How Often Does Pokemon Go Gps Update

The post-obit article is intended equally a summary guide or "white paper" of sorts intended for interested travelers and besides potentially Niantic engineers and futurity AR game developers. The author, WoodWose, is a Silph Road Enquiry Group Scientist Emeritus who has had a long-term involvement in researching the interactions between Pokémon Get and OpenStreetMap (OSM). This is a slight departure from regular Silph Research Group studies, simply we hope that it is useful still.

About once a calendar week, as if by clockwork, someone on The Silph Road subreddit invariably asks:

"When will OpenStreetMap data be updated in Pokémon GO?"

This is a fair question. Niantic has used OSM data to power various features of Pokémon GO since the very starting time, but the answer is simply something we cannot know. Niantic updates their maps when they need to. There is no published schedule. Over Pokémon Become'southward three-twelvemonth lifespan, there have been many months, even years, between updates of unlike map-related features.

Equally time has passed, withal, the map data that Niantic uses has been investigated, analyzed, and most importantly experienced past trainers around the world. Through those observations, several flaws in the system have become increasingly apparent. The following problems past no means constitute a definitive list, but they do stand for a small scattering of bug that are either impacting a significant number of trainers or affecting specific Pokémon GO communities in a peculiarly severe way.

Cardinal Points

1. The OSM tag natural=bay completely blocks wild Pokémon appearing on some populated islands. There is no OSM standard to say that islands shouldn't exist covered by this tag.
  Update – October 16, 2019: The Saronic Gulf (the principal instance used in this article) has regained wild Pokémon. Other locations, such equally the Gulf of Cádiz remain without wild Pokémon. Despite the change, it appears that natural=bay has not been removed from the list of spawn blocking tags exterior of the Saronic Gulf.
2. Gyms located in parks that were mapped as "multipolygon relations" or surrounded by closed "highways" (which in OSM includes paths, footpaths, and dirt tracks) are unable to host EX raids.
  ✓ Update – October 10, 2019: Niantic has rolled out an EX raid update. Non only were both EX raid related recommendations in this commodity implemented, the hidden map data that controls EX raid eligibility was also updated to a newer version, perhaps matching the map data that is currently used to determine nesting areas!
3. Certain tags representing large geological features cause nests, namely natural=plateau and natural=valley. These map tags are able to eclipse entire urban areas, flooding them with a single species of Pokémon for weeks at a time and interfering with "increased appearance" events.
  ✓ Update – May 14, 2021: All of the major known nests associated with natural=plateau andnatural=valley appear to have been removed from that game. In particular, the removal of the plateau nests in Berlin was acknowledged in the release notes for version 0.207. At the time of writing, information technology is unclear if natural=plateau andnatural=valley no longer cause nests globally, or if the fixes were targeted at certain locations.
4. The map information used for different game features has been sourced at different times. There are currently gaps of over a year between different game-map features.
5. Certain important tags associated with nests and biomes are non displayed on the visual game map at all.

Bays Blocking Spawns

Sure OSM tags accept the event of limiting or fifty-fifty eliminating Pokémon spawns within their mapped areas. One such instance isnatural=bay. Like many other water-related tags, it blocks wild Pokémon from appearing within any surface area on which information technology is present – with the exception of Pokémon spawns from items such equally incense and lures.

Every time blocked areas have been updated using newer map data, the tag natural=bay has consistently acquired issues for various coastal trainer communities beyond the world: time, and time, and time once more.

While similar issues take occurred with other tags (such equally university campuses being incorrectly tagged), the unfortunate consequence with blocking natural=bay is that information technology effectively cuts off already isolated island communities from a significant portion of the Pokémon Get feel and leaves trainers (who have often invested time and coin in the game) unable to participate in fundamental gameplay elements for months at a fourth dimension.

Image: The Saronic Gulf, westward of Athens, Greece was covered by a spawn-blocking natural=bay tag, shown above as red. In this case, 3146.86km square kilometers encompassing several populated islands have been left without wild Pokémon since March 2019. The problem was quickly "fixed" on OSM but hasn't been updated in Pokémon Get. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

To compound the issue farther, the OSM wiki page for the natural=bay tag states:

"There is currently no definitive rule if small islands within a bay should be mapped every bit part of the bay or if they should be excluded of [sic] the bay surface area equally inner rings of the respective multipolygon relation."

This means that some OSM mappers do non include populated islands every bit "inners" of natural=bay areas and tin can't necessarily be faulted for mapping in this manner. As a result, many populated islands in bays are covered by tagging that results in wild Pokémon being completely absent-minded, regardless of the level of urban evolution or celebrated GPS/cellular activeness. Unless this is inverse, more islands will well-nigh certainly be impacted past the same trouble in future updates as additional bay features are inevitably added to OSM.

