Biome overlay/boundaries when flying?

[paul23]

Well quite often I wish to land/go to a certain biome at a planet. While some biomes are easy to find others are very hard, and it's easy to "overshoot". Leading to a lot of frustration to me just because I'm "outside" while it looks like I'm still in the biome. (Just this time I had to do a material study at the Mun canyons).

 

It would be really helpful if I can see (while flying) the borders of each biome, either by having a color overlay, or some veritcal "border mesh".

 

Does a mod exist that shows this?

[Skorj]

Believe it or not, it's in the stock game.  Probably the best-hidden feature of KSP.  If you have an advanced pod, like the OTKO2, you can right-click on it, bring up KerbNet, and show biomes.  It's clunky and awkward, though, and the best auto-refresh is every 3.5 seconds.

I'd love to see a mod that just shows biomes or ore concentration as a planet overlay from map view.  But for the specific problem of trying to land in a given biome, KER has an "impact biome" display in it's landing tab (can't remember if it's displayed by default, but I think it is).  I've added that to my KER HUD, so I can always see where I'll land. 

[paul23]

Well the ground biome is always shown, but it's me having to *find* biomes that's hard.like "where the hell are the canyons". (Doesn't help that the color on the map in the wiki is almost the same for several biomes anyways).

[zer0Kerbal]

this also might be working - I think it was recompiled for 1.7.3 /YMMV/

https://github.com/zer0Kerbal/Biomatic

[jimmymcgoochie]

Sounds like you're looking for ScanSat- you can get maps of terrain height and biome for any planetary body you like. Once you've scanned said planetary body, it can also generate an overlay in map mode that shows the biomes for the entire planet/moon, plus a zoomed-in map that also shows the biomes and can folow your ship, plus a display that tells you what biome you're in/over at that particular point in time in real time.

If you burrow down into the cheats menu (escape -> version information in the bottom right) there's an option to show biomes built into the game, which will save you some Funds and some time but isn't as helpful as the mod.

[paul23]

Well that's a map, or will it also show "on the ground" when flying? So that I know during landing whether I'll overshoot or not.

[Superfluous J]

One trick I do is to send probes that I call Prospectors. it's very easy to super overengineer a tiny probe to have 10 or more times the dV your main ship will have. Land with the prospector, check the temperature to find the biome, and then take off and land elsewhere if it's not the biome you like. Repeat this once you've found the correct biome to find a nice flat landing spot.

Then "just" land near your Prospector Probe.

[Dante80]

On 11/8/2019 at 12:23 AM, paul23 said:

It would be really helpful if I can see (while flying) the borders of each biome, either by having a color overlay, or some veritcal "border mesh".

Does a mod exist that shows this?

I don't know of any mod that provides this functionality (you essentially want a biome map overlay projected into the ground while flying around) , it would be extremely cool to have it though.

To make do in the meantime, Kerbnet provides this functionality on some drones/command pods. And Scansat (after you scan the celestial body at hand with a multispectral scanner) has a very nifty zoom minimap function, that is light enough (in FPS) for use while flying around and has a lot of functions.

Edited November 19, 2019 by Dante80

[SingABrightSong]

There's also a tickbox in the debug menu to show biomes

[Noud]

use the scan sat mod, it will allow you to make biome maps of the planet, it is very good integrated with the tech tree. it will make you actually work for the benefits of a biome map. I like it

it even offer contracts and science. it is a must have mod in all my career play troughs 

 

edit: typo

Edited November 21, 2019 by Noud
typo

[DeadJohn]

On 11/11/2019 at 6:39 PM, paul23 said:

Well that's a map, or will it also show "on the ground" when flying? So that I know during landing whether I'll overshoot or not.

Kerbal Engineer Redux.

It shows the biome that I'm directly above, plus the biome that I'll land at if I'm on a suborbital path. The landing biome can shift during landing because lift from wings extends the touchdown point, and retro burns will shorten touchdown, but it's still a very useful thing to know.

[paul23]

Yes but it won't show while planning, so if I plan a full mission  (from LKO to re-entry) I do not know which biome I land. In real life we know these things, the position of landing is a given/top parameter when planning a mission. You don't plan a mission like: "go to the moon and just get all science data while you land, don't really care where". It is: Go to position x or nearby on the moon, and get data. The rest follows from that constraint.

[DeadJohn]

14 hours ago, paul23 said:

Yes but it won't show while planning, so if I plan a full mission  (from LKO to re-entry) I do not know which biome I land. In real life we know these things, the position of landing is a given/top parameter when planning a mission. You don't plan a mission like: "go to the moon and just get all science data while you land, don't really care where". It is: Go to position x or nearby on the moon, and get data. The rest follows from that constraint.

People have already mentioned Kerbnet-equipped probe cores, the cheat/debug menu, and SCANsat for seeing a map of biomes. The maps will let you know when you need a polar orbit vs an equatorial orbit to reach a biome.

Once in orbit, wait until you are directly above the biome you want, then set a deorbit maneuver for your next pass. A prograde burn combine with a little normal or antinormal will let you drop on the exact spot, even if you can't see a map while plotting the maneuver. Kerbal Engineer Redux will tell you which biome you are above and which one you will land at.

FYI I like the appearance and interface of SCANsat maps more than I like the cheat/debug maps. SCANsat is more complex, though, but to me it's a fun complexity and adds more depth to the game.

[paul23]

1 hour ago, DeadJohn said:

People have already mentioned Kerbnet-equipped probe cores, the cheat/debug menu, and SCANsat for seeing a map of biomes. The maps will let you know when you need a polar orbit vs an equatorial orbit to reach a biome.

Once in orbit, wait until you are directly above the biome you want, then set a deorbit maneuver for your next pass. A prograde burn combine with a little normal or antinormal will let you drop on the exact spot, even if you can't see a map while plotting the maneuver. Kerbal Engineer Redux will tell you which biome you are above and which one you will land at.

FYI I like the appearance and interface of SCANsat maps more than I like the cheat/debug maps. SCANsat is more complex, though, but to me it's a fun complexity and adds more depth to the game.

Well scansat is quite "lategame" in the techtree, while I am already given tasks like "get xyz data from (small) biome a". Like currently I need to land on the minmus highlands, and I really had trouble finding those, between all terrain that looks similar.

[Fierce Wolf]

Press ALT and F12 to bring up the console, look for the Cheats menu, and able the Biomes visible tag. Now you can see the biomes in the map, not by name but colored zones. It's super useful for landing close to 3-4 different biomes and make the most return for your cash in a single mission.

[maja]

@paul23 people here mentioned range of tools you can use, but you still complain. Be creative and use available tools. If something is lategame in your career game, then you must deal with it and work around it.

[Dante80]

Your problem consists of two parts.

 

1. How to know where the biomes are in a planet.

If you don't want to use scansat or kerbnet or KER etc etc, use this: https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Biome

 

2. How to plan and land on a specific biome.

Use this to plan your landing burns:

The landing tab on KER works too.

Edited November 28, 2019 by Dante80