Editing Directional Scanner and Overview (section)

=== D-Scan Results Window ===

Pressing Alt-D will open the D-Scanner "Scan Results" window and the map.  If these are separate, the F9 key opens up the map that is used for both probing and D-scanning.

On the bottom right, the Scan button (or your mapped key) will perform the scan.  This can be done approximately every 2 seconds.  In the scan results window on the upper right side, there is a dropdown list of presets that can be chosen to tell the scanner what to look for.  Since D-Scan can be integrated with your overview, you can elect to scan everything, the things that are active in your overview, any other of your overview settings, or even a completely different selection that is not active on your overview.

Immediately to the left of the dropdown is a button that will toggle the map on and off.  To the left of that is the button that will toggle the sphere or cone showing the area that is being scanned.  Finally, to the left of that is the button that controls the ship camera.  With one setting, you are looking out of your ship down the length of the cone and the other is more of a third person view that allows you to position the cone of directionality.  Double clicking on the map will flip it 90 degrees.  Clicking and dragging outside of the map will move your cone of detection.  Both settings are useful and the best way to get used to them is to play with them a bit.

At the bottom of the "Scan Results" window, there is a slider that can be used to adjust the range and angle of the cone.  The maximum range is 14.3 AU and scans either a sphere surrounding the ship for that distance or a cone ranging from 180 degrees all the way down to a narrow 5 degrees.  With a little practice, you can use the combination of the dropdown selection list of objects you are searching for, the distance that you are able to detect them, and the directional cone to identify with a pretty good approximation where an object is located.

On the map in the upper left corner are two buttons.  The one on the left allows you to change what your map displays.  Immediately to the right of that button, a click will center your ship and the D-Scan view to the center of the map.

<gallery mode=packed-hover heights=250px>
dscan1.jpg|The D-Scan window and scan button
dscan2.jpg|Dropdown select list
dscan3.jpg|Toggle Map
dscan4.jpg|Show/Hide scan cone
dscan5.jpg|Ship camera toggle with distance and angle sliders
map1.jpg|Map item selections
map2.jpg|Centering the map on the ship
</gallery>

When first starting, control of the cone and map may seem awkward.  It will take some practice with both camera alignment on and off to become comfortable.

For defensive purposes in high or low security areas, setting the distance to 5 AU and the angle to 360 degrees will give you some advance warning of an incoming ship.  In null security or wormhole space, you may want to change the distance setting to 14.3 AU for even more advance warning.