Lack of EX Eligibility In Park Areas

Putting bated the aging map data used for EX Raids, in that location are additional outstanding issues that continue to impact EX eligibility.

Ii such issues are:

1) Gyms located in parks that are mapped equally "multipolygon relations" (circuitous map areas unremarkably drawn using more than one line) have never been eligible unless another gene such as sponsorship is at play. This has been the case since the EX Raid feature was officially released. These same parks are otherwise completely capable of condign nests in-game and frequently represent the largest, nearly socially/culturally pregnant parks in urban areas (the Sydney Majestic Botanic Gardens is one such instance).

2) Gyms surrounded past simple airtight highway loops cannot exist EX Eligible. In OSM, the key highway= indicates anything from a narrow walking track (highway=path) to a multi-lane freeway (highway=motorway). Blocking EX eligibility on gyms surrounded by closed highway loops may have been intended to prevent crowds of trainers gathering around POIs in the middle of roundabouts and other like roads, but it too has the upshot of blocking many gyms from EX eligibility if they are surrounded by any closed highway= loop.

If the intention was specifically to block EX Raids in roundabouts and similar features, information technology may exist more effective to apply the exclusion to gyms surrounded by airtight means tagged with the key junction=, or more specifically tagged with junction=roundabout equally opposed to highway=.

Large Geological Features Causing Nests

Nests are one of the oldest features in Pokémon GO and were one of the earliest community-edifice elements as trainers shared the locations of sought-after species with each migration.

Nesting tags can generally be allocated into several basic categories:

park and recreation features (e.g. parks, gardens, playgrounds, and recreation grounds)
"open" natural features (e.g. meadows, heaths, and grasslands)
agricultural features (eastward.g. vineyards, farmland, and orchards)

Typically, these tags represent open green spaces that are non significantly covered past built-upward urban development and large residential populations.

Two tags accept come to stand out equally exceptions to the to a higher place descriptions:

natural=plateau (multiple cases across Berlin, Germany)
natural=valley (evident in Považské Podolie, Slovakia)

Unabridged valleys and plateaus condign nests is problematic in that they do non represent open greenish "park-like" spaces and are conspicuously not the intended functionality of the nest feature. The aforementioned tags just occur a small number of times globally. In several cases, they intersect congenital-up towns and cities, impacting significant areas sometimes consisting of hundreds of square kilometers.

Epitome: A pregnant portion of the city of Berlin, Federal republic of germany, is covered past nesting natural=plateau areas, shown as dark light-green. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

While some may appreciate the novelty of these "meganests," there are a number of issues associated with them, including:

The pool of available nesting species is dominated by older, common, and non-meta relevant Pokémon (a different topic in its ain correct), and this results in these locations being swamped by a single kind of undesirable Pokémon for weeks at a time.
Nests have often been observed to limit or even block the effects of particular events where select rare Pokémon announced more frequently in the wild. Trainers who are located deep inside these areas are all but excluded unless they travel significant distances.

A similar issue occurred with the landmass of Long Island, New York. Fortunately, in the case of Long Island, the tag that resulted in the nest was added in mistake. Later several months and a lot of noise from the Long Island trainer customs, a nest update resolved the trouble. Conversely, the tags associated with plateaus and valleys are unconventional merely still accurate, meaning that they cannot only exist removed from OSM without making changes that equate to tagging for the renderer.

And then, if updating to newer "correct" map information isn't the solution for these meganests, what is?

Some travelers hold the hypothesis that Niantic simply gear up all tags that contain the keys natural= and leisure= as nests then took steps to remove those that may cause issues. Examples include the tags natural=wood and leisure=nature_reserve; both do not appear to have nesting properties despite still allowing spawns within their boundaries. If Niantic is capable of removing certain tags from their "nesting list," this may exist the appropriate class of action for tags such as natural=plateau and natural=valley.

The Game Map as a Visual Means of Advice

Because the map data used for Pokémon GO'south current visual game map was sourced during December of 2017, whereas EX eligibility was sourced July 2016 and nest map data was sourced February 2019, there is a disconnect between what trainers encounter on the game map and what they experience in gameplay. This disconnect is compounded further because Niantic has frequently pushed notifications or made statements including:

Different Pokémon may exist actualization in parks around you. It's a great time to explore your local parks!

The following Pokémon will exist appearing more than often in the wild around water…

These have frequently left travelers wondering – which parks? what water? The game map does not return the majority of nesting "park" features; many kinds of waterways do not display in-game despite having an obvious effect when information technology comes to increasing water types in their proximity; and the disconnect in time between certain map-related features further adds to the confusion.

Is information technology really ideal that trainers must utilize external map sources and database queries only to identify whether a park "counts" or if Pokémon GO recognizes that a item body of water exists?

There are 2 distinct solutions to these problems:

Firstly, Niantic could synchronize the versions of all map-derived features so that game visuals, nests, and EX eligibility match, conspicuously communicating the surroundings equally Pokémon GO understands it.

