Has anyone noticed any road modifications on the world map?
My area seems to have been completely re-done. It no longer shows the road that leads to a playground near my house (heck even the playground has been wiped off the map, but the pokestop remained), and for some reason there's now a mini road between some buildings that wasn't even shown there. I see new building rectangles too, although for some reason one of them is jutting out into the road.
Answers
No changes to the parks here except the little playground used to be dark green, now it looks as if it's part of a building, which it's not. There's a 2nd playground in the distance, it's no longer dark green. And no idea why the road is missing though. Heck there's another road that would lead past a restaurant, even that is closed for some reason, even though I just went through that place this evening. And the rectangles are mostly not aligned with the bright green areas.
On the note of performance, capturing pokemon seems to no longer lag for me. Hopefully fighting will allow me to actually dodge next time, because I have not managed to dodge properly before so I just gave up on dodging altogether.
The map changed for Australia a couple of days ago, and it seems for the rest of the world it happened more recently.
It seems that have migrated from Google Maps to OSM (Open Street Maps) for the in game images.
You may like this...
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/7goj3v/in_game_map_now_shows_openstreetmaps_instead_of/
Well, they're not as accurate. For example, where I see a new road, I know the access is blocked so I'd be unable to go there. But hopefully it has improved something. I'm not seeing anything else other than capturing being smoother.
But lol I like that comment on that page:
"[–]ellioldALABAMA 109 points 5 hours ago
Ouch, your area has an OSM editor that needs to chill out..."
Google has a professional team who have a job to ensure it is accurate and up to date.
OSM is publicly maintained and relies on people volunteering to add information, and hopes that no 'trolls' come along and just change things for fun, or for personal gain, or just because they think it is funny to mess with something others try to achieve....or even someone just makes a genuine massive mistake while editing.
...and Niantic chose the second option to 'upgrade' with.
Exactly what happened in my area.
1: Road to playground disappeared from map
2: Even the playground disappeared from map
3: A Pokestop at the playground remained though
4: New roads in between some buildings that weren't shown before
5: New building rectangles
6: One building rectangle is jutting out onto the road