QGIS XYZ tile showing up distorted

Question

See image, particularly with the text. Why would this be happening?

Answer 1

You can also achieve good image quality with your local CRS if you use a little trick with GDAL.

1. Create a WMS description file for your TMS layer (i.e. google.xml). You can choose the max. Tilelevel here (i.e. 10):

<GDAL_WMS>
    <Service name='TMS'>
      <ServerUrl>https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/vt?pb=!1m5!1m4!1i${z}!2i${x}!3i${y}!4i256!2m3!1e0!2sm!3i664404949!3m17!2sde!3sUS!5e18!12m4!1e68!2m2!1sset!2sRoadmap!12m3!1e37!2m1!1ssmartmaps!12m4!1e26!2m2!1sstyles!2zcy50OjF8cC52Om9ufHAubDozMyxzLnQ6NXxwLmM6I2YyZTVkNCxzLnQ6NDB8cy5lOmd8cC5jOiNjNWRhYzYscy50OjQwfHMuZTpsfHAudjpvbnxwLmw6MjAscy50OjN8cC5sOjIwLHMudDo0OXxzLmU6Z3xwLmM6I2M1YzZjNixzLnQ6NTB8cy5lOmd8cC5jOiNlNGQ3YzYscy50OjUxfHMuZTpnfHAuYzojZmJmYWY3LHMudDo2fHAudjpvbnxwLmM6I2FjYmNjOQ!4e0</ServerUrl>
    </Service>
    <Transparent>FALSE</Transparent>
    <DataWindow>
      <UpperLeftX>-20037508.34</UpperLeftX>
      <UpperLeftY>20037508.34</UpperLeftY>
      <LowerRightX>20037508.34</LowerRightX>
      <LowerRightY>-20037508.34</LowerRightY>
      <TileLevel>10</TileLevel>
      <TileCountX>1</TileCountX>
      <TileCountY>1</TileCountY>
      <YOrigin>top</YOrigin>
    </DataWindow>
    <Projection>EPSG:3857</Projection>
    <BlockSizeX>256</BlockSizeX>
    <BlockSizeY>256</BlockSizeY>
    <BandsCount>3</BandsCount>
    <UnsafeSSL>true</UnsafeSSL>
    <MaxConnections>5</MaxConnections>
    <Cache />
</GDAL_WMS>

2. Run gdalwarp (i.e. in OSGeo4W shell) to transform the TMS Datasource into a virtual raster (VRT) file with your project CRS (EPSG:3347). I use a bounding box to speed up processing (-te switch):

gdalwarp -r cubic -of VRT -t_srs EPSG:3347 -te 7133426 893133 7283099 983227 google.xml google3347.vrt

3. Drag & Drop the VRT into QGIS

---

If you like to store the VRT datasource directly in QGIS, you need to edit the google3347.vrt file.

Exchange the following line:

<SourceDataset relativeToVRT="1">google.xml</SourceDataset>

with the content of osm.xml (replace < and > with < and >):

<SourceDataset relativeToVRT="0">&lt;GDAL_WMS&gt;&lt;Service name='TMS'&gt;&lt;ServerUrl&gt;https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/vt?pb=!1m5!1m4!1i${z}!2i${x}!3i${y}!4i256!2m3!1e0!2sm!3i664404949!3m17!2sde!3sUS!5e18!12m4!1e68!2m2!1sset!2sRoadmap!12m3!1e37!2m1!1ssmartmaps!12m4!1e26!2m2!1sstyles!2zcy50OjF8cC52Om9ufHAubDozMyxzLnQ6NXxwLmM6I2YyZTVkNCxzLnQ6NDB8cy5lOmd8cC5jOiNjNWRhYzYscy50OjQwfHMuZTpsfHAudjpvbnxwLmw6MjAscy50OjN8cC5sOjIwLHMudDo0OXxzLmU6Z3xwLmM6I2M1YzZjNixzLnQ6NTB8cy5lOmd8cC5jOiNlNGQ3YzYscy50OjUxfHMuZTpnfHAuYzojZmJmYWY3LHMudDo2fHAudjpvbnxwLmM6I2FjYmNjOQ!4e0&lt;/ServerUrl&gt;&lt;/Service&gt;&lt;Transparent&gt;FALSE&lt;/Transparent&gt;&lt;DataWindow&gt;&lt;UpperLeftX&gt;-20037508.34&lt;/UpperLeftX&gt;&lt;UpperLeftY&gt;20037508.34&lt;/UpperLeftY&gt;&lt;LowerRightX&gt;20037508.34&lt;/LowerRightX&gt;&lt;LowerRightY&gt;-20037508.34&lt;/LowerRightY&gt;&lt;TileLevel&gt;10&lt;/TileLevel&gt;&lt;TileCountX&gt;1&lt;/TileCountX&gt;&lt;TileCountY&gt;1&lt;/TileCountY&gt;&lt;YOrigin&gt;top&lt;/YOrigin&gt;&lt;/DataWindow&gt;&lt;Projection&gt;EPSG:3857&lt;/Projection&gt;&lt;BlockSizeX&gt;256&lt;/BlockSizeX&gt;&lt;BlockSizeY&gt;256&lt;/BlockSizeY&gt;&lt;BandsCount&gt;3&lt;/BandsCount&gt;&lt;UnsafeSSL&gt;true&lt;/UnsafeSSL&gt;&lt;MaxConnections&gt;5&lt;/MaxConnections&gt;&lt;Cache /&gt;&lt;/GDAL_WMS&gt;</SourceDataset>

and copy the content of google3347.vrt into your data source URI using the ChangeDataSourceplugin: