Smoothly Animating a camera path on a mapview

Issue

I use my MapView (new API v2) with a list of points that belong to a route. They are pretty close together. My problem is, if I do the animation steps calling

        mMapInstance.animateCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLng(mNextPosition),ms, null);

The cameraman behaves like an intrepid grasshopper, and pans out and in exaggerately, and in the process al the slide cache gets @##@#@#!

What is the best approach to animate a path and get a uniform scrolling experience? Speed is not a problem, I would use low speed, I am interested in the smoothness...

I'll be more than happy if I could simulate a path I do with the finger.. because the map behaves beautifully and has a lot of tiles around cached. But any attempt to programmatically move the map results in the bold animation, white screen, reloading of tiles ...

Thanks in advance !!!

Solution

Well, I hope somebody provide a better answer, but with the many experiments I've done, I was unable to get a decent smooth scroll using animateCamera.

Regardless of only changing Lat/Lng for points close together, the cameraman kept making impressive takeoffs and landings.

I have had limited 'el-cheapo' animation success with the following routine:

    private void animateTo(double lat, double lon, double zoom, double bearing, double tilt, final int milliseconds) {

        if (mMapInstance==null) return;
        mMapInstance.setMapType(paramMapMode);
        mCurrentPosition=new LatLng(lat,lon);

        // animate camera jumps too much
        // so we set the camera instantly to the next point

        mMapInstance.moveCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newCameraPosition(new CameraPosition(mCurrentPosition,(float)zoom, (float)tilt, (float)bearing)));

        // give Android a break so it can load tiles. If I start the animation
        // without pause, no tile loading is done

        mMap.postDelayed(new Runnable(){
            @Override
            public void run() {
                // keeping numbers small you get a nice scrolling effect
                mMapInstance.animateCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.scrollBy(250-(float)Math.random()*500-250, 250-(float)Math.random()*500),milliseconds,null);

            }},500);

    }

This routine, called with milliseconds value in the 10000s, goes to one point then makes a flyover animation in a random direction keeping the damn zoom tranquilo. As the pixel values are very small, chances are it's everything cached.

Anybody with a better solution? Is it reasonable or possible to try to inject touch events to simulate a 'touched' fling?

Answered By - rupps