[VSI] Ore Deposit Scanner

This block allows you to scan for a selected ore deposit within a maximum 15 km area around the block and no deeper than 150 m in normal mode and a 1 km area and no deeper than 1250 m in deep mode. The closest deposit found can be added as a GPS marker.

Please rate if you like.

Works only on Planets

This block is designed to be built and used on a static grid on a planet. No other types of voxel maps work (this is by design) and if the grid this block is built on becomes a ship, the block locks itself down and will no longer work. If this happens, you need to rebuild the block on a static grid.

Power Requirements

Scanning for underground ore deposits is a power hungry operation. Depending on the selected scan range (short, medium, long) you first have to charge the scanner and store the necessary amount of power to be able to start scanning.

Scan Time

The time required to complete the scan depends on the selected range. The actual progress can be checked in the terminal.

Ore List

You can select the ore you want to find from a list of ores available in the world. Note that this list is not planet specific, so it is possible that the selected ore cannot be found on the planet.

Important info

Ore scanning is done in the background, but since SE doesn't expose certain code, a lot of the code had to be written from scratch. This mod doesn't cache results for material queries, so don't use too many scanners at the same time. This mod supports multiplayer, though it is not extensively tested (I have only made some tests on a dedicated server so far with me as the only player). If used in multiplayer I would suggest using at most 1 scanner per player. Also I would appreciate any feedback regarding multiplayer performance or issues.

The model for the block currently is the built-in model for the Space Ball. I am not very good at modeling, so if anyone wants to contribute a nice model, please don't hold back :)