Google Maps v3 - can I ensure smooth panning every time?

Question

My map has several hundred markers within a city. Usually no more than a 20 mile radius. I've read through the documentation and haven't found a way to set the init to automatically pan between every marker, no matter the distance. The default behavior is to pan if close, jump if far. I understand why they would do this since the map doesn't load the whole world at the selected zoom level and it could screw up if the distance was too great. However, I think it could handle 20 mile radius with minimal complaints.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Thanks

Answer 1

The threshold of the smooth panning does not depend on the distance between the current center and the new target. It depends on whether the change will require a full page scroll (horizontally and vertically) or not:

Quoting from the API Reference:

panTo(latLng:LatLng)

Changes the center of the map to the given LatLng. If the change is less than both the width and height of the map, the transition will be smoothly animated.

Therefore, as long as you are zoomed out such that your viewport is 20 miles in height and width, you should be guaranteed smooth panning for distances under 20 miles.

Answer 2

As Daniel has mentioned, the built-in panTo() function will not work for you if the two points are too far apart. You can manually animate it yourself if that's the case though: for each zoom level, figure out the distance covered by say 100 pixels. Now, when you have to pan to a point, you can use this information to figure out if the panTo() funciton will animate or jump. If the distance moved is so big that it will not animate, you should do the animation manually - compute some intermediate waypoints between your current map center and your destination, and pan to them in sequence.