We are pleased to announce the latest release of openrouteservice – version 6.0 also known as Ganymede.
The main changes in this release are nestled in the backend code itself and have been performed to update the core GraphHopper library to a newer version.That said, there are also some new features in the release including alternative routes, round trip routing, and the use of a new routing algorithm which will now be described in more detail.
The new algorithm, called Core-ALT, is now available on the car and HGV profiles, and brings the ability to combine long-distance routing with dynamic restrictions. Previously this was always an “or” in that you could either have long-distance routes, or you could have routes that take into account restrictions such as border crossings. The Core-ALT algorithm drastically speeds up routing with restrictions, and so now you can do long-distance routes AND restrictions. So now it is possible to generate routes from Lisbon to the Nordkapp whilst avoiding Sweden (you can choose any country to avoid, we just use Sweden to make things difficult for the algorithm!). In fact, the caclulation of this route takes less than one second, and it is the rendering of it on a map which takes the time!
openrouteservice Lisbon to Nordkapp avoiding Sweden
A more practical example though is the ability to travel across parts of Europe whilst avoiding controlled borders (i.e.travelling between Lithuania and Poland but avoiding Russia).
Routing between Lithuania and Poland whilst avoiding controlled borders
The round trip and alternative routes can be queried using the openrouteservice API but are not yet available on the maps client (they will be there soon). These features will appear on our interactive documentation shortly.
Keep tuned for the next releases of openrouteservice where we will also be rolling out the Core-ALT algorithm to other profiles.