[PLUGIN+PARTS][0.23] SCANsat terrain mapping

[phuzz]

I thought I'd help by writing a how to manual, which you can read here.

Obviously it's only based on SCANsat 0.4 and KSP 0.22, so for example, the pictures of each part just use the same image.

Give it a read and let me know if there anything that needs changing.

There's no kind of license on this, feel free to take it and make it better, oh, and I've just realised there doesn't seem to be any way to go back and edit a blog entry, so I probably should have thought about that earlier.

[Sochin]

And how exactly would you imagine these sensors are implemented in SCANsat, or even KSP?

SCANsat thus far only scans 'real' stuff. Altitude, biomes, slopes.

All the sensors you just listed measure charged particles and magnetic fields, none of which exist in KSP. It would just be sensors making stuff up, with no relation to the game at all. Exept your own imagination and immersion. Which is nice as well, but I don't think it's something that should be grouped with a functional plugin like SCANsat.

I would like to draw your attention to others work, for example KDEX's dust sampler (produced after LADEE's launch to the moon). Interstellar particles are not in the game as you quite rightly however a sensor was produced. Another poster quite correctly satated that work has started on a magnetic field sensor. It can be done if imagination is applied and not just re-rendering existing data. I personaly am astounded that KSP is comming upto its 3rd anniversary and yet space science has not been touched on until now, this is an exceptionaly naive way to develop a space exploration game.

OrtwinS at no point did I suggest that sensors should be developed under the SCANsat badge, and if read my post and I qoute OK now that you have mapping sown up so too speak why not branch out and develop other sensors. There is more to space science than making a map!

May I state that the download link for build 4 does not work at the moment.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Just noticed that the monolith just north of the KSC doesn't show up on scans? I have a rover parked next to it with a BTDT probe and still nothing. Is the monolith too close to the KSC itself to register as an anomaly? I'm pretty sure ISA showed it, though it was hard to tell with that as you couldn't zoom in. Has the game changed where that monolith isn't considered an anomaly anymore?

[Thourion]

The only anomaly on Kerbin, that i havnt send a BTDT, is North of KSC. But it is some distance away from it.

Are we talking about the same? or is yours close to KSC ?

[damny]

I thought I'd help by writing a how to manual, which you can read here.

Obviously it's only based on SCANsat 0.4 and KSP 0.22, so for example, the pictures of each part just use the same image.

Wow, that's great. I was putting it off

Just noticed that the monolith just north of the KSC doesn't show up on scans?

If you mean the one that's practically next to the runway, the game seems to consider it a part of the KSC complex. The BTDT instrument display shows it as one of the 13 structures.

[majorwraith]

I think yhe download link is broken, I am just getting that crome can not conect to discordia.erinye.com.

is it just me?

[Schemen]

I think yhe download link is broken, I am just getting that crome can not conect to discordia.erinye.com.

is it just me?

It's down for me, too. :/ can someone upload it?

[Dweller_Benthos]

The only anomaly on Kerbin, that i havnt send a BTDT, is North of KSC. But it is some distance away from it.

Are we talking about the same? or is yours close to KSC ?

If you mean the one that's practically next to the runway, the game seems to consider it a part of the KSC complex. The BTDT instrument display shows it as one of the 13 structures.

Yes, it's the one just off the runway a few hundred meters. I see now that when you activate the instruments, it is included in the structures list you can scroll through, very cool. I hadn't tried the instruments button much, because all my other probes are in orbit and that window just shows your altitude then.

[RockyTV]

Broken link.

[The OverDose]

It's a 1.5 part, yeah. Thanks for the enthusiasm guys been a few years since doing anything but photorealism.

The texture, however, IS 2048x2048. Way beyond the final version. It will be scaled back before going in game. I just prefer to start big and scale back later, it's easier to work with that way. The UV map is exceptionally efficient though, about 80% coverage which is high for so many round parts, it should still look great at about 512 I think. See what happens. Once I have my workflow down I should be able to do the radial version in no time

[KhaosCorp]

Broken link.

Websites go down sometimes people...probably not alot Damny can do about it, so may as well stop spamming the thread with the same thing.....

[The OverDose]

Also...

Damny, would you rather I posted a separate thread for these updates? Wouldn't want you to feel the thread for high jacked

[ToxicFrog]

Websites go down sometimes people...probably not alot Damny can do about it, so may as well stop spamming the thread with the same thing.....

Actually, Github has a releases system designed specifically for this kind of thing. If the OP doesn't want to use Spaceport for some reason, Github Releases will stand up to this sort of traffic much better than most personal web hosting will.

[damny]

Actually, Github has a releases system designed specifically for this kind of thing.

Hey, thanks for pointing that out. I don't use github that much. I created a release there now for build 4. This is not a new build, this is just to provide an alternative download option.

I don't have any traffic issues though. The server was compromised and I took it down to re-install it.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I thought I'd help by writing a how to manual, which you can read here.

Obviously it's only based on SCANsat 0.4 and KSP 0.22, so for example, the pictures of each part just use the same image.

Give it a read and let me know if there anything that needs changing.

