How can I use high resolution custom markers with the scale parameter in Google's Static Maps API?

Question

We're using Google's Static Maps API with the scale parameter to display lovely smooth maps for people using high resolution displays. However, we'd also like to use custom icons to show points on the map.

Unfortunately I can't find any way of doing this that doesn't give pixelated icons like in this example. Is there a way of doing this that doesn't scale the icons up?

Answer 1

The &markers parameter now has an (undocumented) scale descriptor. Set that to 2 and the icon descriptor to your @2x marker image URL while using the &scale=2 parameter. Something like:

&markers=scale:2|icon=icon@2x.png&scale=2

Source: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-maps-api/_METlecmeO4/JNyfkguoO7QJ