Keep tiles visible while loading TileOverlay Map API v2 Android

Question

I would like my TileOverlay to behave like the real Google Maps. When you zoom in, the tile is still visible but pixelized until the new tile is downloaded.

The current behavior is: when you zoom in, tiles disappear and you see the ugly grid, and the user has to wait until the new tiles are loaded. This is kind of annoying.

Is there a solution to this problem?

Answer 1

I worked around this issue by "preloading" all zoomlevels before showing the map (just a copy/paste of the current state, need to clean up):

@UiThread
private void preloadAllZoomLevels(final float zoomLevel) {
    if (zoomLevel == map.getMaxZoomLevel()) {
        map.animateCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLngZoom(new LatLng(lat, lng), 7));
        mapFragmentContainer.animate().alpha(1f);
        return;
    }
    map.moveCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLngZoom(new LatLng(lat, lng), zoomLevel));

    final float nextZoomLevel = zoomLevel + 1;
    map.setOnMapLoadedCallback(new GoogleMap.OnMapLoadedCallback() {
        @Override
        public void onMapLoaded() {
            preloadAllZoomLevels(nextZoomLevel);
        }
    });
}

Answer 2

Essentially, every time GoogleMap wants to draw tile for specific coordinate - it asks you to provide this tile. You can use either static tile (see TileProvider) or you can provide URL, so GoogleMap goes to your web server and downloads this tile automatically (see UrlTileProvider)

Don't know is it work for you! But you can share details about your requirements if it's not working. Thanks