There's no kind of license on this, feel free to take it and make it better, oh, and I've just realised there doesn't seem to be any way to go back and edit a blog entry, so I probably should have thought about that earlier.

I've got a question, I have a satellite mapping Duna, orbiting about 740km. It only completed the Hi scan, which I guess is the SAR altimetry (on the big map, only the HI marker is in green when I move the mouse over the map, the rest are grayed out). the thing is, on the small map, the LO, HI, BIO and ANOM scanners are listed in orange. The BTDT is gray since I don't have one on this because it's an orbital and that would be useless. The marker that's blinking orange and green is the HI marker, but your post mentions that this means that it shouldn't be working because the satellite is too high, but it seems that it's the other way around, the scanners marked with a steady orange are not working, and the blinking one is working.

Or is there something else going on? I'm going to lower the orbit to 250km to get the lo res scanner and the biome / anomaly scanner to work. I'll see what the markers do then.

OK, just completed a scan at 250km. Map is 100% so all the sensors are working. The LO indicator is steady green, the HI, BIO and ANOM sensors are flashing green orange. On the big map, LO, HI and ANOM are green, BIO is red (no biomes on Duna).

So the TL;DR is, what exactly does the flashing of the sensor indicators mean in the small map? Does it mean the sensor is working, just not at an optimal altitude?

Something like:

Steady orange: out of range.

Flashing orange / green: in range, just not optimal

Steady green: in range and optimal

???

Edited November 18, 2013 by Dweller_Benthos

[DMagic]

Steady orange: out of range.

Flashing orange / green: in range, just not optimal

Steady green: in range and optimal

Yep, that's right. The non-optimal range just means the scan width is low.

[Lalwcat]

I shrank the big map too small it seems, and the resize button is now sitting ontop of the "Rectangular" option button so I'm unable to grab and drag it.

Can we get something in settings to reset this or change manually?

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yep, that's right. The non-optimal range just means the scan width is low.

OK, just how I figured it then, you have to be at least 750km out for the HI indicator to go solid green.

All right then, next question, the blue and orange tick marks around the equator on the big map, are those resonance nodes or something (whatever they are called). Where if you have them nice a spread out, you're getting the best mapping bang for your orbital buck, as it were? Seems when I had them clumped together, I kept getting gaps in the scan.

[damny]

All right then, next question, the blue and orange tick marks around the equator on the big map, are those resonance nodes or something

They're your orbital nodes with reference to the equatorial plane of the body you're orbiting, projected onto the rotating surface for the next few dozen orbits.

You can interpret it as resonance between your orbit and the body's rotation. If they are concentrated in only a few spots then your satellite will only pass the equator over these locations in the foreseeable future.

[phuzz]

Ok, I've updated the bits about the names of the scanners in the small map, and added damny's explanation of the orbital nodes.

Damny, can I ask, what does it mean when the name of the scanner shows as blue on the small map?

[damny]

Ok, I've updated the bits about the names of the scanners in the small map, and added damny's explanation of the orbital nodes.

Damny, can I ask, what does it mean when the name of the scanner shows as blue on the small map?

Sky blue replaces puke green when you switch to greyscale mode (because sky blue is distinguishable from orange even if your colour vision is limited to two basic colours).

So it means what Dweller_Benthos wrote for green:

Steady orange: out of range.

Flashing orange / green: in range, just not optimal

Steady green: in range and optimal

[Thourion]

I either found a bug OR i did something stupid from my side, although no clue how or what.

I cant get the instrument window to show up anymore, debug log doesnt mention anything out of order, i just click the button but no dice. I tried with many already flying ships, along with new ones.

I just noticed it today, when i tried to bring it up, last time i had it working was like 1-2 days ago, with no game alterations in between (new mods/saves etc).

Everything else is working just fine.

If i did something from my part, i can only imagine either dragging the window near the edge of my screen, and/or using the button while in high warp. Dunno if those could pose any misbehavior though.

Edited November 18, 2013 by Thourion

[Dweller_Benthos]

They're your orbital nodes with reference to the equatorial plane of the body you're orbiting, projected onto the rotating surface for the next few dozen orbits.

You can interpret it as resonance between your orbit and the body's rotation. If they are concentrated in only a few spots then your satellite will only pass the equator over these locations in the foreseeable future.

Ok, so a nice wide spread of evenly spaced tick marks means an orbit that is more efficient as far as getting the whole surface covered in the smallest amount of time?

[DennyTX]

amazing. very interesting for me.

but two small questions.

1. is there any way to have a button with catalog of maps in space center tracking station?

2. could you add percentage complete. for example - sat (NAME) over (PLANET) observed 78% of whole sphere

[Thourion]

amazing. very interesting for me.

but two small questions.

1. is there any way to have a button with catalog of maps in space center tracking station?

2. could you add percentage complete. for example - sat (NAME) over (PLANET) observed 78% of whole sphere

Hmm 1. could be a nice idea for later addition to the mod.

2. If you click the Settings button, you can see the % discovered for each celestial body (0% to 100%). Although you get the total percent, and not divided by sat.

Edited November 18, 2013 by Thourion