Can anyone Help here ?I have tried "visibility" Tags on skinned mesh (i.e. to hide pilots etc) But without ANY sign of success :(With a Vis tag applied to either the top bone in the hierarchy or the skinned mesh it completeley fails every time leaving the skinned part of my model distorted and misplaced !Pilots stuck to the bottom of a wing for example, Its not a good effect ;) Is anyone aware of a trick or process I might have missed ?

Create a control node (small poly located at origin 0,0,0) and Link your pilot mesh to it.Apply the visibility tag to the control node.

Just tried that As I assumed you meant it Bill .. De NAda :( Assuming you meant link the Skinned PILOT MESH itself to the 0,0,0, node, rather than any of the pilot bones ?

Just tried that As I assumed you meant it Bill .. De NAda :( Assuming you meant link the Skinned PILOT MESH itself to the 0,0,0, node, rather than any of the pilot bones ?

Nope. The control node should be the "Parent" of everything having to do with your pilot......OTOH, I do seem to recall that "bones" don't like being Linked to a control node... :(

YEH Hmmmm , that seems to be the problem .. What I have is a "pilot mesh" ... when linked to a control node, he vanishes dutyfully when told ;) However... The pilots "head bone" Has his headet and raybans linked to it so I get an INVISIBLE MAN Effect when the pilot mesh dissapears :) IF I link the accessories to a control node he turns into ELEPHANT MAN ! LOLgrrrrrr , good ere innit ??

when linked to a control node, he vanishes dutyfully when told ;) However... The pilots "head bone" Has his headet and raybans linked to it so I get an INVISIBLE MAN Effect when the pilot mesh dissapears :) IF I link the accessories to a control node he turns into ELEPHANT MAN ! LOL

Don't do that then...Remember that in FSX we can tag parts such as the headset and raybans directly with a visibility tag!"Control Nodes" aren't always needed, but are usefull if you have a LOT of parts you want to control at the same time. :(

Don't do that then...Remember that in FSX we can tag parts such as the headset and raybans directly with a visibility tag!"Control Nodes" aren't always needed, but are usefull if you have a LOT of parts you want to control at the same time. :(

Yup appreciated :) However... when the offending parts are in linked to an animation chain the results are as reliable as a cheap watch :)Head down... keep battling the SDK (de ja Vu ?) LOL

Yup appreciated :) However... when the offending parts are in linked to an animation chain the results are as reliable as a cheap watch :)Head down... keep battling the SDK (de ja Vu ?) LOL

Hi, Just wondering if you had any luck solving this problem. I'm experiencing exactly the same with my skinned pilot, when linked to a visibility object the pilot mesh is waaay distorted.Thanks.Tag

Hi Tag, Nope sorry .. still head scratching :( I'm going to try a few "FS-Stupid" things... Like linking the node to a node to a node to a tagged node etc .. You never know eh ??But so far its being a real PIGLET !! There just HAS to be a way, and hopefully with all the Avsim Brains together, we....... or someone ....... will crack it.Good luck tag, let us know if you get anywhere ok ?

You could try selecting all your "bones" then animating them such that at frame_0 they are "collapsed" into a tiny area, and shifted down a bit to "hide the pilot" inside the seat cushion.At frame_1 they would then "inflate" the pilot to normal size...This is how I hide/display the 3d landing/taxi light boned-skinned polygons.

So how does that work Bill ?The skinned pilot already carries animation from 0 - 100 for the control stick and rudder etc .. How would you use the "0" frame for invisibility ?

You could try selecting all your "bones" then animating them such that at frame_0 they are "collapsed" into a tiny area, and shifted down a bit to "hide the pilot" inside the seat cushion.At frame_1 they would then "inflate" the pilot to normal size...This is how I hide/display the 3d landing/taxi light boned-skinned polygons.

You would need to write a custom pilot animation control script that uses frames 1 through 100 for the animation, and frame 0 for the "hidden/collapsed" trigger.