Secondly, Niantic could return more tags on the visual map. Currently, only 3 out of twenty+ known OSM tags associated with nests¹ show as night dark-green, and OSM mapped waterways such equallywaterway=stream and waterway=river do not render at all despite their importance to particular varieties of water-blazon Pokémon.

What Niantic Has Done Correct

It may seem easy to disparage Niantic over some of the issues discussed above. It is important to acknowledge, however, that equally one of the offset of its kind, Pokémon GO has achieved a lot equally a global augmented reality game.

Travelers can motion to a distant country, where the language, urban design, and culture might be completely singled-out, and yet Pokémon Get'south gameplay then ofttimes manages to adapt, presenting a unique nonetheless somehow familiar and deceptively detailed gameplay experience tying together the mapped urban fabric, biomes, atmospheric condition and countless points of interest.

One could only imagine the kinds of discussions that occurred behind airtight doors in Niantic'south offices as those responsible debated the broad variety of map features that ended upwards contributing to nests, biomes and other game features. It'south likely some hard design choices had to exist fabricated.

Niantic has as well shown that they exercise have the ability to listen and adapt, albeit at their ain pace. The addition of more than Pokémon to parks and some mapped paths with a focus on rural areas was a nifty outset and made many previously unviable locations at least somewhat playable. Additionally, the update that removed the Long Isle "meganest" in New York allowed thousands of trainers to participate in events where previously they were unintentionally restricted from doing then.

Parting Words

It would be to Niantic's benefit to resolve these bug promptly – Niantic's use of map data is a critical element when it comes to players' interactions with their platform. OSM data plays an of import role in Pokémon Get as well equally other titles such every bit Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Ignoring these problems or placing them on the backburner can leave impacted trainers in a state of affairs where they might direct their energies and enthusiasm in less than desirable directions, such equally seeking out exploits or map vandalism. Further, Niantic arguably has a responsibility as a trailblazer in this genre to ensure that they establish and maintain fair, loftier-quality ways for their users and customers to interact with the game worlds that they create, as they will set the standard for AR titles yet to come.

Until side by side time, see you on the highway=footway, travelers!

-Scientist (Emeritus) WoodWose

With special thanks to Scientists Cham1nade and Skyeofthetyger for always putting upwards with my inconsistent use of the Oxford comma, and for being amazing, patient re-create editors.

Give-and-take regarding OpenStreetMap and Pokémon Become near inevitably leads to a spike in vandalism of the platform that dedicated mappers have to spend hours tracking and cleaning upwardly when they could instead be working on improving the map for everyone. That being said, the Meowth is well and truly out of the bag when it comes to OSM and Pokémon GO, and many of the above bug result in many illegitimate edits in their ain right. If you are looking at adding something to OSM, maybe start past checking out the OSM wiki, remembering to go along your contributions fair and honest!

Footnotes

¹ The following tags cause nests and EX eligibility, and are known to render equally Nighttime Green on the game map:
leisure=golf_course, leisure=park and landuse=recreation_ground.

The following tags have been observed to cause nests and EX eligibility (assuming all tags are shared), merely do not appear on the game map:

leisure=garden, leisure=pitch, leisure=playground, leisure=recreation_ground, landuse=farmland, landuse=farmyard, landuse=grass, landuse=greenfield, landuse=meadow, landuse=orchard, landuse=vineyard, natural=grassland, natural=heath, natural=moor and natural=scrub, too as the discussed nesting oddities natural=plateau and natural=valley.

**Appendix: Timeline of known OSM to Pokémon Go Updates**

Date	In-Game Map Visuals	Nests & Blocks	EX Eligibility	Path Spawns
7-16	Global Google Maps visuals	OSM agile at launch	OSM data sourced	OSM information sourced?
viii-xvi			↓	↓
nine-16			↓	↓
10-16			↓	↓
eleven-16			↓	↓
12-16	New OSM data sourced	New OSM information sourced	↓	Implemented
01-17	Republic of korea just OSM visuals	Updated	↓
02-17			↓
03-17			↓
04-17			↓
05-17			↓
06-17			↓
07-17			↓
08-17	New OSM data sourced		↓
09-17	↓		↓
ten-17	↓		↓
11-17	Global OSM visuals		Implemented
12-17	New OSM data sourced
01-18	Updated
02-18
03-18
04-18		New OSM data sourced + updated
05-18
06-18
07-18
08-18
09-18
10-18
11-eighteen
12-18
01-xix
02-19		New OSM information sourced	OSM data sourced? (Unconfirmed)	New OSM data sourced
03-19		Updated	↓	Updated
04-xix			↓
05-nineteen			↓
06-19			↓
07-19			↓
08-nineteen			↓
09-19			↓
10-19			Updated

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