FAQ - Frequently asked questions

In this section you will find answers to frequently asked questions. These are organized by subject area.

Question:

What are the supported operating environment for PTV Map&Guide?

Answer:

PTV Map&Guide is intended for use with a locally installed, supported web browser on a dedicated workstation.

Terminal server environments, including Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS), Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, and comparable multi-user environments, are not among the supported operating environments. Performance, stability, and functionality cannot be guaranteed for installations in such environments.

Question:

I'm using PTV Map&Guide via a terminal server connection. The program is extremely slow, and I'm seeing high CPU usage. What can I do to improve performance?

Answer:

PTV Map&Guide uses WebGL technology to render interactive maps and visualize routes in real time. WebGL relies on your computer's graphics processing unit (GPU) to perform these rendering tasks efficiently.

When hardware acceleration is disabled in your browser, all graphics rendering falls back to software-based processing on the CPU. This causes:

  • Excessive CPU usage (often reaching 90–100%), making your system unresponsive

  • Slow and stuttering map interactions (panning, zooming, rotating)

  • Increased power consumption and heat, especially on laptops

  • Degraded overall application performance, including slower route calculations and UI responsiveness

Enabling hardware acceleration allows the GPU to handle graphics workload, keeping CPU usage low and ensuring a smooth user experience.

To notify our users of this problem, the following message toast appears if the GPU hardware acceleration is not enabled or available.

Note: Please note that terminal server environments, including Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS), Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, and comparable multi-user environments, are not among the supported operating environments for PTV Map&Guide.

Solution:

How to check if hardware acceleration is enabled:

  • Google Chrome

    • Type chrome://gpu in the address bar and press Enter.

    • Under "Graphics Feature Status", look for the entries "WebGL" and "Rasterization". If they show "Hardware accelerated", your GPU is active. If they show Software only or Disabled, hardware acceleration is not being used.

  • Mozilla Firefox

    • Type about:support in the address bar and press Enter.

    • Scroll down to the "Graphics" section.

    • Look for "Compositing" — it should say "WebRender (GPU-accelerated)".

    • Check "WebGL 1 Driver Renderer" — it should display your GPU name (e.g., "ANGLE (NVIDIA...)"), not a software renderer like "llvmpipe" or "SwiftShader".

  • Microsoft Edge

    • Type edge://gpu in the address bar and press Enter.

    • Under "Graphics Feature Status", look for "WebGL" and "Rasterization". If they show "Hardware accelerated", your GPU is active. If they show Software only or Disabled, hardware acceleration is not being used.

How to enable hardware acceleration

  • Google Chrome

    • Click the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner and select "Settings".

    • In the left sidebar, click "System".

    • Toggle "Use graphics acceleration when available" to "On".

    • Click "Relaunch" to restart the browser.

    • If the setting is already enabled but GPU features still show as disabled:

      • Type chrome://flags in the address bar.

      • Search for "Override software rendering list".

      • Set it to "Enabled".

      • Click "Relaunch".

  • Mozilla Firefox

    • Click the hamburger menu ( ) in the top-right corner and select "Settings".

    • Scroll down to the "Performance" section.

    • Uncheck "Use recommended performance settings" (if checked).

    • Ensure "Use hardware acceleration when available" is checked.

    • Restart Firefox.

    • If hardware acceleration is still not working:

      • Type about:config in the address bar and accept the warning.

      • Search for "layers.acceleration.disabled" and ensure it is set to "false".

      • Search for "webgl.disabled" and ensure it is set to "false".

      • Restart Firefox.

  • Microsoft Edge

    • Click the three-dot menu (⋯) in the top-right corner and select "Settings".

    • In the left sidebar, click "System and performance".

    • Toggle "Use graphics acceleration when available" to "On".

    • Click "Restart" to restart the browser.

Troubleshooting:

If hardware acceleration is enabled in your browser settings but the application still reports it as disabled:

  • Update your graphics driver — Outdated drivers may cause the browser to fall back to software rendering. Visit your GPU manufacturer's website to download the latest driver.

  • Check for browser extensions — Some extensions can interfere with GPU acceleration. Try disabling extensions or testing in a private/incognito window.

  • Restart your computer — After a driver update, a full restart may be required for changes to take effect.

  • Check operating system settings — On some systems, GPU usage may be restricted by power-saving modes or OS-level graphics settings.

If the issue persists after trying all steps above, please contact your IT administrator to verify that GPU access is not restricted by a group policy or system configuration.

Question:

I would like to create a bookmark in my browser to access the route planner. However, the address of the website contains a long, untraceable character string. This string is dynamic. This means that the link may be invalid the next time I try it.

Answer:

  1. Create the bookmark with the long link.

  2. Now open the bookmark for editing in the bookmark manager of your browser.

  3. Here you can now replace the above character string with a hyphen.

  4. Confirm this change with <Save>.
Result: The next time the bookmark is called up, the character string is regenerated, but the link in the bookmark does not lose its validity.

Question:

My import in the data manager fails. A message alerts me to possible data format problems. What format must the coordinates of the addresses to be imported be in?

Answer:

A point on a map is always described by a pair of coordinates, the latitude and the longitude.

In PTV Map&Guide, addresses can be imported and geocoded based on their coordinates.

The following coordinate formats can be used for the import:

Question:

What format must my coordinates have so that I can perform an automatic calculation with Tender+?

Answer:

A point on a map is always described by a pair of coordinates, the geographic latitude and the geographic longitude.

In Tender+, addresses can be imported and geocoded based on their coordinates.

To do this, enter the longitude in the “Longitude” column and the latitude in the “Latitude” column.

The following coordinate formats can be imported: