How to distinguish trees created by the "scatter" from trees that are scannable?

Question

I recently got a Breaking Grounds expansion. One of the features it introduced was terrain features. Problem is, that the graphics option "scatter" also introduces terrain features — but they are only eye candy.

So the first example are trees. You can scan Breaking Grounds trees, you even get a contract to do it. But you can't interact with the most of trees as they are only there to look pretty.

Is there a way to distinguish terrain features you can interact with from the ones that are there only for the looks, without turning the later off in the settings? Preferably from a very large distance, because rovers are quite slow. Also, method that works during the night would be preferable so I hope shadows are not the difference, or not the main one, at least.

Answer 1

There is no easy way to distinguish surface features you can interact with from terrain scatter from afar. As noted you can walk right through terrain scatter.

The scannable surface features have higher resolution and a distinct look. The Baobab Trees look very different from the "normal" trees. Here is a list of all surface features with some pictures: https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Surface_features

You can look around by playing with the camera zoom and rotation in quite a large area without actually driving.

There is also a cheat to add pointers to scannable features:

On PC use ALT-F12 to open debug menu; go to Breaking Ground > Surface Features; check "ROC Finder" and "ROC Scanpoints"