Well, oh my oh my, *what was I wrong*!!
I am taking back my words about not being able to publish a 350+ layer Vector Tiles service...
I knew ESRI was working on Vector Tiles, but hadn't yet found the time to explore the new addition in Pro 1.4. I am not used to ESRI getting it right the first time, it usually takes a second round.
But I just published an Amsterdam OpenStreetMap extract to a Vector Tile service created with ArcGIS Pro, with all freaking 350+ thematic layers!
There are some caveats though:
- (Open cross) hatch polygon symbols are not yet supported in Vector Tiles, they end up being solid fills, which covers up stuff below it, which it really shouldn't.
- Also hatched line symbols fail, and draw as a simple line feature
- Random stipple pattern symbols seem replaced with equally spaced ones, meaning lesser cartography.
- Symbols that use a reference scale for their size (e.g. 1:10k), and should be scaled in size / made bigger or smaller at other scales, don't. This doesn't work with Vector Tiles and the current client rendering.
- Labelling is not as good as ESRI's Maplex label engine, there is quite a lot of labels missing.!But all in all, I am surprised to see this output so easily! I even published in a custom UTM zone 31N projection, instead of default Web Mercator.
The attached image shows both the Vector Tile (Right) and a PDF of the same data as comparison (Left). Notice the solid fill instead of cross hatch near Amsterdam Central Station, and a lot of missing labels.
Lastly, my first generation Tab S was able to handle opening this smaller extract as well.
![alt text][1]
[1]: https://help.openstreetmap.org/upfiles/ArcGIS_Renderer_Vector_Tiles.png
