This is where it gets interesting. Hikers, off-roaders, and paragliders share these XML files like baseball cards. A quick search reveals community packs with 500+ map sources:
There’s even a dark art of “stitching” — combining multiple <url> tags to fall back if one server fails, or overlaying transparent weather radar on top of a topo map.
Bing tiles use a quadkey instead of x/y/zoom. Oruxmaps converts automatically if you use quadkey. Oruxmaps Online Map Sources.xml
<url><![CDATA[https://t.ssl.ak.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/aquadkey.jpeg?g=1]]></url>
Most modern apps hardcode their map sources. You get Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, maybe Bing—and you’re done. Oruxmaps, born in an era of limited storage and offline-first ethos (creator Jose Manuel Orux is a paraglider and mountain runner), took a different path: decouple the map source from the app.
The XML file is a text-based manifest. By editing it (or swapping in someone else’s), you transform the entire application without a single line of code recompiled. Want to add a niche hiking map from Switzerland? Add 20 lines of XML. Want to remove all satellite views? Delete a node. It’s modular, human-readable, and dangerously powerful. This is where it gets interesting
| Name | URL Template |
|------|--------------|
| OpenSeaMap | https://tiles.openseamap.org/seamark/zoom/x/y.png |
| Name | URL Template |
|------|--------------|
| OpenCycleMap | https://tile.opencyclemap.org/cycle/zoom/x/y.png |
| Transport Map | https://tile.memomaps.de/tilegen/zoom/x/y.png | There’s even a dark art of “stitching” —
Cause: Wrong URL pattern. Oruxmaps uses zoom, x, y. Some servers expect z, row, or col. Also, check zoom constraints – you may be zoomed out beyond the server’s min zoom.
Fix: Compare your URL with working examples from the same tile service. Try the URL in a web browser first.
Here is a curated list of reliable sources to include in your XML file. These are known to work as of 2025 and respect usage policies.