

As others, I have no answer regarding that question, but applying a BBox strategy could help you keeping just the needed data since it displays only features located within the given bounding box.

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 26 '11 at 11:52

simosimo

7,56512150

add a comment | 

0

In OpenLayers 6, there is a WebGL point renderer which should allow you to render 100s of thousands of features, with time based filtering. You May want to check out the latest version of the official workshop at https://openlayers.org/workshop/en/webgl/.

With OpenLayers 2, which I really don’t recommend to use any more, the maximum for acceptable frame rate will be a few hundred features only.

share

answered 2 mins ago

ahocevarahocevar

2,5291713

add a comment | 

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38

I don't have a definitive answer for you but you I put together a page where you can play around with different numbers of points on an OL map: http://derekswingley.com/lab/olpts/

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 19 '17 at 12:13

tony gil

247421

answered Apr 23 '11 at 18:27

Derek SwingleyDerek Swingley

13.8k13560

• 
  
  
  

  
  5
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Derek there should be 'Great Answer with practical example' badge for that. Good to see the differences in speed overlying pointss.
  
  – Mapperz♦
  Apr 24 '11 at 4:11
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  3
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Very interesting! It makes me think to the geoipsum. Alternatively, it can be use as well to test performance : craigmmills.com/geoipsum (I don't know if there is a polygon number limit)
  
  – simo
  Apr 26 '11 at 11:53
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @So4ne that google app engine site died at some point, the same (nearly 5 year old) code is here: derekswingley.com/lab/olpts
  
  – Derek Swingley
  Jan 21 '16 at 18:53
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @nospor fallout from switching to https, updated and the site is back.
  
  – Derek Swingley
  Jun 30 '16 at 22:44
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @DerekSwingley I've made updated samples based on your idea using Leaflet, MapboxGL JS & OpenLayers 4 medium.com/@ThomasG77/… I put credits for your sample
  
  – ThomasG77
  Oct 27 '17 at 20:06
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 7 more comments

38

I don't have a definitive answer for you but you I put together a page where you can play around with different numbers of points on an OL map: http://derekswingley.com/lab/olpts/

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 19 '17 at 12:13

tony gil

247421

answered Apr 23 '11 at 18:27

Derek SwingleyDerek Swingley

13.8k13560

• 
  
  
  

  
  5
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Derek there should be 'Great Answer with practical example' badge for that. Good to see the differences in speed overlying pointss.
  
  – Mapperz♦
  Apr 24 '11 at 4:11
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  3
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Very interesting! It makes me think to the geoipsum. Alternatively, it can be use as well to test performance : craigmmills.com/geoipsum (I don't know if there is a polygon number limit)
  
  – simo
  Apr 26 '11 at 11:53
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @So4ne that google app engine site died at some point, the same (nearly 5 year old) code is here: derekswingley.com/lab/olpts
  
  – Derek Swingley
  Jan 21 '16 at 18:53
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @nospor fallout from switching to https, updated and the site is back.
  
  – Derek Swingley
  Jun 30 '16 at 22:44
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @DerekSwingley I've made updated samples based on your idea using Leaflet, MapboxGL JS & OpenLayers 4 medium.com/@ThomasG77/… I put credits for your sample
  
  – ThomasG77
  Oct 27 '17 at 20:06
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 7 more comments

I don't have a definitive answer for you but you I put together a page where you can play around with different numbers of points on an OL map: http://derekswingley.com/lab/olpts/

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 19 '17 at 12:13

tony gil

247421

answered Apr 23 '11 at 18:27

Derek SwingleyDerek Swingley

13.8k13560

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 19 '17 at 12:13

tony gil

247421

answered Apr 23 '11 at 18:27

Derek SwingleyDerek Swingley

13.8k13560

edited Jul 19 '17 at 12:13

tony gil

247421

edited Jul 19 '17 at 12:13

tony gil

247421

answered Apr 23 '11 at 18:27

Derek SwingleyDerek Swingley

13.8k13560

answered Apr 23 '11 at 18:27

Derek SwingleyDerek Swingley

13.8k13560

5

If the display goes slow because of the too high feature number, it means that the data to display are not suitable for the zoom level. Usually, when the features density goes too high, the display can not be readable anymore (see this example). Even if there was no processing limit and all the display devices were able to display 1000000000000 features in 0.001s on a small screen, the visualisation would remain impossible.

The Töpfer's radix law states that feature density should remain under a constant threshold whatever the zoom level. A way to solve this issue and adapt the data to the visualisation scale is to transform it using generalisation operations like this one or this other one.

share|improve this answer

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

1

answered Apr 28 '11 at 7:52

julienjulien

8,08534884

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  On the same topic: gis.stackexchange.com/q/4096/162
  
  – julien
  Apr 28 '11 at 7:52
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Very true. And regarding Openlayers, it uses cluster strategy to handle that. See example : openlayers.org/dev/examples/strategy-cluster.html
  
  – simo
  Apr 28 '11 at 9:02
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  For my current application, I simply connected the (GPS) points to lines (tracks). That already improves rendering time considerably.
  
  – underdark♦
  Apr 28 '11 at 9:10
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

5

If the display goes slow because of the too high feature number, it means that the data to display are not suitable for the zoom level. Usually, when the features density goes too high, the display can not be readable anymore (see this example). Even if there was no processing limit and all the display devices were able to display 1000000000000 features in 0.001s on a small screen, the visualisation would remain impossible.

