Probes scan in background?

[midnight109]

Kinda new to using some of these mods, but I started getting into using some mods like the Kethane plugin.

Question is, when I get a probe to orbit something and scan, if I leave the craft and go back to the main base area, time moves, but the probes stop. If I launch a few other flights do other stuff, then come back to check on the probing for Kethane, the map dosent change, so i am assuming the probes stop scanning and are turned off when not in focus or active. Is thier a way to allow them to continue to scan while not active so can do other things while it still scans other areas its orbiting?

Edited June 14, 2013 by midnight109
Solved

[UmbralRaptor]

Currently all scanning has to be done while the probe is in focus. Timewarp helps greatly.

I would speculate that out of focus scanning will be needed for some aspects of campaign mode (eg: mining)

[Syhrus]

The scanning function for Kethane is tedious and irritating. The only way you can get a decent scan is to slap it on an inclined orbit, time warp to x50 and walk away for half an hour.

Today I pumped out a high-res scan of Minimus by leaving my game running while I was at work. 5 hours later, I got back and it still wasn't fully done...

[Zephram Kerman]

Yep. It's gotta be in focus, because the mod is attached to the part, and is active only when the part is active. Also, I've found my screensaver (blank screen) stops the mapping process.

I've gotten some pretty good maps, but they took a long time. Put the probe into a polar orbit, do the 50x time-warp to get a rough map, then slow down to 5x and let it run overnight to fill in the top and bottom rows. (I like to switch view to "free" and point the camera into space, so that the GPU doesn't work so hard during that time.) Next session, change inclination to about 80°, use 10x time-warp, and let it run overnight again until the arctic regions look pretty good. Next session, change inclination to about 60°, 10x, and in just a few more hours your map will be nearly solid.

If all that seems too compulsive, remember that a quick, rough map will give you enough data to pick a mining site.

Edited June 13, 2013 by Zephram Kerman

[HoY]

You will not be able to fill the map in completely unless you are in an orbit that crosses the equator in enough unique places. Just guessing at an altitude and inclination will get you enough of a map to find all the sites well enough, but if you want a solid map you need to either do the math or look at a chart that shows you the optimal orbit for whichever planet you want to scan

Charts available here

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/27999-ISA-Mapsat-Ideal-and-Non-Ideal-Altitudes

Edited June 13, 2013 by HoY

[Zephram Kerman]

You will not be able to fill the map in completely unless you are in an orbit that crosses the equator in enough unique places. Just guessing at an altitude and inclination will get you enough of a map to find all the sites well enough, but if you want a solid map you need to either do the math or look at a chart that shows you the optimal orbit for whichever planet you want to scan

Charts available here

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/27999-ISA-Mapsat-Ideal-and-Non-Ideal-Altitudes

Very useful info there. Thanks for mentioning it; I hadn't discovered it yet.

[midnight109]

Oh well thank you all for the info guess I will just keep using the Debugger map for it instead of scanning but that works I guess