Is Orbital Relay still needed? ie. does latest KSP insta-scan entire planet?

[jpinard]

I came across this mod, and having been out of KSP for years I am unsure of where the scanning tech stands in default KSP.  If you turn on a scanner do you instantly see the entire biome map of the planet, or do you need to sweep your scanner acroos the world lanwmower style to get the data?  Because if it insta-scans still then I need to use this mod.  If it is like this mod now, then I won't need to use it.

Thank you!

[Superfluous J]

In stock, you need to be in a polar orbit within a specific altitude range and have a comms connection to Kerbin and enough power to transmit all data in one go.

The game will tell you, when you try to scan, what the correct altitude range is if you are outside it. The only way I know of to find the power requirement is to try to send and hopefully not fail.

If your vessel satisfies all the requirements you instantly get a full map of the planet and get to keep it forever for that save.

This is totally unrelated to comms relays, though the transmission can use (but does require) a relay.

[Gordon Fecyk]

I've gotten away with lower power requirements and "allow partial" turned on at the antenna, or antennas. I don't know if it actually reduces the quality of the orbital scan, but in the stock game it's a stepping stone to using the narrow band scanner and KerbNet so it might not matter.

[DStaal]

The other long progressive scan mod, just to make sure it's been mentioned (as it's probably got the larger install base...)

 

[Wheffle]

On 6/27/2019 at 12:16 PM, jpinard said:

I came across this mod, and having been out of KSP for years I am unsure of where the scanning tech stands in default KSP.  If you turn on a scanner do you instantly see the entire biome map of the planet, or do you need to sweep your scanner acroos the world lanwmower style to get the data?  Because if it insta-scans still then I need to use this mod.  If it is like this mod now, then I won't need to use it.

Thank you!

Nothing has changed in stock KSP as far as using the orbital surveyor goes. You'll need a mod to get "lawnmower" style scanning, either the one you linked for basic functionality or SCANsat as a larger more feature-rich option.

Relays are an entirely different subject having to do with science transmission and probe control.