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Tableau | Data visualisation

How to use Vector maps in Tableau Desktop 2019.2 and newer.

Vector maps in Tableau 2019.2 paint layers on instantly instead of reloading tiles square by square, and the difference is striking.

Tim Ngwena •10 January 2020 •1 min read •5 min watch •1.6K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2019.2

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Pre-2019.2 maps loaded individual tiled images for each segment, causing the mosaic-style reload you see when adding layers or zooming.
Vector maps transmit and compute the mathematical information to draw the map, so adding or hiding layers renders instantly without re-fetching images.
Zooming with vector maps is smoother and progressively reveals detail like roads, waterways, street markings and building footprints as you zoom in.
Tableau 2019.2 adds three new vector map styles, an outdoor style geared towards sports, and a satellite style that overlays vector information on a satellite background.

0:00One of the new features in Tableau 2019.2

0:06is the addition of vector maps. Now to show

0:09you this I've actually have to have 2019.1

0:12and 2019.2 open and I'm going to be showing

0:15you the difference between the two because

0:17the difference is very subtle but it

0:19changes

0:19the way the visualization works in a very

0:22meaningful way. You can see here I'm in

0:24Tableau

0:252019.2.7 and if you just look at this base

0:29map, this is the light map I've got a 20%

0:32washout here on the top left and as I add

0:35detail to this you can see that it almost

0:39it's almost instantaneous. The information

0:41just comes on as if it's like a layer being

0:44painted onto the visualization. The

0:47visualization doesn't reload, it doesn't

0:50need to sort of

0:52reload in squares as you might have seen in

0:54previous versions and this is the benefit

0:57of a vector map. In contrast, if I go to

1:002019.1 as I switch these on you can see

1:04that the

1:04transition is almost loading small squares

1:07and that's actually because of the way the

1:10mapping layers work. Prior to 2019.2 the

1:15maps actually load individual images for

1:18each of

1:18these segments, these squares and that's

1:20why you see the sort of square mosaic

1:22loading

1:22style and every time you add on a layer it

1:25's actually got to go out onto the internet

1:27and

1:28query the specific image for this

1:30combination of map layer. So a base, land,

1:33cover, coastline,

1:34light and light country. There's every

1:37single variation of these different images

1:39available

1:40on the internet and it's loading them and

1:42loading them in. Now on a vector map that

1:45works slightly differently because what a

1:48vector map does is it actually stores the

1:50mathematical information to draw that

1:52information. So what travels up and down

1:54the telephone

1:55line is actually just the mathematical

1:57information, the numbers, the numbers that

2:00generate what

2:00we see. So as we add and hide things, tabla

2:03hasn't got to re-render things or go and

2:06get

2:06the images and load them in again, it just

2:09simply computes that in a vector format in

2:11the view. The other added advantage is that

2:13zooming is a lot smoother. If you see those

2:16two clicks of the zoom function as we zoom

2:17into Germany, you'll see that they were

2:19very

2:20smooth and more detailed surface as soon as

2:22we're able to see it. You can see here the

2:25sort of road layout appearing on the map

2:28and if we keep zooming in you can see the

2:30waterways

2:31appearing as well but as we zoom out that

2:34information is taken away. Now if we go

2:37back

2:37to the 2019.1 version, as we zoom in, every

2:40single time we zoom in it's actually got to

2:43reload those squares every single time and

2:46it's not as smooth. And as we go in you'll

2:48also see here that even though if we select

2:51the streets and highways it's got to reload

2:54everything again and if we zoom back out it

2:56's got to load those again at a different

2:58zoom

2:59level. So it just leads to the smoother

3:02experience with maps when we're using

3:05vector maps. Now

3:07the other thing to note is that Tablo have

3:09actually added some new map styles as well.

3:11So we now have these three new really

3:14really nice vector maps. If I go to London

3:17as an

3:17example, when we zoom into the center of

3:21London you can see here that more

3:24information reveals

3:25itself. So street signs reveal themselves,

3:28tube stations reveal themselves and as we

3:30keep going in onto Trafalgar Square you'll

3:33see that as we get closer and closer we

3:35even

3:36get street markings appearing on the road.

3:39Now I could actually add a little bit more

3:41context let's say maybe water labels,

3:43points of interest, neighborhoods and you

3:45can see

3:46this map gets extremely extremely rich. If

3:49I zoom back out now we've got building

3:51footprints

3:52available to us and this is just a level of

3:55detail that was never possible before with

3:57tiled maps. But with vector maps it's

4:00really smooth, it's fast and it loads

4:02really really

4:03quickly on a range of devices. We also have

4:05an outdoor map style which is slightly more

4:08geared towards sports and the last one is

4:11satellite maps. This is another big

4:13addition.

4:14The benefit here is that you can actually

4:16have a satellite background layer on top of

4:19the vector information so it just adds a

4:21little bit more context and information to

4:24the view.

4:25If you found this video useful hit

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Rollup

Tableau 2019.2 introduced vector maps, which render map layers as computed mathematical data rather than fetching tiled images, making layer changes and zooming near-instant compared with earlier versions.

Tim runs 2019.1 and 2019.2 side by side on the same map to show the practical difference between tiled and vector rendering.

The Breakdown

Old tiled maps reload in squares 0:42

In versions before 2019.2, each map layer combination is a separate image fetched from the internet, so adding a layer or zooming causes a visible mosaic-style reload as those tiles come in.
Vector maps compute instead of fetch 1:43

Vector maps send only the mathematical information needed to draw the map, so Tableau computes the view directly rather than re-fetching images, meaning layers appear to paint on instantly when you toggle them.
Zooming is smoother and progressive 2:11

With vector maps, zooming reveals detail progressively, roads, then waterways, then street markings and building footprints, without reloading, whereas tiled maps must reload squares at every zoom level.
Three new vector map styles 3:07

2019.2 adds new vector-based map styles that reveal rich detail as you zoom, including street signs, transit stations, road markings, water labels, points of interest, neighbourhoods and building footprints, all loading quickly across devices.
Outdoor style for sports contexts 4:11

One of the new styles is geared towards outdoor and sports use cases, giving you an alternative base map suited to that kind of content.

Worth Knowing

The mosaic reload effect you may have seen in older Tableau versions is a direct symptom of tiled image loading, not a bug, and vector maps remove it entirely.
Detail such as street markings and building footprints only reveals itself at closer zoom levels, so the richness of vector maps is most visible when you zoom in on a specific area.

Use It When

Reach for vector maps whenever you're building map-heavy dashboards that need fast, smooth zooming and layer toggling, especially if past tiled-map reloading has felt sluggish or distracting to viewers.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

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