The Töpfer's radix law states that feature density should remain under a constant threshold whatever the zoom level. A way to solve this issue and adapt the data to the visualisation scale is to transform it using generalisation operations like this one or this other one.

share|improve this answer

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

1

answered Apr 28 '11 at 7:52

julienjulien

8,08534884

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  On the same topic: gis.stackexchange.com/q/4096/162
  
  – julien
  Apr 28 '11 at 7:52
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Very true. And regarding Openlayers, it uses cluster strategy to handle that. See example : openlayers.org/dev/examples/strategy-cluster.html
  
  – simo
  Apr 28 '11 at 9:02
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  For my current application, I simply connected the (GPS) points to lines (tracks). That already improves rendering time considerably.
  
  – underdark♦
  Apr 28 '11 at 9:10
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

If the display goes slow because of the too high feature number, it means that the data to display are not suitable for the zoom level. Usually, when the features density goes too high, the display can not be readable anymore (see this example). Even if there was no processing limit and all the display devices were able to display 1000000000000 features in 0.001s on a small screen, the visualisation would remain impossible.

The Töpfer's radix law states that feature density should remain under a constant threshold whatever the zoom level. A way to solve this issue and adapt the data to the visualisation scale is to transform it using generalisation operations like this one or this other one.

share|improve this answer

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

1

answered Apr 28 '11 at 7:52

julienjulien

8,08534884

share|improve this answer

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

1

answered Apr 28 '11 at 7:52

julienjulien

8,08534884

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

1

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

1

answered Apr 28 '11 at 7:52

julienjulien

8,08534884

answered Apr 28 '11 at 7:52

julienjulien

8,08534884

3

I don't think it is not possible to give solid answer for this question. Rendering point/polygons fully depend on browser and hardware (CPU & memory) not with OpenLayers. I had problem with Openlayers and IE6 for one of the Lake (Polygon) rendering. but, it loaded nicely in Firefox. And best option would be monitor the memory and CPU usage with Chrome or some tools would be better.

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 24 '11 at 10:05

SenthilSenthil

1,009811

add a comment | 

3

I don't think it is not possible to give solid answer for this question. Rendering point/polygons fully depend on browser and hardware (CPU & memory) not with OpenLayers. I had problem with Openlayers and IE6 for one of the Lake (Polygon) rendering. but, it loaded nicely in Firefox. And best option would be monitor the memory and CPU usage with Chrome or some tools would be better.

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 24 '11 at 10:05

SenthilSenthil

1,009811

add a comment | 

I don't think it is not possible to give solid answer for this question. Rendering point/polygons fully depend on browser and hardware (CPU & memory) not with OpenLayers. I had problem with Openlayers and IE6 for one of the Lake (Polygon) rendering. but, it loaded nicely in Firefox. And best option would be monitor the memory and CPU usage with Chrome or some tools would be better.

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 24 '11 at 10:05

SenthilSenthil

1,009811

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 24 '11 at 10:05

SenthilSenthil

1,009811

answered Apr 24 '11 at 10:05

SenthilSenthil

1,009811

answered Apr 24 '11 at 10:05

SenthilSenthil

1,009811

1

As others, I have no answer regarding that question, but applying a BBox strategy could help you keeping just the needed data since it displays only features located within the given bounding box.

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 26 '11 at 11:52

simosimo

7,56512150

add a comment | 

1

As others, I have no answer regarding that question, but applying a BBox strategy could help you keeping just the needed data since it displays only features located within the given bounding box.

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 26 '11 at 11:52

simosimo

7,56512150

add a comment | 

As others, I have no answer regarding that question, but applying a BBox strategy could help you keeping just the needed data since it displays only features located within the given bounding box.

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 26 '11 at 11:52

simosimo

7,56512150

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 26 '11 at 11:52

simosimo

7,56512150

answered Apr 26 '11 at 11:52

simosimo

7,56512150

answered Apr 26 '11 at 11:52

simosimo

7,56512150

0

In OpenLayers 6, there is a WebGL point renderer which should allow you to render 100s of thousands of features, with time based filtering. You May want to check out the latest version of the official workshop at https://openlayers.org/workshop/en/webgl/.

With OpenLayers 2, which I really don’t recommend to use any more, the maximum for acceptable frame rate will be a few hundred features only.

share

answered 2 mins ago

ahocevarahocevar

2,5291713

add a comment | 

0

In OpenLayers 6, there is a WebGL point renderer which should allow you to render 100s of thousands of features, with time based filtering. You May want to check out the latest version of the official workshop at https://openlayers.org/workshop/en/webgl/.

With OpenLayers 2, which I really don’t recommend to use any more, the maximum for acceptable frame rate will be a few hundred features only.

share

answered 2 mins ago

ahocevarahocevar

2,5291713

add a comment | 

In OpenLayers 6, there is a WebGL point renderer which should allow you to render 100s of thousands of features, with time based filtering. You May want to check out the latest version of the official workshop at https://openlayers.org/workshop/en/webgl/.

With OpenLayers 2, which I really don’t recommend to use any more, the maximum for acceptable frame rate will be a few hundred features only.

share

answered 2 mins ago

ahocevarahocevar

2,5291713

share

answered 2 mins ago

ahocevarahocevar

2,5291713

answered 2 mins ago

ahocevarahocevar

2,5291713

answered 2 mins ago

ahocevarahocevar

2,5291713